ONE of Newcastle's best known dealmakers is leaving Eversheds to set up his own commercial law firm in the city.

Ian Gilthorpe, who has been at Eversheds for less than three years, is launching the firm in collaboration with Alan Fletcher, son of former Newcastle United chairman Freddie Fletcher, who is a partner at the firm specialising in corporate finance.

Gosforth-born Gilthorpe is best known for his 30 years at Newcastle law firm Muckle LLP which saw him rise to head the firm as managing partner from 1985 to 2002.

He later became a senior partner and then moved into a business development role before leaving and later joining Eversheds.

He said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my two-and-a-half years working with the great people at Eversheds, which is the only international firm in the region.

“Together with fellow corporate partner Alan Fletcher I am leaving Eversheds as we believe the time is right to found a new regional law firm, which will focus primarily on North East corporates and high-net worth individuals.”

Adrian Stanley, the Eversheds senior partner in Newcastle, he said: “Ian was brought in originally to help raise the profile of the firm and he achieved that. It has been great to work with him.”

Eversheds Newcastle office reported a strong year’s business in 2010 with significant growth in some sectors and a number of senior positions.

Over the past 12 months, the office has made seven recruitments including Charles Reynard, as partner and head of the North East corporate practice,

Joining soon are James Bryce as a senior corporate associate from Hammonds’ London office, and Kelly Jordon, a corporate restructuring solicitor from city rival Watson Burton.

Stanley added: “We are committed to investing in talent in the North East and are pleased with the growth that the Newcastle office has experienced over the past year.

“We have recently secured some really good people who have added strength to our key practice areas.

“The past year has been very positive for us and we look forward to continuing to provide high quality, specialist and international legal services to the region in 2011.”

Its corporate team had a strong year end advising on the proposed sale of the Whitley Bay-based Mills Group to Tesco for over £20m and the successful completion of the buy-out of Newcastle-based Nigel Wright Recruitment, backed by Baird Capital Partners

Stanley added: “The energy team are winning renewable energy work from locally based utilities and developers in addition to advising several parties who are either investors in, or sellers of, onshore wind projects. The litigation and shipping teams are both busy, each having recruited new staff in recent months, and the volume of real estate transactions in which the office is involved is taking off.”

Total staff numbers at Eversheds remain unchanged in the last 12 months at 135.