FOUR solicitors have been appointed to North-East law firm Ward Hadaway's business team.

Former gymnast AUSTIN WOODS, 32, represented Great Britain more than 70 times before studying law at Newcastle University.

Mr Woods, who owned and operated his own business to finance his gymnastics career, chose to specialise in business services after serving his training contract at Eversheds.

SARAH JONES has returned to Ward Hadaway as an associate, after working for Dickinson Dees and Pannone, in Manchester.

Ms Jones, who specialises in commercial law, brings a range of corporate experience to the team, having previously worked in Ward Hadaway's corporate finance team.

The company's public sector and projects team has also grown with the appointments of ALISON MOSS and ED KING as associates with the business services team. They will specialise in public sector work, in particular public/ private partnerships.

Ms Moss has a broad legal experience, having previously been the in-house lawyer for Sembcorp Utilities.

Before that, she spent two years in corporate finance for a Teesside law firm.

Mr King has worked on a number of multi-million pound private finance initiative projects.