The Birmingham office of Shoosmiths is celebrating a milestone in its growth, with the appointment of its 100th employee.

Planning lawyer Ola Kupoluyi is the latest arrival in the city, joining a planning team of five.

Originally from Birmingham, the law graduate spent a year in the US where she worked for a telecoms company before returning to the UK to gain legal experience in London. She trained with Denbighshire County Council in North Wales and, after finding her strength was in planning work, decided to pursue this area of law with Colchester Council, where she qualified in July last year.

Partner and head of the national planning team, Iain Gilbey, said: "It is fitting that our 100th employee joins the planning team, particularly because we have had such a cracking year, winning a number of appeals for clients and new project instructions."

Joel Kordan, head of Shoosmiths’ Birmingham office, said: "It is an extraordinary success story.

"We opened in Birmingham four years ago this month with a team of eight and have been carefully building our teams with lawyers who share our ambitions and philosophy since then. Each year our client base grows along with our reputation, and despite the highly competitive legal market in Birmingham, we continue to be successful and forge ahead with our qualitatively-focused strategy for growth."

In the last 12 months, the Birmingham office has established new teams specialising in corporate, commercial, employment, commercial litigation and clinical negligence and boosted its construction, insolvency, property litigation, property finance and well-established property and planning teams with new recruits.

Nationally, the number of partners is likely to tip 100 in a few months and the firm’s Thames Valley office celebrated its 100th employee at the end of 2006. Shoosmiths now has more than 1,400 employees in its seven offices.