Slaughter and May

Alexander Dustan

Partner; Alex advises on a broad range of corporate and commercial transactions, with a particular focus on public and private M&A, equity financings and restructurings, as well as infrastructure, energy and natural resources matters. · Corporate / M&A

Andrew Jolly

Partner; Andrew undertakes a broad range of corporate and corporate finance work. His practice consists principally of acting for clients on domestic and international corporate finance and M&A transactions, including acquisitions and disposals, mergers and public takeovers, restructurings, equity financings and joint ventures. Andrew is an expert advising clients on company law, corporate governance and other board-related matters. He is Head of our Risk practice and a member of the Company Law Committee of the Law Society. Andrew also heads our Sport team, counting football, in particular, as a specialist area. He is a trustee of The Arsenal Foundation. · Corporate / M&A

Andy Ryde

Partner; Andy was Head of our Corporate and M&A Practice from 2014 to 2022 and continues to head one of the three corporate groups. He is active in all fields of corporate law, with a particular emphasis on acquisitions and disposals, public takeovers and mergers, stock exchange matters and equity capital markets transactions. Andy was named Client Partner of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2015, was one of five lawyers shortlisted by Financial News for its Partner of the Year Award 2016 and was named as one of the Twenty Most Influential in Legal Services in Europe by Financial News in 2021. His clients include: FTSE 100 companies such as DS Smith and RSA other listed companies such as Direct Line, Domino’s Pizza, Ibstock, Intermediate Capital Group, International Personal Finance, IWG (formerly Regus), Marlowe, Marshalls, Non-Standard Finance, Reach and Vitec multinationals such as GE, Moody's, Schneider Electric and Texas Instruments · Corporate / M&A

Azadeh Nassiri

Partner; Azadeh has a broad financing practice covering acquisition and general bank financings, structured finance, project finance, debt capital market transactions and derivatives as well as corporate recovery and restructuring matters. Her clients include leading financial institutions and investment funds, pension trustees as well as corporates (ranging from large listed companies to small unlisted companies). · Banking & Finance

Bertrand Louveaux

Partner; Bertrand is Co-Chair of the Competition Group globally and works in Slaughter and May’s Brussels and London offices. He studied at the London School of Economics (MSc Economics). Bertrand’s practice spans merger control, competition litigation, market inquiries and competition investigations. He has extensive experience of representing clients before the European Commission (EC) and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). · Competition / Antitrust

Camilla Sanger

Partner; Camilla has a wide experience of handling complex and substantial disputes which often span multiple jurisdictions. Her practice covers commercial, banking and competition litigation and contentious regulatory investigations, as well as internal reviews. She has acted for a number of major corporates, banks and other financial services institutions. A particular focus of her practice is on class and group action claims; she has acted on many significant class action proceedings, including some of the highest profile competition-litigation claims before the English courts. · Litigation

Caroline Phillips

Partner; Caroline has a broad international practice covering banking, capital markets, securitisation, derivatives and structured finance in which she advises issuers, borrowers and counterparties of all types. Caroline is qualified in England and Wales. Caroline regularly acts for a number of UK and international companies – from FTSE 100 companies to large private companies, from PE Sponsors to their portfolio companies. Recent clients include: Athora, Aviva, Barratt Developments, Canada Life, Corsair, Currencies Direct, Drax Group, INEOS, Just Group, KPS, Ovo Energy, Palamon, Pension Insurance Corporation and Walmart. · Banking & Finance

Charles Cameron

Partner; Charles advises sponsors, trustees and insurers on corporate pension plans. His experience ranges from pension plan restructuring driven by M&A or insolvency, to funding and covenant negotiations on change of control, to plan closures. Corporate pension plans combine uniquely the features of reputation sensitivity and financial risk in a legal context which is complex, highly regulated and where the positions of trustees, sponsors, shareholders, employers, unions, regulators and politicians need reconciling. Charles has a lot of experience in doing so, and in leading or being part of the multi-disciplinary adviser teams necessary, sourced from our financing, insurance, tax and dispute resolution groups. · Pensions

Charles Osborne

Corporate / M&A

Charlie McGarel-Groves

Partner; Charlie advises public and private institutions, corporates and sponsors on a broad range of financing matters covering debt capital markets, securitisations, derivatives and structured products, acquisition finance, leveraged and investment grade loans, complex security and collateral arrangements, and repackagings. · Banking & Finance

Christian Boney

Partner; Christian has a broad corporate practice, with particular experience in public and private M&A, joint ventures and equity capital markets work. Christian advises corporates across the full spectrum of their lifecycle, from start-ups to some of the largest companies in the FTSE 100. · Corporate / M&A

Claire Cooke

Partner; Claire has a broad international financing practice covering acquisition and bid finance, general bank finance, debt capital markets and financial restructurings. · Acquisition & Leveraged Finance

Claire Jackson

Partner; Claire has a broad corporate and corporate finance practice, advising on all forms of domestic and international M&A transactions, including public takeovers, private acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures, and equity financings. She has particular expertise in the pharmaceutical, life sciences and healthcare and insurance sectors. Claire also has experience in shareholder activism and has advised a number of corporate clients on recent activist campaigns. · Corporate / M&A

Claire Jeffs

Partner; Claire is Co-Chair of the Competition Group globally and works in Slaughter and May’s Brussels and London offices. Claire has extensive experience of both EU and UK competition law. She has been involved in a large number of high-profile merger cases before the EU and UK competition authorities, as well as coordinating merger approvals worldwide. On the contentious side, she has been involved in many cartel and other behavioural cases, including on appeal to the General Court in Luxembourg. · Competition / Antitrust

Craig Cleaver

Partner; Craig has a general commercial, corporate finance and financing practice with particular experience in public takeovers, private acquisitions and disposals, demergers and joint ventures. Craig also has experience in a range of insurance work for mutual and proprietary companies and has advised on large-scale demutualisations. In addition, he has worked extensively on outsourcing and other commercial contracts. · Corporate / M&A

Damian Taylor

Partner; Damian is a partner in the Disputes and Investigations Group and is the co-head of the International Arbitration Group. He advises on all contentious matters, drawing on his broad experience across a wide variety of disputes before the High Court, Competition Appeals Tribunal and international arbitration Tribunals, as well as advising clients on investigations commenced by regulators. Damian has particular experience in the field of competition law, group actions, contractual interpretation, insurance and commercial fraud. He acts for clients across a broad spectrum including energy and financial institutions, governments and high profile sports clubs. Damian sits on the firm's Africa Practice Group and helps develop the firm's practice in Africa, as well as acting for African clients and clients investing in Africa. · International Arbitration

Daniel Schaffer

Partner; Dan is a partner in our Pensions Employment & Incentives Group. He joined the firm in 2017. He has over twenty two years of partner experience. His practice is transactional, general advisory and contentious. He advises employers and trustees. Dan’s experience includes preparing for a sale process, benefit redesign and covenant and funding solutions. · Pensions

David Ives

Partner; David’s practice covers Intellectual Property, Technology, Outsourcing, and Sport. He is the firm’s Head of Intellectual Property and advises on IP protection, exploitation and enforcement, including a particular focus on franchising and sponsorship agreements. He also advises on strategic technology, telecoms and business process sourcing and on software licensing and development agreements, and is an active member of the firm’s Commercial Contracts advisory team. · Intellectual Property

David Johnson

Partner; David heads one of the firm’s corporate groups and has over 25 years’ experience advising on a wide range of corporate transactions, commercial agreements and governance matters. He has particular expertise in public and private M&A transactions, joint ventures and equity financings. David acts for a number of listed companies, including Arrow Global Group, BAT, BHP, Cineworld, GlaxoSmithKline, IAG, Marston’s, SEGRO and The Restaurant Group. · Corporate / M&A

David Watkins

Partner; David’s principal areas of practice include mergers and acquisitions of both public and private companies, general corporate finance, equity capital markets and corporate governance. He advises clients across a broad range of sectors including financial institutions, insurance, media and IEN. · Corporate / M&A

Deborah Finkler

Managing Partner; As our Managing Partner, Deborah works closely with our Senior Partner to develop and promote the firm’s strategy and global approach, and with our COO to oversee the strategic running of the firm. Deborah’s practice covers the broad spectrum of commercial litigation as well as domestic and cross-border investigations. She acts on substantial and complex commercial disputes for a wide range of clients, as well as on restructuring and insolvency. Deborah is regarded as one of the UK’s leading lawyers in the field of banking and commercial litigation and regulatory investigation. She has acted for many major financial institutions across a spectrum of contentious matters, including acting for major financial institutions in relation to LIBOR and FX. Deborah has also led our teams on various financial crime and mis-selling enforcement actions brought by the FCA. · Litigation

Dominic Robertson

Partner; Dominic advises a wide range of businesses on all areas of tax law. His practice includes: structuring and other tax aspects of M&A, joint ventures and other corporate finance transactions tax enquiries and disputes, including EU tax State aid investigations standalone tax advisory work, including group reorganisations, CFCs, transfer pricing, and the tax treatment of IP Dominic is co-head of the firm’s Tax Disputes practice. · Tax

Duncan Blaikie

Partner; Duncan advises clients on a full range of intellectual property, technology and commercial contract matters across all sectors, including in relation to M&A transactions, complex business carve outs, emerging technology and digital strategy. Duncan was a medical doctor prior to becoming a lawyer and advises across a range of transactions in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and healthcare fields. Duncan is also one of the partners in our Data Privacy hub, advising clients on data protection and privacy issues arising in respect of commercial transactions, technology arrangements and commercial contract matters. He is named in Legal 500 UK, 2023 as a ‘Next Generation Partner’ for IT & Telecoms and as a leading individual for Commercial Contracts. · Intellectual Property

Ed Fife

Partner; Ed advises borrower clients across a range of vanilla and structured financing activities and lenders on more highly structured lending transactions. Ed regularly acts on leveraged finance, infrastructure and real estate financing transactions. · Banking & Finance

Efstathios Michael

Partner; Efstathios is a partner with a broad-ranging international commercial litigation (including class actions), insurance and arbitration practice. He has particular expertise in a number of areas including: On complex multi-party disputes, shareholder disputes and mass claims which often involving multiple jurisdictions. He works closely with clients and co-counsel in a range of jurisdictions, on collective proceedings and class action claims. On a wide range of insurance cases for policyholder clients, insurers/reinsurers and brokers, including complex cases in relation to policy coverage and interpretation, aggregation, non-disclosure and misrepresentation, and brokers’ liability issues. Efstathios is a significant and leading member of our Arbitration Group, with particular expertise in complex, high value energy sector disputes and he has conducted arbitrations under the rules of all the major arbitral institutions, including ICC, LCIA and SIAC. · Litigation

Ewan Brown

Partner; Ewan is Co-Head of our Global Investigations Group. He has a broad-based contentious practice with a particular focus on financial institutions, acting in both litigation and regulatory investigations. Ewan also has experience advising in relation to corporate crime, competition claims, shareholder disputes, outsourcing and tax appeals. · Litigation

Filippo de Falco

Partner; Filippo has a broad corporate practice advising private equity and corporate clients, with a particular focus on public and private M&A, joint ventures and international capital markets work. Filippo is a country partner for Spain and Italy and regularly advises Spanish and Italian clients on corporate transactions. · Corporate / M&A

Gareth Miles

Partner; Gareth’s practice covers all direct taxes, stamp duties and value added tax with a strong focus on corporation tax. He has extensive experience of corporate transactions, including, in particular, public and private M&A (domestic and cross-border) and group reconstructions. He also has significant expertise on private equity transactions, for example advising Blackstone on a £100m strategic minority equity investment in HH Global, on the acquisition by HH Global of Adare International Holdings Limited and an investment in Ki, the first fully digital and algorithmically-driven Lloyd’s syndicate. · Tax

Gayathri Kamalanathan

Partner; Gayathri has extensive experience of handling complex domestic and cross-border investigations and litigation. She has more than a decade of leading edge experience from senior in-house roles at banks as Head of Group Litigation and Enforcement at Danske Bank in Copenhagen and UK Head of Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement for Deutsche Bank, and spent nine years at another leading law firm advising corporates and financial institutions across a broad spectrum of contentious regulatory, litigation and arbitration matters. · Litigation

Guy O’Keefe

Partner; Guy has a wide ranging practice which covers banking, capital markets and structured finance. He advises financial institutions, funds and governments on investments in and fund raisings of financial institutions, including restructurings and asset sales. Guy regularly acts for a number of UK and international companies, including Drax Group, Euroclear, Banco Santander, Santander UK, Legal & General, Prudential, United Utilities, GlaxoSmithKline, UK Asset Resolution, M&G and Direct Line. · Banking & Finance

Harry Bacon

Partner; Harry has a broad international practice advising private equity clients and corporates on private equity investments, acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures, mergers and public takeovers, capital raisings and direct and indirect listings. · Private Equity

Harry Hecht

Partner; Harry has a broad corporate practice, both transactional and advisory, with particular experience in public and private M&A, joint ventures and equity capital markets work. Harry’s advisory practice includes a particular focus on ESG-related issues. · Corporate / M&A

Holly Ware

Partner; Holly has a broad practice including commercial, competition and banking litigation and contentious regulatory and criminal investigations. Holly advises clients including major corporate entities and financial institutions across a range of sectors. Holly has cross-jurisdictional investigation experience involving both regulatory and prosecuting authorities, including those relating to bribery and corruption, market abuse and money laundering. In addition to her commercial litigation work, Holly has experience of competition litigation in the High Court, Competition Appeal Tribunal and before the European Court of Justice. Holly’s competition litigation practice includes follow-on damages claims, standalone claims and judicial review proceedings. · Litigation

Hywel Davies

Partner; Hywel has advised on a wide range of corporate and commercial transactions. He has particular experience in public and private M&A, joint ventures and equity financings as well as infrastructure, energy and natural resources matters. · Corporate / M&A

Ian Johnson

Partner; Ian heads our Restructuring and Insolvency group and advises across the full spectrum of restructuring, refinancing and insolvency matters. He has significant experience advising companies (and their boards), lenders, investors and buyers on complex and international restructuring and distressed situations. Ian also frequently advises governments, central banks and insolvency practitioners. · Restructuring & Insolvency

Isabel Taylor

Partner; Isabel has a competition and regulatory practice and advises across a range of industries, including regulated industries, on merger control, general competition law, sectoral regulatory requirements, and public procurement. She has a particular expertise in State aid law. · Competition

James Cook

Partner; James has a broad international corporate and commercial practice, advising on public and private M&A activity, joint ventures and equity capital market transactions for listed and unlisted companies alike. He also advises clients on company law and reorganisations, corporate governance and other general advisory matters. James also co-heads the cross-firm Tech practice, with a particular focus on Tech M&A, growth equity fundraising and digital infrastructure. · Corporate / M&A

James Stacey

Partner; James is a partner in the Disputes and Investigations Group, and is co-head of our International Arbitration Group. James has a broad ranging international disputes and investigations practice. He has a particular focus on international commercial arbitration and has advised extensively on corporate, company, M&A and infrastructure arbitrations under the rules of all the major arbitral institutions, including the ICC, LCIA and UNCITRAL. James also advises clients in relation to significant, cross-border and domestic litigation, and has advised on many contentious tax disputes, frequently with an international element. · International Arbitration

Jamshed Bilimoria

Corporate / M&A

Jan Putnis

Partner; Jan is Head of our Financial Regulation Group and co-Head of our Financial Institutions Group. Jan’s practice focuses on matters of strategic importance to financial institutions, with particular emphasis on regulatory advice (both contentious and non-contentious) and multi-jurisdictional corporate and commercial transactions. He acts for a broad range of financial institutions, including banks, investment banks, brokers, insurance and reinsurance groups, market infrastructure operators, asset managers and fintech businesses. Jan has been at the forefront of the industry’s thought leadership on the impact of Brexit, which includes working with several industry bodies, such as UK Finance and TheCityUK. He is recognised as a leading individual in the 'Financial Services: Non-contentious Regulatory' section of Chambers UK, and is the contributing editor of The Banking Regulation Review (Law Business Research, since 2010). He is a regular contributor to PLC Magazine and a member of the Financial Markets Law Committee. · Financial Regulation

Jane Edwarde

Partner; Jane is head of the real estate team. She advises in relation to all aspects of real estate including acquisitions, disposals, development, planning, leasing, financing and the real estate aspects of corporate transactions. Jane is qualified in England and Wales and in Scotland. Jane is one of the firm’s diversity and inclusion partners and is also a sponsoring partner for Collaborate, the firm’s legal tech programme. · Real Estate

Jeffrey Twentyman

Partner; Jeff undertakes a broad range of corporate and commercial work for both corporate and private equity clients, advising on acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures, mergers and public takeovers, flotations and equity capital markets and private equity investment. He is Head of our Private Equity group and Head of Sustainability. · Corporate / M&A

John Nevin

Partner; John has considerable experience in a wide range of real estate work. He has acted extensively on acquisitions and disposals of all types of property interests, on significant development projects and on major lettings. · Real Estate

John Papanichola

Partner; John has a broad corporate and corporate finance practice. He has particular experience in public and private M&A and equity capital markets. · Corporate / M&A

Jonathan Clark

Partner; Jonathan has a strong and varied litigation and investigations practice advising a wide range of financial services and corporate clients. He has deep experience defending allegations of deliberate wrongdoing, having advised on criminal and regulatory investigations and litigation involving alleged corruption, fraud, cartel activity and tax evasion. Jonathan’s litigation practice includes a focus on banking cases relating to complex derivatives transactions and benchmark manipulation, as well as multi-jurisdictional competition litigation in a number of sectors. He also advises clients in a number of different industries on appeals to the Competition Appeals Tribunal from decisions of the UK competition authorities. Jonathan has particular interest and experience in advising clients in relation to ongoing business and PR issues in the context of live litigation or investigations. · Litigation

Jonathan Cotton

Partner; Jonny is Co-Head of our Global Investigations Group. For over 25 years he has helped many clients investigate and defend allegations of wrongdoing in civil, criminal and regulatory cases across sectors from telecoms to fast-moving consumer goods to financial services. On the criminal/regulatory side, Jonny regularly acts on investigations, criminal prosecutions and regulatory cases concerning the Bribery Act, the Proceeds of Crime Act, the Fraud Act, FSMA, export controls and sanctions, as well as Companies Act offences. On the civil side, Jonny advises on fraud cases involving extractive frauds, accounting frauds, misrepresentations, the ‘theft’ of confidential information by employees and competitors and conspiracy. Jonny is also often involved in contractual disputes, competition disputes and restructuring/insolvency matters. He also often advises on contentious aspects of corporate transactions, including takeovers. · Investigations

Jonathan Marks

Jonathan is head of our Insurance Practice and co-lead of our Pensions Derisking Group. Jonathan has a corporate and corporate finance practice and has been involved in demutualisations, fund-raisings, joint ventures, private and public acquisitions, banking and capital markets transactions. · Insurance

Laura Houston

Partner; Laura advises clients on the full spectrum of IP, tech and commercial contracts matters. Laura’s IP practice covers both advisory and transactional work. She has extensive experience in advising clients on the protection and exploitation of IP rights across a broad range of sectors and industries, alongside portfolio management matters. In addition, Laura frequently acts on IP licensing arrangements, as well as the IP and technology aspects of mergers, acquisitions, disposals, investments and joint ventures. On the tech side, Laura advises on all areas of traditional and emerging technologies, including blockchain, AI and Internet of Things, both in an advisory capacity and as part of wider transactions. Laura also has significant experience in advising on the transitional servicing aspects of corporate transactions, in addition to a wide range of other commercial arrangements underpinning such transactions. Laura is also an active participant in our Data Privacy hub, advising clients on data protection and privacy issues in a wide range of contexts. · Intellectual Property

Lisa Wright

Partner; Lisa advises in relation to all aspects of competition and regulatory work including merger control, antitrust, sectoral regulation, competition litigation, state aid and public procurement. She also advises on foreign investment. Lisa works in both our London and Brussels offices. She is a member of the Brussels Bar (A list), as well as being qualified as a solicitor (England and Wales). · Competition/Antitrust

Mark Zerdin

Partner; Mark advises on a wide range of transactions for corporates, private equity clients and family offices. His principal areas of work are public takeovers, private acquisitions and disposals, private equity investment and joint ventures. Mark also heads our Latin American practice. · Corporate / M&A

Matthew Tobin

Partner; Matthew is Head of our Debt Capital Markets practice. He advises on a wide range of banking and financing work, including acquisition and bid financing, capital markets and securitisation transactions. Matthew also leads our Sustainable Finance practice which has advised on several green bonds issued by banks and multinationals and also green loans. · Banking & Finance

Michael Corbett

Partner; Michael is the Co-Head of our Infrastructure & Energy Group (I&E). He has a broad corporate and corporate finance practice, which includes public and private M&A transactions, complex corporate and commercial transactions (including business transformation projects), joint ventures, equity offerings, corporate governance and company advisory matters. Michael has previously been seconded to JP Morgan Chase and to GE Real Estate. · Corporate / M&A

Mike Lane

Partner; Mike is Head of our Tax practice. He has extensive experience advising domestic and international clients on a wide range of transactions, including public and private M&A, debt and equity capital markets transactions, group reorganisations and structured finance, as well as on contentious matters, such as diverted profits tax and transfer pricing disputes, unallowable purpose challenges and State aid investigations. · Tax

Natalie Cook

Partner; Natalie has a broad corporate and commercial practice, acting for a range of domestic and international corporate clients. Her practice has a particular focus on public takeovers, private acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures and general advisory matters. · Corporate / M&A

Nicholas Pacheco

Nick is a Corporate Insurance partner. He has a wide-ranging practice, which includes UK and cross-border M&A, portfolio transfers, pensions de-risking transactions, investment arrangements, complex (re)insurance arrangements and general corporate and governance advice. · Corporate / M&A

Nick Bonsall

Nick is Co-Head of the Slaughter and May Financial Institutions Group. He has a broad financial institutions practice, with extensive experience advising insurers, banks and asset managers on a range of stand-alone advisory and transactional projects. Nick also supports financial services clients on supervisory and contentious regulatory matters concerning UK and overseas regulators. He is regularly called upon to advise on complex prudential regulatory matters, and also on transactions designed to create capital efficiency or otherwise be accretive to solvency / capital ratios. He also frequently advises on financial institution reorganisations and portfolio acquisitions/disposals, including by way of the UK Part VII process. · Financial Services

Oliver Moir

Partner; Oly is a member of our infrastructure, energy and natural resources practice and our real estate practice. He has wide-ranging experience in the acquisition, disposal and development of all real assets. He has a particular focus on the energy and infrastructure sectors, including large-scale projects, M&A and commercial matters across the value chain. He is a member of the firm’s steering committees for the energy and infrastructure and the commercial contracts streams. · Infrastructure & Energy

Oliver Wicker

Partner; Oliver has developed a leading bank and borrower finance practice. He advises on a wide range of financing transactions, including structured finance, acquisition/leveraged finance, derivatives and debt capital markets matters. He also regularly acts for purchasers and sellers of loan portfolios and associated businesses. · Banking & Finance

Padraig Cronin

Partner; Padraig has been a partner at the firm since 2001. His previous focus was on public and private M&A, equity capital markets and private equity, and he was based in our Hong Kong office between 2007 and 2011. Since 2017, he has focused entirely on our employment and employee benefits practice. His transition demonstrates the genuine multi-specialist nature of our practice. He brings with him a wealth of experience in advising on cross-over areas between corporate and employment, such as TUPE, restructurings, outsourcings, board-level hirings and firings and executive remuneration. Padraig’s key clients over the years include Cazenove, GE, Prudential and Tata Steel. More recently, he has advised Innogy and Legal & General on employment aspects of significant transactions. · Employment

Paul Dickson

Partner; Paul has a broad practice covering a range of corporate and corporate finance matters for listed and unlisted clients. His experience includes advising on public takeovers and mergers, private M&A, equity capital markets and asset management transactions, together with partnership and investment fund structures. · Corporate / M&A