Wedlake Bell LLP

Adam Colenso

Adam specialises in a wide range of property litigation including claims for breach of covenant and forfeiture, dilapidations, lease renewals, rent reviews and service charge disputes. He has a particular expertise in leasehold enfranchisement matters. He regularly undertakes possession claims, disputes relating to protected tenancies, boundary disputes, adverse possession litigation and claims relating to rights of way and other easements. Adam also deals with ToLATA disputes, nuisance claims and litigation relating to public houses. · Property Litigation

Adam Grant

Adam partners with companies and senior leadership teams to ensure the effective day-to-day and strategic management of staff. This means understanding the business – delivering clear, concise and practical solutions and working to achieve commercial aims. His practice covers the full range of employment law including advising on complex disciplinary, performance and discrimination issues; project managing restructures, redundancies, contractual variations and boardroom matters; transactional support in particular TUPE and outsourcing; and dispute resolution starting from managing grievances all the way through to defending claims in the Employment Tribunal and High Court. Adam has considerable expertise in commercial projects, hospitality, trade associations, recruitment, later living and the arts. Adam also acts for senior executives and high net worth individuals. His focus is on helping them enter and exit the employment relationship in the most efficient and financially beneficial manner, including protecting bonuses and advising on the impact of post-employment restrictions. · Employment

Adam Lynch

Adam is a partner and head of our corporate practice. He has a broad range of experience and expertise advising on all aspects of corporate law, with a focus on domestic and cross-border M&A and corporate finance (including venture capital and private equity deals). Adam advises a variety of clients, including public companies listed on the London Stock Exchange’s main and AIM markets, private companies, partnerships, and entrepreneurs. His practice spans a number of industry sectors including hospitality and leisure, technology, corporate real estate, healthcare and financial services. · Corporate / M&A

Andrew O\'Keeffe

Andrew advises on a wide range of contentious trust and probate matters with particular expertise in disputes concerning the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, where he has acted for spouses, partners, both adult and minor children as well as dependants. He has also acted for and advised executors in relation to such claims. Andrew is regularly asked to advise on issues regarding the validity of Wills including issues relating to testamentary capacity, lack of knowledge and approval, undue influence, fraud as well as lack of due execution and revocation. He also has considerable experience in disputes relating to the administration of both trusts and estates where he has advised trustees, executors and beneficiaries on matters such as allegations of breach of trust, actions for an account and disclosure of trust documents. He has also acted in claims relating to the removal of personal representatives or trustees. Andrew also undertakes Court of Protection work and has a particular interest in the professional negligence side of contentious trust and probate matters. · Contentious Trusts & Probate

Ann Stanyer

Ann is a partner in the Private Client team and an acknowledged expert in the field of financial abuse of older people. The second edition of Ann’s book on the subject has just been published. Her practice also covers a wide range of trust, probate and private wealth management work for both large, complex estates and settlements. She advises trustees on tax and estate management issues and provides advice on UK and foreign succession issues. She also regularly advises on Property and Affairs and Personal Welfare Lasting Powers of Attorney, the registration of Enduring Powers of Attorney, applications to the Office of Public Guardian and Court of Protection including tax planning and statutory will applications. Ann holds appointments for clients as attorney, and executor and trustee. She has also been appointed as Deputy by the Court of Protection and as an Independent Executor and Administrator by the Courts. · Private Client

Anna Lewis

Anna specialises in the sale and purchase of all types of residential property, predominately within London. She also works on the granting and taking of leases and tenancy agreements. Anna is a member of the Leasehold Enfranchisement Group advising landlords and tenants on statutory lease extensions and collective enfranchisement. She has recently dealt with a number of “de-envelopments” following changes to inheritance tax and ATED legislation. This involves overseas companies that own high value properties being liquidated. On liquidation, the property is transferred to its beneficial owner(s). · Residential Property

Antoaneta Proctor

Antoaneta advises on international tax and evaluation of tax risk, cross-border succession, structuring for wealth preservation and family governance. She acts for (ultra) high-net worth individuals and their families (both UK and non-UK domiciled), entrepreneurs, family offices and trustees, typically with complex and multi-jurisdictional legal needs. Her practice is truly international, with clients coming from backgrounds as diverse as Europe, the US, Middle East, South Africa and Israel. She advises on onshore and offshore trust structuring, Family Investment Companies and the institutionalisation of family offices. A significant area of expertise for her is the preservation and nurturing of family wealth, through consultative assessments of the pressure lines and the creation of Family Constitutions. Antoaneta is the co-author of the UK best-selling book Generational Wealth: Why 90% of Families Fail to Establish a Lasting Legacy. Antoaneta is a skilled technician, focusing on tax advisory and tax regularisation work. She is frequently asked to carry out risk reviews of existing structures from a combined tax and asset protection perspective and assist with remedial work in relation to legacy issues. Antoaneta is also ideally placed to support trustees in developing checklists and protocols for managing institutional risk in connection with UK-related structures. Clients value Antoaneta’s sophisticated understanding of their needs and aspirations, and the ability to maintain both empathy and professionalism throughout. · Private Client

Ben Dunbar

Ben deals with a broad mix of real estate work but with a focus on landlord and tenant matters for a variety of commercial clients including investors and business occupiers. He specialises in acting for corporate occupiers on acquisitions of new premises and disposals of former premises. He is particularly experienced in acting for companies in the insurance and finance industries in their office premises requirements in the City and throughout the country. · Real Estate

Brad Fearn

Brad has 20 years’ experience advising on construction and infrastructure projects in the UK and abroad. Brad has acted for Developers, Funders, Landlords, Tenants, Contractors and Consultants providing advice on contractual and project advisory issues across a number of sectors including commercial property, offices, mixed use developments, student accommodation, logistics, rail and healthcare. Brad has also provided specialist construction advice in respect of property, corporate and finance transactions and restructuring. · Construction

Camilla Wallace

Partner specialising in advising high-net-worth individuals, both UK and non-UK domiciliaries, on estate planning to mitigate the incidence of IHT and control the devolution of estates using lifetime gifts, trusts and tax-efficient wills. She also provides advice to clients on capital gains tax and income tax mitigation strategies. Camilla has experience of both offshore and onshore trust restructuring and of advising trustees on the day-to-day management of trusts. She also advises executors and beneficiaries on the administration of estates and trusts. Recent projects include advising Channel Islands trustees on an employee benefit trust following the introduction of the UK’s disguised remuneration rules; advising Greek and Russian domiciled individuals on pre-arrival tax mitigation strategies; advising executors on the administration of a £20m estate comprising both UK and non UK situated assets; advising Isle of Man trustees on the winding up of an offshore trust and UK taxation on distribution to UK resident and non-UK resident beneficiaries and advising a UK named couple on their inheritance and capital gains tax liabilities as regards an extensive property portfolio comprising a country estate, London real estate, furnished holiday accommodation and property in Spain. Camilla is a member of Wedlake Bell’s offshore group India team, and is named one of the country’s ‘Top 35 Under 35’ in ‘Private Client Practitioner’ magazine for three consecutive years (2009-11). She has been named as a ‘prominent figure’ in the Citywealth Leaders List every year since 2012. She was also named as a Rising Star in Tax Law by Reuters in 2013 & 2014. · Private Client

Caroline Miller

Caroline leads the Private Client team which includes the On-shore, Off-shore and Disputes teams as well as a dedicated Arts & Luxury practice. Her contentious work includes dealing with disputes arising from either a Will or Trust as well as claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (“1975 Act claims”), Variation of Trust Applications, and the removal of personal representative applications. Caroline advises Executors, Trustees, beneficiaries and professionals on their duties, obligations and rights with regards to Wills and Trusts. In addition to this, Caroline also advises on a wide range of non-contentious private client matters, including wealth protection, estate planning, trust and estate administration, and the preparation of Lasting Powers of Attorney, as well as applications to the Court of Protection. Caroline acts as both trustee for her trust clients and executor for her deceased clients. · Private Client

Charles Hicks

Partner specialising in trusts, probate, wills, capital taxation and wealth management for high-net-worth individuals for the past 40 years. He has assisted numerous families to resolve family disputes relating to trust, probate and inheritance matters, usually managing to engineer a satisfactory conclusion by agreement without expensive and protracted litigation. In the 90s he focused on the problems of Lloyd’s membership, particularly at the individual level, advising in excess of 1,000 clients over time and at action group level. He is now the firm’s COLP and COFA and focuses primarily on compliance and risk management matters. · Private Client

Charles Robinson

Charles is widely known for gas and electricity supply dispute resolution and advisory work and oversees a specialist team of experienced solicitors. He has over 20 years’ experience acting for suppliers including a majority of the Big Five. With deep industry knowledge Charles advises on late billing, shipperless supplies, multi-tenanted sites, split supplies, off-site metering, vacant and squatter sites, erroneous transfers, supplies to insolvent entities, mis-selling and broker disputes, fraudulent COTs, datalogger / SMART meter failures, late meter installations, meter accuracy disputes, disputed disconnections, multiplier errors, mis-estimation and industry charge challenges. He acts on disputed warrant applications and has obtained multi million pound recoveries for commodity theft. Charles’ team is experienced in working with suppliers in countering fraud including phoenixism, ‘creditor avoidance’ and commodity theft. · Litigation

Charley Lowe

Charley deals with all elements of residential conveyancing, including the acquisition, disposal and refinancing of both freehold and leasehold properties, together with non-contentious Landlord and Tenant matters, voluntary lease extensions and licenses. She acts on a wide variety of high value properties (with a particular focus on the Prime and Super Prime market) both in and out of London for a range of clients, including national and international corporate and individual clients, owner-occupiers, developers and investors as well as first time buyers. Charley also advises borrowers and lenders on property finance transactions and has experience working with leading high street lenders and private banks. · Residential Conveyancing

Choy Lau

Choy advises businesses and individuals on all aspects of employment law. Her clients cover a range of sectors including Legal Services, TMT, Health Services, Marketing, Manufacturing and Hospitality. She is valued by her clients for being a strategic thinker and creative problem solver, with the ability to distil complex legal concepts into plain English and offer clear achievable strategies. Her practice is a mix of contentious and non-contentious work, representing both Claimants and Respondents in the Employment Tribunal. She advises on a full range of employment law matters including, unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing, grievances and disciplinaries, redundancy, restructuring and recruitment, TUPE and works on employment aspects of corporate transactions. · Employment

Christopher Tite

Christopher represents corporate, entrepreneurial and UHNW clients from around the world. He helps them to create, grow and protect their business and private wealth. His work covers the full legal spectrum and is both advisory and transactional. It frequently involves the provision of general counsel and family office-style services. Christopher has a long-standing involvement with the ports sector in the UK and internationally. He is a non-executive director of The Bristol Port Company and a founder member of UK Port Advisers. He is the Consulting Editor to Halsbury’s Laws of England on Ports & Harbours and he was a member of the British Government’s former UKTI Ports Advisory Group. He has particular experience of corporate governance, gained from external board appointments and his trusteeships of several significant charitable and private trusts. He is a member of the Greenwich Hospital Advisory Board (a Crown foundation and the Royal Navy’s oldest charity) and was previously a trustee of the Fleet Air Arm Museum and the Tall Ships Youth Trust. Christopher is a Freeman of the City of London. · Corporate / M&A

Claire Nelson

Claire regularly deals with the acquisition, disposal, funding and management of real estate assets within the UK often through complex and tax-driven multi-jurisdictional property structures, financing and tax mitigation arrangements. She specialises in investment, acting for a number of landlords with large portfolios on all their management needs. Conversely, on the corporate occupier side, she has built up a following of private equity companies and investment managers in dealing with their office moves. This allows her to see both sides of landlord and tenant transactions and enables her to cut through unnecessary arguments, saving time and money for clients. Claire has a reputation for ‘getting the deal done’ and tenaciously leads teams through transactions, advising in many sectors including offices and retail. She has a wide range of clients including high profile individuals, family offices, private and public companies and banks. She is also the Company Solicitor for the Carpenters’ Company, a City of London Livery Company. · Real Estate

Clive Weber

Clive advises on all aspects of UK pensions law drawing on over 45 years’ experience as a pensions’ lawyer. His expertise include acting for employers, trustees and members, including on restructuring of schemes, contingent asset arrangements (including for PPF purposes), dealing with the Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund, and with member complaints at scheme and Pensions Ombudsman levels, as well as advising on pension aspects of corporate transactions and on overseas transfers. In conjunction with our Private Client team, he also advises on pension death benefits and inter-generational wealth transfers. · Pensions

Daniel Moore

Daniel is experienced in all types of property transactions. He specializes in commercial property, acting for landlords and tenants, lenders, insolvency practitioners, and developers. He is equally enthusiastic whether the matter is a multi-million-pound transaction or a more modest affair. Daniel can also advise on company and commercial law and has dealt with a wide variety of such matters, for example, company/business sales and purchases, restructuring and refinancing, shareholder/joint venture agreements and many more. Daniel always seeks to understand the business objectives of his clients and works closely with them to achieve this. · Real Estate

David Earl

David’s practice includes all areas of commercial property acting for investment funds and traditional property companies with an emphasis on development encompassing site assembly, pre-letting, pre-sale, financing, forward funding and disposal. · Real Estate

David Johnston

David has wide experience of acting for and managing client teams for funds, major property companies and developers including sales, purchases, lettings, refinancing, development and asset management advisory services. He has also been very active for foreign investors in the UK and charity sector asset management, development and regeneration portfolios. He also advises on the impact of the changing climate, both physical and political, on private and public sustainable initiatives. In particular, he has been advising on green development and leasing and the effects of the changing regulatory climate on the institutional real estate sector. · Real Estate

David de Maupeou

David acts for developers, landlords, tenants, and investors (be they listed property companies, high profile developers, business occupiers, entrepreneurs, overseas investors or corporates), who wish to acquire, develop, sell or manage commercial property. His particular expertise is in central London office space and acting on mixed use development schemes. · Real Estate

Ed Starling

Ed conducts a variety of contentious and non-contentious insolvency and restructuring matters, and wider business critical litigation. He acts on behalf of lenders, liquidators, administrators, LPA receivers, trustees in bankruptcy, companies, purchasers of distressed assets, creditors and other stakeholders, shareholders, members of limited liability partnerships (LLPs) and directors. He specialises in bringing and defending claims brought by office holders including transactions at an under value, voidable preferences, wrongful and fraudulent trading, and breach of duty (including allegations of fraud and international asset tracing). He also has significant experience in civil fraud, dishonesty and misrepresentation proceedings and investigations, including the use of freezing and other targeted injunctions. Business critical litigation includes shareholder disputes, minority shareholder petitions, guarantee claims, professional negligence claims (valuers, solicitors, accountants, tax advisers), earnout / deferred consideration disputes, and contract/tortious disputes. Ed also acts as an independent Supervising Solicitor overseeing search (and seizure) orders obtained in civil proceedings. · Insolvency & Restructuring

Edward Craft

Edward leads on the most complex and innovative transactions delivered at Wedlake Bell and provides technical leadership to both the team and the profession. Edward has sat on the Company Law Committee of The Law Society since 2013 and served as chair 2019-2022. In that role, Edward was responsible for the guidance to solicitors in conducting verification under the new register of overseas entities. The 2021 practice note and Q&A on electronic signatures in the context of COVID has proven a very valuable resource to practitioners. Edward has a long-established practice focussed on governance and transparency, including PSC, ROE and TRS. Edward has twice been the author of the Corporate Governance Code issued by The Quoted Companies Alliance, which is used by the vast majority of companies on AIM. · Corporate / M&A

Edward Saunders

Edward practices in a wide variety of commercial disciplines including commercial litigation, insolvency, probate litigation, property litigation, anti-social behaviour and disrepair claims and proceeds of crime. His non-litigious expertise includes intellectual property, information technology, general contract drafting and business sales and acquisitions. · Litigation

Eleanor Metcalf

Eleanor advises on estate and tax-planning for UK and non-UK domiciled individuals, trusts and trustees and landed estates. She also advises charities and charity trustees on all aspects of charity law and trust law, including taxation, tax efficient charitable giving and trading. Eleanor advises on tax efficient methods of holding and passing down wealth to the next generations through the drafting of Wills and family trusts, advising on and involved in the day-to-day administration of varied types of assets and holding structures, restructuring as and where necessary to ensure wealth protection and the mitigation of taxation. · Private Client

Emilia Petrossian

Emilia is a UK Chartered Trade Mark and Design Attorney with expertise in trade mark and design portfolio management including clearance searches, advising on worldwide filing strategies and the prosecution of UK, European Union and International trade mark applications through to registration, including opposition and cancellation proceedings. Emilia has a proactive approach and likes to ‘think outside the box’, resulting in a ‘can do’ attitude that clients appreciate. Emilia acts on behalf of clients in a broad range of industries including cosmetic, beauty, entertainment, finance, insurance, accounting and telecommunications. · Intellectual Property

Emma Loveday

Emma’s practice involves all elements of private client work. She advises both UK and non-UK domiciled clients on tax matters generally and has extensive experience in advising trustees and beneficiaries on all trust matters, both UK and offshore, and related issues. Emma deals with Wills, succession, trust formation and tax planning associated with probate and will trusts. She also advises in relation to UK tax planning and mitigation for individuals and trustees. Emma has considerable experience of coordinating international tax planning and structuring inward investment for individuals and trustees. She also advises US individuals and beneficiaries on their UK tax affairs, dealing with UK wills and setting up trusts, working in co-ordination with US advisers. She also advises on charity law. · Private Client

Frances Coulson

Frances undertakes most areas of personal and corporate insolvency, specialising in contentious insolvency especially cases involving fraud, as well as provisional liquidations and injunctive work generally. She is a long serving member of the London Solicitors’ Litigation Association Panel of Supervising Solicitors with extensive experience of executing and supervising search orders and bankruptcy warrants. She was Head of Insolvency and Litigation at Moon Beever where she ran a substantial team of insolvency and litigation specialists and was a member of the disciplinary and admissions committees, then Chairman of the Appeal Committee at ACCA for ten years with good regulatory experience during and since that service. She is a member of Insol Europe (Council Member) and of Insol International, and the IBA. Frances is a regular speaker in the UK and abroad on insolvency, litigation and anti-fraud issues, and practice management. Frances was recently made an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management. Frances has also managed significant debt contracts for the public and private sectors over the last 3 decades. · Insolvency

Glenn Chidgey

Glenn specialises in commercial litigation and Insolvency. He is regularly involved in litigation ranging from breach of contract claims, shareholder disputes and professional negligence claims. His practice covers general commercial litigation in both the High Court and County Court. Glenn also conducts a variety of contentious and non-contentious insolvency matters. He acts on behalf of lenders, liquidators, administrators, LPA receivers, trustees in bankruptcy, companies, creditors and other stakeholders. He specialises in bringing and defending claims brought by office holders including transactions at an under value, voidable preferences, wrongful and fraudulent trading. · Commercial Litigation

Grainne McCourt

Grainne’s practice covers all areas of commercial property including acting for retail tenants, property development and financing, acting for institutional, corporate and private investors dealing with the acquisition and disposal of both single properties and portfolios. Grainne also has experience of property aspects of corporate transactions. · Real Estate

Hilary Platt

Hilary is head of the finance team and specialises in asset and acquisition finance. She has acted for financial institutions and corporate borrowers on a wide range of syndicated and bilateral financings often involving cross-border elements. The primary focus of her practice since joining Wedlake Bell has been on property financing (for both investment and development purposes and acquisition financing). She also has considerable experience of borrowing base facilities, having acted for various oil and gas exploration companies on numerous financings. · Banking & Finance

Ivan Fitzherbert

Since 1986 Ivan was Head of Property at Stitt & Co prior to the merger with Wedlake Bell. His expertise is in Property development transactions (acquisitions and disposals). Ivan has advised on the acquisitions (including strategy and advice given throughout the development stages) of residential, mixed use and commercial properties, often conditional upon planning and with overage provisions. Ivan also deals with option agreements, joint ventures and disposals of affordable housing. · Real Estate

James Latham

James practices in the Insolvency & Business Recovery and Commercial Litigation Departments. He also undertakes property litigation, which is often insolvency related. He is a member of the Insolvency Lawyers Association and a full Member of R3. · Insolvency & Restructuring

James Newcome

James advises on all aspects of pensions law advice for a range of trustee and employer clients. James advises both trustees and employers of defined benefit and defined contribution schemes on a range of issues including closure to future accrual, automatic enrolment, benefit redesign, scheme mergers, as well as liability management and restructuring of pension arrangements (buy-ins, buy-outs and bulk transfers to master trusts). James also has experience in drafting all forms of scheme documentation. · Pensions and Employee Benefits

Jemma Pugh

Jemma advises on a wide range of employment law and HR issues, acting for both companies and individuals. She is experienced in contentious matters and regularly deals with all types of claims brought in both the Employment Tribunal and the civil courts. She also regularly assists with dispute resolution within the workplace to manage issues before they become claims. Jemma provides advice on a variety of non-contentious matters, from general day-to-day workplace issues – such as sickness absence, performance management, disciplinary issues and grievances – to large-scale redundancies and restructures. Jemma often drafts employment contracts, service agreements, consultancy agreements and staff handbooks. She manages the employment aspects of corporate and property transactions and is very experienced in negotiating exit packages and settlement agreements, both from an employer and employee perspective. Jemma regularly writes for various HR publications, commenting on changes in the employment law world or providing practical guidance on how to deal with issues that may arise in the workplace. · Employment

Jennifer Ball

Jennifer advises on a broad range of family law matters, including divorce and subsequent financial remedy proceedings, with a particular focus on private law children matters. Jennifer has experience of dealing with cases with an international element and jurisdictional issues, involving high net worth individuals. · Family

Jenny Cutts

Jenny is a specialist Private Client lawyer providing advice on wealth protection strategies during lifetime and on death through Will drafting, the creation of trusts and advising on lifetime giving. Jenny works for a wide range of clients from families with inherited wealth to entrepreneurs. She also advises those in their twilight years on managing money down the family line and on issues concerning mental capacity including the preparation of Lasting Powers of Attorney and Court of Protection work. Jenny acts as an executor for her deceased clients and as a trustee for family trusts. · Private Client

Jonathan Hibberts

Jonathan has a wide range of experience in dealing with litigation: alongside general commercial disputes, he specialises in property litigation, development and professional negligence disputes. He also provides strategic advice on transactions and developments, and is known for providing innovative solutions. He has acted for both landlords, tenants, and developers, including dealing with lease renewals, disrepair, and termination disputes. Jonathan has also acted in a variety of general commercial disputes, including acting against financial institutions. His professional negligence experience includes negligent surveys and legal advice, including environmental contamination. Jonathan also has a significant amount of experience in working with charities and religious organisations. · Property Litigation

Jonathan Paul Cornthwaite

Jonathan specialises in intellectual property law including copyright, trade marks, databases, designs, domain names and confidential information; information technology law, including the licensing of software; commercial law including e-commerce law; data protection law and UK and EU competition law, including in particular anti-competitive agreements and abuses of dominance. · Intellectual Property

Julia Jackson

Julia is an expert in UK Immigration and Nationality Law having practised in this field for more than two decades. She has a particular expertise in the Points Based Immigration System including Investors, Entrepreneurs and Sponsored Workers and has assisted multinational corporations, executives and private individuals to successfully secure and manage UK immigration status. · Immigration & Nationality

Julian Mathews

Julian's practice covers corporate, M&A, private equity, venture capital and related financings. Julian also brings significant international deal experience, having spent time in a couple of DLA Piper’s European offices. Julian would describe his practice as being focused on hospitality and leisure and upon private equity, especially in the Technology and FinTech sectors. In the hospitality and leisure sector, he has a strong focus on hotel and restaurant transactions, Julian has acted for a range of hotel owners and operators, from five-star prominent London brand hotels to budget operators. · Corporate / M&A

Justin Lewis-Vivas

Justin acts for landlords, tenants and investors including acquiring, developing and selling commercial properties and development portfolios. His particular expertise is in the airline sector and central London office space. · Real Estate

Justin McGilloway

Justin advises a wide range of clients – employers (UK and international), trustees (including offshore), pension product providers and individuals – on all aspects of pensions law including the intricacies of pension scheme documentation, corporate transactions, Pension Regulator clearance, reorganising schemes and Pension Protection Fund negotiations, funding matters, closing schemes to future accrual and winding-up schemes. He also deals with pension scheme disputes with a particular interest in Pension Ombudsman complaints. Justin also specialises in employee benefits work and regularly provides advice on the structuring, implementation, maintenance and vesting of management and employee incentive arrangements to both UK and overseas companies. For the last decade or so he has been involved in unwinding historic Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) arrangements and negotiating settlements with HMRC. · Pensions

Kamalprit Lally

Kam’s practice focuses on advising issuers, nomads and brokers on initial and secondary fundraisings, private placings and capital markets work as well as domestic and international M&A, private equity, joint venture and corporate finance transactions. · Corporate / M&A

Kate Johnson

Kate advises domestic and international clients on personal tax, trust, estate planning and succession issues. Her clients include individuals, trustees and charities often with multi-jurisdictional assets owned via complex offshore trust and corporate structures. Kate works closely with her clients and their advisors to mitigate tax and plan for the future. Kate advises clients on the use of lifetime gifts, tax-efficient Wills, trusts and charitable foundations. Kate has particular experience advising on exiting family businesses, charity formation, onshore and offshore tax planning and trust structuring, and planning for moving to or returning to the UK. Kate frequently advises clients with charitable interests or valuable art collections. · Private Client

Laurence Rogers

Laurence predominantly focuses on real estate finance and additionally cover acquisition and leveraged finance. He acts for lenders and borrowers (both on traditional financing and Islamic financing) covering all aspects of the capital stack (senior, mezzanine, preferred equity) and all asset classes including office, residential, logistics, student accommodation, hotels and self-storage. His practice is UK and overseas including the more complex multi-jurisdictional cross-border deals. Clients will often come to him to help source potential buyers or lenders for deals or for introductions to particular players in the market. · Real Estate

Leah Freeman

Leah is a Partner in the property team. She advises on all aspects of commercial property but has particular expertise in institutional investment, mixed use development and retail. Leah acts for property developers involving acquisitions, advice in connection with planning and other statutory agreements, negotiating agreements for lease and forward sale agreements and financing. She also acts for institutional investors on acquisitions and sales (single sites and portfolios), development work and the associated management work and retail occupiers on sales and advising on any associated fit out requirements. · Real Estate

Louise Gowman

Louise’s emphasis is on the consenting, development and financing of infrastructure projects. A real estate lawyer by background, she has particularly focused on the ports industry for over 20 years, and during that time has advised ports on projects, financings, development control, marine licensing, statutory orders and public inquiries, harbour regulation, commercial agreements and the management of port estates. Her infrastructure focus also includes renewables projects, from wind farm developments to energy from waste facilities. Her clients typically come from the entrepreneurial/family business sector and look to Louise for advice across a wide range of issues facing them. Louise is a founder member of UK Port Advisers, specialist port consultants and advisers focused on the port industry in the UK and worldwide and comprising operations, business, finance, environmental, public affairs and legal specialists, which delivers a wide range of services to ports and their investors, as well as government and port users. · Projects & Infrastructure

Malcolm Macfarlane

Malcolm is a consultant and has worked as a solicitor in the City of London for over 30 years and has extensive experience in a broad range of commercial property work including the acquisition, development and management of office blocks, shopping centres, industrial estates, residential developments and pubs and hotels, acting for office retail industrial and pub occupiers, funding agreements, rent sharing agreements and joint venture agreements, VAT and capital allowances and lease advisory including lease renewals, rent review repair and service charge disputes. He has particular expertise in handling development projects, large investment sales and the acquisition and disposal of pubs and hotels and the businesses run therein. Malcolm has acted for a wide range of clients from institutional investors and public property companies to private investors and developers and business occupiers. Recent experience includes:Acting for a central London developer in relation to the acquisition of a new development site in the City of London, the subsequent letting of the new building and sale to a foreign investor for £140m.Acting for a PLC brewer in relation to the acquisition of various portfolios of pubs and hotels ranging from £10m to £82m. Acting for a private investor in relation to a joint venture with a housebuilder regarding a mixed use development of a large site in outer London with a total investment value in excess of £200m. Acting for a Danish wealth fund in relation to the acquisition, development and letting of two large office blocks in central London value in excess of £100m. Acting for a global toymaker on their flagship store in the West End of London. · Real Estate

Marc Leyshon

Marc has experience in a wide range of real estate matters including advising on landlord and tenant work, sales and acquisitions and property elements of finance transactions acting for both borrowers and lenders. He has a good knowledge of distressed property work, in particular acting for lenders and receivers on the sales of both commercial and residential properties. Marc’s clients include institutional landlords, family offices, major lenders and corporates. He also acts for developers with a focus on acquiring sites for development using conditional contracts or options and often involving overage provisions and staged completions. Marc has the experience to add value for his clients in liaising with our construction and planning teams to manage long term projects successfully. · Real Estate

Mark Tasker

Mark is a partner in our corporate practice. He has more than 30 years’ experience of advising clients on corporate transactional work in a variety of sectors including manufacturing, technology, financial services and the impact economy. His focus is advising on both cross-border and domestic private company transactions including M&A, venture capital and private equity deals. He also works extensively on corporate fundraising including equity capital markets work, in particular on AIM. Mark’s experience also includes handling joint ventures, shareholder agreements and group reorganisations and issues relating to shareholder disputes and share rights held by senior executives. Mark is valued by clients for being commercial and pragmatic, avoiding the usual “shades of grey” advice and for making firm recommendations. · Corporate / M&A

Martin Ackland

Martin’s experience covers offices, shops and industrial buildings, the retail and leisure sectors, hotels and catering, care homes and pharmaceutical buildings. He deals with a wide variety of transactional and management work, development projects, the property aspects of corporate acquisitions and fund raising. His clients include institutions with a traditional attitude to business and entrepreneurs who are uninhibited by convention. Martin represents investors, managers, traders, developers and occupiers and a number of overseas investors and professional clients. His current focus is with the development of care homes and institutional investors in the real estate market. · Real Estate

Martin Arnold

Partner specialising in all aspects of corporate insolvency, both contentious and non-contentious. He acts for liquidators, administrators and receivers, banks and asset-based lenders, as well as advising companies on appropriate insolvency processes. Recent projects have involved advising on claims against directors and shadow directors and defending claims brought against directors, including Company Directors Disqualification Act proceedings; making claims in relation to all types of antecedent transactions; dealing with appointments of administrators, administrative receivers and liquidators in relation to a variety of insolvent organisations; and acting on the sale of businesses by insolvency practitioners. Martin has extensive experience of multi-jurisdictional contentious insolvency proceedings, including freezing and recovering assets in various jurisdictions, including the US, Europe and Africa. Other recent work has seen Martin advising on the structuring of corporate voluntary arrangements; disputing and challenging CVAs; and advising a number of organisations, including a foreign governmental agency, on ROT issues relating to the transfer of goods subject to ROT through several jurisdictions. · Insolvency

Matthew Braithwaite

Matt advises a wide range of UK and international clients, from individuals, families, trustees, beneficiaries and family offices on a wide range of private client issues, including UK tax, estate and succession planning. Matt acts for high net worth individuals and families including business owners, professional executives and entrepreneurs. Matt advises on the establishment and use of trusts and other wealth holding structures, and also on the succession of family trusts and businesses and governance issues. He also advises on Wills and wider estate and succession planning issues. · Private Client

Matthew Mainstone

Matthew is a partner in our commercial property group, specialising in planning law. He advises developers, landowners and investors on a wide range of planning and highways law matters, predominantly on mixed use, retail and residential development schemes, and property transactions. Matthew’s work includes negotiating planning agreements (including some complex affordable housing and viability provisions), highways agreements and licences, advising on planning applications and environmental impact assessment, planning appeals and judicial review. He also advises on all aspects of compulsory purchase law. · Real Estate

Michael Gardner

Michael advises clients in relation to disputes involving commercial, contractual, reputation management, IT and in particular, intellectual property matters. This includes trade marks, passing off, copyright, databases, designs, patents, confidential information and disputes involving all forms of business and IT contracts. In the reputation management space, he advises on defamation and privacy issues. Michael is experienced in all forms of IP dispute resolution including litigation in the High Court and IPEC including the obtaining of urgent injunctive relief. His practice includes anti-counterfeiting work (including in the online space) and advising on parallel imports. He also advises on brand protection and reputation management generally and conducts trade mark prosecution work and domain name dispute resolution. · Intellectual Property

Michael Ridsdale

Michael advises on all aspects of UK and international taxation affecting businesses situated both in the UK and overseas. He is frequently asked to advise on the structuring of real estate transactions and has extensive experience advising both buyers and sellers on M&A and real estate-related transactions, ranging from FTSE 30 companies to family-owned companies. He also advises owners of all types of property interests be that UK and non-UK resident individuals, companies or partnerships, as wells as offshore and UK trustees on their underlying interests in land be that investment or trading, such as landed estates. Michael has a particular expertise in indirect tax and regularly advises on the VAT and SDLT implications of a range of transactions. In addition to his advisory practice, Michael is very experienced at handling enquiries and investigations made by, and appeals against, HM Revenue & Customs. · Tax

Natalie Pilagos

Natalie specialises in advising on disputes in relation to a wide range of construction projects including energy, manufacturing, retail, offices, hotels, infrastructure, student accommodation, stadia and commercial/private residential development. She is experienced in all forms of dispute resolution including adjudication, mediation, arbitration and litigation in the Technology and Construction Court. Clients she has advised include end users, developers, contractors, consultants, local authorities, SPVs, private clients and investment companies/funders. She proactively works closely with her transactional colleagues and clients to anticipate issues before they arise and prevent disputes from escalating. In addition to her contentious experience, Natalie also has previously gained many years of valuable non-contentious construction experience. She has previously been involved in reviewing, drafting and negotiating a wide range of construction documents including development agreements, project agreements, building contracts, operation and maintenance agreements, parent company guarantees, bonds, consultant appointments, interface agreements and collateral warranties. This experience bolsters her skills as a contentious construction lawyer by providing her with in depth working knowledge of a wide range of documentation related to construction projects. · Construction

Natasha Kurth

Natasha advises on a variety of family law matters with a focus on resolving the financial issues arising on divorce. Natasha has extensive experience in dealing with cases involving jurisdictional issues, complex corporate structures, inherited wealth and assets held in trust and/or outside the jurisdiction. She also has experience advising on pre-nuptial agreements and in relation to Schedule 1 proceedings. Whilst Natasha advises clients in respect of contested proceedings, she is also involved with many cases which are dealt with more consensually and which may merit alternative forms of dispute resolution. · Family