Blake Morgan LLP

Adam Carbis

Adam is a Legal Director in the property litigation team in Cardiff specialising in real estate disputes. He also has extensive experience of all forms of general commercial litigation. Adam is a specialist real estate litigator advising on a wide range of property related disputes including dilapidation claims, 1954 Act lease renewal proceedings, forfeiture, breach of covenant, nuisance, trespass, adverse possession, rent and service charge recovery and claims for compensation in respect of compulsory purchase orders. He also has extensive experience in a wide range of disputes in the County Court and High Court including breach of contract, professional negligence, judicial review, partnership disputes, defamation, contentious probate, enforcement of foreign judgments and insolvency. Adam acts for landlords and tenants, commercial, third sector and public sector clients including central government, local authorities, housing associations and local health boards. · Real Estate

Alison Patten-Hall

Alison is head of Blake Morgan’s Commercial and Charities teams. She is a partner specialising in commercial and complex high value projects. She has a great deal of experience of working with clients in the health and care sector, but also acting for large corporates on commercial projects · Commercial / Corporate

Alison Wood

Alison is a Senior Associate in the Professional Regulatory team, with a wide range of experience across the healthcare and accountancy sectors. Alison has a broad area of expertise with a focus on professional discipline and advising professionals and professional regulators regarding fitness to practise and related investigations. She regularly acts for healthcare regulators and also advises accountants in respect of investigations undertaken by regulators such as the ICAEW and the ACCA. She also has extensive experience representing healthcare providers in a range of matters, including criminal and safeguarding investigations, dealing with enforcement action by regulatory bodies such as CQC and Ofsted, and representing providers at inquests and in the Court of Protection. Alison also has experience undertaking due diligence for sale and acquisitions of care facilities and advising providers on corporate matters, including registration with regulatory bodies and general contractual matters. · Regulatory

Angela Mildenhall

Angela is an experienced solicitor having qualified at a large City firm before practising and qualifying in Sydney, Australia (both in private practice and as in house counsel for a private equity firm with several large FMCG brands). Angela advises institutional investors and occupiers with a particular emphasis on landlord and tenant work for corporate occupiers and a growing specialism in transactional telecoms work. Angela advises on complex lease acquisitions for brands such as CGI Technology, IWG, and DX Group. She oversees and manages acquisitions, sales and landlord and tenant work for Sorbon Estates and Angela has also acted for the Canary Wharf Group on its retail leasing across the estate and for boutique fitness brand, Third Space. · Real Estate

Antonia Dowgray

Antonia has practiced for over 20 years, and is dual qualified in New Zealand and the UK. Antonia has worked on professional disciplinary cases for the majority of key health care regulators including the General Medical Council (GMC), the General Dental Council (GDC), the General Optical Council (GOC), (then) General Social Care Council (GSCC), and the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). Antonia has prepared numerous professional conduct cases for professional regulators including complex, multifaceted cases involving dishonesty, health and misconduct matters. Antonia has also provided legal advice to regulatory bodies on the interpretation of statutory provisions and rules, and has advised on High Court appeals from decisions of first instance committees. · Regulatory

Bradley Albuery

Bradley is the Head of Professional Regulation and a partner in our Regulatory Group which advises public and private sector organisations and individuals on investigations, compliance, reviews, prosecutions and risk management. · Regulatory

Bruce Potter

Bruce advises both private and public organisations on all aspects of commercial, corporate policy and governance advice. Bruce deals with corporate work, especially spin outs, acquisitions and disposals and management buy-outs as well as extensive advisory work on business recovery and insolvency across receivership, administrations and complex partnership and public and treaty body insolvency and transfers. Bruce also deals with commercial work, especially in IT and information security, developing new legal models and mixed legal/advisory/educational approaches to new legal risks. Bruce supports organisational development and governance development across health and social care often working with multi-disciplinary teams from other professional disciplines. The hallmark of his advice has been the combination of legal excellence with commercial acumen to deliver effective practical solutions for clients. · Commercial

Chris Potts

Chris leads the Commercial Litigation team in the Thames Valley and London. He handles complex commercial and corporate disputes, often in multiple jurisdictions. His practice includes substantial fraud/breach of duty claims. · Commercial Litigation

Claire Rawle

Claire is a Partner who leads the Health, Safety and Environmental team which is recognised as having one of the leading Health and Safety practices in the UK. Claire leads the firm’s cross-office Compliance, Investigations and Prosecutions team which is recognised as having one of the leading Health and Safety practices in Wales and the South of England. Claire has over 28 years’ experience advising and representing clients in the private and public sectors across a range of industries on a variety of regulatory and criminal enforcement issues and Coroner’s Inquests. · Health & Safety

Clare Strickland

Clare is a partner and head of our regulatory group. She is a highly experienced regulatory lawyer with particular expertise in advising and representing regulators in the healthcare sector. She is an advocate with significant High Court and Court of Appeal experience. Clare supports clients with all aspects of regulatory law and procedure, including operational casework, advice on strategy and policy, and regulatory reform. Clare has experience of supporting regulators and policy makers across a range of sectors, including healthcare, teaching, legal and financial. She also advises and represents individuals and organisations facing regulatory action, and the bodies representing them. Clare has been operations/delivery partner for three large healthcare regulators. She has specialised in serious and high profile case work, including High Court/Court of Appeal matters. While working in-house at a healthcare regulator, Clare: Led the policy and change teams responsible for the development of the regulator’s fitness to practise strategy Led on the formation of a public support service Led the operational fitness to practise teams · Regulatory

Conor Daly

Conor is a partner in the Commercial Litigation team in the London office. He specialises in commercial litigation and insolvency litigation. Conor predominantly handles high-value, complex commercial litigation both national and international. Conor also advises clients on all aspects of contentious corporate and personal insolvency and has experience working on cases involving asset recovery, misfeasance, challenging antecedent transactions and also on general commercial disputes. Conor acts for a broad range of clients including large businesses, high net worth individuals from the UK and overseas and Insolvency Practitioners. In recent years, Conor has increasingly acted for a number of high net worth individuals from FSU countries. · Commercial Litigation

Dan Geddes

Dan is a Senior member of Commercial Litigation team in Southampton dealing with a wide variety of disputes. He has specialist knowledge in company law, insolvency, insurance, debt recovery and contract law. Dan's main areas of practice include: Commercial litigation Commercial disputes Insolvency Dan’s clients include: Many local businesses and private individuals on and around the South Coast Insolvency practitioners from firms including RSM, Mazars, Quantuma and CVR; Large international insurance companies and their policyholders; A variety of banks, invoice discounters and factors, debt purchasers and motor/equipment finance companies; · Commercial Litigation

Daniel Scognamiglio

Daniel leads our travel team based in Southampton. He is a specialist in multi-jurisdictional disputes, travel insurance litigation and tour operator liability and is qualified as a solicitor in England and Attorney at Law (non practising) New York. He has a particular specialism in handling travel insurance and foreign personal injury matters, advising insurers and the public as a result of accidents that have happened abroad; dealing with general insurance litigation and commercial disputes with an international or multi-jurisdictional element. Daniel also advises travel agents and tour operators as to the Package Travel Regulations, ATOL and CAA. · Travel

Daniel Taylor

Daniel is a Senior Associate in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution team in Cardiff specialising in commercial disputes, and public law matters. Daniel advises clients on a broad range of commercial and civil claims. He has significant experience of contractual claims, debt recovery, negligence cases and partnership disputes. Daniel also undertakes public law work, to include judicial review, procurement challenges, education, safeguarding, mental health and mental capacity law. He also has experience in dealing with public inquiries work. Daniel regularly advises both public and private sector clients. Daniel has extensive experience in the following areas: Court of Protection Bringing and responding to applications on behalf of Local Authorities and Health Boards in connection with the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) framework. Advising on matters when individuals lack capacity in complex welfare disputes involving sensitive issues such as social media, sexual relations, residence, care and contact. Advising in relation to: a) Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the relevant Codes of Practice; b) Mental Health Act 1983 and 2007; c) Issues surrounding consent to medical treatment; d) Detention and restraint. Education Understanding and experience of advising in relation to Special Educational Needs or Additional Learning Needs, and regularly represents local authorities in relation to matters in the Education Tribunal for Wales, when matters are unable to reach early resolution. Daniel is adapt to advise on the new Additional Learning Needs system in Wales and has provided training to local authorities on the new Act. Procurement Daniel regularly advises contracting authorities and economic operators in relation to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (“PCR2015”) and The Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 (“DSPCR2011”). Daniel advises on all aspects of procurement law to include: a) Advising on modifications to contracts; b) Reviewing evaluation and award criteria; c) Reviewing standstill letters; d) Procurement disputes – challenging or defending a public contract award. Daniel’s recent experience of procurement disputes include: a) Advising NHS England in relation to procurement and supply of key medicines; b) Representing NHS England in relation to a procurement challenge concerning a seven-year contract for the provision of orthodontic services in East Hampshire, where the Technology and Construction Court developed the law concerning the “sufficiently serious” test. This matter was heard at the Court of Appeal; c) Advising Cardiff University on a major construction procurement relating to post-award modifications in accordance with Regulation 72 of the PCR2015; d) Advising a leading supplier of protective and tactical equipment for military and emergency services sectors in relation to a procurement of sniper equipment in accordance with DSPCR2011; e) Representing a global medical products company in relation to procurement of pharmaceutical equipment; f) Advising the Welsh Government on a procurement challenge issued by an unsuccessful economic operator pursuant to the PCR2015. To include issues dealing with standstill period, limitation periods and clarifications. g) Representing a charity in relation to domestic abuse services in the South West of England. Judicial Review Daniel has experience of advising public sector clients on judicial review challenges, both through the medium of the English and Welsh language. Commercial Disputes Daniel advises on a range of commercial disputes (both pre-action and in litigation), to include contractual disputes (including sale of goods and debt recovery), shareholder disputes, corporate transactions disputes and unfair prejudice petitions. Daniel is regularly instructed in relation to matters at the County Court and High Court, and has recently represented clients at the Court of Appeal. Daniel’s recent experience of commercial disputes include: a) Advising and representing an entrepreneur in relation to an alleged breach of contract claim relating to an asset swap agreement with a former business partner. This matter was heard at the Court of Appeal; b) Representing a Respondent to a multi-million-pound unfair prejudice petition concerning a property joint venture and three related disputes; c) Representing a charity in a claim for damages arising from a breach of an implied contract for the supply of services, which also included claims for quantum meruit remuneration; d) Representing the Welsh Government in a claim arising under the Highways Act 1980, which included complex considerations relating to limitation and causation. Public Inquiries Daniel is currently working on behalf of core participants in the Infected Blood Inquiry and the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. Daniel has provided advice to clients on witness statements, rule 9 requests, what documents should and should not be disclosed and has advised on issues of privilege. High Value / Complex Personal Injury Claims / Inquests At the start of his career, Daniel specialised in high value and complex injury claims, involving catastrophic and other serious orthopaedic injuries, to include spinal and amputee injury claims. Daniel also represented families following a bereavement, which included representation at inquests. · Litigation

Daniela Smith

Daniela is a partner and commercial property solicitor with wide experience of all aspects of commercial property work for both the public and private sectors. Daniela’s work includes the acquisition, funding, development and letting of commercial, industrial and residential property, and property aspects of acquiring and disposing of companies. Daniela has been involved in many of the high value and high profile transactions undertaken by the firm. Daniela's significant experience includes: Acting for igloo Regeneration Partnership in the £250m regeneration of 40 acres of derelict land at Roath Basin in Cardiff Bay in achieving in 2007 a comprehensive development agreement with the Welsh Ministers and all statutory and planning agreements required to bring forward the development over the next 15 years; the first phase of this involves the 167,950 sq ft development of the Media Capital for BBC, which has now opened. A £43m sale of the investment to British Steel Pension Fund was exchanged in 2011. Acting for (Amber Infrastructure) Babcock and Brown (preferred developers of the Welsh Government in bringing forward the WISP (Welsh Investment Strategic Partnership) to deliver up to 1m square feet of new office space in regeneration centres across Wales over the next decade – beginning with schemes in Swansea, Newport and Cardiff) in handling in 2010 a sale to L&G at £23.4m of two completed developments in the WISP scheme. Acting for Welsh Government, Newport City Council and Newport Unlimited in the development and sale of a new £40m city centre campus for the University of Wales, Newport which opened in January 2011. Acting for the University of Glamorgan and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in the £22m re-development of the College’s campus on North Road Cardiff and creation of a new concert hall and rehearsal studios scheduled to open in August 2011. Acting for two GP surgeries and a local LHB in acquiring a new, bespoke Medical Centre via a conditional contract with leases to be granted on practical completion, which contain provisions relating to the National Health Service (General Medical Services Premises Costs) (Wales) Directions 2004 issued pursuant to the National Health Service Act 1977 as substituted by the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006. · Real Estate

Darren Price

Darren is a Senior Associate in the Succession and Tax team in our Southampton office. Darren’s main areas of expertise includes dealing with and advising on:- Wills of all degrees of complexity Lasting Powers of Attorney Registration of Enduring Powers of Attorney Administration of Estates Applications for Grants of Representation Deeds of Variation Declaration of Trust for Co-owners of Property Inheritance Tax Advice and Planning Principal Private Residence Relief from Capital Gains Tax Asset Protection Trusts · Private Client

David Hill

David advises public and private sector organisations on all aspects of regulatory, policy and governance advice. David works with clients on issues of public law, governance and regulation with a particular focus on the health sector. David has advised organisations on key projects including primary legislation for the NHS, the supply and administration of medicines and organisational change. He is best known to clients for offering advice which is practical and reflects the political environment in which they operate. David works with organisations across the public, voluntary and private sectors. These range from national regulators to charitable providers of health services and health tech companies. He has acted as an adviser to NHS England for several years. · Regulatory

David Miles

David has acted as a Privy Council agent since 1993. He has conducted many cases from most of the Privy Council jurisdictions. In his capacity as a Privy Council agent, David conducts a wide variety of cases including professional negligence, clinical negligence, personal injury, company and commercial, probate and construction. · Commercial Litigation

Delme Griffiths

Delme is a Partner within our Regulatory Group, specialising in professional regulation. Delme’s practice also covers a range of commercial litigation and public law matters. Delme has acted for and against a large number of regulatory bodies. He has a particular expertise in the regulation of solicitors and the education, social care and healthcare sectors. He regularly presents cases before fitness to practise/professional misconduct panels and sits as legal advisor. Delme also has extensive experience in public law and judicial review. He has acted in numerous judicial review proceedings and regularly advises public sector bodies. He has provided training to public sector clients, including in relation to judicial review practice and procedure. Delme also advises on a wide range of commercial and corporate disputes including contractual disputes, insolvency matters and company/shareholder disputes, together with defamation and reputation management. He additionally has experience in acting for clients in the not-for-profit/charitable sector. · Regulatory

Dov Katz

Dov is a Partner at Blake Morgan LLP. Dov is a unique lawyer who, in addition to having over 25 years of experience in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions, heads up the firm’s thriving Sports law practice. In advising professional sportspeople, including high-profile Premier League and international football players and managers, Dov is the trusted adviser to many well-known individuals, across a myriad of sports, on all aspects of their careers and personal lives. As part of its Sports law practice, Blake Morgan also advises clubs on the full spectrum of legal services. Dov has been recognised as a Leading Individual in the Legal 500 spanning several years. Dov specialises in advising founders, owner-managed businesses and acquirers on complex corporate transactions. He has led on numerous high-profile IPOs, guiding advisers and issuers on admissions to AIM, reverse takeovers, introductions and secondary placings, and M&A deals, including cross border transactions and joint ventures. He is known for his strategic insight and is a valued adviser to businesses seeking to grow, restructure, or exit through M&A. Dov regularly provides strategic legal advice to founders throughout their business lifecycle, including the sale of their shares and exits in a variety of sectors. He also advises secured lenders, brokers and investors, including ultra-net worth individuals, on fundraisings and other forms of investment and growth capital, in the form of equity or debt financing, for public and private companies (particularly SMEs). · Corporate / M&A

Elisabeth Bell

Elisabeth is a Partner in our Reading office, specialising in the fields of IT, data protection and commercial contracts. Elisabeth is a versatile commercial lawyer, having extensive practical experience drafting, negotiating and advising on legal issues arising in connection with a wide range of commercial projects for private, public and third sectors. She has particular experience advising on IT and data protection issues, as well as extensive commercial experience in the health sectors. Drawing on secondments to a number of international companies, and the Commercial Directorate at the Department of Health, she has advised on significant outsourcing and procurement projects as well as a wide range of commercial business as usual contracts including software licensing; supply arrangements for goods and services; distribution and agency arrangements and public sector procurement projects. advises on IP issues for a range of public and private sector organisations. · IT

Elizabeth Carr

Chief operating officer of Blake Morgan. Previously managing parther at Morgan Cole, Elizabeth was head of the firm’s general insurance, health and regulatory practice. Elizabeth specialises in employers’ and public liability, product liability, motor liability, and professional indemnity claims and has published articles on personal injury and procedural matters. · Insurance

Emyr Lewis

Emyr covers public and constitutional law as well as heavyweight commercial transactions in the ICT and media sectors, public procurement and State Aid. Emyr has particular expertise in Welsh law and legislation, having advised public bodies and businesses about this emerging field since before the National Assembly was created. · Public Law

Eve Piffaretti

Eve is Head of Office in Wales and heads our Public Law Group. She acts for public, private and third sector organisations across the UK advising on public law and regulatory issues. Eve specialises in statutory interpretation, freedom of information, equality & human rights, safeguarding, mental health and mental capacity law. · Public Law

Gemma Spiceley

Gemma specialises in private company acquisitions and disposals, helping businesses to grow through acquisition, with particular experience in retail, healthcare and childcare sectors. Her main practice area is corporate transactions, which includes: Buying and selling shares in companies Buying and selling businesses and assets whether from or to companies, partnerships or sole traders; disposals and acquisitions Reorganising corporate, group and other business structures, including partnership agreements and shareholders’ agreements Advising generally on corporate administration · Corporate / M&A

Gillian McCue

Gillian is a Legal Director specialising in pensions and benefits advising on all employer and trustee pension scheme responsibilities. Gillian advises trustees and employers on all pensions issues including, regulatory compliance, corporate transactions and investment responsibilities on both public service and private sector pension schemes. She also advises on incentive arrangements for key executives and staff. · Pensions & Benefits

Gina Cheetham

Gina is an Associate in our Commercial and Charities Team based in the Thames Valley, with a particular focus on advising charities. Gina advises clients on a range of charity law, governance, regulatory and commercial issues. These include initial establishment of a charity and Charity Commission registration, constitutional matters, incorporation, merger and winding up. She also helps charity clients with legal and regulatory compliance including assisting clients to engage with Charity Commission reviews and inquiries. Her experience covers advising on grants and funding agreements, commercial sponsorship, collaboration arrangements and trading. Gina works with charities of all sizes, those operating nationally, internationally and locally, education providers (including universities, colleges of further education, academies and independent schools) and NHS charities. She has also undertaken commercial work for NHS Trusts. · Charities

Graham Miles

Graham is a Partner in the Professional Regulatory team based in the Cardiff Office. Graham specialises in regulatory law, predominantly in the area of fitness to practise. He also has considerable experience of advising regulatory bodies on issues of medical law, public law and human rights. He has experience of over 25 years acting for regulatory bodies in investigating and presenting fitness to cases involving nurses, midwives, pharmacists social care workers, solicitors and teachers. In the field of social care, on behalf of Social Care Wales (SCW), he presents cases involving social workers and other categories of social care workers before Interim Orders Panels and Fitness to Practise Panels. Graham also drafted SCW’s rules, including those relating to the conduct of investigations, interim orders, fitness to practise hearings and registration appeals. Graham also sits as Legal Adviser to Fitness to Practise Panels on behalf of the Teaching Regulation Agency in England and the Education Workforce Council (EWC) in Wales. He has advised both organisations in the drafting of procedural rules. On behalf of the EWC, he also drafted rule rules relating to registration and Indicative Sanctions Guidance. In the wider regulatory field, Graham has advised the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) since 1996. In that capacity he has continually provided advice on issues of medical and public law arising from the regulation of fertility treatment and research, including: acting as Legal Adviser to Statutory Approvals Committees relating to applications for testing of embryos for genetic and other conditions; defending judicial review challenges in a number of high profile cases, including successful defence in the Court of Appeal and House of Lords in R v Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, ex parte Josephine Quintavalle (on behalf of Comment of Reproductive Ethics) [2003] UKHL 13; drafting general and special directions for import and export of gametes and embryos and advising in relation to individual applications to ensure compliance with rights arising in EU law and under the Human Rights Act. advising in relation to numerous cases involving consent to storage or treatment issues and drafting statutory consent forms. Graham also advised the Human Tissue Authority in relation to a range of regulatory matters, including: drafting the HTA’s first guide to licensing; advising on the procedures for granting, varying and revoking licences; advising in relation to regulatory investigations. He also defends applications for Judicial Review on behalf of a professional regulatory bodies. Graham has acted for Social Care Wales (the regulatory body for social care workers in Wales, and its predecessor body since its establishment under the Care Standards Act 2000). He acts as Legal Adviser in fitness to practise cases on behalf of the Teaching Regulation Agency in England and on behalf of the Education Workforce Council in Wales. In the wider regulatory field, Graham has acted as an external legal adviser to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority since 1996. He also continues to act as an external legal adviser to the Human Tissue Authority. · Professional Regulation

Hannah Clipston

Partner Hannah has considerable experience in commercial litigation and the resolution of disputes for commercial organisations, particularly in the sport and leisure industry. Clients she has assisted include Greenwich Leisure Limited and Nuffield Health. She trained and worked in the City for five years and her practice covers High Court litigation, arbitration and mediation. · Commercial Litigation

Helen Bunker

Helen is Chair of Blake Morgan and a Partner who specialises in Private Law based in our London office. Formerly Managing Partner of Piper Smith Watton LLP and head of PSW’s Private Client department, Helen is a specialist Private Client lawyer who prides herself on the delivery of, often complex, technical information with sensitivity and understanding. Helen advises on a wide range of private client issues. She specialises in tax and estate planning, with particular emphasis on clients with multi-jurisdictional assets and/or issues. Helen acts for a broad spectrum of clients, both UK and non-UK domiciled. She advises private individuals, trustees and estates. She enjoys long-standing relationships with her clients, assisting in the necessary changes during key life-stages. Helen is also keen to assist the next generation understand the importance of obtaining specialist advice for long-term life planning. Initiated by Helen, PSW was the first London law firm to receive WIQS (Wills and Inheritance Quality Scheme) accreditation from the Law Society. · Private Client

Hollie Jones

Hollie is a Senior Associate in the Real Estate team within the Built Environment division based Hollie deals with all aspects of commercial property work with a particular focus on portfolio management for both landlords and corporate occupiers in the retail and leisure sectors as well as industrial, marine and office occupier clients. She also has extensive experience in dealing with acquisitions and disposals of commercial freehold and leasehold properties and general property management issues. · Real Estate

Iqval Dale

Iqval is an Associate in the Travel Insurance Team based in our Southampton office. Iqval has experience in a wide range of travel litigation claims. The team are instructed by both insurance companies and private clients. They represent clients involved in multi-jurisdictional disputes. Iqval has particular experience in dealing with claims brought under the Package Travel Regulations. · Travel Insurance

James Danks

James is a Partner in the Professional Regulatory team with nearly a decade of experience in advising regulators and respondents to disciplinary proceedings. James has extensive experience in advising healthcare regulators in relation to Fitness to Practice, disciplinary matters and investigations into the same including representations before Interim Order Committees in urgent matters. James has also considerable experience in representing Respondents before their regulators, including solicitors, legal executives and accountants, including negotiating settlements to avoid disciplinary proceedings. He has also been retained to draft responses to the Information Commissioner regarding DPA breaches and has advised corporate clients as to their responsibilities and repercussions of the Bribery Act 2012. James predominantly manages proceedings on behalf of the General Dental Council (GDC) including those matters before the Conduct, Health and Performance Committees. In addition, he is also involved with matters involving the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the General Pharmaceutical Society (GPhC). James is also retained by individuals for representation before the Health Care Professional Council (HCPC) and, in the past, by corporations including FTSE-100 companies for bespoke, tailored advice on a case-by-case basis. · Professional Regulation

James Davies

James is an experienced family lawyer who often acts in cases of high net value or complexity. He represents all parties experiencing relationship breakdown. James is a Partner and the Family Law Team Leader in our Thames Valley offices. James has specialised in family law since qualification in 2002 and practises primarily in the fields of divorce and financial matters consequent upon divorce. These have often included issues of variation, pension sharing (including armed forces pensions), maintenance and capitalisation and enforcement of such orders. His cases are frequently of significant value. He additionally acts in cases of unmarried families and is adept at dealing with cohabitation disputes including under TOLATA and Schedule 1 Children Act. He also acts in disputes regarding children and their arrangements, including those of complexity or with international issues such as permission to relocate the children’s home or abduction. James acts for all individuals including the owners of owner-managed businesses, company directors, senior executives, members of the professions, those in niche industries and on occasion he has acted for the Official Solicitor. · Family

James Egan

James is a real estate partner with experience of large-scale development work, joint ventures, and general property transactions in the private, public and third sectors. James handles many of the firm’s high value, high profile real estate transactions leading multi-disciplinary teams of solicitors. He has significant expertise in the development of office blocks, health campuses and primary care resource centres and currently acts for developers, tenants and purchasers in the procurement, acquisition, funding, development and subsequent lease arrangements and sales of such developments. He also leads teams advising large clients such as the Welsh Government, NHS Wales, charities and social landlords on portfolio management. · Real Estate

James Greig

James is head of the Wills, probate, tax and trusts team based in the Thames Valley. He specialises in trusts and high end probate and inheritance tax planning. James main areas of expertise are: Wills, probate and powers of attorney, Section 11 IHTA Maintenance Trusts, the creation, administration, restructuring and termination of Trusts, Will structuring and planning for business owners and Inheritance Tax planning. · Wills

James Vaughan

James is a Legal Director in the Corporate team, based primarily in our Cardiff office. James specialises in a wide range of corporate transactions including mergers, acquisitions and disposals, management buy-outs, private equity and venture capital investments, corporate restructurings, joint venture agreements and general corporate advisory and governance matters. James acts for various banks, funders, investors and shareholders, owner-managed businesses, SMEs and large corporates in respect of a wide variety of transactions. · Corporate / M&A

James Williams

James is a partner in the Corporate team in South Wales with extensive corporate transactional experience. James specialises in mergers, acquisitions and disposals, management buy-outs and buy-ins, private equity and venture capital transactions. He regularly advises clients on an array of general company law matters, such as corporate governance and compliance issues, reorganisations, joint venture and shareholder issues, including agreements and disputes. · Corporate / M&A

Jane Biddlecombe

Jane has over 20 years’ experience in advising on all aspects of employment law in a variety of sectors. She is also a business immigration specialist. Jane advises on a wide range of employment issues including disciplinary issues and dismissals; performance management; absence management and capability issues; handling grievances; discrimination; redundancies and business re-organisations; post-termination restrictions; employment issues relating to acquisitions and disposals including TUPE; drafting employment contracts and policies/procedures; settlement agreements, including Director exits; and Employment Tribunal claims, including representation at hearings. Jane also specialises in all aspects of business immigration law including obtaining a sponsor licence to employ Skilled Workers in the UK and advising on compliance with sponsor duties. She advises clients on obtaining Certificates of Sponsorship and visas for employees including Skilled Worker visas, Global Business Mobility visas (intra-group transfers of senior or specialist workers), Temporary Worker visas and Business Visitor visas. Jane advises a variety of businesses ranging from large international companies to small and medium sized companies in both the private and public sectors. · Employment

Jasmin Taylor

Jasmin is a corporate law specialist, advising clients on various corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions and group restructurings. Jasmin deals with a broad range of corporate matters, including acquisitions, disposals, shareholder agreements and restructuring together with general corporate advisory work for a wide variety of clients. Jasmin acts for owner-managed businesses, SMEs and larger corporates across various sectors. She also assists individual shareholders and directors. · Corporate / M&A

Jennifer Williamson

Jennifer has great success helping people deal with changes in their families, whether advance planning to avoid uncertainty, or resolving problems following a relationship breakdown. Divorce or dissolve their civil partnership with dignity Understand the financial issues arising in all family-law circumstances (including unmarried separation, future planning – pre/post nuptial agreements, upon divorce/dissolution, after a lengthy separation) Put enforceable documentation in place to deal with current and future financial claims Resolve disagreements about children: who they should live or spend time with, where they should live (including whether here or abroad), specific issues about other matters such as education Choose the most suitable approach to resolve their matters: supporting mediation, solicitor negotiations, a collaborative approach, or court proceedings. · Family / Matrimonial

Joanna Corbett-Simmons

Joanna is a Senior Associate in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution team in Cardiff specialising in corporate and shareholder disputes, professional negligence and contentious intellectual property matters. Joanna has a broad range of experience in general commercial and civil claims and specialist knowledge of post-completion disputes (principally claims for breach of warranty, restrictive covenants and expert determinations of deferred consideration payments), shareholder disputes, professional negligence (principally against legal or financial advisors) and contentious intellectual property matters (including trademark and design right infringement). · Litigation

Joanna Rees

Jo has worked closely with developers, government and public sector teams and contractors dealing with all aspects of construction projects from project tender through the build phase, managing risk issues and resolving disputes by ADR, adjudication, mediation or litigation when required. · Construction

Joanne Davies

Jo is a partner in the Employment, Pensions and Immigration group. She provides general employment advice from our Cardiff office. Jo’s work includes maternity rights, discrimination issues, sickness absence, non-performance, gross misconduct and new areas of employment law. She also specialises in advising on employment issues arising out of large scale procurements, outsourcing, commercial contracts, mergers, acquisitions and post-acquisition integration and is an expert on advising in relation to TUPE issues. · Employment

Joanne Thompson

Joanne is a Partner in the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Team based in Cardiff, specialising in procurement challenges, public inquiries, commercial and contractual disputes, post-completion and corporate disputes, professional negligence and partnership disputes. · Litigation

Joe Cowles

Joe is a Legal Director in our Dispute Resolution Division, who specialises in all aspects of commercial litigation and arbitration. Joe has considerable experience with appeals to the Privy Council, and he regularly acts as Privy Council agent for overseas attorneys. Joe has acted on a broad range of commercial disputes, including contractual claims, civil fraud, director and shareholder disputes, and insolvency and property related litigation. Joe also advises on reputation management, and has acted in a number of defamation claims on both the claimant and the defendant side. His practice also consists of advising overseas attorneys on appeals to the Privy Council. Joe represents corporate clients, owner-managed businesses, individuals and overseas attorneys. · Litigation

John Shallcross

John is an experienced real estate lawyer with a background in agricultural and landed estate property work. He has developed a specialisation as an adviser on the stamp duty land tax implications of property transactions and now spends most of his time in this area. His focus is now on SDLT (Stamp Duty Land Tax) -particularly the 3% surcharge for additional residential properties and SDLT on leases and development transactions. He is a regular commentator in the media and contributor to the Zoopla web page on the 3% surcharge here, which explains the outline of the surcharge and has links to other resources such as the legislation and HMRC guidance. John also produces a number of SDLT guides online, as well as stamp duty case notes, intended as short pieces on quirky SDLT issues which arise from day to day. These might be of interest to a variety of people, but are mainly aimed at other property lawyers. An increasing part of John’s practice is acting on a consultancy basis to support conveyancers who advise on SDLT, but sometimes need specialist input. John’s clients are mainly those needing SDLT advice, including home buyers and those dealing with complex property transactions. · Real Estate

Jonathan Sleep

Jonathan is a Senior Associate in the Succession and Tax team in our Southampton Office. Jonathan's main areas of expertise includes dealing with and advising on: The administration of high value estates, including for business owners and farmers Advising on inheritance tax and capital gains tax planning Preparation of Wills, bespoke to his client’s individual requirements Lasting Powers of Attorney Creation of Trusts · Private Client

Justin Weare

Justin is a partner in the Commercial Litigation team in the London office. He has wide experience of complex disputes in national and overseas courts and in arbitration (including under ICC, LCIA, LMAA and UNCITRAL rules). His broad practice includes, in particular, shareholder / joint venture, company, contractual, civil fraud, offshore and energy disputes. Justin acts for the broad range of clients who become involved in commercial disputes, including public and private companies, company directors, funds, investment managers, entrepreneurs, and high net-worth individuals. · Litigation

Karen Foong

Karen is an Associate in the Corporate team based in our London office. Karen’s experience includes advising companies on a wide range of corporate transactions such as mergers and acquisitions, shareholder agreements, corporate reorganisations, and corporate advisory work. Prior to joining Blake Morgan, Karen was practising as a corporate lawyer in Brunei Darussalam with a top City boutique firm. Karen is triple-qualified, admitted in England and Wales, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam. · Corporate / M&A

Kath Shimmin

Kath is a Partner in the Banking & Finance Team. She has over 25 years’ experience in the finance sector, covering a huge range of client and transaction types. · Banking & Finance

Katherine Ettridge

Katherine is a Senior Associate who works alongside a strong team handling a varied caseload encompassing all types of travel claims in multiple jurisdictions. Katherine join the Travel team in September 2015. Prior to that Katherine qualified as a Solicitor in September 2015 having done seats in Succession and Tax, Clinical Negligence and Family Law. She also spent 6 months on secondment with the General Dental Council. · Travel

Kathryn Woodward

Kathryn is a Senior Associate solicitor and Notary Public, who specialises in Wills, inheritance tax planning and high net worth estates. Kathryn advises and prepares Deeds of Variation. Inheritance tax planning post death. She is a member of the Solicitors for the Elderly and specialising in elderly client matters, to include preparation of lasting powers of attorney and applications to the Court of Protection. She is the Secretary for the Thames Valley Branch of STEP and also acts for the trustees of a local Charity on a pro-bono basis. · Wills & Probate

Laura Bennett

Laura provides advice where a dispute has arisen between married and unmarried couples, both during a relationship and in the event of a separation. Laura is an experienced negotiator and advises clients through alternative dispute resolution forums in addition to traditional litigation. She also represents parents in cases where child arrangements are disputed. Laura's main areas of practice include: Divorce or dissolution of civil partnership; Financial provision upon divorce or separation, acting for both married and unmarried couples; Experienced in managing cases involving business assets, foreign properties, pensions, family trusts and insolvency; Future planning – preparation and negotiation of pre- & post-nuptial agreements and cohabitation agreements; Child arrangements, including cases of disputed paternity, international and domestic relocation, disputed education arrangements in both state and private sectors and disputed arrangements for foreign travel; Experienced in advising clients through mediation, solicitor-led negotiation, arbitration or Court proceedings. Laura advises clients from a wide range of professional backgrounds, in addition to small to medium business owners and home makers. She has particular experience of cases involving doctors, surgeons, members of the clergy, academics, teachers and individuals within the banking and aviation sectors. Laura also has interest in cases where mental well-being is an issue. She has significant experience in difficult cases involving abusive and narcissistic behaviour, mental ill-health and addiction. · Family

Laura Richards

Laura is a Senior Associate in the Succession & Tax Team. She deals with a wide range of clients in relation to their estate planning and has particular expertise in relation to trusts. Laura assists clients in preparing wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney, inheritance tax planning advice and in relation to the preparation, dissolution and administration of trusts. She has particular experience in advising trustees and beneficiaries of trusts as well as individual clients. · Private Client

Laura Sheratt

Laura is a Senior Associate in our Commercial Services team based in the Thames Valley, with a particular focus on advising charities. Laura advises clients on a range of commercial, governance and regulatory issues including charitable incorporation, registration and dissolution, charitable mergers and acquisitions, academy conversions and transfers, grants, sponsorship and collaboration agreements, and working with the Charity Commission, the DfE and other regulators in the sector. Laura regularly advises charities, public bodies, academies and schools, social enterprises, registered societies and other not-for-profit organisations. · Charities

Lee Fisher

Lee is a partner in our Commercial Litigation team based in Cardiff and heads the firms Intellectual Property practice in Wales. Lee has gained a wide range of experience in commercial disputes and in particular those involving a high degree of complexity or requiring urgent pre-emptive relief. He has significant experience of contractual claims, shareholder disputes, post-completion disputes and professional negligence claims. · Commercial Litigation

Lisa Davies

Lisa is respected by her colleagues, other professionals and clients alike for her professional and exacting approach, as well as for the breadth of her technical knowledge and ability to find elegant and effective solutions to clients’ problems. Lisa specialises in the full range of Private Client services, including the administration of estates, advising on inheritance tax, Will planning, trusts and Lasting Powers of Attorney. She is a fully accredited member of Solicitors for the Elderly. · Private Client

Louis Howlett

Louis is an Associate in our Employment Law team. He advises on a wide range of issues, both contentious and non-contentious. Louis advises employer clients across a range of sectors and industries on the full spectrum of employment law issues. He regularly assists in: defending employment tribunal claims; advising on internal processes, such as disciplinary, grievance and performance issues; drafting employment contracts and staff handbooks; redundancies; and enforcement of restrictive covenants. Employer organisations in both the private and public sectors, ranging from large businesses to small and medium enterprises as well as charity/third sector employers. · Employment

Louise Howells

Louise is an experienced commercial property lawyer based in our Cardiff office acting for many of the firm’s commercial clients. Louise’s work includes acting for Housing Associations in the acquisition, disposal and refinancing of properties where she has evolved a strong reputation as a trusted advisor. Louise has developed an expertise in acting for tenants in the management of a portfolio of retail properties as well as in dealings with public houses. She acts regularly for an acquisitive PLC in the purchase of companies with key property components and represents companies in the health care sector involved in the acquisition and development of portfolios of new medical centres for GP’s. Louise has provided advice and assistance to developers bringing forward large sites for development and is expert in the many dimensions of commercial property transactions and land based legal issues. · Real Estate