Lawyers in Scotland

Steven Harte

Steven is an experienced employment law specialist. He provides advice on all aspects of employment law/HR and represents both employers and employees in the employment tribunals. An experienced litigator, Steven regularly appears in the employment tribunals and has an excellent track record. Steven also has experience in football regulatory matters and the Commercial Agents Regulations. His key expertise includes: -Employment Tribunals (claimants and respondents) -Settlement agreements -Disciplinary matters -Absence and performance management -Redundancy handling -TUPE transfers -Discrimination -Maternity and paternity rights -Whistleblowing -Data protection/GDPR -Commercial agents regulations -Football regulatory matters Steven is known for his professional but down to earth approach and, in particular, his focus on achieving practical as well as legal solutions for clients. He was also a non-executive director of a mental health charity for a number of years. Prior to becoming a solicitor, Steven worked for ACAS and is also a former VAT inspector.

Weightmans LLP

Stewart Maciver

Stewart is a partner in the Firm's Infrastructure practice. He has extensive experience of acting on infrastructure and project finance transactions, including PFI/PPP projects, energy/utilities projects and government concession arrangements. He has advised across a range of sectors, including health, education, roads, railways, waste management, water, renewable energy and telecoms, and has acted for private sector participants, public authorities and funding institutions. Stewart has more than 20 years of experience in his field and is qualified to practice in Scotland, and in England and Wales. Stewart is recognized for his work in the Legal 500 directory.

Addleshaw Goddard

Stuart Clubb

Stuart is an experienced commercial litigator and leads the dispute resolution team in Edinburgh. He specialises in the resolution of commercial disputes, with significant expertise in corporate, contractual, insolvency and property related disputes. Stuart is also a Solicitor Advocate with rights of audience in the Court of Session and the Supreme Court and has considerable experience acting for and appearing on behalf of clients in the Court of Session, the Sheriff Court, the Land Court and the Lands Tribunal. Stuart also regularly advises insolvency practitioners, companies and directors on all aspects of insolvency law and has acted on a number of high profile insolvency cases. In November 2015, Stuart delivered the legal update presentation for the fifth year running at the leading Scottish insolvency conference run by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. His recent experience includes: Acting on behalf of liquidators in an application to the court for directions on the previously untested question of whether liquidators in Scotland have the power to disclaim onerous property. Representing a global supplier of diving and subsea equipment in the successful resolution of a multi-million pound contractual dispute at mediation. Acting on behalf of the purchasers of a company in a substantial damages claim for breach of warranty in respect of the seller’s failure to disclose, under the terms of a Sale and Purchase Agreement, information regarding the supply of defective products. Representing a high net worth private investor in a successful claim for £1.1million under a put and call option agreement. The claim involved the calling up of a standard security granted as security for the debt, and the defence of a petition for suspension and interdict in relation to that calling up process.

Shoosmiths

Stuart Fitzsimmons

Stuart is a partner in the Banking & Finance practice, advising on transactions across the UK and internationally. He has specific experience in advising on all types of corporate banking transactions including International Acquisition/Leveraged Finance, Oil & Gas Financing, Renewable Energy Financing, Project Finance, Technology and Growth Finance, Real Estate Investment and Development Financing, Joint Venture Funding, and General Corporate Debt. Stuart's experience in acting for a wide range of banks, other funders and investors, and corporate borrowers, as well as having completed secondments in the banking industry, gives him a detailed knowledge of clients' preferred requirements and an ability to provide clear, commercial and proactive advice. Stuart has recently acted for Aviva, Bank of America, Bank of Scotland, Barclays Bank, Clydesdale Bank, DVB Bank, HSBC Bank, Lloyds Bank, a leading international bank, Santander, The Scottish Loan Fund, Silicon Valley Bank, Aberdeen Asset Management plc, Aberdeen Private Equity Fund, AGR Group, Baxters Food Group, Biofilm Limited, British Polythene Industries plc, Burn Stewart Distillers, The Combination of Rothes Distillers, Devro plc, Edinburgh Investment Trust plc, The Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group, The Edrington Group, Maven Capital Partners, Muirden Energy, Robert Wiseman Dairies, Robertson Group, Scottish Equity Partners, and Scottish Enterprise.

Dentons

Stuart McMillan

Stuart is a finance lawyer, based in the firm's Edinburgh office. He is dual qualified in Scotland and in England and Wales and has extensive experience working for funders, sponsors and public authorities on project and development finance deals in the UK and overseas. Stuart has acted on the introduction of some of the most innovative financing models in the UK market including the 'aggregator' and 'bank/bond hybrid' models. Stuart also has extensive experience in real estate finance and asset-based lending matters.

Burges Salmon LLP

Stuart Murdoch

DLA Piper

Susan Kelly

Susan joined Dentons (formerly MMS) in 1991 and was assumed as a Partner on 1 December 1998. Susan works with firm's Banking & Finance department and handles a wide range of banking and finance work across the UK and Europe including acquisition finance, property finance, plc/corporate lending and Pan-European finance.

Dentons

Sylwena Sempa

Sylwena is a Principal Associate within our Commercial Litigation team, since qualification in 2005 she has acted for a diverse range of clients. Her experience covers a wide range of general commercial disputes as well as niche areas of pensions’ litigation, High Court employment cases and phone hacking litigation. Sylwena tailors her approach to complement her client’s requirements and offers pragmatic and commercially astute advice from the outset. She recognises the importance of balancing commercial realities against legal principles and therefore seeks to understand the commercial context of each dispute in order to frame her advice on tactics and strategy generally. Examples of Sylwena’s work include: acting for an employer in relation to its successful Part 8 claim for declaratory relief that the transfer of members within a sectionalised scheme from the DB to DC section would not trigger a potential multi-million pound section 75 debt; acting in a £1.74m breach of trust claim against a solicitor's firm following a third party's fraudulent misappropriation of loan funds; acting for a leading provider of lease finance products in connection with its multi-million pound claim for damages following systemic breaches of multiple contracts; advising on the defence of a High Court employment restrictive covenant/interim injunction case, which commenced with us successfully defending the application for springboard injunctive relief assisted by extensive supporting forensic evidence. The matter subsequently settled on confidential terms; acting for various celebrities in relation to their phone-hacking claims; acting for an Independent Trustee of a pension scheme in relation to its High Court application for declaratory relief concerning the validity or otherwise of the scheme's purported winding up, cessation of accruals, equalisation and the validity of the Actuary's GN19 certificate; and successfully using alternative dispute resolution to achieve commercially attractive settlements.

Shoosmiths

Tim Cooper

Tim specialises in all aspects of insolvency, restructuring and recovery across a wide range of industry sectors. His experience includes multi-disciplinary corporate restructuring, management and bank-led distressed turnaround, restructuring and distressed acquisitions. Tim has particular experience in the asset-based lending sector, distressed refinance and pension scheme-related distressed restructurings. Career highlights include: in 2013, Tim led a multi-discipline, firm-wide team advising on the high-profile liquidation of The Scottish Coal Company; in 2014, Tim advised the administrators of Ferguson Shipbuilders. More recently Tim has acted for the administrators on the trading administration of Penman Engineering Ltd.

Addleshaw Goddard

Tom Speirs

Tom specialises in banking and finance work and acts for all of the major banks in the UK on transactional and advisory work. He has worked on a large number of corporate and banking projects with a broad range of capital values. He has been instrumental in ensuring the firm remains on the panels of most UK banks as well as a number of European and other overseas banks. Tom is regarded by a number of lenders as a market leader in financing businesses which provide frontline and associated healthcare support services. His substantial catalogue of completed transactions in this field is testament to his experience and quality of service.

Addleshaw Goddard

Tony Holloran

DLA Piper

Vaïk Müller

Partner

CMS

Victoria Simpson

Vicky is a senior associate with experience in a broad range of real estate work including property finance, leasing and investment acquisitions/disposals. Her recent project experience includes: - representing high street retailers on acquisition, disposal and management matters relating to property in Scotland - Acting for a major international retailer in taking office space above an existing store; - Advising a Lender on the Scottish Aspects of the property finance of an European property portfolio; - Advising on the Scottish aspects of a multi property national leasing project;

Shoosmiths

Wayne Gibbard

Wayne leads the automotive finance practice for Shoosmiths. Prior to joining Shoosmiths, Wayne spent 25 years working in-house in senior and executive roles at international, blue chip financial services and automotive businesses including: Volkswagen Financial Services; GMAC; NatWest (including Lombard and Invoice Finance), Cisco and Santander Consumer UK. Wayne has extensive experience of scoping, leading and implementing domestic and international projects, particularly focused on strategically important restructuring and regulatory change. He specialises in regulated and unregulated asset finance, consumer credit and retail finance, with a depth of experience in motor finance. Wayne is also recognised for his experience in regulatory compliance and oversight activity. Competences Motor Finance (including wholesale funding), Consumer Credit, Leasing, Financial Services regulation and compliance, joint venture agreements and white label partnerships (motor). Selected Projects Drafting and review of consumer credit agreements. FCA applications and variations to permissions. Implementation of online motor finance distribution models. (various manufacturers and finance providers). Establishment and set-up of joint venture arrangements and companies.

Shoosmiths LLP

Wendy Nicolson

Partner

CMS

Will Anderson

Partner

CMS

William Reid

Shoosmiths