Lawyers in Scotland

Jacqueline Cook

Jacqueline acts for a wide range of clients on contentious and non-contentious planning law matters. She has experience in all UK jurisdictions and routinely advises on consenting strategy, statutory and commercial contracts, appeals and judicial review. Her work includes energy infrastructure, residential and commercial development, landmark retail, leisure and mixed-use developments and specialist aspects of planning, such as heritage assets and environmental impact assessment. Jacqueline is ranked in Chambers and the Legal 500 directories. She is Vice-Chair of the Scottish Property Federation’s Planning & Development Committee (part of the British Property Federation) and regularly contributes to “Scottish Planning & Environmental Law” (the planning law journal of record in Scotland).

Burges Salmon LLP

Jade Price

Jade is a Senior Associate who joined Shoosmiths' corporate division in 2022 from a national firm and advises on a wide variety of corporate matters including mergers and acquisitions, business reorganisations and investments. She has broad, cross-sector deal experience, with particularly strong credentials in the healthcare (including the dental and care industries) and professional/financial service arenas, and works with clients based in the UK and overseas.

Shoosmiths

Jae Fassam

Partner

CMS

James Cullingworth

James is a Principal Associate in the London real estate team and advises on all aspects of commercial property, including, acquisitions, disposals, lettings and development. James acts for landlords, tenants and developers in a variety of sectors and his recent experience includes: acting for major institutional landlords in relation to industrial, office and retail properties across the UK; acting for a healthcare client on acquisitions, sale and leasebacks and the development of medical centres; and acting on a joint venture for a 160k square metre development in Cheshire.

Shoosmiths

Jamie McIntosh

Jamie is head of corporate restructuring and insolvency in Scotland. He is a highly experienced partner, specialsing in all aspects of insolvency, turnaround and corporate restructuring, with particular experience on real estate-related restructurings. Jamie is qualified in Scotland and England and Wales and frequently deals with cross-border connections. Jamie acts for major banks and funds on restructuring and recovery work, while maintaining a strong network of contacts and intermediaries, including insolvency practitioners and corporate lenders. Jamie maintains a strong reputation in the market, recently acting for Bank of Ireland in connection with the hostile administration of a group of care homes. Clients single Jamie out for his ‘availability, approachability, flexibility and expertise’.

Addleshaw Goddard

Jamie O’Neill

DLA Piper

Janette Speed

Janette advises on a full range of residential and commercial development transactions for national housebuilders, property funds, student accommodation providers and Affordable Housing clients in Scotland. She is particularly experienced in complex, large scale mixed use urban developments and strategic site assembly acquisitions. She also has extensive experience in project management across public/private sector initiatives as well as overseeing Scottish plots and disposals team for national clients in Scotland and her approach is seen by her clients as proactive, client focused and practical. Janette is a ranked lawyer and Chambers Directory reports that clients consider her "very proactive and conscientious". They also praise her ability to tune into client relationships, saying: "she is responsive and sensitive to our needs, anticipating them rather than waiting for us to get back to her." She is also described as “very commercial” and “pleasant to deal with.” Recent projects on which she has advised include: Acting in a multi-million pound new housing development at the former Hunter’s Tryst Primary School in Edinburgh for property fund PfP Capital through the site’s purchase and forward funded development. It is one of the first developments delivered as part of a housing investment fund set up last year by the Scottish Government and Places for People Group and its aim is to provide around 1,000 mid-market rent homes across the country. She is currently acting on another 3 sites across the central belt including Millerhill in Edinburgh where the fund acquired 2 parcels of land from a well-known contractor/housebuilder and construction is already underway. Acting for Bellway in the acquisition of a major development site at Lasswade, Edinburgh. This acquisition involved 3 firms of solicitors, 4 different overage provisions (incorporating a worked example for a Section 75 overage payment such was its complexity), extensive provisions relating to liability for planning conditions and Section 75 Agreement obligations, numerous bespoke provisions in the missives, various non-standard title issues, a title indemnity policy for extensive reservation and mining issues, detailed and extensive Collaboration Agreement with Miller Homes to inter alia govern how the transaction and development itself would be managed and bespoke Deed of Conditions provisions allowing the seller’s land to be brought into the ambit of the Deed of Conditions in the event that the seller does not get planning permission for development on that area. The deal also included licences for works for site investigation, various reliance letters and dealing with deferral of LBTT in respect of the overages. This deal was strategically important for our client as it was the first site to be acquired by the newly formed East of Scotland Division of our clients.

Shoosmiths

Jen Paton

Jen is a legal director in our corporate division, based in the Edinburgh office. She has extensive experience advising a range of clients, including investors, large corporates, management teams and owner managers on domestic and cross border venture capital, private equity and M&A transactions. Jen acts for clients across a wide range of sectors and has developed particular expertise working with businesses in the healthcare, energy, hospitality, transport and technology sectors. Jen's transactional experience includes advising: an AIM listed company on the sale of its interest in a fixed wireless broadband provider to a Canadian headquartered private equity firm, in a deal that valued the business at up to £92.1 million international hotelier Leonardo Hotels Europe on the acquisition of Morrison Street Hotel Limited and its Edinburgh city centre hotel BGF on its £9m investment into Localised Group and Retail Services Group (both controlled by Peter Jones CBE) national commercial vehicle hire business MV Commercial Ltd on various share and business purchases across the UK the sellers on the £40m sale of digital marketing business Realise to St Ives plc home care provider Carewatch Care Services on various acquisitions and disposals across the UK

Shoosmiths

Jennifer Mellor

Jennifer is a director in the funds and financial regulation team. She has worked both in private practice and in-house at financial institutions, including as Head of Legal. She has considerable experience advising clients across the funds and financial services sector, including asset managers, financial institutions, investment funds, pension schemes (both public and private sector) and family offices. Jennifer specialises in investment funds, the use of limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships in corporate structures and financial services regulatory work, with a particular focus on private funds. She regularly advises on the establishment and operation of, and investment in, alternative investment funds across different asset classes (including private equity, infrastructure, and forestry) together with the regulatory aspects of such transactions.

Burges Salmon LLP

Jennifer Talbot

DLA Piper

Jennifer Wright

Jen is a Principal Associate employment lawyer with over 8 years experience advising clients on all aspects of employment law. Jen qualified as a solicitor in Scotland in 2011 and started her career in house, working for Scotland's largest local authority for 6 years before moving into private practice and joining Shoosmiths in August 2020. She is based within the Scottish employment team. In her career she has represented clients at Employment Tribunals throughout the UK and also in the Employment Appeal Tribunal, conducting all of her own advocacy. She also provides day to day employment advice and support to HR teams on a range of matters including disciplinaries, grievances and absences. In addition, she provides corporate support to our corporate teams in a commercial and solution driven fashion.

Shoosmiths

Jenny Allan

Partner

CMS

Joanna Waddell

Of Counsel

CMS

John McKinlay

DLA Piper

John Shirley-Rakhra

John is a Senior Associate in the Litigation Services team and works closely with a range of clients, advising on a wide variety of contentious commercial matters including international arbitrations, Commercial Court and Chancery Court proceedings. John qualified as a solicitor at Shoosmiths in 2018 having trained with the firm and has recently completed an eight month secondment with The Royal Bank of Scotland’s Litigation & Investigations team. Before pursuing a legal career, John studied Philosophy and Politics at Cambridge, qualified as a teacher and subsequently worked as a lobbyist running communications campaigns for a variety of residential and commercial developments in the south of England. Notable recent experience includes: advising on a $500 million corporate dispute relating to the ownership of a large games developer; managing a €1 million claim issued in Spain regarding the historical assignment and sale of debts; advising on a £5 million insurance dispute about utilisation of funds held at Lloyds of London; acting in Commercial Court proceedings in a dispute involving the provision of services internationally; advising on English law aspects of insurance proceedings taking place in the US; and representing the claimant in a Commercial Court claim regarding defects in industrial machinery.

Shoosmiths

John Waller

Of Counsel

CMS

Jonathan Smith

Jonathan is a Principal Associate acting for a variety of clients from including property investment companies, institutional landlords and developers, and has experience in a wide range of commercial property work including individual and portfolio sales and purchases, the assembly, acquisition and financing of development sites, retail and office units, landlord and tenant transactions and assisting on the property aspect of corporate restructure and re-financing. Recent experience includes: advising private sector companies in relation to purchases and sales of high value multi-let properties; assisting in the re-organisation of a large company dealing with the transfer, leasing and options for leases for multiple sites; experience on the property aspects of corporate restructuring and refinancing, and on the refinancing of a large healthcare client; experience acting for a residential property developer in the acquiring of the plots of land for the development and the entering into of option agreements for the future acquisition of expansion land; assisting with the property elements of the application and examination process for a Development Consent Order including advising on land assembly and the acquisition of the different plots of land required for the development; advising on the asset management work for large shopping centres and retail developments, including the drafting and negotiation of leases and agreement for leases and the day-to-day management; and general asset management work acting for both landlord and tenant including pre-lets, reversionary and supplemental leases and re-organisations.

Shoosmiths

Jordan Hollingsworth

Jordan is a Senior Associate in our corporate department advising on all aspects of corporate law, including venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, joint ventures, shareholders' agreements, investments and general corporate advisory mandates. Jordan works with a variety of clients including private companies, venture capital investors, management teams and owner managed businesses. Jordan completed her degree in Law with French at The University of Sheffield and LPC LLM at the University of Law in Birmingham.

Shoosmiths

Judith Aldersey-Williams

Of Counsel

CMS

Karla Ritchie

Senior Associate

CMS

Kate Darracott

Partner

CMS

Kate Hodgkiss

DLA Piper

Kate McGoverne

Kate is a Principal Associate and joined Shoosmiths’ real estate team in April 2018. Prior to that Kate worked at Irwin Mitchell and Nabarro since qualification in 2008. Kate’s experience includes all areas of landlord and tenant work with a particular emphasis in retail and industrial estates, acquisitions and disposals and asset management. Kate also advises on strategic land transactions, site assembly and disposal, together with corporate real estate and secured lending transactions. Kate has considerable experience of working for both public and private sector clients including Hallam Land Management Limited, Thorntons Limited, TRG and The Gym Limited. Kate is recognised as an excellent technical lawyer with the ability to deliver client-led results in a “no-nonsense” manner. Kate is based primarily in Sheffield

Shoosmiths

Kathryn Nolin

Associate

CMS