Broadfield Law UK LLP — England

About

Broadfield UK is a law firm that serves mid-market clients, with deep expertise in multiple practice areas and a strong commitment to client service. As trusted advisors in navigating complexities of law, the Broadfield team is comprised of entrepreneurial experts and leaders who provide legal strategies and solutions tailored to meet the unique needs of each client. With offices currently in London, Reading and Southampton, Broadfield UK has a team of over 420 experts dedicated to building lasting client relationships grounded intrust and integrity. In 2024, Broadfield UK became the founding member firm of Broadfield. Its lawyers provide a comprehensive legal service to clients across the UK, including private and publicly listed companies. The firm regularly advises shareholders, boards, and individual directors, in addition to public companies (both Main Market and AIM). - Principal areas of work Agriculture: The firm has a strong practice in acting for individuals and institutions engaged in farming and the ownership of agricultural land and landed estates. The agricultural law team includes over 20 specialists in property, rural planning law, business partnerships, company law, tax and trusts, litigation and family issues. All members of the team have a background related to, or a keen interest in, the countryside and rural issues and have acted on some of the highest value transactions, both for UK individuals and foreign investors. Charities and not-for-profit: In the third sector, the firm’s award-winning charities and not-for-profit team remains a leader in its field, acting for both UK and international charity clients. The team has vast experience of working both with and within the charities sector. Acting for over 450 national and international charities (and a wide range of other civil society organisations and social enterprises), the team has specialist expertise in particularly complex or unusual matters. In addition to the core team, there are charities and social enterprise specialists across departments including real estate, intellectual property, employment, corporate and commercial, public affairs and dispute resolution. Contentious trusts and estates: As a specialist team dedicated in this area, work is largely international and the team handles a wide range of trustee difficulties from issues with HMRC, beneficiary disputes, investment losses, administrative difficulties, and allegations of corrupt purposes. The team is also renowned for its advice on all types of private onshore and offshore wealth disputes advising on contested wills and trusts, charity legacies and inheritance tax claims. Clients include individuals, families, trustees, beneficiaries and charities. Corporate and commercial services: The corporate team offers advice at every stage of a business’ lifecycle and advise on protecting their assets and achieving their long-term strategy. The core expertise of the team include takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, Main Market and AIM listings, corporate finance and capital reorganisations / restructurings. Clients range from entrepreneurs and SMEs, to larger corporate organisations with an in-house team and both AIM and main market listed companies. Development planning: The specialist development planning team at Broadfield UK are very experienced in acting for house builders and other developers on various projects, including affordable housing schemes. They also deal with judicial review proceedings, as well as village green, highways CIL work, planning appeals and planning prosecutions and advise on dealing with Assets of Community Value. With a strong network, the team also work with the region’s largest developer clients, national housebuilders, landowners, property investors, agents, lenders and funders, and have strong relationships with major Housing Associations. Restructuring and insolvency: The firm has a leading restructuring and insolvency team with a comprehensive network of banks, financiers, brokers and insolvency professions dedicated to resolving stressed and distressed situations. In addition to working within the legal regulatory framework, the team also provides a commercial overview and take a trusted advisory role. Services include advice on business contingency and exit planning, business restructuring and turnaround strategy, acquisition of distressed business advice, debt and asset recovery, debt reconstruction and consolidation, directors duties and retained board advisory and disqualification proceedings, insolvency and Company Act offences and regulatory advice, liquidations, receiverships, administrations, voluntary arrangements and bankruptcies and pensions restructuring. Employment and immigration: The firm’s specialist employment team acts for employers across a number of sectors, as well as acting for individuals. Work undertaken covers all types of employment advice, with particular expertise in dealing with complex business restructuring, transfers under TUPE and COSOP and defending large value and complex tribunal claims. The team also has a significant practice advising senior executives on high value exit packages, team moves and restrictive covenant issues. Working closely with the firm’s pensions department, the group also advises on employee benefits. The immigration team at Broadfield UK advises on a range of matters including assisting UK businesses on filling specialist skill gaps within the UK with non-UK experts / professionals, UK based foreign corporates with their global mobility functions, and providing specialist immigration advice to inwardly investing businesses. The firm’s immigration practice is built upon specialist immigration knowledge firmly anchored by a multi-disciplinary coordination with other teams. Its wide-ranging client sectors include professional services, private medical provers and charities. Family and matrimonial: The family and matrimonial team at Broadfield UK is highly regarded for advising high net worth clients with international assets, often involving associated disputes over jurisdiction for divorce cases or family trusts. They also act in complex cases concerning business interests, children disputes, multiple properties, pre and post separation property and inherited assets. The team includes a number of qualified mediators and trained collaborative lawyers to provide a full service to clients and they are also actively involved with Resolution, the national organisation for family lawyers. Government and infrastructure: The market-leading team work on some of the biggest and most important infrastructure and regeneration projects in the UK and advise on a wide range of planning, environmental, compulsory purchase, real estate, regulatory / public law, public affairs and parliamentary issues. Clients include Luton Airport, National Grid, Crown Commercial Service, Transport for London, Peel Group, National Audit Office, London Resort Holdings Company, Transport for Greater Manchester, Health and Care Professions Council and Midlands Connect. The team also includes four Parliamentary Agents. Intellectual property: The dedicated IP team has specialist expertise in managing brands for charities, not-for-profits and social enterprises, certification and collective marks for trade and professional associations and regulators, Protected Geographical Indicators (PGIs) and Protected Designations of Origin (PDOs), patents in standards, and designs. The team advises companies and individuals on all levels of the retail, manufacturing, technology, creative, IT and entertainment sectors on intellectual property as well as licensing, commercial agreements, social, employment and business structures. The team also holds a strong network of international legal affiliates. Litigation: The firm’s commercial litigation practice ranges from shareholder disputes to financial litigation to complex IT litigation and its client base includes AIM listed companies, with particular specialism in financial product mis-selling. The team also has in-depth experience of litigating for central Government, acting for defendant public bodies that are subject to judicial review. On property litigation, the firm’s work spans a number of sectors and disciplines with a particular strength in the high-end residential property market and in leasehold enfranchisement. Pensions: The leading pensions team offers a comprehensive range of services for employers and trustees, advising on due diligence, pensions warranties and agreements, clearance applications, documenting arrangements, contingent assets, de-risking, buy-outs and buy-ins, risk insurance, administration and investment management agreements. The team has also advised on GDPR guidance for pension scheme trustees, governance, legal and regulatory compliance, employer and trustee powers and duties. The experienced team consists of litigators advising on contentious proceedings, pension scheme claims, professional negligence claims and also the specialist area of Unions pensions. Private wealth: The private wealth team is one of the largest in the UK, offering a full service to individuals, families and trustees with an expanding global reach. The team is well-known for its expertise in UK and international tax and estate planning, UK and offshore trusts, wills, probate and the administration of estates, heritage and rural estates, mental incapacity and Court of Protection, high value residential property transactions and leasehold enfranchisement, contentious trusts and probates, immigration law and family office services. Real estate: The firm’s residential practice is a leader in leasehold enfranchisement, having successfully served the first ever collective enfranchisement claim notice on the day the 1993 Act came into force in 1994. The team is also highly regarded for their expertise in lease extensions, enfranchisement, refinancing and block management. The commercial real estate practice covers all areas including site acquisitions and disposals, portfolio management, tenant advice work, investment, development schemes, construction, obtaining rights over land and security work. The firm’s real estate team consists of over 100 members across its offices. ### Staffing Figures ### 67 Number of partners - 403 Staff members ### 237 Solicitors

Office locations

Practice areas

Lawyers in this office

Anna Stanworth

Senior Associate · Family

Brian Gegg

Partner · Employment

Caroline Yarrow

Partner · Employment

Chris Greep

Senior Associate · Employment

Chris Holmes

Senior Associate · Real Estate

Claire Collings

Legal Director · Litigation

David Mundy

Partner · Planning

David Williams

Legal Director · Insolvency & Restructuring

Helen Ratcliffe

Consultant · Private Wealth

Hema Anand

Partner · Real Estate

Hugo Smith

Partner Head of Department/Deputy HoD · Private Client

Ian Wasserman

Partner · Employment

Jacqueline Dickinson

Senior Associate · Litigation

John Hutchinson

Managing Partner · Corporate / M&A

Jonathan Fewster

Partner · Real Estate

Jonathan Sachs

Partner · Professional Negligence

Judith Millar

Partner · Trusts & Estates

Judith Smyth

Senior Associate · Litigation

Katie Smith

Legal Director · Litigation

Leah Houghton

Associate · Corporate / M&A

Marcus McCluggage

Partner · Real Estate

Mark Challis

Partner (Head of Dept) · Planning

Mark Metcalfe

Mark specialises in private company mergers and acquisitions and private equity investments. He is primarily based in the Reading office, but travels widely supporting his colleagues and clients. He acts for private equity investors, corporates, management teams and entrepreneurs. Mark was named Young Dealmaker of the Year at the Thames Valley Deal Awards 2018. · Corporate / M&A

Michelle Mollaghan

Legal Director · Litigation

Natasha Davis

Legal Director · Litigation

Nicholas Le Riche

Partner · Employment

Oliver Kelly

Partner · Corporate / M&A

Olivia Mulvany

Senior Associate · Corporate / M&A

Phil Smith

Partner (Head of Dept) · Litigation

Philip Lamb

Partner · Corporate / M&A

Philip Weaver

Partner · Corporate / M&A

Richard Langley

Senior Partner · Litigation

Rick Munro

Consultant · Litigation

Ryan Lynch

Legal Director · Litigation

Sarah Godfrey

Of Counsel · Real Estate

Sarah Souter

Sarah specialises in private company mergers and acquisitions, and private equity investments. She acts for companies, private equity investors and management teams. Sarah also advises on corporate advisory matters. Sarah was named Young Dealmaker of the Year at the Thames Valley Deal Awards 2019. · Corporate / M&A

Sean Kelly

Partner · Corporate / M&A

Sean Wright

Sean heads up the National Private Equity practice and leads the South Corporate team covering its Solent, Thames Valley and Milton Keynes offices. A top-class corporate partner, he is identified by Chambers and Partners as ""a leader in his fields"" and in Legal 500, he is ""considered to be the best corporate lawyer on the South coast."" Since joining Shoosmiths in 2004, Sean has built the private equity team into the first-class national practice it is today. Acting for equity providers, management teams and financial sponsors. the team have a unique national footprint, with a top-class equity offering across the UK from Edinburgh to Solent. Major deals where Sean has recently acted include: • acting for LDC on the sale of CIPHR to ECI Partners and its investment in FSP; • acting for Management on the buyout of Ascenti Health by bd-capital partners; • acting for the Sellers on the acquisition of and management on the buyout of Phoenix Datacom by an LDC backed Newco; • acting for the shareholders of Solent Group on its £117m sale to quoted Swedish corporate Humble Group AB (publ); • acting for the shareholders of Spectrum Corporate Finance on its sale to FRP for c £12.4m; • acting for Dukes Education Group on various acquisitions including Northwood Schools, Hampton Court House and The Kindergartens Group of nurseries; • acting for Castik Capital backed TBAuctions on its acquisition of British Medical Auctions; and • acting for management on the sale of eCogra to Hanover Investments. Sean Wright has been ranked in The Chambers 100 – a prestigious list of the best 100 business lawyers in the UK. Sean has been ranked on the list for his ‘commercial awareness and negotiation skills’, and ability to ‘maintain goodwill but win the key points’. Sean ‘provides hands-on personal service and has loads of experience and the ability to negotiate in a friendly way.’ The Chambers 100. Sean qualified in London in 1990, gaining practical experience with a year’s secondment to Shell International Plc. He joined Shoosmiths in 2004 as an Equity Partner. · Private Equity

Sheilagh Magee

Partner · Private Client

Simon Painter

Partner · Litigation

Sinéad Lester

Partner · Litigation

Stacey Jones

Partner · Insolvency & Restructuring

Stephanie Perry

Partner · Corporate / M&A

Tim Hayes

Partner · Employment

Tristan Ward

Partner · Real Estate

Vandana Chitroda

Partner · Family / Matrimonial

William Roberts-Phelps

Senior Associate · Family