The Legal 500

North West: Corporate and commercial

Corporate and commercial: Manchester

Corporate and commercial: Manchester - ranked: tier 2

Gateley Plc

Gateley Plc has a ‘professional’ and ‘very active’ nine-partner team that is ‘strong on corporate finance’. It acts for a range of private equity investors, large corporates, listed plc’s, high net worth individuals and investors. National head of corporate Charles Glaskie (who is ‘very responsive, and has a can-do attitude’) led advice to Betfred on its £55.5m acquisition of 322 betting shops from Ladbrokes and Gala Coral Group. Asia team head Nigel Brown specialises in funding and public company work and acted alongside colleagues in Birmingham advising GIL Investments and other shareholders on the sale of Akcros Chemicals to Ohio-headquartered Valtris Speciality Chemicals. Other key figures on the private equity front include Rebecca Grisewood and Paul Jefferson focus on private equity; recent highlights for Grisewood include advising Palatine-backed Selection Services Investments on its £35m sale to Castle Street Investments in a reverse takeover deal, while Jefferson advised NorthEdge Capital on its investment in East Coast Concepts and acted for LDC on the MBO of Giacom World Networks. Also recommended are the ‘brilliant’ Khurshid Valli, Mark Halliwell and Chris Dunn, who focus on acquisitions and disposals. Halliwell led advice for Ixxus on its sale to Copyright Clearance Center. At legal director level Stephen Roberts and Chris Williams are singled out for praise.

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North West: Dispute resolution

Banking litigation

Banking litigation - ranked: tier 4

Gateley Plc (Manchester)

Gateley Plc is noted for maintaining ‘excellent client relationships’ and routinely handles a range of contentious matters – including complex recoveries, security enforcement, fraud and professional negligence claims – for banks, building societies and other financial providers. It also assists clients with complaints to the Financial Services Ombudsman and defends claims involving allegations of mis-selling of financial products. The team, which works closely with its colleagues in Birmingham and Leeds, is headed by the ‘experienced’ Andrew Field.

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Commercial litigation: Manchester

Commercial litigation: Manchester - ranked: tier 4

Gateley Plc

The ‘first-rate’ department at Gateley Plc is particularly known for its expertise in the sports and healthcare sectors, and the team is often instructed on cross-border disputes. Clients include British Medical Association, British Sub-Aqua Club and Chubb Insurance. Department head Sarah Sabin has ‘in-depth experience’ of complex multi-party disputes and surety claims. Janine Allen handles corporate, partnership and shareholder disputes and professional negligence claims, and is experienced in healthcare-sector litigation. Associate Nick Murrills is noted for his experience in the sports-sector and acts for the North West Counties Squash League on a range of instructions. Senior associate Nicola Richardson is also recommended.

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North West: Finance

Banking and finance

Banking and finance - ranked: tier 3

Gateley Plc (Manchester)

Gateley Plc has a strong reputation for private equity and acquisition finance, and has an extensive real estate finance practice, acting for lenders, developers and investors. It acts for a range of UK-based high street banks, and also represents a number of asset based lenders and surety houses, mezzanine lenders and debt funds. The team also advises borrower clients including blue-chip companies, owner-managed businesses, and entrepreneurs. ‘Exceptional’ Department head Richard Sealy has ‘an excellent reputation’ in the region for banking and finance and led advice for RBS on the provision of a term loan and revolving credit facilities to PH Alderly Park for the purchase and development of three sites across Cheshire. Senior associate Richard Cowan advised Factory (M1) on a term loan for the development of an apartment building in the centre of Manchester. Beechbrook UK SME Credit, Cityblock Group, AIB Group (UK), Maven Capital Partners UK LLP, and NM Rothschild & Sons are also clients.

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Insolvency and corporate recovery

Insolvency and corporate recovery - ranked: tier 2

Gateley Plc (Manchester)

Rated for its ‘strong restructuring and insolvency knowledge’, Gateley Plc’s practice handles restructuring, turnaround, acquisition and disposal work for insolvency practitioners, private equity houses, banks, invoice financiers, law firms and corporate clients. It is also noted for its track record in cross-border fraud and big-ticket insolvency litigation. The team is advising AlixPartners, as the administrators, of two pub companies which owned 150 pubs across the North of England and the Midlands; it is also advising PwC as administrators of a leading fashion accessories supplier based in England. Andrew Buchanan (‘very experienced and has a pragmatic approach’) leads the team, which includes legal director Gavin Clarke, and senior associates Danielle Haston and Aneesh Prasad. Stuart Tait joined the team in May 2017 from the Hong Kong office of Hogan Lovells.

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North West: Human resources

Employment

Employment - ranked: tier 1

Gateley Plc (Manchester)

The ‘vastly experienced’ Michael Ball heads the employment practice at Gateley Plc and has a ‘great reputation’ for work in the retail and leisure sectors. He is regularly called on to advise on the TUPE aspects of business sales and service provision changes, together with large-scale restructuring and harmonisation programmes. Ball is ably assisted by Chris Thompson, who routinely advises on the employment aspects of corporate and commercial transactions and is an accomplished tribunal advocate; and Stephen Hills, who is particularly strong on trade union matters with an emphasis on contentious work such as unfair dismissal, redundancies, executive severance and other issues such as discrimination. The department’s clients include household names such as Halfords Autocentres, TUI Travel, Ladbrokes, Swinton Insurance and Chubb, as well as new clients Integral Medical Holdings and Evans Cycles.

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Immigration

Immigration - ranked: tier 1

Gateley Plc (Manchester)

At Gateley Plc senior associate Rizwana Ishaq and associate Heather Aust attract praise for their ‘great ability to explain matters well; they work quickly and are very professional’. Aust regularly advises on compliance issues in the context of the recruitment of migrants, and the team acts for a mixture of regional, national and international clients in various sectors such as manufacturing, construction and telecoms. Highlights included supporting City Football Group with a Tier 2 General Visa for a Tier 4 graduate and assisting New York Baker Company with the appointment of a migrant role, which involved finding a suitable candidate from overseas and providing support to ensure the individual could take up the role in the UK.

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Pensions

Pensions - ranked: tier 2

Gateley Plc (Manchester)

Gateley Plc has an ‘extremely professional and highly business-orientated team with excellent communication skills’. The ‘friendly and practical’ Patrick Kennedy is a ‘lateral thinker who finds innovative solutions’. Senior associate Suresh Bhatt ‘stays on top of the detail and remains calm and assured in meetings’. They make a ‘very strong team whose skill set balance each other’. Clients of the practice include the Trustees of the CH Johnson Pension Plan, Motor Industry Pension Plan, the Trustees of the USDAW Staff Superannuation Fund and Stanplan F.

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North West: Real estate

Commercial property: Manchester

Commercial property: Manchester - ranked: tier 3

Gateley Plc

Gateley Plc handles a range of commercial, residential and regeneration development matters, and handles property finance instructions for a range of banks. Headed by Dean Copley and Darren Hughes, the team is experienced in the retail, sports, care home and renewable energy sectors. Hughes advised RBS on the funding of 13 acres of land at Alderley Park, Cheshire for a development of 74 homes. Rod Waldie advised an SPV established by PGC Capital, on its acquisition of a large development site in Bordesley, Birmingham, and advised Cityblock (Reading), a joint venture established by Cityblock Holdings and All Souls College, Oxford, on the acquisition of an office building in Reading for redevelopment as student accommodation. Gareth Atkinson advised Liveman Properties on the acquisition and redevelopment of the Dock Office, Salford Quays into apartments. Lidl UK, London & Manchester Healthcare, Kwik-Fit Holdings, JD Sports Fashion, Carlsberg UK and Network Space Developments are also clients.

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Construction

Construction - ranked: tier 3

Gateley Plc (Manchester)

Gateley Plc fields a team of ‘excellent communicators’ that attracts praise for its ‘detailed responses’. It regularly advises national developers and housebuilders on regional and national developments involving student accommodation, leisure, sports, residential and mixed-use projects. It is also noted for its experience in contentious bond and surety work. Highlights included advising Everton Football Club on all construction aspects relating to the development of a new training complex, and assisting the same client on redevelopment works at Goodison Park. Other clients include Keepmoat, Manchester City Football Club, Zurich Insurance, QBE Insurance (Europe) and CityBlock. Team head and surety law specialist Karen Spencer advises on bond wordings and handles disputes relating to performance bonds, indemnities and guarantees issued in connection with construction projects. Emlyn Hudson handles construction disputes and contentious and non-contentious surety matters. Also recommended are senior associate Hayley Sullivan, who is national head of the construction banking team, and associate Gemma Wilson.

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Planning and environment

Planning and environment - ranked: tier 3

Gateley Plc (Manchester)

Gateley Plc’s ‘knowledgeable and responsive’ planning and environmental team has a substantial track record in High Court litigation, planning appeals, applications, highway issues, compulsory purchase, enforcement issues, and town and village green law matter. It acts for a number of housebuilder clients, and has expertise in retail, residential, energy, infrastructure, hotel, educational and health-related developments, as well as town centre redevelopment schemes. The Co-operative Group, Yorkcourt Properties, Elan Homes, Morris Homes and Bloor Homes are clients. The national planning team is headed by the ‘bright, shrewd and tenacious’ Andrew Piatt and includes senior associate Mark Iveson and associate Susan Ehlinger, who is ‘calm, considered and precise in her advice’.

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North West: TMT (technology, media and telecoms)

IT and telecoms

IT and telecoms - ranked: tier 2

Gateley Plc (Manchester)

Peter Budd at Gateley Plc is ‘extremely bright, efficient and thoroughly understands the tech sector’. He is adept at handling all aspects of non-contentious IT work, especially those relating to data flows, cloud computing and large-scale IT procurements. He has particular expertise in financial services and regularly advises on various regulatory matters as well as major issues surrounding data protection and e-commerce.

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Intellectual property

Intellectual property - ranked: tier 2

Gateley Plc (Manchester)

The ‘well-established’ team at Gateley Plc is headed by the ‘very well thought of’ Jonathan Moakes, is praised for his ‘very wide range of experience and excellent technical expertise’. He is known as an excellent IP litigator and for his expertise in dealing with life sciences and technology matters. Other key figures include John Burns, whose main areas of expertise lie in intellectual property exploitation, franchising and brand licensing; and ‘excellent’ legal director Robert Lye. The team acted for a number of members of the Giftware Association in infringement actions and acted for Pendle Metalwares in an action against Office Depot Limited (Viking Direct, which related to an infringement of unregistered UK and Community design rights in cigarette bin designs. Other significant clients include Hachette Book Group, JD Sports Fashion and Phoenix 7.

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Media and entertainment

Media and entertainment - ranked: tier 1

Gateley Plc (Manchester)

Gateley Plc provides a ‘consistently excellent service; responses are quick, accurate and helpful’. The ‘enormously helpful and knowledgeable’ John Burns is a ‘very reliable lawyer who gives us reassurance and confidence in what we are doing’ and solicitor Conor Hannon is ‘diligent and quickly grasps the key issues’. The media team assists a wide range of entities such as independent television production companies and broadcasters, in addition to individuals such as film financiers, producers and composers. The team has also been developing its traction among new media clients such as vloggers and Instagram and Youtube users. Highlights included advising on the hosting, broadcasting and other commercial sponsorship arrangements for the Lacrosse World Cup, which is to be held in Manchester in 2018. It also advised Lookers on an agreement with its Audi franchise to use musicion Danny O’Reilly of The Coronas as a brand ambassador. Other clients include Bestival and Everton FC, as well as new clients such as Those Licensing People.

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Sport

Sport - ranked: tier 1

Gateley Plc (Manchester)

Led by the ‘highly regarded’ John Burns, Gateley Plc has a ‘strong position in the market’ and provides a ‘very personable and responsive service’. Burns is ‘extremely commercial and has an ability to see the world from the client’s perspective’. Also recommended are associate Nick Murrills, who has ‘wide-ranging knowledge of sports law’, and solicitor Conor Hannon, who is ‘precise, knowledgeable and pragmatic’. The practice has been advising on a range of important deals and is well regarded for its work in brand licensing, sponsorship, general commercial contracts and stadium development work in the sports sector, especially for football clubs. It has been advising Everton FC on its first-ever rights deal with USM Holdings for the club’s training ground at Finch Farm. It also advised Samworth Brothers on the partnership agreement between the client’s Ginsters brand with the Football League and separately with Plymouth Argyle FC. This was the first football league partnership that Ginsters had been involved in. Other key clients include Manchester City FC.

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