The Legal 500 > United Kingdom - Solicitors > London > Corporate governance

As adviser to some 26 FTSE 100 companies including Aviva, Hiscox and Associated British Foods, Allen & Overy LLP has notable expertise across compliance, regulatory and risk management mandates and regularly assists listed companies with shareholder issues, including activist investors and contentious company board disputes. The group also handles environmental, social and governance reviews, and fields a dedicated team, which specialises in annual general meetings and annual reporting issues. Recent work includes advising Electra Private Equity on several activist shareholder, strategic review and governance issues, and handling the governance elements of DWF's listing on the London Stock Exchange. Richard Browne and Richard Cranfield jointly lead the corporate group and Paul McCarthy is the key contact for corporate incentives. Other noteworthy practitioners include corporate finance partner David Broadley, Matthew Townsend, who is co-head of the international trade and regulatory law group; and senior corporate assistants Victoria Rankmore and Kate Astley. In late 2018, the firm also launched A&O Consulting, a venture which will focus on providing regulatory business advice including corporate governance work.

Herbert Smith Freehills LLP's dedicated corporate governance advisory team focuses on board and head office issues including regulatory, reporting and governance standards matters for both listed and private companies; it counts roughly 116 London Stock Exchange-listed companies as clients. The group also leverages the strength of other departments including the corporate and employment practices, a specialist team which focuses on company investigations and crisis management, and the financial services group, which has been handling Senior Managers and Certification Regime and Senior Insurance Managers Regime issues. Ben Ward and Paul Ellerman jointly lead the department; Ellerman is also global head of the firm's remuneration and incentives team. Corporate partners Mike Flockhart, Robert Moore, James Palmer, Caroline Rae and Stephen Wilkinson; incentives specialist Mark Ife, financial institutions transactions practice head Alex Kay and regulatory expert Karen Anderson all contribute to the practice. Of counsel Gareth Sykes is also a corporate governance specialist. Carol Shutkever retired in 2018.

Linklaters LLP's risk and resilience team provides global risk management, regulatory and governance advice to clients. The group primarily focuses on governance and compliance models, board advice, risk assessments, investigations, reporting and disclosure, and crisis management. Key practitioners  include co-head Vanessa Havard-Williams, who also leads the firm's sustainability practice and has expertise in human rights issues; co-head and corporate partner Tom Shropshire, who splits his time between London and the US; and Michael Bennett, who is global head of the dispute resolution group. Tom Cassels is also a key name for contentious work, Rachel Barrett is an expert in compliance and risk management issues, Richard Cumbley focuses on data and privacy matters, and Satindra Dogra handles fraud investigations and bribery work. Managing associate Lucy Blake is also noted for her financial crime and fraud knowledge.

Addleshaw Goddard's multi-disciplinary team handles the full spectrum of governance, regulatory compliance and risk management mandates, with notable expertise in statutory and regulatory obligations; board, directors and general counsel support; annual reporting issues and annual general meeting matters. Will Chalk heads up the corporate governance team, which also draws from the corporate, employment, employee incentives, corporate crime and regulatory departments;. Key individuals include global investigations practice head Nichola Peters, Ben Koehne, who leads the building societies group; financial regulation head Amanda Hulme, employee incentives expert Jonathan Fletcher-Rogers and Edinburgh-based data head Helena Brown. David Pygott joined from CMS to expand the firm's contentious regulatory expertise.

Beatriz Pessoa de Araujo leads the corporate governance practice at Baker McKenzie, which also fields corporate finance practice head Helen Bradley, chair of the EMEA compliance and investigations group Joanna Ludlam, corporate finance partner Robert Adam and Jeremy Edwards, who heads up the employee benefits group. The cross-departmental group acts for a range of FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 clients; examples include Barclays, BP and Unilever. The group's expertise encompasses corporate advisory work, compliance and risk governance issues, crisis management, investigations, executive remuneration matters and tax governance mandates. The firm also has a dedicated public company advisory service line, led by Bradley.

Hogan Lovells International LLP counts companies, directors, officers and shareholders as clients, which it advises on a broad range of governance issues including crisis counselling, special investigations, enforcement proceedings, compliance assessments and board duties and obligations. Jonathan Baird, capital markets specialist Maegen Morrison and consultant Richard Ufland jointly lead the practice, which also includes Crispin Rapinet, who leads the firm's global investigations, white collar and fraud practice, and counsel Liam Naidoo, who focuses on investigations into allegations of corrupt employee activity. The team counts FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies as clients. ITV is a noteworthy example. In a recent highlight, the department also advised Uber on its new governance model, which led to it successfully appealing TfL's decision in 2017 to revoke its private-hire operator licence and being granted a 15 month probationary licence.

With a client base of FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies, Norton Rose Fulbright handles the full range of corporate governance issues leveraging standalone corporate, investigations, criminal defence and compliance practices. The group leans heavily on partners in the firm's corporate department, with significant contributors including Alan Bainbridge, Richard Crosby, Charlotte Henry and Claire O’Donnell. Jonathan Herbst and Neil O’May are also key names to note; Herbst is global head of the financial services regulatory practice and O'May leads the criminal law practice. In a recent highlight, O'May represented the former director of Tesco in a high-profile investigation and prosecution into Tesco's accounting practices.

RPC's cross-firm group is jointly led by Jeremy Drew, Patrick Brodie and Matthew Griffith, who specialise in commercial, employment, and the insurance and financial services sectors respectively. The group primarily draws on corporate, advisory and regulatory practitioners to handle the full spectrum of governance issues including independent reports, remuneration policy advice, modern slavery issues, gender pay gap analysis, and conduct and culture work. Clients include listed companies, financial services, insurance and retail clients, and US-owned corporates. Sports Direct is a noteworthy example, with the team advising on its reporting of Debenhams to the FCA. Sam Tate is a key contact for white-collar crime and regulatory issues.

The governance group at Travers Smith LLP encompasses multiple dedicated teams including the governance and trade risk group, listed company advisory team, anti-corruption team and the firm's boardroom risk initiative. The firm's blue-chip client base benefits from the team's knowledge of the interactions between governance, risk management and compliance, as well as substantial expertise in transactional matters. Doug Bryden, who leads both the governance and trade risk group and the environment and regulatory group, handles policies, processes and procedures relating to governance risks including bribery, corporate crime and human rights, among others. Laura Summerfield heads up the listed company advisory team, which assists publicly quoted corporates with best practice and corporate culture matters. Other key individuals include employment partner Adam Wyman and senior associate Aisling Arthur, who handles shareholder activism matters, market abuse regulation advice, board policies and best practice compliance for listed companies.