Freeths LLP

Robert Bruce

Francis Dalton

Francis has a broad corporate practice which includes both public and private M&A (including corporate finance, private equity and venture capital) and both main market and AIM capital markets transactions. He has experience in a blend of national and international transactions and is used to working across multiple jurisdictions with different laws.Francis also has a breadth of corporate advisory experience and has advised on a number of joint ventures, corporate and financial restructurings and securities offerings. He has operated in a number of sectors and has a focus on technology, media, communications and healthcare. He is a corporate lawyer based in our London office.

Philippa Dempster

Managing Partner of London office Philippa is regarded as a leader in the field of Dispute Resolution by the Legal 500. She also uses her litigation experience to draft and negotiate contracts focusing on the key areas of risk.She has a Master’s Degree in Advanced Litigation and is a trained ADR mediator. Philippa has since 2016 been selected by her peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers in England 2016 for Litigation law and is described as ’’ Highly Rated’’ by the Legal 500 (2018). She also won the prized accolade in The Lawyer, Hot 100 list 2017 and is “Hot 100 Lawyer” .

Luke Dixon

Partner Luke advises businesses from start-ups to blue chips on the privacy aspects of a wide range of matters including commercial and IT agreements, projects and transactions. He regularly advises clients on how to respond to data breaches and to data subject rights requests, as well as digital marketing compliance.

Helen Jones

Helen advises both lenders and borrowers on a full range of banking matters but has particular expertise in real estate investment and development finance. She trained at Freeths and is based at our London office.

Clare King

Clare is an energy lawyer with over a decade of experience in the sector. She specialises in clean energy projects and sustainability, focussing on commercial, regulatory and transactional work. She acts for developers, equity and debt investors, joint venture partners, ESCOs, energy consumers, aggregators and suppliers, supporting clients in asset evaluation, structuring, due diligence, project management, contract development and deal execution.Clare has a Natural Sciences degree from Durham University as well as a Law degree from Cambridge University. She trained at Hogan Lovells and worked in their Energy & Infrastructure team for five years post-qualification, following which she was a senior member of the Energy Projects team at Osborne Clarke before joining Freeths in September 2018.

Irpreet Kohli

Partner Irpreet is a highly regarded specialist family lawyer in the family wealth team in Freeths’ London office. Irpreet joined the team to head and grow the London family law offering, bringing with her 15 years’ experience of working at a regional UK firm and an international focussed firm to provide an all-round and broad family law service to Freeths’ clients. Irpreet’s caseload is broad and varied including negotiating financial settlements in divorces from modest asset cases to HNW divorces involving worldwide assets in excess of £20m; advising on arrangements for children including internal and overseas relocation; assisting with wealth preservation through prenuptial and postnuptial settlements including arranging international mirror agreements where required; advising on the impact of religious and overseas marriage and divorces, such as nikahs and talaqs on UK proceedings. Recent cases of note include \tAdvising on a divorcing couple involving family wealth including a property portfolio comprising of 20 residential and commercial units. The proceedings involved an extended family intervention where family members claimed a beneficial interest in the rental units. Total matrimonial assets were in the region of £20m and were resolved following complicated and acrimonious multi party proceedings involving the UK as well as overseas accounts and property assets. \tA number of intervention matters, including cases where she has defended against the intervention of family members into divorce proceedings in which she represents either H or W and also an attempt to join a client’s company into divorce proceedings as an intervener. \tAdvising on Part III MFPA 1984 proceedings (financial provision after an overseas divorce) where parties are already divorced abroad and are seeking to make further claims against UK assets. Clients describe Irpreet as “the perfect solicitor to have on your team” saying that she “adopts a common sense approach to all matters and approaches negotiations pragmatically, sensitively and efficiently.” Ideal for this area of law, Irpreet is “approachable and honest in her advice but similarly takes no nonsense if the situation requires it. She will tell it like it is and then come up with a strategy to best meet your objectives.”

David Laurence

David is a City trained real estate solicitor and his practice covers all aspects of property law. He has a proven track record of delivering high value and complicated transactions for both public and private sector clients.Before joining Freeths, David spent five years working in the Restructuring division of a major UK bank. Here, he advised on the acquisition, asset management and disposal of a £1.2 billion property portfolio covering all major asset classes.

Andrew Maxwell

Partner and Head of Competition Andrew leads the Competition team at Freeths LLP. He has extensive expertise on EU and UK competition/antitrust law and all related practice areas. Andrew represents both private and public sector clients in antitrust proceedings before the European Commission, the UK competition regulators and the courts. He advises on all aspects of worldwide merger control, EU/UK merger investigations, merger arbitrage, EU/UK competition law and litigation, antitrust and market investigations, competition compliance, dawn raids and leniency applications, state aid, procurement and litigation, regulatory, trade and EU law.

Clive Pearce

Kevin Poulter

Kevin is a partner in the employment team and works from the London office.He has a wealth of experience in advising a broad range of commercial and corporate clients, charities, not for profit organisations and senior executive employees on all aspects of the employment relationship, both contentious and non-contentious.Kevin is the host of The Hearing, a popular legal podcast produced by Thomson Reuters. He is a regular contributor on employment and social media issues to local and national press and a regular guest on Vanessa Feltz’s BBC London show. He has featured in the Guardian, City AM and The Sunday Times as well as professional and trade journals including The Lawyer, Legal Week, Law Society Gazette and Times Higher Education.

Imogen Randall

Imogen has over 8 years’ experience in high value and complex dispute resolution. She manages clients’ disputes at an early stage and advises on various methods of Alternative Dispute Resolution, as a cost effective means of resolving commercial and professional negligence disputes.Imogen has extensive expertise in acting for clients in the High Court, including the specialist Mercantile Court and the Technology and Construction Court. She has also advised on a number of complex funding and insurance options in hedging litigation risk.

Jennifer Roe

Jennifer is a Planning lawyer within the Real Estate team, based at our office in London. She deals with all aspects of planning law with a particular expertise in strategic advice, Section 106 agreements and planning appeals.

Tom Rowley

London-based corporate partner with broad practice focused on M&A, private equity and restructuring. Also experienced in capital markets work, particularly on AIM.

Matt Stephens

A real estate partner, Matt has a broad practice including development, investment, and secured lending work.He has a focus on landlord and tenant matters and particularly the retail sector, in which he has been operating for the past 7 years. Matt’s clients range from well known high street and supermarket retailers, to international operators entering into the UK market, to major UK banks. Matt’s recent deals include: Act for Aldi on their acquisition programme in the South East of England. This includes the acquisition of existing retail space and developer-led retail park sites and there have been a significant number of sites secured over the past 3 years. Act for high street bank on various property finance lending into the UK market Act for high street retailers on their UK acquisitions and portfolio management Act for a leading international pizza delivery operator on its UK acquisitions and management. Act for a London based mixed used developer specialising in commercial and residential schemes including site acquisition and disposals both of individual units to occupiers and complete developments to funds.. Taken space for various restaurant operators in and around central London including Borough Market, Covent Garden and Notting Hill. Act on all commercial disposals of major new mixed use development in Islington. Act for US tech retail & services company on their initial entry into UK market. Acted for authority on £20M+ investment purchase in London.

Amanda Trewhella

Amanda is a specialist employment solicitor based in our London office. She advises on all aspects of the employment relationship, from recruitment and the drafting of HR policies and employee handbooks, through to advising on business reorganisations, disciplinary and grievance procedures, and drafting and negotiating settlement agreements and severance packages.

Shradha Virji

Shradha is an Associate solicitor in the Immigration Team. She specialises in all aspects of immigration and has significant experience in advising corporate and institutional clients on a full spectrum of UK business immigration matters.Shradha has a substantial track record as in immigration specialist, having successful secured immigration status for a number executives of large multinational organisations in the UK and worldwide. The breath of her experience covers all tiers of the Points Based System, with a particular focus on the Tier 2 (General) and (Intra Company Transfer) categories.

Richard Williams

Richard advises both lenders and borrowers on all aspects of real estate investment and development debt finance across all asset classes, including residential, commercial, retail, light industrial, student accommodation, hotels and care homes. He also acts for clients in relation to real estate debt acquisitions and disposals and in connection with CMBS and debt servicing matters. Richard has a strong reputation amongst his clients for providing pragmatic and commercial advice to enable them to achieve the most appropriate outcomes for their business. He has particular expertise in development finance and financings involving mezzanine debt and intercreditor relationships. He acts for a number of debt funds, property investors and large private equity clients.