Victoria Birch > Norton Rose Fulbright > London, England > Lawyer Profile

The ‘very diligent and hard working’ team at Norton Rose Fulbright is increasingly focused on venture capital work as an offshoot of its corporate finance and private equity practices. Leveraging the firm’s strong regulatory offering, the team has developed a particular niche advising on fintech-related matters, including as it relates to blockchain and crypto-currency. The ‘very pragmatic and forward thinking’ Victoria Birch  has been central to the firm’s success in the space, which has been built on repeat instructions for both investors and investees, as well as very effective use of legal technology to streamline the investor experience (including the firm’s nascent strategic minority investment product, which has proved very popular among the venture arms of financial institutions and corporates). Sophie O’Connor  also handles a significant volume of venture mandates, and alongside Birch was instrumental to the development of the aforementioned product.

Engaged by clients including major financial institutions, trade bodies, insurtech startups and payment infrastructure providers, Norton Rose Fulbright advises on matters across the fintech spectrum, including payments systems,  distributed ledger technology, digital assets, decentralised finance and transformative transactions. The practice is jointly led by five partners. Global head of fintech Sean Murphy is well placed to advise on the development and deployment of financial services technology. Co-head of payments Victoria Birch advises clients ranging from governments to start-ups on fundraisings, regulatory compliance strategic investments into fintech companies. Fellow co-head of payments Albert Weatherill advises on a broad range of domestic and cross-border financial services regulatory matters. Hannah Meakin, who heads the fintech regulation department, is an authority on the use of distributed ledger technology in relation to market infrastructure and commodity derivatives. Head of insurtech Nicholas Berry, who completes the leadership team, has an in-depth understanding of the deployment of emerging technology in the insurance space. James Russell and Michael (Mike) Knapper  are further names to note.