Joe Whitfield > Bates Wells > London, England > Lawyer Profile
Bates Wells Offices
10 QUEEN STREET PLACE
LONDON
EC4R 1BE
England
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Joe Whitfield
Work Department
Charity & Social Enterprise
Position
Joe leads the Bates Wells’ Development Finance practice, specialising in impact investment and financing transactions with a focus on the Global South and emerging markets. With more than 25 years’ experience leading on a wide range of complex cross border transactions across a number of sectors, Joe provides proactive, pragmatic, commercial and solutions-oriented advice for investing and operating in some of the most challenging jurisdictions.
Career
- Admitted as a solicitor, 1987
- Gouldens (now Jones Day), 1985
- Biddle & Co (now Pinsent Masons), 1993
- General Counsel and Corporation Secretary at CDC Group PLC (now British International Investment), 1995
- Co-founder and director at Africa Legal (now part of Norton Rose Fullbright), 2003
- Partner at Steptoe & Johnson, 2007
- Partner at Michelmores, 2009
- *General Counsel at Phatsia, 2013-2022
- *General Counsel at Agdevco, 2013-2015
- Joined Bates Wells, 2023
*Fulfilled in conjunction with his partnership at Michelmores
Education
- School of Oriental & African Studies, London University – BA (Hons) Law (with Social Anthropology)
Lawyer Rankings
London > Industry focus > Emerging markets
(Leading partners)Bates Wells joins the ranking, having hired highly experienced development finance partner Joe Whitfield from Michelmores LLP in 2023. Whitfield’s experience with DFIs, coupled with the firm’s charity and social enterprise client base, positions the firm perfectly to handle impact investment work that involves several practice areas. The team, which includes M&A specialist Nirav Patel and charity law expert Oliver Hunt, works on the establishment of impact investment vehicles investing in frontier markets, notably Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America.
Lawyer Rankings
- Leading partners London > Industry focus > Emerging markets
- Emerging markets London > Industry focus
Top Tier Firm Rankings
- Private client > Charities and not-for-profit
- Public sector > Electoral
- Employment > Immigration
- Employment > Immigration: human rights
- Employment > Immigration: personal
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > Sport
Firm Rankings
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > Media: Theatre, publishing and other media
- Public sector > Administrative and public law
- Public sector > Education: institutions
- Public sector > Education: schools
- Public sector > Local government
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > Media: Advertising & marketing
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > PATMA: Trade mark attorneys
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > Reputation management
- Employment > Senior executives
- Real estate > Commercial property: corporate occupiers
- Risk advisory > Data protection, privacy and cybersecurity
- Industry focus > Emerging markets
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > IT and telecoms
- Dispute resolution > Professional discipline
- Industry focus > TMT
- Employment > Employers
- Real estate > Property finance
- Dispute resolution > Commercial litigation: mid-market