Shoosmiths LLP

Aaron is a Partner in the corporate department's restructuring and advisory team. Aaron’s practice includes advising include banks, asset based lenders, insolvency practitioners and company directors in connection with in all aspects of corporate insolvency. Aaron has particular expertise in the retail and financial services sectors, having advised in connection with the administrations and company voluntary arrangements of a number of well-known retailers (Monsoon Accessorise Limited, Cath Kidston, Coast, Modelzone, Supercuts, Select Fashion and Store Twenty One). In addition, Aaron is leading the team advising the administrators of Lendy Limited, and its associated company, Saving Stream Security Holdings Limited, a major insolvency in the sphere of peer to peer lending and advised the directors of Wellesley Finance Limited, an alternative financier providing listed bond investment products to retail customers, in connection with its successful CVA. Aaron also advised the administrators of ASA Resource Group Plc a company with gold, nickel copper and diamond mining interests in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, culminating with the negotiation of a number of transactions to realise the Company’s overseas interests with an aggregate value of in excess of £27m. Aaron has also advised in relation to the following: • The administrations of Monsoon Accessorize Limited and Accessorize Limited and the sale of the business and assets of these companies; • The administration of Cath Kidston Limited and the sale of its online business and brand; • The purchase of certain of the business and assets of Coast from its administrators; • The CVAs of Thomas Sabo, Fuel Juice Bars and Forever 21; • The administration and subsequent sale of the business of T.M. Lewin & Sons Limited; • The administration of Jaeger Retail Limited and the subsequent sale of its assets to Marks & Spencer; • The CVAs of the restaurant chains Chilango, Polpo and Thai Leisure Group; and • The CVA and subsequent administration of Monarch Aircraft Engineering Limited, a company with specific strategic importance in the aviation industry.

Abi Falshaw

Abi is a Senior Associate working in the Real Estate team in Leeds. She has a wide experience in varying aspects of property law with a particular focus on development and landlord and tenant matters. Her recent project experience includes advising on: • agreements for lease and occupational leases of convenience stores for a leading UK supermarket chain; • the ongoing management of the portfolio of properties owned by a leading motorway service stations operator in the UK; • the acquisition of development land by leading institutional investors acquiring and developing buy to rent and single family housing schemes; • strategic options and onward sales of development land where the end use is a mix of residential and residential care; and • a range of leading UK Banks on development and acquisition funding of various high value sites nationally.

Abigail Gisbourne

Abigail is a Senior Associate real estate lawyer dealing with all aspects of commercial property transactions. Abigail acts for regional and national clients including landlords, tenants, developers and investors. Her recent experience includes: acting for a multinational tech company with a presence in 130 countries in their lease agreement for new premises in the UK along with assisting on an agreement to surrender existing premises; assisting with the due diligence for a global tenant on a new lease at a purpose built logistics unit with an annual rent of £1.715 million; acting for a national haulage operation in their sale and purchase of strategic sites, including a portfolio purchase; acting for various corporate occupiers in all real estate matters/interests; acting for a REIT with its general landlord and tenant matters including the grant of leases and occupational licences; and assisting with the due diligence for a Government Body in relation to their lease regears. Abigail joined Shoosmiths in September 2017 after having qualified as a solicitor into Hogan Lovells LLP following a number of years as a Legal Executive.

Adam Leszczynski

Adam is a corporate senior associate based in the Thames Valley office. Adam has experience in a range of transactions including acquisitions, disposals, venture and growth capital investment, private equity investment, reorganisations, shareholder investments, private to public re-registrations of companies, share buy backs, conducting legal due diligence as well as general corporate governance. Adam has experience working with investors, management teams and companies, particularly in the manufacturing, tech, media and communications sectors. Adam’s recent experience includes: assisting with the £221 million sale of smart locker technology and field service solutions company Bybox to private equity backer Francisco Partners; assisting with the acquisition of Wax Digital, an independent Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business by a private equity house; advising LDC on its £16 million investment into national hair salon operator, Rush Hair; advising Downing Ventures and Gresham House Ventures on its combined £8 million investment into Funding Xchange, a FinTech company offering its customers instant access to personalised quotes for business funding; advising Downing Ventures and Foresight Group on its investment into Masters of Pie, a virtual reality and augmented reality software company; advising NVM Private Equity on its £3.1 million investment into Clarilis Limited, a provider of automated solutions software for the legal industry; advising NVM Private Equity on its £2.2 million investment into Mo, a recognition, employee reward and ideas platform; advising NVM Private Equity on its £2 million investment into Duke & Dexter, an award-winning footwear manufacturer; advising Treetops Nurseries on its expansion through a number of acquisitions of other nursery sites; advising the shareholders of Xtrac, a world leader in the design and manufacturer of high performance transmissions for the motorsport and automotive industry, in a buyout deal with Inflexion Private Equity; advising the shareholders of Phabrix Limited, a manufacturer of video and audio broadcast test and measurement instruments, in their exit and sale of shares to Leader Electronics; advising on a company re-registration from private to public limited status, including the UK’s first re-registration of a private Community Interest Company to a Community Interest Public Limited Company; advising company directors in relation to a proposed public offer of investment; and principal advisor on the acquisition of a specialist case management company providing rehabilitation services to clients with severe and complex injuries.

Adam Fox

Adam is a Principal Associate working in the commercial team in London. Adam advises clients on a wide range of commercial matters, with a particular focus on digital technologies and emerging business models, global privacy and data protection, and marketing laws and regulations. Adam’s experience includes: acting (on secondment for 2.5 years) as sole Privacy Counsel for WeWork's EMEA region, leading privacy and data protection compliance in the region; conducting GDPR audits for various multinational organisations, including a Japanese car manufacturer, an artificial intelligence business in the pharmaceuticals industry and a television production and distribution company; providing strategic international data transfers advice and support (both from a UK GDPR and EU GDPR perspective) for global clients, including a well-known international IT company, a leading international hotel chain, a SaaS-based web, desktop and mobile analytics platform and a leading manufacturer and marketer of skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair products; advising on large data subject access requests (DSAR), including supporting a bank on a highly contentious DSAR by project managing and co-ordinating a review team to ensure regulatory deadlines were met; assisting multinational businesses with data breaches, preparing breach notifications for supervisory authorities across the globe and conducting post-breach investigations and audits; supporting an on-demand online grocery delivery business by negotiating agreements with partners in its AdTech network; advising an online takeaway delivery company on their negotiation of a Google Marketing/Ads Platform reseller agreement; acting for an internationally recognised digital brand: co-ordinating large global e-compliance projects, implementing end-to-end GDPR, Data Protection 2018 and ePrivacy compliance, responding to DSRs, advising on direct marketing and online advertising strategies, competitions and promotions, social media marketing and the use of children’s data, advising on high-value commercial distribution agreements and technology-related procurement contracts; drafting software development agreements for a major telecommunications and internet service provider in relation to a new SIM-only mobile network trading platform for retailers; and acting for J.K. Rowling’s agency protecting J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter brand from an IP and reputational perspective, drafting and advising on agency and publishing deals and managing J.K. Rowling’s domain portfolio.

Adam Frost

Adam is a Senior Associate based in the Shoosmiths’ Milton Keynes corporate team, having qualified into the team in April 2019. Adam has a wide range of expertise in corporate transactions, working with private equity houses, corporate entities and management teams on M&A transactions, disposals, investments, shareholder arrangements and general corporate governance. Adam’s recent deal experience includes advising on: Five Arrows Principal Investment’s sale of Umbria Topco Limited, the holding company of Opus 2, which is a provider of legal software; Ipsos’s acquisition of Karian and Box, a leading specialist in employee research and experience; the acquisition of Wizkids (five multi-jurisdictional entities) by the TextHelp group, who specialise in education accessibility tools and data synchronisation; the acquisition of Allocate Software by RL Datix, investee company of Five Arrows Principal Investments, TA Associates and Nordic Capital; US based Beeline group’s acquisition of JoinedUp group, a workforce management software provider, backed by the group’s investee company, New Mountain Capital; the purchase of the business and assets of Keysoe and the College Equestrian Centre; and the acquisition of Mintec Global, provider of food commodity price data and market intelligence, by Five Arrows Principal Investments. Adam has also gained significant experience on secondment, working within the legal functions of Volkswagen Group UK Ltd, Travelodge Hotels Ltd and Volkswagen Financial Services.

Adam Barrett

Adam is a real estate lawyer with over 10 years' experience. He acts on a wide range of property transactions, with particular expertise in acting on development projects and investment acquisitions involving delivery of offices, health care, leisure and education facilities, shopping centres and residential and commercial mixed-use schemes. His recent experience includes: advising public/private joint ventures between Bruntwood and local authorities on the acquisition for redevelopment of shopping centres including the Millgate Centre in Bury, Stretford Mall and the Stamford Quarter in Altrincham acting for large pension funds, local authorities and institutional investors in relation to forward funding of development projects and acquisition of key investment assets leading the £25m acquisition and re-development of the former Kelloggs headquarters in Old Trafford as the campus for UA92 - an education joint venture between Lancaster University and Manchester United 'Class of 92' alumni acting on the forward funding of a £130m residential-led development project in Manchester City Centre representing a large national infrastructure operator on a number of high-value disposals of surplus land for delivery of housing and leisure schemes in key strategic locations throughout the country including North London, Central Manchester and Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Aimee Cook

Aimee is a Principal Associate in Shoosmiths' Dispute Resolution team, based in the Thames Valley. Aimee advises clients on complex, high value commercial disputes, acting for clients primarily in the Energy, Technology, Logistics and Automotive sectors. Aimee acts on cases in the English High Court and has experience of commercial and investor-state arbitration, and mediation. Aimee's experience is particularly focused on: outsourcing disputes; corporate and shareholder disputes; procurement challenges; and restrictive covenant disputes. Recent work includes: acting for a major communications company to successfully negotiate a pre-action settlement of a multi-million pound outsourcing dispute; acting for the defendant company in a substantial High Court claim regarding alleged breaches of a shareholder agreement (successfully settled pre-trial); successfully protecting the interests of various pharmaceutical clients in respect of procurement challenges; and successfully avoiding a potential injunction in respect of alleged breaches by the clients of restrictive covenants in an employment contract.

Alan Corcoran

Alan Corcoran is a real estate lawyer in Shoosmiths' national real estate team. Alan advises on a range of commercial property related matters including investment and development work, site assembly, conditional sale and purchase agreements and options, together with broad asset management and property finance experience. His recent project experience includes advising long standing client, McKay Securities PLC, on the development and pre-let to St James Wealth of its 60,000 sq ft office development in Lombard Street, London, and the subject to planning disposal of a 1.1 acre site in Woking to Watkin Jones who plan to construct 350 build to rent apartments on the site. Alan also led the team which advised McKay on the real estate aspects of its recent £180 million revolving credit facility. Alan is recognised as a leader in his field of real estate by both Chambers and Partners and Legal 500. He has recently been noted in The Legal 500 Hall of Fame which highlights individuals who have received consistent praise by their clients for continued excellence. The Hall of Fame highlights, to clients, the law firm partners who are at the pinnacle of the profession as one of the elite leading lawyers for six consecutive years.

Alastair Peet

Alastair chairs our International Committee, responsible for directing Shoosmiths international strategy. He also leads our venture capital practice group and is nationally recognized for his venture capital expertise. Alastair’s focus is on venture and growth capital, advising both institutions and companies/founders on start-up through funding rounds, M&A, and ultimately exit. He is passionate about helping clients with both day-to-day and strategic issues through their life-cycle. Key clients include Octopus Ventures, Triple Point, Gresham House, DIF Capital, MML Capital Partners, BGF, and numerous other institutional investors in the UK and elsewhere. He also advises start-up, scaling, and expanding companies, typically technology enabled. Alastair and his team have market leading expertise in advising on investments involving Venture Capital Trust (VCT) and Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) tax complexities. Recent experience includes advising: Octopus Ventures on multiple investments, including investments into Secret Escapes, Digital Shadows, Depop, Big Health and others. Alastair also advised Octopus on exits of Swiftkey to Microsoft, Evi to Amazon, Tails.com to Nestle, and Magic Pony to Twitter (X); Ai language processing company Speechmatics on its $62m Series B led by Susquehanna Growth Equity; Ai as a service company Faculty on its $42.5m Series B led by Apax Digital Fund; Oxford Capital Partners on investments including into savings platform Moneybox and insurance disrupter Wrisk; Harbr on its $38.5m investment round led by Dawn Capital and Tiger Global; Burda Principal on the Series D investment in florist Bloom and Wild; Triple Point on multiple disposals of solar and other energy generation assets; Los Angeles headquartered Global Critical Logistics on acquisitions of multiple companies outside the USA; MML Capital and management of Learning Curve Group on their exit to Agilitas; BGF and management of CAD reseller Solid Solutions Management on investment by LDC; US investment bank Cowen on its leading a $61m late stage investment into biotech firm F2G; Amber Infrastructure, manager of the National Digital Infrastructure Fund, Equitix, and DIF Capital on investments into fibre broadband providers; and Oxford Nanoimaging on its Series C investment from Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI) and others.

Albi Bell

Albi is a Senior Associate construction lawyer with experience in acting for funders, developers, contractors, consultants and end-users across a wide range of sectors including retail, office, manufacturing, residential, energy and infrastructure. His work includes negotiating and advising on building contracts, bonds, guarantees, appointments, collateral warranties and construction aspects of funding agreements, development agreements and agreements for lease. His recent project experience includes: acting for a developer in relation to the development of a mixed office, residential and hotel scheme with a development value of £200 million; advising a distribution company on the construction aspects of its leasehold acquisition of a new 300,000 sq ft distribution hub; and acting for a developer in relation to a 350 unit build to rent scheme in Manchester.

Aleksandr Bosch

Aleks is a Partner in the Milton Keynes corporate team, advising on acquisitions and disposals, private equity investments, shareholders' agreements, joint ventures, group reorganisations, corporate governance and compliance issues. Aleks works with a variety of clients including private companies, PLCs, management teams and high net-worth individuals. Recent project experience includes: acting for Five Arrows Principal Investments (Rothschild) on a number of transactions including its investment into Texthelp, a global leader in education technology and on the sale of White Clarke Group to IDS, backed by Thoma Bravo; acting for the selling shareholders and management on the sale of Metals and Materials to Advanced Scientific Materials Acquico, a newco backed by Battery Ventures; acting for Foundation Investment Partners and the management team of Strictly Education on numerous acquisitions and their subsequent exit to Supporting Education Group Limited; advising BGF on its investment alongside Peter Jones of Dragon’s Den, into e-commerce platform Localised Group and Retail Services Group; and acting for CBD business Cannaray, from start-up and its series A investments through to a number of follow-up investments and bolt-on acquisitions, including the acquisition of Therismos Limited.

Alex Kirkhope

Alex is a Partner in the Commercial team with a particular focus on Technology and outsourcing, advising clients on all aspects of their business-critical IT systems and related business functions, as well as wider technology-based commercial contracts, software licensing and information law. Alex works closely with client commercial and legal teams in delivering transactions and has a detailed understanding of the key commercial drivers behind technology deployments. Over his career, Alex has advised on numerous major public sector IT contracts and procurements for UK Government, in particular in relation to the development, implementation and delivery of nationally significant benefits systems, a £1bn BPO of administrative and payment systems underpinning the NHS in England, and the largest UK police force on its outsourcing of Application Maintenance and Support Services. Recent examples of transactions Alex has advised on include: advising Moorfield Group in relation to its £600m PropTech-based JV with Bricklane; advising a luxury high street retailer on its £multi-million O365 Transition Framework negotiations with IBM; advising a global automotive manufacturer on multiple contracts related to their IT environment and supply contracts, including in relation to their international enterprise-wide licensing arrangements with Microsoft; acting for a high-growth financial services technology provider on the contract terms underpinning the rollout of its mortgage aggregation software platform to corporates, brokers and intermediaries; advising a leading Smart Cities technology provider in relation to a number of significant smart city technology deployment projects; leading a team advising a major UK Building Society in relation to the second generation outsourcing of its savings and mortgage account software platform; advising another leading UK Building Society in relation to contracts covering multiple aspects of its IT systems and infrastructure including the negotiation of terms relating to a high-value cloud service deployment, as well as a range of other business-critical IT agreements; acting for a major UK construction company in relation to its procurement of WAN services to support its UK and international operations; and acting for a global airline group in relation to the negotiation of enterprise-wide software licensing arrangements with Oracle.

Alex Haider

Alex Haider is a Senior Associate in the clinical negligence department in Shoosmiths' Reading office. Before going to university to study law, Alex worked in the NHS as a staff nurse on a vascular surgery ward and in an intensive care unit. Alex manages cases arising from a wide variety of NHS and private medical care including delayed diagnosis of cancer, orthopaedic surgery, general surgery, ophthalmic treatments, GP errors and injuries to mothers and children occurring during labour. Some examples of cases that Alex has successfully concluded are: a settlement of over £300,000 arising from the negligent management of a wrist fracture resulting in the claimant having to abandon his career in the armed forces; a six-figure settlement due to nerve damage during a biopsy, resulting in weakness in the claimant's dominant arm; and a delay on the part of hospital doctors in the management of a young child who had swallowed a button battery, with the result that he sustained a full thickness burn to his oesophagus and required major surgery that could have been avoided.

Alex Jones

Alex Jones is a Principal Associate specialising in planning, highways, and environmental matters. Alex’s work comprises a mix of both contentious and non-contentious planning work, including drafting and negotiating complex s106 agreements, providing highways advice, negotiating infrastructure agreements, undertaking planning due diligence on a variety of matters, providing strategic planning advice, undertaking judicial reviews, obtaining footpath and highway closures, and undertaking planning appeals. She acts for a wide range of clients, including public bodies, funders, commercial and residential developers, governmental departments, charities and retail clients. Alex's experience includes: Drafting and negotiating complex Section 106 Agreements, including the negotiation of the various planning agreements associated with the redevelopment of Birkenhead town centre and the Section 106 Agreement relating to the Eden Project in Lancashire; Negotiating sewer and highways agreements and providing support to the Real Estate Division, including inputting into development agreements, sale contracts and leases; Submitting a successful application for a screening direction from the Secretary of State in respect of the Council's decision to determinate that an application for a large development fell within the criteria for an Environmental Impact Assessment; Promoting a Development Consent Order for a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project in Cheshire; Submitting appeals to the Secretary of State against the refusal or non-determination of planning applications; and Advising developers and landowners in relation to permitted development rights and changes of use. Alex regularly speaks at internal and external seminars aimed at local authority, public sector and private developer clients. She also delivers training for RICS and the Local Government Association.

Alex Bishop

Alex is National Head of the Dispute Resolution & Litigation practice and Head of the firm's Birmingham office. She advises on a broad range of commercial disputes from shareholder disputes, contract and misrepresentation claims to obtaining freezing orders and search and seizure orders in complex fraud cases. She has a broad range of experience dealing with litigation and international arbitration as well as participation in various forms of alternative dispute resolution including mediations. Alex has particular experience dealing with reputationally significant matters and internal investigations, navigating the potentially competing interests of different stakeholder groups. Given the costly nature of Court proceedings, Alex will always look to achieve a speedy and cost effective resolution to any dispute. Where Court proceedings are the only option, Alex will pursue them aggressively albeit always focused on the client’s commercial objectives. Her clients include large companies in the IT, retail, automotive and manufacturing sectors such as Electrolux plc, Husqvarna UK Limited and Next Plc. Her recent instructions include: • representing an African telecommunications company in international arbitration proceedings in London and Dubai regarding multi-million dollar claims against a Chinese equipment supplier. • advising a Plc client following allegations of bribery in a civil dispute, conducting an internal investigation and supporting with a self report to the authorities. • advising a major high street name in relation to the termination of a fixed term IT contract carrying an exposure of £35million. A favourable exit was achieved through negotiations without proceedings being issued; • successfully obtaining a permanent injunction and substantial costs recovery for a major petrochemicals company against an unauthorised dealer. The claim also involved executing a search and seizure order; • advising a global financial services company in relation to fraudulent activities conducted by a former employee including unlawful access to the company’s IT systems. Undertakings were obtained together with full financial recovery; and • acting for a UK Plc in relation to a claim against multiple defendants for conspiracy to defraud and civil bribery securing a substantial financial recovery for the client. The claim involved obtaining a Freezing Order over the fraudsters' assets. Alex’s understanding of the issues facing businesses and the pressures on in-house lawyers has been enhanced by a number of secondments, one of which was spent in an in-house legal department of a UK based oil company, another in the Cayman Islands in an in-house legal team for a multi-national investment bank and as acting head of legal at a fleet management company. Alex has also worked in-house assisting the in-house legal team of a UK based mobile phone supplier with substantial US litigation, working with US lawyers and preparing the UK arm of the litigation. Alex has recently been identified as a leader in her field of Dispute Resolution by Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners in which she is described as "praised for her ingenuity and her commercial vision.". She is also in the Legal 500 'Hall of Fame' for Commercial Litigation and is listed in The Lawyer's 'Hot 100' 2021.

Alexander Massey

With a background in accountancy, Alexander joined Shoosmiths in 2019 as a Solicitor. As part of the firm’s specialist tax team, Alexander is a Senior Associate providing assistance on: corporate tax issues in mergers and acquisitions; income taxes and reliefs; VAT, SDLT and CGT arising on property transactions; and VCT, EIS and SEIS reliefs as part of the firm’s award winning tax advantaged venture capital reliefs division.

Alexandra Tiptree

Alexandra (Ali) is a finance and banking lawyer specialising in a range of debt finance work, including secured and unsecured, bilateral and syndicated lending both on a national and international level. She acts on behalf of either banks or borrowers (either corporate or private equity). Ali's experience includes acquisition finance, telecoms finance, project finance, debt restructuring as well as leveraged and investment grade corporate lending transactions. She has worked on a wide variety of transactions including: advising a South African mobile phone operator on its USD275,000,000 facilities from Chinese and South African lending institutions; advising an Indonesian mobile service provider on its USD40,000,000 facilities from an international investment management firm; advising a private equity house on various of its acquisition and unitranche facilities in connection with its separate purchases of a German payment institution, a French business intelligence company and an English insurance brokers; advising HSBC Bank plc in relation to over 20 banking facilities relating to its European Corporate Banking Centre; advising Bankmed SAL on over USD230,000,000 of term, payment and performance bond facilities in connection with the project finance of a powership.

Alexandra Triptree

Alexandra Ventham

Alexandra has experience of advising employers and trustees of occupational pension and life assurance schemes on all aspects of pensions law, and providing advice in relation to pensions issues on corporate transactions and pensions litigation. Alexandra’s experience includes: Advising both pension scheme trustee and employer clients on scheme mergers, drafting documentation to implement such mergers, and taking on a project management role to ensure completion of mergers in required timescales. The de-risking of occupational pension schemes, recently advising an independent trustee on a buy-in of the scheme's liabilities and plans to achieve a full buy-out and wind-up. Advising on scheme closure exercises, including the implications of scheme amendment powers and case law requiring salary linkage. Advising on the updating and consolidation of pension scheme trust deeds and rules. Drafting scheme contingent assets, such as PPF compliant company guarantees. Advising employers on automatic enrolment obligations. Defending complaints brought under scheme internal dispute resolution procedures and before the Pensions Ombudsman. High court pensions litigation, including acting for an employer and trustees in multi-defendant professional negligence proceedings associated with equalisation issues. Alexandra also has experience of mediation and settlement of high court disputes. Advising on TUPE transfers and share sales, including drafting contractual provisions, advising on obligations during and following such transfers/ sales and whether section 75 employer debts may be triggered and the appropriate steps to mitigate such risks. Advising on the establishment of group life assurance schemes.

Alexandria Kittlety

Alex has a breadth of experience in all aspects of real estate, including: • landlord and tenant; • freehold sales and disposals; • strategic portfolio acquisitions and disposals; • investment sales and purchases; • transfers of going concern; • licensed premises; • corporate support; and • working in-house / setting up secondment functions at clients' offices. Alex acts predominantly for tenants, but also landlords, in high street, office, industrial and retail parks and shopping centre locations. Alex's main clients include Whistles, Hobbs, Phase Eight, Sk:n, Waterstones, Mercedes-Benz, Euro Garages, Mountain Warehouse, Iron Mountain, Accident Exchange, Topps Tiles.

Alice Casey

Alice advises banks, financial institutions and corporate borrowers on domestic and cross-border financing. She has particular experience in real estate finance and has spent time on secondment at a major UK clearing bank. Recent transactions include: acting for a 4 bank club providing a £185,000,000 development and investment facility to a commercial property borrower; advising on a Takeover Code governed public to private takeover of a large PLC; acting for a major clearing bank in relation to a £45,000,000 term, revolving and ancillary facility to a privately owned group in connection with the refinance of a portfolio of over 30 properties; acting for a major clearing bank on a £32,000,000 real estate investment facility with a Jersey borrower group in respect of a multi-property logistics portfolio; acting for a developer borrower client on senior and mezzanine facilities in respect of the development numerous properties; acting for a private equity real estate fund manager on a term loan facility with a major clearing bank in connection with financing the acquisition of a portfolio of 77 show homes; and acting for local authorities on various projects including real estate finance loans and grant funding agreements in the further education sector.

Alistair Hammerton

Alistair is a Partner in the corporate department advising on all aspects of corporate law, with particular specialty around mergers and acquisitions, growth and venture capital, private equity and joint venture arrangements. Alistair is one of the country’s leading and most active venture capital lawyers - advising on early stage seed investments to series A and later rounds and through to exits. Alistair works with a variety of clients including for prominent investors such as Octopus Ventures, BGF, Triple Point, Hambro Perks, Blackfinch and Mercia on a serial basis, private companies (from start-ups to large corporates), listed plcs, founders and management teams.

Alistair Hayes

Alistair is a Senior Associate in the Banking and Finance team, based in our London office. Alistair specialises in asset based lending transactions, with a particular emphasis on acquisition and sponsor-led ABL financings. Alistair is also experienced in advising banks, financial institutions and large corporates in leveraged finance, asset finance and real estate finance transactions. Alistair's experience includes: advising RBS Invoice Finance and ABN AMRO on the provision of £100m receivables finance facilities to Pertemps Network Group; advising ABN AMRO on the provision of revolving plant and machinery facilities to Van Elle Holdings plc; advising Arbuthnot Commercial Asset Based Lending on combined receivables, inventory, plant and machinery, property and cash flow facilities to support Chiltern Capital's acquisition of mechanical contractor Doby Verrolec; acting for HSBC Bank in relation to the provision of £26m ABL facilities to CST Pharma; advising Investec Growth and Leverage Finance in connection with its provision of debt facilities to Southgate Global; acting for Shawbrook Bank Limited in respect of a number of asset based and commercial loan facilities to fund customer acquisitions and MBOs, including Hydromarque, Fargro and Retrac's employee ownership trust transfer; and advising a listed corporation in the utilities sector in connection with it obtaining RCF and CLBILS facilities from a major clearing bank. Alistair joined Shoosmiths in November 2019, moving to the firm together with partners Jon Bew and Natalie Barnes. He originally trained under Jon and Natalie at Irwin Mitchell LLP, qualifying in September 2019. Prior to commencing his training, he studied at King's College London and the University of Law.

Amardeep Vangar

Amardeep is a corporate solicitor with broad sector experience covering transactional and non-transactional corporate matters including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity investments and general company law matters. She advises a wide range of clients including individual entrepreneurs, corporates, developers, private investors, joint ventures and property funds with considerable experience advising clients on corporate real estate transactions. Amardeep is responsive to her client’s needs and aims to achieve their objectives and goals in the most thorough and practical way possible, whilst adopting a pragmatic approach to complex legal issues. Her recent experience includes advising: the private equity firm LDC on its multi-million pound investment into Foundation SP a leading national children's care and education provider, on its various business acquisitions the shareholders of an online own-brand bike accessories and tools business on the sale of their company to Factory14 the shareholders of Procomm Site Services Ltd (a provider of portable modular accommodation in the UK) on its sale to Modulaire Group the shareholders of a UK insurance broker network on the sale of their company to a US private equity backed purchaser a global moving company, on its acquisition and expansion of a UK relocation business

Ami Bhatt

Ami is a Legal Director with over 10 years' experience of corporate transactions such as acquisitions, disposals, management buy-outs, private equity and angel investments, pre-pack acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures. EOTs, share buy-backs and general corporate governance matters. Ami has experience of working with owner managed businesses, investors, buy & build businesses and management teams in various sectors such as IT, real estate, logistics & packaging, consultancy and childcare.

Amit Nayyar

Recognised as one of the leading Private Equity lawyers in the UK Amit Nayyar helps PE sponsors, investee companies and management teams realise their investment strategies. Amit heads our relationship with leading PE sponsors such as Rothschild (Five Arrows Principal Investments), Foundation Investment Partners, Kelso Place, Norland Capital and Trilantic Capital Partners. With over 15 years' experience in private equity, Amit has acted as lead counsel on a variety of high-profile buy-outs, restructurings and deals in the UK and Europe – with a particular focus on technology, healthcare and education investments

Amy Anderson

Amy is a Principal Associate based in our Manchester office. Amy's particular area of expertise is managing employment tribunal litigation for businesses in the retail, hospitality and logistics sectors. In addition to defending employment tribunal litigation, Amy enjoys working alongside clients to manage people-related risks, whether that is by ensuring that businesses have the right contractual and policy documentation in place, to negotiating settlement agreements, to providing strategic advice during periods of organisational change. Amy prides herself on getting to know her clients' businesses so that she can provide straightforward, pragmatic advice which is in line with their commercial objectives. In recent years Amy has: ◦successfully defended a company in the hospitality sector against multiple claims of race discrimination which were alleged to have taken place over a period of in excess of five years; ◦successfully acted for a real estate business in respect of claims of sexual harassment in circumstances where the perpetrators of the allegations had left employment and were not willing to give evidence at Tribunal; and ◦advised a sports club on the employment aspects of the sale of a number of its golf clubs including on the application of TUPE.

Amy Bars

Amy is a Senior Conveyancing Manager working in the Conveyancing Department. Amy joined Shoosmiths in March 2006 as an Assistant Case Handler in the Conveyancing department. Amy works on a wide range of diverse cases across Conveyancing, including sale, purchase, remortgage and transfer of equity transactions which include freehold, leasehold and shared ownership dealings. Amy has helped thousands of clients move home, taking responsibility for the progression of transactions on behalf of our clients through to completion.

Amy Barrs

Amy is a Senior Associate working in the Conveyancing Department. Amy joined Shoosmiths in March 2006 as an Assistant Case Handler in the Conveyancing department. Amy works on a wide range of diverse cases across Conveyancing, including sale, purchase, remortgage and transfer of equity transactions which include freehold, leasehold and shared ownership dealings. Amy has helped thousands of clients move home, taking responsibility for the progression of transactions on behalf of our clients through to completion.

Amy Dyson

Amy is a Senior Associate and part of Shoosmiths' national Construction team, based in Manchester and specialises in both contentious and non-contentious construction law and practice. She has acted on a variety of disputes relating to time, money and defects and for a broad range of clients across the industry, including developers, financial institutions, employers and trusts. She has experience in litigation, adjudication as well as less formal methods of dispute resolution including negotiation and mediation. Amy also acts for developers, contractors, subcontractors and funders alike, negotiating and drafting building contracts, consultant appointments and collateral warranties. She also advises on the construction aspects of Real Estate finance and banking deals for both funders and borrowers.

Amy Leech

Amy is a Senior Associate within the Milton Keynes employment team. She advises on a full spectrum of contentious and non-contentious employment law matters, including specialist areas such as employee data protection and business immigration. Amy works with local and national clients across a variety of sectors including logistics, retail, leisure and higher education. Although Amy primarily acts for employers, she also supports individuals on settlement negotiations, tribunal litigation and advising individuals on their post-termination restrictions. Amy's recent experience includes: defending employment tribunal proceedings, including constructive unfair dismissal claims, pregnancy and maternity discrimination claims and disability discrimination claims; advising organisations on day-to-day employee relations matters, including flexible working requests, disciplinaries and grievances; assisting organisations with managing redundancies and restructures (including TUPE where relevant); and advising organisations on managing and negotiating exits including settlement agreement proposals and terms. Amy conducts her own advocacy in the Employment Tribunal and has successfully represented various clients at case management and substantive preliminary hearings and at final hearings. She also regularly provides support to the corporate team within Shoosmiths, advising on the employment law aspects of national and international corporate sales, acquisitions and investments. Amy has a particular interest in employee data protection matters and advises on the varied commercial and employment implications in this area. She has extensive experience in assisting organisations with managing data subject access requests and has also advised individuals making such requests. Recent employee data protection work undertaken by Amy includes: assisting multiple clients with large data subject access requests; reviewing and drafting workforce privacy notices and employee data protection policies, including subject right policies; and advising a client in relation to the data protection implications of conducting criminal record checks on its workforce. Amy also has experience in business immigration matters. Work handled by Amy in this area includes: supporting organisations with various right to work check queries and providing bespoke training to clients relating to the same; advising clients in relation to applying for a skilled worker sponsor licence and managing the licence once granted, especially in a post-acquisition context; and reviewing and drafting right to work and business immigration policies. Amy regularly writes articles and comments for the firm and is one of the founding co-hosts of the Shoospeak HR podcast. She is also a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association. Amy also regularly advises individuals on a pro bono basis through the firm's employment pro bono clinic set up in collaborate with Milton Keynes' Citizens Advice Bureau. Amy is also a current member of the firm's "Balance" network, which aims to champion gender equality and better representation of women in the legal sector. Amy also co-chairs the Milton Keynes office's Social Mobility Working Group.

Anastasia Fowle

Anastasia is a partner specialising in the motorsport and automotive sector. She has a depth of experience in this multi-faceted sector: from IP, regulatory, litigation, international cross border matters, complex commercial and strategic arrangements and projects, end-to-end supply chain and privacy, together with extensive and sought after expertise in the world of motorsport (most notably F1). Anastasia's experience of private practice and general counsel in house roles, gives her a refreshing "both sides of the fence" perspective that enables her to cut through to commercial realities. Having sat on the Executive Committee Board for an F1 Team, she has an acute understanding of the importance of delivering pragmatic, solution driven and commercially sensible advice. Anastasia enjoys a unique and enviable position having worked with many F1 teams, F1 Drivers, Formula E Team and various motorsport and automotive clients. She currently also maintains legal in-house roles, active in motorsport and related activities. Her deep sector knowledge in this complex sector, means that she has a full hinterland of non-contentious and contentious experience including: intellectual property; complex commercial agreements; corporate transactions; digital media; commercial/corporate strategy (domestic and international); specialist sporting litigation; brand and reputation management; advertising and marketing strategies (often in conjunction with major sporting events); confidential information; licensing; sponsorship; endorsements; driver contracts; management contracts; motorsport regulatory advice; WADA regulatory matters; R&D and collaboration agreements; technical partnerships; complex data protection issues; compliance/audit; and litigation. She initiates and conducts proceedings before the High Court, OHIM, FIA International Court of Appeal, UK Trade Mark Office and Nominet and works with UK Customs authorities with regard seizures of counterfeit goods. She often works on cross border transactions for clients. Anastasia has spent time on secondment at Red Bull F1 race team, which, alongside her General Counsel role at Manor F1 race team and ROKiT Venturi Racing (Formula E Team) (current) has given her a great insight into the dynamics of a team and business operating within a competitive sporting environment. Anastasia is a Director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, the first non-driver to become a director of the GPDA since its inception in 1961. She sits on the board alongside Sebastian Vettel, George Russell and Chairman Alex Wurz. Recent highlights include: UK representative and member of the European Automotive Network leading on High Court trade mark infringement dispute on behalf of German automotive manufacturer (acting for both UK national sales centre and German OEM) representing former F1 World Champion driver in all his commercial projects working with leading premier league football team in relation to confidential commercial deal; working with Audi UK and Audi AG with regard ground breaking new project for the car sales market; advising leading global German car manufacturer (VW Group) on its UK IP, branding, technology and digital media, commercial and data protection matters and IP disputes. Providing strategic advice and solutions in relation to technical and legal issues arising as VWG strives to push the boundaries with new technology and enhance the customer journey experience; advising Mercedes UK, Nissan and Renault in relation to Commerical, IP and DP matters; advising on the Jules Bianchi litigation for the Manor F1 team and resultant settlement agreement; advising on the Maria di Villota case for the Manor F1 Team; working on complex High Court and Court of Appeal patent litigation and breach of contract matter on behalf of H&M (Stretchline Intellectual Properties Ltd v H&M Hennes & Mauritz UK Ltd ) [Stretchline Intellectual Properties Ltdv H&M Hennes & Mauritz UK Ltd [2015] EWCA Civ 516 (22 May 2015)]; advising British Amercian Tobacco in relation to various global commercial projects; providing strategic and commercial advice in relation to various global commercial and multi-supplier projects; acting for and advising various retailers, including H&M, The White Company, Dixons Carphone, Henkel, Nectar (Resident), United Talent Agency, Thorntons, LK Bennett, GAME, IKEA, RIXO, Ann Summers in relation to sponsorship, licensing, advertising, counterfeit matters and general commercial/data protection matters; appeal by Infiniti Red Bull Racing against the decision N°56 dated 16 March 2014 of the FIA Stewards of the 2014 Australian Grand Prix counting towards the 2014 FIA Formula One World Championship. Appeal before the International Court of Appeal [2014] (ICA-2014-01) (the “Fuelgate Litigation”); advising Henkel (and its associated brands, including Right Guard and Schwarzkopf) with regard TV rights clearances, music clearance, vlogger/blogger contracts, music licences/permissions for broadcast; acting for Global fast food restaurant chain (McDonald's) with regard UK intellectual property matters, including online and social media issues and reputational strategy; acting for leading global cereal brand in relation to multi billion pound bid to acquire United Biscuits; lead UK Counsel co-ordinating the securitisation of all IP of a borrower's European portfolio in relation to various major re-financing deals (value in excess of $1bn); Red Bull GmbH v Sun Mark Limited et al (High Court) (Red Bull GmBH v Sun Mark Limited and another [2012] EWHC 1929 (Ch), 17 July 2012.); co-ordinated worldwide IP due diligence and strategic advice on behalf of last round bidder regarding its multi billion dollar bid; acting for global motorcycle brand in relation to a serious breach of confidential information, which included an injunction claim against a well known motorcycle publication; obtaining immediate removal of online infringement and achieving successful outcome for client; advising hi-tech engineering company with regard potential large scale commercial dispute. Successful outcome for client; and advising a wide range of international and domestic clients active in the field of automotive, motorsport, manufacturing, retail, food and drink, technology, fashion, and media. Anastasia has an enviable list of clients who regard her as the “go to” person. Anastasia contributed a chapter to the book "Landmark IP Decisions of the European Court of Justice" (2008-2013).

Andrea Rusbridge

Andrea is head of the clinical negligence team in Northampton consisting of six legal advisors and two PAs. In 1998 Andrea was accepted onto the AvMA panel of specialist solicitors and has retained that accreditation ever since. Andrea sat on the legal aid assessment panel for dealing with appeals against decisions by the legal aid agency and continued to volunteer for this for four years. Andrea is now a CEDR accredited mediator having completed the 5 day CEDR mediation course in October 2019. Andrea has experience of many types of medical negligence case, including cerebral palsy/birth injury, obstetrics, gynaecology, vascular, amputation, cardiology, and delayed diagnosis of cancer, wrongful birth, neurological injury and cauda equina. She regards her legal expertise primarily as the means to help rebuild the lives of people and their families who have been injured as a result of negligent medical treatment and maintains that it is important to provide support and understanding throughout the process as well as achieving the best outcome that she can for her client. Work highlights • Mrs Chaudhry deceased - this was a claim against Northampton General Hospital for delayed diagnosis of breast cancer which led to the early death of Mrs Chaudhry. The claim was for the pain and suffering of Mrs Chaudhry before she died and a claim for financial losses for her and her husband and children. • Mrs Quadling - a claim was brought against Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation trust for the negligent insertion of a placebo contraceptive device which led to the birth of twins. Mrs Quadling recovered compensation for loss of earnings and pain and suffering. • Mrs Meehan - recovered compensation for delay in diagnosing and treating necrotising fasciitis against Heart of England Foundation Trust. She was compensated for loss of earnings, changes to her home, childcare and for pain and suffering now and in the future. • Mrs N - cauda equina injury caused during spinal surgery, colostomy required and stroke injury following surgery due to failure to treat atrial fibrillation. Client lost capacity to provide instructions and a litigation friend had to be appointed. Compensation included pain and suffering as well as a claim for care for herself and care she could not provide to her husband who was diagnosed with Parkinson's during the lifetime of the claim, the additional cost of holidays and activities were also included. • Mrs Parkin - surgical injury to iliac vein which prevented her return to previous number of hours as a pharmacist and caused swelling and pain reducing her mobility significantly. Claim included provisional damages for the risk of ulcer development and potential loss of her leg. She claimed loss of earnings, care and additional costs of holidays to accommodate her mobility. • Mr C- compartment syndrome injury to both legs causing foot drop and constant pain. The client could not play with his children and so his whole family were introduced to wheelchair basketball. The client claimed for care, the cost of adapted accommodation, a salt pod, case manager, loss of earnings and additional cost of holidays to see his family who live abroad in homes that do not accommodate disability. • SXC - a child who suffered from cerebral palsy birth injury, judgment has been obtained as well as substantial interim payments to provide care, therapy and assistance to age 13 when he can be assessed for the rest of his life. • Mr D - claim for failure to diagnose cancer leading to partial collapse of spine. Claim included care, loss of earnings and compensation for additional pain and suffering. • Ms W and Mr B- claim for the loss of their child to Kawasaki disease as a result of the failure of the hospital to treat the disease when it was diagnosed. The claim settled at a mediation which allowed the trust to provide an oral apology and an explanation about what steps have been taken to prevent this happening again. Testimonials from clients Paul Cockerton - “Very impressive service, as much in the manner with which it was handled, as getting the best result for us.” Mrs Meehan – “I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you and all your team from myself and my family you have made a massive difference to our lives.” Mr Chaudhry – “As I got the best possible service, I have no idea how you can improve your service. I am 100% behind the service I received. From the start to finish I/we were updated on what was going to happen.” Mrs Coles – “Genuine empathy and interest in the case and in my daughter as a "real" person and not just a source of income.” Andrea has been ranked in Chambers and the Legal 500 both individually and for her team for many years.

Andrew Millar

Andrew is a corporate partner whose clients include public and private companies, investors and management teams. Andrew has extensive experience of running local and cross border transactions and client relationships. He is experienced in helping his clients to identify, prepare for and resolve their legal issues, whether through the provision of company law advice or in leading companies, from technology start-ups to listed companies, through complex corporate transactions. Andrew’s particular expertise covers company law advice, mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets transactions, takeovers and group reorganisations. Recent transactions include: advising Datix on its acquisition of a business from Health Matrix; advising LDC on sale of ByBox to Francisco Partners; advising Ikon Science Limited on its sale to Great Hill Partners; advising a local authority on its corporate joint venture to regenerate a housing estate which will involve the construction of circa 2,500 new homes; advising AMR Centre Limited on a fund raising; advising Gaist Holdings Limited on its investment from BGF; and advising the sellers of Verpihy Limited on its sale to Davies Group.

Andrew Pattinson

Andrew is joint head of Real Estate North. He has over 25 years experience in the real estate sector. . He has a particular focus on development, investment and heads up the student sector team at Shoosmiths�� . Andrew is known for his practical approach. His recent experience includes: Andrew is client partner for Select Property Group. The team has acted a number of high profile acquisitions including Circle Square at the former BBC site City Suites in Salford and Embankment West; leading the Derwent Estate team acting in connection with a the redevelopment of the Edge Lane retail park; acting for PRS Reit Sigma; the acquisition on behalf of a national corporate of a 67,540 square foot office and warehouse space at an annual rent of £470,000; acting on behalf of Manchester Airport as developer on the construction and letting of the Raddison Blu Hotel at East Midlands Airport; and leading the team acting for a national retailer in connection its portfolio including acquisitions and disposals and general management.

Andrew Brennan

Andrew heads Shoosmiths’ 20 strong national IP team. He is recognised as a leading intellectual property lawyer who "knows his IP” and “provides solid, targeted and fast advice”. Clients find him approachable, pragmatic, agile and very user-friendly. Andrew’s practice covers all areas of intellectual property law, with a particular focus on the technology, engineering and consumer brand sectors. He works for global tech companies and household brands through to pioneering SME’s and disruptive start-ups. Passionate about innovation, Andrew is recognised for his excellence in handling complex disputes with a technical element involving patents, confidential information and software. He also helps technology clients in relation to their strategic R&D programmes and specialised IP commercialisation arrangements. Andrew's experience covers a range of technologies, including oil and gas well perforation, various waste to energy processes, robotics, photonic printing, supercontinuum lasers, friction stir welding, graphene filtration, sealed grafts, stroke detection equipment, autonomous vehicles, software and many more. In the consumer brand space, Andrew has handled countless trade mark and design disputes and licensing deals on behalf of well-known and up and coming brands. Recent work examples include: conducting multi-jurisdictional patent dispute regarding reactive shaped charges on behalf of global designer and manufacturer of gas and oil well perforating equipment; advising on patent and know-how licence dispute between two global engineering companies; handling international patent licensing programme on behalf of global photonic printing company; advising on complex pre-clinical and clinical milestone co-development and patent licensing agreement on behalf of US life sciences company; working as part of an international team to help one of the world’s largest vodka manufacturers enforce and protect a key trade mark; and advising numerous well known cycle brands in relation to brand protection, enforcement and licensing matters.

Andrew Bowden-Brown

Andrew is a Partner specialising in banking and finance litigation, asset based lending and alternative finance lending, cryptocurrency asset recovery and commercial litigation. Andrew regularly advises banks and other financial institutions on security and enforcement issues arising out of facility and / or security documentation. These issues range from complex multi-jurisdictional fraud claims to simple debt recovery matters, loss mitigation, contentious and non-contentious insolvency and asset recovery and tracing claims. In addition, Andrew has extensive experience of dealing with complex commercial and crypto asset recovery litigation. He works alongside leading asset recovery experts to ensure quick, commercial and pragmatic steps are taken to assist victims recover their misappropriated assets. Andrew is a member of the Shoosmiths' crypto working group. Andrew's expertise includes: advising on actions against clients and former clients of asset based lenders, banks and other financial institutions, including guarantors, warrantors and indemnifiers advising banks and other financial institutions on claims against them by current or former clients and any consequent reports to their respective regulatory bodies. In particular, Andrew has advised banks subject to numerous high-value claims for the alleged mis-selling of various financial products, including invoice finance, asset based lending, secured and unsecured finance, structured collars, swaps, simple collars and cap products advising numerous individuals and institutions on civil and criminal recovery options following theft of their crypto / virtual / NFT assets working alongside insolvency practitioners advising on fraud investigations, administrations, liquidations and provisional liquidations, actions against bankrupts, directors and third parties and obtaining relief under the Insolvency Act, such as wrongful trading, transactions at undervalue, preference and misfeasance advising on bespoke facility and security documentation in connection with prospective clients (including assisting credit committees), reviewing and amending intercreditor documents, undertaking security reviews and re-negotiating / taking new security during the course of a facility and assisting the business to create and maintain an “exit plan” for distressed or defaulting businesses advising on professional negligence claims against solicitors, accountants and other professional advisers Specialist areas include: asset based lending, invoice finance, fraud, commercial litigation, trade finance, supply chain finance, construction, insolvency and restructuring, director disqualification, debt recovery, cryptocurrency & digital asset recovery and professional negligence

Andrew Mills

Andrew is a senior associate and provides clear, strategic and pragmatic advice to businesses areas of data protection, digital marketing, advertising and general commercial law. Andrew has experience working on secondment with a regulator and a global UK-based plc in the top 10 of the FTSE. Before embarking on a legal career, Andrew worked as a Management Consultant at a global IT company and as an Analyst at a global investment bank. Andrew’s experience: successfully delivered the GDPR implementation programme for a global retail and manufacturing business which involved drafting complex third-party contracts, advising on international transfers, managing data subjects rights requests, advising on security/data issues, completion of over 25 DPIAs, creating numerous templates, and rolling out training across the organisation; acted as in-house legal lead for the implementation of a multi-million-pound HR system rolled out across over 100 countries; advised on numerous client website privacy and cookie notices and assisted with development of compliant cookie banners (relating to EU and USA clients); led numerous training sessions for colleagues across Europe on digital marketing and AdTech, including compliance with cookie rules; drafted consumer website terms and conditions and various competition terms and conditions for a Global luxury goods retailer; provided legal support (contractual, due diligence and analysis) for a retailer client in respect of its launch of digital marketing campaigns via social media with an annual spend over £1.5 million; reviewed, advised on and approved over 100 items of marketing collateral within a fast-paced and heavily regulated area to ensure client compliance with data protection laws and CAP/BCAP Codes; and supported the in-house legal team of a major UK client to release their advertising strategy and increase revenues within a challenging landscape, including advising on new entry points (QR codes, social media marketing, movement to online platforms, developing CRM systems and supporting ‘return to work’ initiatives) and drafted numerous supplier contracts.

Andrew Whalley

Partner

Andrew Outram

Andrew specialises in providing advice on non-contentious construction related issues to a wide variety of entities, including developers, contractors, public bodies and funders. Andrew has also previously undertaken a six month secondment as a commercial legal adviser at one of the UK’s largest contractors at their head office. During this time he advised on a wide variety of legal issues (including both construction and non-construction issues) and gained a useful first hand perspective on the client’s and an in-house lawyer’s approach. Recent examples of work include: Acting for one of the UK’s largest regeneration specialists on the construction aspects (including strategic advice) on: the agreements relating to the design and construction of a major heavy manufacturing and assembly facility in South Wales. As part of this, Andrew advised on the building agreement with the purchaser as well as the building, infrastructure and remediation contracts, professional appointments, rail asset protection agreements, collateral warranties and performance security; three phases of a major town centre redevelopment in the West Midlands with a construction value of over £70m. These phases included advising on the construction aspects of the relevant development agreements with major retailers and negotiating all of the relevant construction documents with all the parties involved in the redevelopment; various development, infrastructure and remediation works across its various sites in the UK (including advising in relation to the JCT and NEC3/NEC4 forms of contract, the construction aspects of agreements with Highways England, professional appointments and framework appointments, collateral warranties, performance security measures and in relation to insolvencies in its supply chain). Advising a real estate investment trust on the design and construction of a circa £35m office building in the City of London, which involves a confined site, the demolition of a large existing structure and negotiations with one of the UK’s largest contractors. Andrew also advises this real estate investment trust in relation to all of its construction activities across its portfolio; Advising one of the UK’s largest private developers on two of its key strategic sites, including advising on the construction aspects of agreements for lease and sale, the building contracts for site preparation and infrastructure works together with the design and construction of industrial logistic units (including for one of the UK’s largest speculative industrial units together with the works to create a new junction on a strategic highway), professional appointments, utility delivery contracts, collateral warranties and performance security; Drafting bespoke building contracts and framework agreements for two large listed residential developers and subsequently working with the clients to update these forms of contract so that they evolved to meet the each client’s aims as they sought to grow and expand their business.

Andy Sinclair

Andy is the National Head of the Costs Team and a Legal Director and Costs Lawyer. He has specialised in both Claimant and Defendant costs for 20 years. As an experienced costs draftsman and litigator he has dealt with a wide range of complex and high value claims throughout his career, including claims in clinical negligence, catastrophic injury, construction and property litigation and commercial disputes and is heavily involved in phone-hacking litigation. Andy and his team are able to prepare Costs Budgets, attend CCMCs, prepare Bills of Costs and deal with the entire costs of assessment process through to attendance at detailed assessment hearings or mediation/arbitration. Andy also regularly advises on any technical costs issues that may arise and has provided training to the Legal Advisers in our advisory teams. Andy regularly appears as an advocate in the Royal Courts of Justice and regional Courts across the country and has taken cases to the Court of Appeal.

Andy Oldham

Andy is a Senior Associate Costs Lawyer within the Costs Team based in Birmingham who whilst beginning a costs career acting on behalf of Defendants has over the last 10 years specialised in Claimant costs. Andy initially commenced a career in the costs sector as a Defendant representative in considering claims and costs before moving to deal with Claimant costs. He has considerable experience in complex high value claims including claims in clinical negligence, personal injury and commercial litigation. With a background on both sides he has significant experience in all aspects of costs and has a good working knowledge of procedure and costs law. Andy is able to draft and prepare Bills of Costs and Costs Budgets as well as preparing both Points of Dispute and subsequent Replies whilst also negotiating favourable settlements. He is also able to provide advice on any costs issues. Andy has appeared as an advocate at regional courts across the country.

Angus Evers

Angus is an experienced environmental and sustainability Partner whose practice covers all aspects of environmental law from contaminated land to waste, climate change, renewables, nuisance, water pollution and asbestos. He also has expertise in related areas such as energy, planning and health & safety. He advises developers and operators of, and investors in, infrastructure, real estate and other businesses on transactional, regulatory and contentious issues, regularly working alongside corporate, real estate, commercial, projects and EU/competition teams. Angus’s recent experience includes advising: • one of the UK's largest service station operators on the environmental aspects of the sale and purchase of approximately 50 service stations; • a chemicals company on an application for Hazardous Substances Consent;• holiday park operators on the environmental, health & safety and other regulatory aspects of acquisitions of holiday parks;• a chemicals company an internal investigation into its compliance with the emissions limits and reporting requirements under its environmental permit; and • an automotive business on trans-frontier shipment of waste requirements for transporting waste catalytic converters for recycling. Angus has led Shoosmiths’ environmental practice since 2016. He is one of the Convenors of the UK Environmental Law Association’s (UKELA) Waste Working Party and a former Co-Chair of UKELA's Governance & Devolution Group.

Ania Vernon

I am a Legal Director corporate lawyer, and joined Shoosmiths in 2017 from a global firm. As a member of Shoosmiths’ private equity group, the focus of my practice is delivering advice on private-equity sponsored buyouts and sales processes. I am also an experienced private M&A practitioner, with notable sector expertise in tech, retail, asset-manager M&A, and indirect real estate (both offshore and domestic). Recent work includes: acting for a US-based real estate investment fund on its £110m acquisition of a large portfolio of onshore asset-holding vehicles; the merger of two of Europe's most prominent on-demand laundry operators effected via a complex cashless consideration structure, and a subsequent equity fundraising; acting for a national, US fund-backed care home operator in their £148 million acquisition of a competitor; advising the sellers (including BGF) and management team on the sale and reinvestment streams relating to the secondary buyout of Solid Solutions Management Limited by LDC; the secondary buyout of FFX Group Limited, acting for the sellers (including Foresight) on the sale to H2 and rollover and for management in their rollover; acting in the sale of, and rollover relating to, the August Equity-backed secondary buyout of Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging Limited; and acting for a global management consultancy firm in its acquisition of a Polish LLC and LP (for an undisclosed sum).

Anita Shepherd

Anita has almost 20 years’ experience in all aspects of family law, mainly complex and high value financial matters alongside difficult children cases. As a trained collaborative lawyer and member of Resolution she is committed to promoting alternatives to court proceedings to resolve relationship disputes thereby providing clients with greater choice of procedure to resolve the issues they face. Anita is a resolution accredited specialist with Resolution in Advanced Financial Provision and Domestic Abuse. Anita is passionate about achieving healthy and sustainable outcomes for her clients and is well known for her problem solving skills. She is renowned for her ability to devise solutions to what are often complex family disputes. Areas on which Anita and the team regularly advise include: Divorce – fair financial provision Dissolution of civil partnerships and nullity proceedings Financial provision in all those circumstances and after overseas divorce Variation or set aside of existing financial orders. Cohabitation rights Separation Agreements Pre and post-nuptial agreements Applications for permission to resettle overseas with children Child relocation disputes Adoption, disputes about care or education of children Applications for parental rights Child residence and contact disputes International child abduction. third party rights as interveners in financial remedy proceedings.

Anjali Patel

Anjali is a Senior Associate in the Real Estate Litigation team and is recognised as a "key lawyer" in The Legal 500. She specialises in all aspects of commercial property disputes such as contractual disputes, commercial arrears recovery, water ingress disputes, dilapidations and break notices. She acts on behalf of clients at the onset of litigation, thereby providing advice in terms of mitigation, through to negotiated settlements and court proceedings. She aims to provide succinct, strategic advice whilst focusing on clients' commercial objectives. Her recent experience includes: defending hundreds of court proceedings on behalf of major UK retail occupiers in relation to their response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This included the Lillywhites litigation and the High Court case of AEW UK Reit PLC -v- Sportsdirect.com Retail Limited [2021] EWHC 1013 (QB) which involved defences such as frustration, rent suspension and implied terms; acting on behalf of an investor client in relation to a multi-million pound claim issued against them relating to an alleged joint venture agreement; successfully settling a water ingress dispute which resulted in the client being compensated for substantial losses it had suffered; acting on behalf of retail and hospitality clients in relation to all aspects of commercial property disputes across their England and Wales portfolios; and providing strategic advice to a client regarding opposed lease renewals in relation to its development strategy. Anjali's advice is described by clients as "sound and consistent" and she is a "trusted advisor" for many of the firm's clients.

Anna Lowe

Anna is legal director who has a wide range of property experience with particular expertise in acting for retail and investor clients as well as representing various well known occupational and industrial tenants, landlords and portfolio holders since qualification in 2002. She has a pragmatic and commercial focus enhanced by several in-house secondments during the course of her career. Her clients value her committed approach to client care combined with her can-do attitude. Her recent project experience includes: acting on the first phase of a £100 million mixed use retail and leisure scheme which, when completed, will be one of the biggest retail parks in the UK. Over the course of 2016 and 2017, Anna led the client team in relation to this scheme, dealing with the majority of lettings and acting as the main client point of contact. Anna is now instructed on the next phases of the scheme scheduled to PC late 2020; acting for the UK's leading independent energy and multi-utilities service provider and running a bespoke team servicing this growing client; acting for a luxury retailer as part of its ambitious expansion plan onto the UK high street and into shopping centres over the next two years; working with a PRS REIT in relation to the housing developments it has earmarked for purchase this year; and advising a regional airport on all of its property requirements in relation to what is a complex and multi-tenanted site. One of her key client’s has recently commented “Anna is our “go to” person at Shoosmiths … not only is she technically very able, but also diligent, committed, organised, easy to deal with, hard-working and efficient. She always goes the extra mile for us and can be depended upon to get things done when she says she will…”. Anna also considers corporate social responsibility to be a vital part of her work. One of Anna’s pro bono clients (a hospice with a number of retail units) has recently commented “The legal work that you do starts the whole process off by giving us the opportunity to make the shop the success that it has turned out to be, but ultimately it helps to fund the doctors and nurses who provide direct patient care. Whilst it might be another day in the office doing legal work, hopefully you can be heartened that the fruits of that labour is helping to support many patients and their loved ones in the most difficult time of their lives.”.

Anna Vangrove

Anna leads the Shoosmiths' Belfast banking and finance team. Anna advises clients including corporate borrowers, financial institutions and specialist funders on a range of transactions including energy finance, real estate finance and corporate banking. Anna works closely with our Financial Services and Energy and Infrastructure Sector heads in delivering these transactions. Anna has worked on a wide variety of transactions to include: acting for a national bank on the restructuring of two UK based Shopping Centres; acting for a national bank on the acquisition finance of two UK based wind farms; acting for a Hong Kong based fund restructuring facilities in order to provide on-going mezzanine funding to a corporate borrower; advising an alternative funder (in its capacity as borrower) on a £30mil back to back syndicated facility; and advising various national and alternative funders on the implementation of government backed loan schemes to include bank accreditation, CBILS and CLBILS. Anna is dual qualified and regularly practices in both Northern Ireland and England & Wales jurisdictions.

Anna Richardson

Anna is a Principal Associate in the banking & finance team, based in the Solent Office. Anna undertakes all aspects of banking work with a focus on leveraged acquisition finance and with experience in asset and property finance as well as general corporate lending and portfolio management. Anna works for borrowers and lenders including corporates, individuals, high street and challenger banks and other (corporate and PE) financial institutions. Anna has experience working on bilateral and syndicated transactions, both nationally and internationally and is familiar with the LMA as well as most bank standard form finance documents. As well as corporate lending, Anna works with a number of our clients and their in house teams in preparing and maintaining standard form finance documents. Anna’s recent project experience includes: advising a high street bank in relation to a £20 million lend for the acquisition by a PE funder of a software company; advising a challenger bank in relation to circa £10 million of funding for two acquisitions of financial planning businesses; advising a leading venture capital house in relation to loan documentation, security packages and intercreditor arrangements to facilitate investment into growing businesses, in particular those with a focus on healthcare; advising a borrower on the English law elements of a €100 million loan from a syndicate of banks; and working with a bank client’s in house legal team to prepare and advise on a new standard form loan agreement.

Antonia Blackwell

Antonia is an experienced employment lawyer providing commercially focused advice to businesses and individuals on all aspects of employment law, both contentious and non-contentious, including proactively managing Employment Tribunal claims and providing pragmatic advice on a broad range of HR issues such as disciplinary and grievance procedures, discrimination complaints, business reorganisations, executive severance issues, union related matters and the application and effect of TUPE. Throughout her career, Antonia has advised across a variety of sectors, especially retail, manufacturing and logistics, working with many household names. Her particular specialism is in negotiating indemnities and warranties for business transfer agreements and outsourcing projects in a commercial manner whilst retaining key protection for her clients. Recent work handled by Antonia includes: negotiating indemnities and warranties in various outsourcing agreements between an international service provider and several financial institutions covering up to 88 jurisdictions; advising on a national reorganisation programme including the approach to consultation and providing training to up-skill the HR officers on the process to be followed; successfully representing a major logistics client in defending six separate employment tribunal claims brought against it by a serial litigant, including various discrimination complaints, ensuring that all claims were struck out by the Employment Tribunal at a preliminary stage; advising a major logistics client on various union issues including voluntary recognition agreements, pay disputes and threatened strike action; updating a major retail client’s HR Manual, handbook and employment contracts and advising on the implementation process. Antonia’s understanding of the key challenges facing her clients allows her to write and present both bespoke and general training programmes, in addition to regularly speaking at externally organised events.

Ayesha Chandegra

Ayesha is a Senior Associate in our Commercial Team, based in the Milton Keynes office and acts for a variety of clients particularly in the retail, automotive and technology sectors. Ayesha advises on a range of commercial matters including supply of services/goods, framework agreements, distribution and agency arrangements, IT (including SaaS) and outsourcing agreements. She also has specialist knowledge of consumer and e-commerce laws and regularly advises numerous large clients on its online sales platforms, including reviewing and drafting terms and conditions, website agreements (terms of use and cookie policies), internal policies and providing pragmatic advice on the client’s e-commerce customer journey to ensure it is compliant with such laws. Ayesha has gained first-hand experience of working in an in-house environment by completing several client secondments including at a global car manufacturer and a leading recruitment and facility services provider. As a result, she understands the importance of providing commercial and practical solutions for her clients that are often faced with complex legal issues.

Barbara McGreal

Barbara is real estate lawyer with experience of acting for a range of property clients from investment funds, retail clients, to industrial landlords, mixed use developers and larger plc clients. She advises on all aspects of commercial property, from the grant and exercise of options, to conditional contracts, agreements for lease and pre-lets, acquisition and disposal work and is experienced in landlord and tenant and portfolio management work. Recent experience includes: acting for a major FTSE 250 brewery company in relation to its property portfolio, including all aspects of a large scale disposal programme and development of new build pub sites; acting for sustainable property investment fund on the sale and purchase of investment and development property; acquisition and disposal of leasehold properties for high street retailers, including new build retail schemes and contracts which are conditional on substantial landlord’s works; acting for an industrial landlord on lettings and/or disposals of large warehouse space, including contracts which are conditional on planning and works; acting for a commercial developers and a national house builder in relation to pre-lets on mixed use development schemes.

Barry Stimpson

Barry heads up Shoosmiths’ Investment Funds practice and is recognised in Chambers & Partners as a notable practitioner, with clients describing him as being "very responsive and highly knowledgeable of the sector", adding that he is "pragmatic and an excellent negotiator." His drafting skills and knowledge of hedge funds are further acknowledged in the Legal 500 directory. Barry’s experience as a funds specialist with City and international law firms extends to more than 30 years in advising clients on establishing real estate, venture capital, private equity and hedge funds and other investment structures, as well as on mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings and other corporate work. His work includes advising fund managers, investors and professional services firms on limited liability partnerships and partnership agreements and mergers. Barry was previously an investment banker at UBS, gaining experience in the real estate and listed funds sectors to bring an understanding of both the financial and legal drivers behind projects. Barry’s experience includes: • Advising a UK real estate manager on establishing 3 real estate funds • Acting for a UK asset advisor on over 20 real estate club deals • Establishing a private equity fund for a family wealth office • Establishing a credit fund for a UK and EU lending institution • Establishing 2 crypto currency funds in the Cayman Islands • Establishing a series of 3 BVI hedge funds on behalf of a UK fund manager

Becky Gray

Becky is a Senior Associate in the Commercial team at Shoosmiths, based in the Thames Valley. She advises on a wide range of commercial and privacy matters across different sectors, including: supply agreements for goods and/or services; distribution agreements; contract variations; consultancy agreements; confidentiality agreements and general privacy work and advice. Whilst training, Becky undertook seats in Real Estate, Commercial and Employment. Prior to her training contract, Becky worked as a paralegal for Panasonic Europe Ltd in a small in house legal team, providing practical and timely advice directly to business stakeholders on broad commercial matters. This experience has given her an invaluable insight into the type of legal assistance required by in-house legal teams and business, and the necessity for providing pragmatic and focused legal advice. Becky’s recent experience includes: reviewing various types of IT agreements, including software licensing, software development, support and maintenance, SaaS and systems implementation agreements; drafting a suite of documents for an innovative new car booking app, including both business and consumer terms of use, and a privacy policy for a local start-up company; drafting an agreement for the supply and ongoing support for a revolutionary new 3D printing solution for a UK university; undertaking an in-depth GDPR compliance audit for a known brand retailer business, producing and discussing with the business an onward action plan to enable the company to work towards GDPR compliance; working with an international construction company to review and update its GDPR compliance programme, including drafting and amending numerous policies and procedures and data transfer and sharing agreements; general privacy work including UK breach reporting, compiling cross jurisdictional Article 30 records, conducting DPIAs, drafting and amending data processing agreements and contract clauses, and reviewing and amending general data protection policies to ensure compliance with data and privacy legislation; and drafting a range of agreements facilitating the supply of products for UK brand name on an international basis; advising on a clothing donation, recycling and reuse agreement for large multinational retailer, maintaining direct communication with the business to progress finalising the agreement; and drafting a suite of documents for a start-up nanny agency business, including consumer facing terms and conditions.

Ben Pariser

Ben is a Partner and has worked extensively for residential, commercial and mixed-use developers throughout his career, as well as a number of local authorities, regional development agencies and registered providers. Ben’s development project work includes the drafting and negotiation of multi-phase, multi-conditional development agreements, collaboration and joint venture agreements (including public/private JVs), remediation conditions, overage provisions, land assembly, asset management, acquisitions and disposals. He regularly advises on the contractual framework and heads of terms at the project outset, then drafts and negotiates the various agreements, incorporating all necessary outputs, milestones, key performance indicators, clawback, security, overage and step-in provisions. He is adept at anticipating, identifying and thereafter mitigating public law and other risk factors such as state aid, vires, best value, procurement and governance issues. Ben's recent projects have included: •Working on behalf of a consortium of PLC residential developer in the strategic acquisition of a 3,000 unit new urban extension; •Working on behalf of a consortium of PLC residential developer in the strategic acquisition of a site for a 1,000 unit new neighbourhood; •Working on behalf of a PLC residential developer and a registered provider in their joint venture acquisition of a complex brownfield regeneration site from the HCA; •Working on behalf of a residential developer on a number of equity and debt funded acquisitions of immediate land. Ben has also advised high-street lenders in development projects and investment transactions, and so, when acting for the borrower or public sector partner, is adept at identifying the bank's likely requirements. Ben's experience includes mixed use regeneration schemes, hotels, restaurants, leisure facilities, offices, warehouses, supermarkets, industrial units, motorway service stations, residential / affordable housing developments and educational establishments.

Ben Traynor

Ben is a Principal Associate in the Financial Services team. Ben specialises in B2B asset finance & leasing and has advised banks, finance providers, lessors, lessees, brokers and trade bodies in connection with a diverse range of matters including: General equipment leasing (operating and finance leases, short term and long term rental arrangements, hire purchase agreements, sale and lease/hire purchase back structures, asset refinancing, staged payment and pre-facility funding, and commercial loans). Contract hire and vehicle fleet funding arrangements. Sale, purchase and financing of receivables. Stocking finance. Block discounting. Introducer and broker arrangements & disclosed/undisclosed agency funding structures. Recent experience includes: Assisting a specialist asset-based lender in streamlining and updating their customer facing HP and lease documentation suite. Assisting multiple automotive financial service providers in establishing contract hire and contract purchase product offerings. Advising an electric vehicle provider in documenting the sale of contract receivables and related vehicles to a UK based specialised asset finance funder. Advising a UK finance provider in connection with its disclosed and undisclosed product offerings relating to vehicle financing. Assisting a finance provider in connection with the restructuring of its wholesale funding stocking facility.

Ben Churchyard

Ben is a Senior Associate in the Banking and Finance team, based in our London office. Ben specialises in acquisition and leveraged finance transactions, as well as having experience advising banks, financial institutions and corporates in relation to real estate finance and general corporate banking. Ben’s recent deal experience includes: advising Livingbridge Enterprises LLP in relation to the debt and equity restructure of one of its portfolio companies - a leading online energy and services provider to off-grid homes across the UK including Northern Ireland; advising a well-renowned challenger bank in respect of a multi-million pound cross-jurisdictional facilities agreement provided to an online shopping search engine operating in the UK, France, Sweden, Denmark, Cayman Islands, Germany, Turks and Caicos, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Norway; acting for an aerospace group in relation to its debt facilities from a US fund, alongside asset financing from a UK lender, including debt to equity conversion steps; advising a Five Arrows Growth Capital backed borrower in relation to a multi-million pound facilities agreement provided by Goldman Sachs in respect of its acquisition of Symposium Capital Ltd; advising Santander UK plc in relation to its acquisition finance facility to transport software provider Mandata; advising Alpha Group Bidco Limited (and NVM as sponsor) in relation to various loans provided by Thincats as part of the private equity backed MBO of Pareto Facilities Management Ltd; acting for British International Investment plc (the UK’s development finance institution) and Swedfund International plc in relation to their financing of Stichting Medical Credit Fund, a fund financing small and medium-sized healthcare facilities in Africa; advising a mid-market private equity firm in respect of debt funding received from a clearing bank to partly fund the acquisition of a care management technology business, alongside the investment provided by the private equity firm; and acting for Shawbrook Bank Limited in respect of a number of commercial loans to fund various acquisitions.

Ben Gardner

Ben is a Commercial partner based in the firm's Birmingham office. Ben supports clients across the full range of commercial law disciplines, including supply of goods and services arrangements, technology contracts, outsourcings, warehousing and logistics, facilities management, joint ventures, routes to market, and consumer/e-commerce law. Ben has a particular focus in the Automotive and Technology sectors, especially where these two worlds collide: working on transformational and award-winning projects in the “Future Mobility” space. Ben’s work and profile in this area has seen him appointed to specialist boards and working groups within the UK Automotive Council and SMMT. His role in the Automotive Council sees him working with Government, OEMs, and other industry stakeholders to ensure that the UK automotive industry remains competitive internationally. Ben has also provided evidence to a House of Commons Select Committee on the regulatory changes needed to facilitate the development and deployment of autonomous vehicles in the UK. He has previously been involved with a range of automotive and mobility research projects and is now working with the DfT and CCAV on the implementation of the Automated Vehicles Bill. Ben is recognised in Legal 500 for the advice he provides to both traditional businesses and disruptive start-ups and is described as having “a wealth of experience handling contractual arrangements in the automotive industry”.

Ben Turner

Ben is a Partner with over 25 years’ experience of corporate transactional and advisory work, specialising in M&A (buy-side and sell-side); PE transactions; restructurings; and fundraisings with a particular focus on Germany, the Nordics and the USA. He is regarded as an excellent contributor at board level and praised by clients for his hands-on approach to delivering complex transactions smoothly and within budget. He has particular expertise in technology, consumer, financial services and national security sectors and advises large corporates (including several PE-backed corporates), high growth businesses and entrepreneurs across these and other sectors. Recent highlights include: advising Heligan Private Equity on the establishment of their funds and on multiple investments in national security, crime prevention and public safety; advising Waterstones on a significant group restructuring of its UK businesses; advising Peloton on a UK strategic acquisition advising a listed US software business on its UK acquisition programme. Ben heads the Corporate department nationally and is responsible for the management and strategy of our venture capital & growth, private equity and M&A teams. Ben joined Shoosmiths as a partner in 2013, having previously been a partner at boutique corporate practice Hill Hofstetter (formerly part of Reed Smith). He is praised by clients as someone who “gets things done” and who builds “strong relationships with clients”.

Beth McArdle

Beth is a real estate partner in our Birmingham Office and leads the Corporate Occupiers Team. Beth specialises in providing strategic, commercial real estate advice tailored to suit her clients and together with her team strives to offer an excellent client experience. Beth has 17 years' experience in providing a broad spectrum of real estate advice to clients including amongst others Castle Galleries, Crown Paints, Krispy Kreme, Poundland, Topps Tiles, The Foschini Group and Waterstones. Beth's recent experience includes: Providing corporate support on both asset and share sales. Acting for national retailers on all of their real estate requirements in a variety of locations and concepts. Advising a National Retailer floating on the stock exchange and with an initial IPO together with preparing all the property due diligence. Leading on the acquisition of 250 stores and dealing with the CMA elements of the deal and then integrating the entire estate into a core portfolio in a six month period. Beth and her team have developed/are developing and implementing transparent and client focused products for designed to enhance the client experience and is using technology to increase their offering.

Beth Jenkins

Beth is a banking and finance lawyer within the Shoosmiths Banking team and undertakes a wide variety of debt finance work, including corporate loans, acquisition, property and leverage finance. Beth acts for banks, borrowers and financial institutions and has experience of advising on both national and international transactions. Beth commenced her training contract at Shoosmiths in September 2017 and qualified into the Banking team in March 2019. Prior to her training contract, Beth worked as a paralegal in the Banking team.

Bethan Moore

Bethan Moore is a partner in the Corporate Restructuring and Advisory team. Bethan has a particular focus on non-contentious restructuring, corporate recovery and turnaround mandates. Bethan's clients include banks, asset based lenders, financial institutions, insolvency practitioners, directors and other key stakeholders in financially distressed businesses. She has extensive experience advising lenders, insolvency practitioners and receivers on distressed real estate. Bethan has substantial experience in the retail sector; having worked on a number of recent high profile retail sector insolvencies and restructurings. Her recent experience includes: - advising the administrators of a high profile fashion retailer on the disposals of its real estate portfolio, including the sale of its online sales distribution centre; - advising the administrators on all aspects arising out of the trading administration of a group of companies operating in the travel and leisure sector. Specifically, advising the administrators on the transfer of the group's portfolio of circa 40 hotels; - advising a funder on the restructuring of a group of companies operating in the construction sector; - advising the special servicer and receiver of a portfolio of circa 30 retail stores; and - advising an asset based lender on the funding and restructuring of a group of companies operating in the recruitment sector.

Bill Molloy

Bill advises in respect of outsourcing, large scale technology procurements, telecommunications; software development projects and intellectual property both contentious and non-contentious in the life sciences, media and communication sectors. Bill also specialises in heavyweight and high profile commercial dispute resolution and arbitration under the auspices of most of the institutional rules. He has extensive experience of resolving high value and complex commercial disputes often with a multi-jurisdictional remit for TMT, engineering, banking/finance and life science clients. He frequently advises on breaches of contract, termination rights, damages and injunctive relief. Bill is also recommended in the Legal 500 and was a contributor to "Outsourcing Transactions - A Practical Guide".

Bob Pritchard

Bob is a specialist planning lawyer with over 25 years’ experience. He has also held senior positions in local government including the post of City Solicitor and Monitoring Officer at Leeds City Council. He specialises in large scale regeneration and infrastructure projects including the use of compulsory purchase (CPO) powers. Recent experience includes:- Acting for the 5 partner local authorities to provide development management, policy and CPO advice in connection with the Harlow and Gilston Garden Town Project to deliver c 23,000 dwellings over a 30-year period. Acting for York City Council on CPO and planning issues associated with the delivery of the York Outer Ring Road (YORR). Acting for Leeds City Council on the promotion of development plan documents including the Aire Valley Area Action Plan. Acting for Herefordshire Council on the successful adoption of their Gypsy and Traveller Development Plan Document. Acting for Cheshire East Council on planning and CPO issues relating to the promotion of two major highway schemes (Middlewich Eastern Bypass and A500)

Brian Hession

Brian is a Partner with 20 years' experience in private sector commercial and mixed-use property investment, development, funding and leasing deals. Most recently I have focused on managing real estate investment, financing and development transactions, both where these are property-led or part of a wider corporate transaction. I have recently completed a Real Estate Economics and Finance course at the London School of Economics which has given me an insight into the rationale behind clients' real estate investment decisions. My recent experience includes advising: • on the sale of a company that owns 47 industrial sites; • re-financing 44 industrial properties; • on the re-financing of 72 cash and carries; • development finance for 6 logistics depots in Greater London; • re-financing a portfolio of 7 retail parks. I have been recognised personally in industry directories as “an investment specialist who is very strong on technical detail".

Brian West

Brian is a Partner and specialises in residential, mixed use and commercial development. He has experience of dealing with option and promotion agreements as well as letting agreements. Brian likes to take a proactive approach and build a rapport with clients to understand their business needs and reach a satisfactory result. Brian also has extensive experience of real estate matters including agreements, leases, sales and lettings management. Brian's recent work includes: acting for a number of national, regional and local house builders on the acquisition of development sites; advising on option and promotion agreements for developers and landowners; and dealing collaboration agreements and consortium sites.

Brodie Thomson

Brodie acts for a wide range of clients, including corporates, private equity houses and management teams. She advises clients on matters including acquisitions, disposals, investments as well as undertaking portfolio advisory work. Recent experience includes advising: the management team of CLC Group Limited on an investment by H.I.G Capital; the Foresight Group on its sale of Protean Software Limited to Joblogic; Livingbridge in connection with a fundraise for an existing portfolio company; YFM Equity Partners on its follow-on investment into Unbiased; and the Clean Growth Fund on a number of its Series B and follow-on investments including in respect of Vector Photonics Limited, Open Utility Limited, Above Surveying Ltd and Kamma Limited.

Callum Larkin

Callum is an Associate in the Banking & Finance team based in Solent. He supports the national team on a wide range of transactions, focussing on general corporate lending and asset based lending. Many of the transactions Callum works on have an international component and he is experienced at supporting multi-jurisdictional deals. During his training contract with Shoosmiths, he spent six months with each of Banking & Finance, Core Corporate and on secondment at Meridian Corporate Finance. Callum also supports the firm's Crypto Working Group and is a Mental Health Champion.

Caroline Chester

Caroline provides commercial law advice to a variety of public and private bodies, including: outsourcing arrangements; franchise agreements; IT; supply of goods and services; distribution; consumer law; direct marketing; advertising; and modern slavery. Caroline has extensive in-house experience through various client secondments. Caroline has managed internal and external legal teams across several disciplines and often implements new processes to maximise efficiency for both in-house legal teams and business leads; including by developing suites of template agreements and how-to guides; introducing legal policies and document management procedures; and by providing legal training presentations and workshops. Caroline understands first-hand the pressures our clients are under, which enables her to provide wide-ranging pragmatic and solutions driven support. Recent experience includes: supporting a leading provider of assurance services in the food safety audit and certification sector, covering the food supply chain “from farm to fork” on a number of issues. Recently Caroline advised and led the negotiation of the contract in relation to this client’s supply of auditing services to three well known fast food brands, covering the brands’ restaurants and franchises across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. providing ten template agreements to our global publisher client relating to online publication subscriptions, online webinars, sponsorship and events management, advertorials, editing services and workshops. preparing and negotiating complex framework agreements on behalf of a global car manufacturer for the supply of marketing services, across several global brands. supporting the Global General Counsel at a global mass media company while on secondment as the sole UK Legal Counsel in 2019. Caroline handled day-to-day queries and provided advice globally in relation to a wide variety of issues. Caroline’s highlights were: managing several global IT projects; creating and rolling out new global licensing terms regarding the company’s branding; creating events sponsorship terms for the company’s luxury events; and working closely with the social media / influencer marketing teams on a variety of marketing issues. acting as our global client’s interim Regional Legal Counsel while on full-time secondment, covering the client’s operations in the assurance, risk and compliance sector across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, including managing 25 legal entities and various branch offices. Caroline prepared and negotiated agreements in relation to the company’s software subscription service offering, its world-wide auditing of a number of household food brands, standards certification (including farm assurance schemes) and its other risk management services. while on secondment as Senior Legal Counsel at a British multinational retailer and international franchisor, Caroline managed and supervised the junior team on domestic and international BAU matters, overseeing several outsourcing projects, and implementing efficiency changes throughout the company. providing full on and off site legal support to a leading cereal manufacturer, including in relation to the purchase of advertising and media services, locally sourced ingredients (including wheat and sugar), packaging, haulage services and facilities management. advising a start-up tech company in relation to the legal requirements involved in providing social media services through the hosting of a website and innovative mobile app, including direct marketing advice

Caroline Airey

Caroline is a principal associate in the Tax team. Caroline advises on all aspects of corporate and business taxation, including in relation to mergers and acquisitions, property acquisitions and disposals. Caroline also advises on EIS and VCT qualifying fundraising.

Catherine Hood

Catherine is a real estate lawyer who works to enable real estate investors, developers and corporate occupiers to successfully fulfil their property requirements. She has 20 years of experience including a three year part-time secondment to a shopping centre developer as sole in-house counsel. Her special expertise is in the management of complex and multi property deals and she has a particular interest in automotive, health and shopping centre sectors. Examples of the types of work Catherine has undertaken include: acquiring landmark listed building 55 Colmore Row, Birmingham and working on the financing, ongoing redevelopment letting and subsequent sale for £98m for IM Properties plc; Working with IM Properties on their industrial and logistics development at Hinkley. negotiating and agreeing legal documentation for CBRE's new office in Birmingham; advising a French motor vehicle manufacturer on all aspects of their English property portfolio including acquisitions, taking leases, redevelopment, underlettings, and disposals (including a nine property sale and leaseback) and the sale of their main UK assembly plant; providing real estate support to purchaser's principal legal advisor on Project Isobel (RBS debt sale with a value of over £1billion). Managing a team which reviewed security over 900 properties, sampled titles for more detailed reporting, responded to specific questions on the portfolio, liaised with overseas counsel in relation to real estate/security matters and co-ordinated planning, banking and insolvency specialists; managing real estate due diligence team acting for a US private equity firm acquiring Farnborough Business Park for over £70 million including dealing with real estate aspects of the financing and undertaking major land disposals; leading the real estate team acting for a UK private equity house on property elements of the acquisition of a special education provider. Catherine reviewed and supervised review of 15 certificates of title, negotiated property aspects of corporate sale agreement and dealt with real estate aspects of debt funding. Subsequently acquiring a freehold property leased to the company and dealt with debt and equity financing aspects; acting for investment companies, individuals and pension funds acquiring and disposing of investment properties and portfolios (retail, office and industrial); completing land sales for residential and commercial development (including phased payments with security, overage and multiple land draw downs) and "contaminated" and "remediated" land (both with and without overage) for utility suppliers. advising healthcare developers (within and outside LIFT) on developments such as the Portway Lifestyle Centre, the Lyng Centre for Health and Social Care, the City of Coventry Health Centre and advising PCT's on property solutions for equitable access programmes.

Charles Williams

Charles specialises in all aspects of non-contentious restructuring and insolvency, advising banks, insolvency practitioners, company directors and creditors on all aspects of the insolvency process, with particular emphasis on company voluntary arrangements and administrations in the retail and hospitality sector. Known for his excellent technical skill and commercial awareness, Charles has recently advised on a number of high profile retail CVAs (Poundstretcher, Moss Bros, Jigsaw, Monsoon Accessorize Limited, Accessorize Limited, Office Outlet (formerly Staples), Supercuts and Select Fashions). Charles also advised in connection with the restructuring of Monarch Aircraft Engineering Limited, culminating in the implementation of a CVA, and continues to advise the administrators of Monarch Aircraft Engineering Limited following the failure of the CVA. Charles’ notable experience includes: advising the administrators of Harveys and Bensons for Beds;advising Healthy Retail (trading as Pure), Thai Leisure Group and Iberica Restaurants in connection with their successful CVAs; advising the directors of Office Outlet (a company operating from 87 stores formerly under the Staples brand) in connection with its company voluntary arrangement; advising Regis UK Limited, trading as Supercuts, a company operating hairdressing and beauty salons from 223 outlets, in connection with its restructuring through a company voluntary arrangement; advising the administrators of Gelpack Excelsior Limited and Gelpack Industrial Limited; advising the administrators of the Sealine group of companies; advising the administrators of the Ham Baker Group of companies;

Charles Jackson

Charles is a Legal Director in the Real Estate Division. He has experience of all aspects of real estate work and specialises in acting for investors, developers and funders in relation to investment sales/purchases, commercial, mixed use and residential developments, forward sales/purchases, forward fundings, and lettings. Charles has particular sector expertise in relation to build to rent, mixed use and healthcare transactions (including care homes, retirement villages and primary care centres). Recent experience includes: acting on the purchase of a residential-led mixed use city centre development for a London-based property fund; acting on the purchase of a major city centre office building and the forward funding of a build to rent development/conversion for a London-based property fund; acting for a local authority in relation to a major mixed use town centre redevelopment, including cinema, food and beverage lettings and a retail lease re-gear; acquiring a development site for a retirement village developer and advising on structuring and set-up issues in relation to the development; and managing the team acting for the landlord of a major city centre shopping centre in relation to retail unit lettings.

Charles Arrand

Charles is an experienced regulatory crime solicitor advising corporations and their directors on investigations, prosecutions and other enforcement actions in relation to the offences which can be committed by companies, including bribery and corruption, environmental, waste and nuisance, corporate manslaughter, health and safety, trading standards, animal welfare, pricing and promotions, food labelling, food hygiene and food safety, weights and measures, Coroner's inquests, product recall and product safety etc. Charles has over 20 years’ experience in pretty much all sectors but in particular - retail, food and drink, hospitality and leisure, manufacturing, rail, construction, property and facilities management, automotive, government and defence, mining, transport, warehousing and logistics, and healthcare and acts for individuals as well as many well-known global and high street businesses. Charles is acutely aware of reputational risk/brand protection and is used to having to act and advise in high profile matters. Charles is ranked locally and nationally in various legal directories over many years, and is a regular speaker at seminars and events, a provider of bespoke training for clients and umbrella bodies, a writer of articles on various subjects within his expertise and a reviewing editor of leading textbook Consumer and Trading Standards: Law and Practice.

Charley Hemming

Charley is an principal associate Real Estate solicitor, based in the firm's Nottingham office and has a broad range of experience in all areas of non-contentious property work, with a particular emphasis on landlord and tenant work. Her current role at Shoosmiths is as the team leader for the Client Services Team, a specialist team dealing with the submission of Stamp Duty Land Tax Returns and Land Registry applications.

Charlotte Cannell

Charlotte is a Principal Associate in our corporate department advising on all aspects of corporate law, including venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, turnaround/distressed situations, and private equity transactions. Charlotte works with a variety of clients including private companies, venture capital investors and companies, management teams and owner managed businesses. Recent experience includes advising: EVC Chargers Ltd on the £165m investment by Denham Capital; BGF on their investment into Brompton Bicycle; Pentech Ventures, Pi Labs, Outward VC and West Loop Ventures on their exit from Vauban; Twenty7Tec Group on its acquisition of Bluecoat Software; N Family Club on the £42.5m investment by Gresham House; Peloton, on its acquisition of Rogo Scott; Gresham House's British Sustainable Infrastructure Funds on their £164 million follow-on investment into Borderlink Broadband Limited; the shareholders of Bramble Foods Limited, a successful manufacturer and distributor of fine foods, on the investment from mid-market private equity firm LDC; GEMS Education on the sale of GEMS' international schools, Tropicana Metropark in Kuala Lumpar and Pearl City in Penang, to XCL Education; VivoPower, an international battery technology, electric vehicle and solar power services company, on their capital raising of $28.75 million through the issuance of new shares on Nasdaq; Gresham House Ventures on their £63 million investment into Telcom Group Ltd, a full-stack UK internet service provider; MML Capital Partners on the disposal of training and education platform, Learning Curve Group, to Agilitas Private Equity; Titgemeyer, a German manufacturing business on its acquisition of Yorkshire based Cirteq Limited, a leading international circlip specialist; and Safanad, an American private equity fund on its investment in Rimstock, a Cayman manufacturing business.

Charlotte Broster

Charlotte is a Principal Associate in the Corporate Restructuring & Advisory department. She advises a range of clients including insolvency practitioners, directors, creditors and banks on all contentious and non contentious matters arising out of corporate insolvencies. Charlotte's expertise include; advising on the sale and purchase of businesses and assets in an insolvency context, conducting security reviews and advising on the enforceability of security, as well as advising insolvency practitioners in relation to antecedent transactions.

Charlotte Thomas

Charlotte is a Legal Director in the Banking and Finance team, based in our Leeds office. Charlotte specialises in acquisition and leveraged finance transactions, as well as having experience advising banks, financial institutions and corporates in relation to general corporate banking and growth finance. She is listed as an Associate to Watch in Chambers and Partners. Charlotte's experience includes: acting for an aerospace group in relation to its debt facilities from a US fund, alongside asset financing from a UK lender, including debt to equity conversion steps; advising the a large venture capital investor on a number of VCT lending matters; acting for a management team in their capacity as junior creditors alongside senior funding provided by a club of banks, as part of a private equity investment into the business; advising the borrowing group on acquisition financing provided by an alternative lender for an MBO; acting for an education group on its banking facilities to fund its acquisitive aims; advising a clearing bank on its financing of the purchase of a Midlands based wholesale foods business by its founders; and acting for a lender in respect of a number of commercial loans to fund customer acquisitions.

Choisanne Man

Choisanne has a broad practice which focuses on investment acquisitions and disposals, development of residential led, commercial and mixed use schemes and general asset management work. Her experience is across all sectors including offices, shopping centres, retail parks, industrial, student accommodation, hotels and mixed use properties. She has particular experience in the acquisition and forward funding of developments to be used for mixed use, PRS and BTR. Choisanne acts for a spectrum of clients ranging from private and publicly listed property companies to investments funds, asset managers and high net worth individuals. She also acts for several well-known high street retailers on their occupier/tenant management work. Clients value her commercial approach and her ability to project manage and lead on large/high value transactions.

Chris George

Chris is a principal associate and specialises in acting for sophisticated landlord investors in relation to portfolio and high value/profile acquisitions and disposals, landlord and tenant matters including lease re-gears, new lettings, vacant possession programmes, finance lease structures and lease management. He also has significant expertise advising in the motor manufacturing, retail, leisure and late-night entertainment sectors while regularly acting for financial institutions, particularly in relation to real estate portfolio refinances. Chris’ recent projects include: providing ongoing advice to Volkswagen Group United Kingdom in relation to their national dealer portfolio; acting for London & Continental Railways Limited in its disposal of a key development site to facilitate the £200 million Oxpens Road, Oxford regeneration program; representing The Open University in its property reorganisation program involving acquisitions and disposals across various multi-million pound sites across the country; advising Almacantar in relation to a lease management scheme to obtain vacant possession to facilitate the redevelopment of London’s Centre Point tower; working as part of the property team carrying out the due diligence in relation to the £172 million share purchase of Park Holidays UK; advising health and fitness group of companies in connection with its fire-sale disposal of multiple health clubs; and working on a team representing a ‘Big Five’ UK bank in relation to a petrochemical company’s acquisition of a portfolio of filling stations.

Chris Moakes

Chris is a Partner who joined the firm in 2019 as a Tax Manager to focus on the enterprise investment scheme (EIS) and venture capital trusts (VCT) tax practice. Chris has extensive experience advising a wide range of investors and investee companies on structuring and implementing tax efficient investments, reorganisations and exits in compliance with the EIS and VCT regimes. In addition Chris has substantial experience of advising VCT's on their compliance obligations to ensure that they continue to meet the range of qualifying conditions which must be considered on an ongoing basis. Chris has a general corporate tax background and has previously provided corporate tax advice to companies ranging from start ups to multinational groups on both one-off business transactions, relevant changes to the tax legislation/environment and on-going tax compliance obligations. His recent experience includes: advising a number of EIS and VCT investors including the Livingbridge (Baronsmead VCTs), Octopus Investments and Puma Investment Management on the impact on their existing and proposed investments of recent and forthcoming changes to the EIS and VCT regime; acting on a wide range of EIS and VCT compliant transactions, including obtaining advance assurances from HMRC and providing opinions to investors on whether a company would qualify under the schemes; advising on VCT mergers to ensure continued compliance with the VCT regime, including negotiating with HMRC; advising a VCT on how to implement a complex restructure of an existing investment so as to ensure continued compliance with the VCT regime whilst securing the future of the investee company, including negotiating with HMRC; advising a range of companies ranging from multinational groups to start ups on the corporate tax compliance obligations as well as any changes to the tax environment that could impact them. Chris is an ACA chartered accountant having trained at PwC in their tax department.

Chris Pritchett

Chris is a commercial Energy and Mobility partner, with nearly 20 years' experience in the sustainability sphere. With specialist knowledge of battery storage, solar, EV infrastructure and wind, Chris regularly advises funders, asset owners, developers and contractors on renewable energy projects and the trading and procurement of renewable power. From PPAs and optimisation agreements to commercial frameworks for energy and EV developments, Chris has worked on some of the most exciting UK and international energy and mobility developments. He is also a keen advocate for innovation in the energy and mobility space and is passionate about working on new commercial models to drive ever quicker towards Net Zero, from voluntary carbon offset schemes, local energy markets and a host of data-driven flexibility projects. Chris also takes an active role in the development of energy policy, and was a steering group member of the Government's Energy Data Task Force as well as chairing the Electricity Storage Networks Markets and Revenues Group. He was also included in The Lawyer's HOT 100 for his pioneering work in battery storage and EV Charging.

Chris Mills

Chris is a banking and finance partner specialising in real estate finance. Chris has more than a decade's experience in advising borrowers, financial institutions and sponsors on a wide range of national and cross-border debt financings, including syndicated and bilateral loans, across a wide range of industry sectors. Chris also has experience in acquisition and leveraged finance, as well as asset-based lending. Chris' clients include a number of major UK clearing banks, as well as alternative lenders, debt funds, debt brokers and corporate borrowers. Recent transactions include: advising a large corporate borrower in regard to its lending of up to circa £100 million from a global asset management owned SPV in regard to the acquisition and development of an industrial platform located in London; advising a major UK clearing bank in relation to is lending of circa £20 million to a corporate borrower for the purposes of re-financing existing borrowings in relation to a portfolio of properties across London; advising an alternative lender in respect to their lending of mezzanine finance to an Abu Dhabi borrowing entity to, amongst other things, refinance the acquisition of a famous hotel in Edinburgh; and advising a major UK clearing bank in relation to its lending of a £10 million development finance facility to a corporate borrower for the purposes of financing the development of a former garden centre in Hertfordshire.

Chris Morris

Chris is a Partner within the Shoosmiths's Real Estate team in Birmingham Chris is an experienced lawyer working with developers, investors, operators and occupiers to deliver their real estate requirements. He has over 16 years’ experience helping clients to structure and plan their projects and transactions, understand and manage risk and protect their interests. He draws on his legal experience acting regularly for parties on both sides of the negotiating fence to make him perfectly placed to quickly focus on what will be most important to his clients and pragmatically to deliver the right end results.

Chris Garnett

Chris advises public and private companies on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, capital fundraisings and restructurings and corporate governance. He now works closely with the Corporate Divisional Head on strategic projects, including the significant level of partner recruitment being undertaken to drive the growth of our wider corporate practice. Chris also leads our corporate team in the North. His transactional experience includes advising: British Gas the acquisition of JK Environmental (UK) Limited, a company providing environmental, sewer cleansing and tankering services, and ECL Contracts, which provides cladding and insulation services to a range of commercial and industrial clients; the family shareholders and management team on the management buyout of leading UK packaging business Benson Box, backed by LDC – voted 'Deal of the Year' at the Midlands Insider Deal Awards 2012; and the management team on their £41m takeover of AIM listed Workplace Systems International plc. Under Chris' leadership the Corporate Practice Group enjoyed a period of significant growth. They were voted ‘Law Firm of the Year’ at the UK M&A Deal Awards in 2015 and in 2016 were ranked No 1 in the Experian Corpfin deal league table, handling more M&A deals in the UK than any other law firm.

Chris McKinney

Chris is a Partner and leads the Personal Injury team at Shoosmiths. He qualified as a solicitor in 1984. Ranked as a notable practitioner by Chambers, and a recommended lawyer by the Legal 500 Chris has been undertaking personal injury claims for more than 30 years and only act for the victims of accidents. He acts for individuals who have suffered life changing injuries. Chris provides support to his clients and their families from his first instruction to the end of their claim making sure he is available and accessible to them. Most of his instructions come from personal referrals from existing and former clients and other professionals. Brain injury Chris has a particular interest and specialism in brain injury claims and has won numerous £ million compensation claims for the victims of such accidents, and several multi-million pound claims. He is currently instructed in more than a dozen such claims. He is a member of the Headway Panel and a trustee and company secretary of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Headway. Spinal injury Chris has an expertise in spinal injury cases and has acted for clients who have suffered both quadriplegic and paraplegic injuries, and has negotiated settlement of claims both on a lump sum and annual payments basis. He is currently instructed in a number of spinal cord injury claims of the utmost severity. Amputation injuries Chris has undertaken many claims for inured people who have suffered amputation injuries and catastrophic injuries that have resulted in surgical amputations. Advocacy Chris carries out much of his own advocacy, and regularly appear as an advocate in inquests and in the county and High Court. Testimonials "My Solicitor has been brilliant from the beginning through to the end. He helped and guided me through the many ups and downs of a 5 1/2 year compensation claim which was extremely stressful. Nothing ever seemed too difficult, no question was ever deemed to be too trivial, deadlines were always met well in advance, and every stage, however complicated and confusing, was handled professionally but also compassionately." (Sally Francis) “The situation I have been involved in has been overwhelming and having such good support from Mr McKinney was the stability I needed and guidance” (Michelle Aveyard) “Exceptional service, knowledge, approachability. Professionalism of the highest order” (Wayne Smith). “From the initial meeting to discuss my case I felt that I was being dealt with as a person rather than a reference number. All queries I had were answered promptly and thoroughly I would have no hesitation in recommending Shoosmiths” (Will Stephens) “Thank you for everything you have done for me over the last few years. You made a stressful time feel easy to understand” (John Quinn). "Thank you! Chris and his team at Shoosmiths have both been an amazing comfort and asset to have on our side. It’s been a pleasure working with you." (Chris Hadley) “..would like to say thank you for all the work you have done and the result you got for me, I am so pleased its done with and now we can get on” (Paul Kavanagh). “I wanted to send a personal email of thanks for all your hard work during the case. From start to finish nothing was too much trouble and you demonstrated your wealth of knowledge and experience. I think the service your team led by yourself provided was second to none. I am most grateful for how you dealt with the case” (RH). "From the very outset I had 100% confidence that I was in the best possible care with regards to my case. Chris's“I wanted to send a personal email of thanks for all your hard work during the case. From start to finish nothing was too much trouble and you demonstrated your wealth of knowledge and experience. I think the service your team led by yourself provided was second to none. I am most grateful for how you dealt with the case”. empathy, clear communication and professionalism were all excellent and I know I had the best possible outcome" (Cathryn Hancock). ‘Chris McKinney has always been excellent. He provides comprehensive and clear advice and is obviously very knowledgeable. He is also very pleasant to deal with, both by email and telephone’. Legal 500 2022. "His advice is always relevant, timely and personal. He clearly knows his area of expertise inside out” Chambers 2022." ‘Chris McKinney has been leading my case and he is exceptional. His communications are professional and clear, but also easy to understand from a lay person’s perspective. It is clear that he brings with him a huge amount of experience in this area and in discussions we have had during the course of my claim, he has explained all options available to me in a very open and understandable way’. Legal 500 2023. Chris McKinney is one of the best claimant PI solicitors out there. He never fails to get results for his clients, who universally adore him. He's very reassuring and technically able." Chambers 2023. My case was headed up by Chris McKinney, his depth of knowledge in personal injury claims and rehabilitation was extremely vast. From start to finish I felt comforted that Chris Mckinney and his team had my best interests in hand. Anytime I wanted to speak to Chris I had his personal mobile phone number’. Legal 500 2024 Chris McKinney is one of the finest serious injury lawyers in the country. Highly experienced and someone who will never stop fighting for his clients – he cannot be recommended highly enough Legal 500 2024 "He's one of the best lawyers in the country for claimant work." Chambers 2024

Christian Cockroft

Christian is a Principal Associate, data, privacy and regulatory lawyer whose practice spans a broad spectrum of data governance, data regulation (antitrust, privacy and sectoral) and cybersecurity related work. Christian is versed in a multitude of privacy laws, including GDPR, the PECRs (and related cookie-law), CCPA and PIPEDA, while his wider regulatory experience involves advising on antitrust, data governance and market access laws, law enforcement access & lawful intercept, and sector/industry-specific laws and codes of practice (including HIPPA, SOX, DORA, ISO information security standards and PCI-DSS). This mix of experience makes Christian uniquely placed to assist multi-national organisations in navigating a range of cross-border compliance issues, from implementing global privacy programs and advising on cross-border data breaches, complex strategic or transactions matters (such as outsourcing or digital transformation global), as well as advising on novel or higher-risk technologies (e.g., MarTech, AI-regulation, blockchain, crypto-tech, NFTs, metaverse etc.). Representative engagements include: Assisting multiple organisations in navigating data transfer compliance, including Schrems II compliance, model clauses and docking arrangements, transfer risk assessments (having conducted over 20 TRAs in 2022) and negotiating supplementary security measures. Advised a number of organisations in the acquisition of Binding Corporate Rules, including acting on one of the UK’s first post-Brexit standalone BCR applications for a leading Ed-tech provider. Conducted an international data mapping and compliance project for a Japanese automotive manufacturer. Assisted a large timeshare and resort provider with its global privacy & data compliance efforts, including data mapping, vendor management, revision of existing privacy and information security policies, use of MarTech and cookie compliance. Advising on multiple intra-group data transfer arrangements for companies spanning a broad range of sectors (e.g., banking, social media, telecommunications, heavy industry, automotive etc.). Advised a global bank on a $100m+ outsourcing arrangement with an edge-to-cloud provider, including negotiating contractual arrangements with vendors, drafting information security schedules and advising on associated data transfers issues. Advised a major social networking company on both privacy and antitrust aspects of its acquisition of a popular OTT messaging platform. Advice to a global credit rating agency on a range of privacy matters, including the use of AI-enabled decision-making technologies. Advice to various telecos, ISPs and digital advertising agencies on PECR compliance, use of location data and compliant data monetization strategies. Working with a multitude of automotive manufacturers on a range of privacy matters associated with connected car technology and law enforcement access to data. MarTech and privacy advice to a range of industry leaders, publishers and digital advertising agencies on TP cookie sunsetting. Advice to a leading provider of coworking on its global use of AI-enabled CCTV. Advised a global electronics manufacturer in a global data incident involving regulatory filings in over 30 jurisdictions.

Christian Cockcroft

Christian is a data, privacy and regulatory lawyer whose practice spans a broad spectrum of data governance, data regulation (antitrust, privacy and sectoral) and cybersecurity related work. Christian is versed in a multitude of privacy laws, including GDPR, the PECRs (and related cookie-law), CCPA and PIPEDA, while his wider regulatory experience involves advising on antitrust, data governance and market access laws, law enforcement access & lawful intercept, and sector/industry-specific laws and codes of practice (including HIPPA, SOX, DORA, ISO information security standards and PCI-DSS). This mix of experience makes Christian uniquely placed to assist multi-national organisations in navigating a range of cross-border compliance issues, from implementing global privacy programs and advising on cross-border data breaches, complex strategic or transactions matters (such as outsourcing or digital transformation global), as well as advising on novel or higher-risk technologies (e.g., MarTech, AI-regulation, blockchain, crypto-tech, NFTs, metaverse etc.). Christian trained and practised in the Brussels office of a US law firm, before moving in-house, most recently as General Counsel & Data Protection Officer for an international security organization, before joining Shoosmiths in 2021. Representative engagements include: Assisting multiple organisations in navigating data transfer compliance, including Schrems II compliance, model clauses and docking arrangements, transfer risk assessments (having conducted over 20 TRAs in 2022) and negotiating supplementary security measures. Advised a number of organisations in the acquisition of Binding Corporate Rules, including acting on one of the UK’s first post-Brexit standalone BCR applications for a leading Ed-tech provider. Conducted an international data mapping and compliance project for a Japanese automotive manufacturer. Assisted a large timeshare and resort provider with its global privacy & data compliance efforts, including data mapping, vendor management, revision of existing privacy and information security policies, use of MarTech and cookie compliance. Advising on multiple intra-group data transfer arrangements for companies spanning a broad range of sectors (e.g., banking, social media, telecommunications, heavy industry, automotive etc.). Advised a global bank on a $100m+ outsourcing arrangement with an edge-to-cloud provider, including negotiating contractual arrangements with vendors, drafting information security schedules and advising on associated data transfers issues. Advised a major social networking company on both privacy and antitrust aspects of its acquisition of a popular OTT messaging platform. Advice to a global credit rating agency on a range of privacy matters, including the use of AI-enabled decision-making technologies. Advice to various telecos, ISPs and digital advertising agencies on PECR compliance, use of location data and compliant data monetization strategies. Working with a multitude of automotive manufacturers on a range of privacy matters associated with connected car technology and law enforcement access to data. MarTech and privacy advice to a range of industry leaders, publishers and digital advertising agencies on TP cookie sunsetting. Advice to a leading provider of coworking on its global use of AI-enabled CCTV. Advised a global electronics manufacturer in a global data incident involving regulatory filings in over 30 jurisdictions.

Christine Burrows

Christine has over 12 years’ experience as a non-contentious construction lawyer. Christine acts for clients across both the public and private sector. Her work involves negotiating building contracts, bonds, guarantees, collateral warranties, professional appointments and construction aspects of development agreements and agreements for lease. Her recent projects experience includes: Advising a developer on a number of high profile city centre developments including the preparation and negotiation of building contracts, appointments, warranties and security documentation; Advising investors in shopping centres and retail parks on their construction projects relating to the operation of and extension to the centres. In addition advising the investors on the construction elements of the sale of such assets; Acting for a local authority on a large town centre re-development project including retail, cinema and car parks; Advising funders on a variety of construction projects.

Christopher King

Chris is a real estate lawyer with over 15 years’ experience of a mix of commercial property transactions advising both companies and public sector clients. His experience includes: Acting for an acquisitional discount retail food store and one of the main fast-food drive thru operators, working on conditional contracts and development agreements for lease. Working on acquisitions, sales, development agreements and a key leisure restructuring project for a north-west local authority. Regeneration including acquisitions, development agreements and development agreements for lease – private rented sector, retail and leisure including a performance venue. Hotel acquisitions including development agreements and sale and lease back arrangements. Looking after the property interests of an air services operator at Leeds Bradford Airport. The disposition of a strategic East Yorkshire site to a multi-national manufacturing company. Advising landowners on renewable projects for in-shore wind and solar farm development. Acting for a local independent school including with neighbouring properties after a major redevelopment.

Claire Hayes

Claire is a Principal Associate in the Real Estate team. She has experience of a wide range of transactions, particularly specialising in residential development work. Claire has extensive experience of acting for developer clients on immediate and strategic development sites pursuant to conditional contracts and options, often including overage arrangements. She also acts for landowners. Claire's experience includes: acting for a number of well known house builders in the acquisition of land for both strategic and immediate development, advising developers on the disposal of affordable housing to registered providers, advising landowners in relation to promotion agreements to enable the possibility of development of sites; and working on site assembly and negotiating agreements for key infrastructure required to serve the London 2012 Olympic Park.

Claire Raddan

Claire Raddan is a principal associate real estate lawyer with experience of acting for a wide range of clients including investors, commercial and mixed use developers, institutional landlords and household names. Claire undertakes a variety of core real estate work with a focus on landlord and tenant transactions. Claire's recent work include: acting for a warehouse and distribution company in a complex re-gearing of leasehold property interests in connection with a multi-million pound joint venture and share sale; acting for the purchaser of strategic agricultural land with overage options and re-finance; acting for a developer in the acquisition of land for immediate mixed use development; acting for a variety of tenants, including many household names, on all aspects of leasehold interests; and acting for a large corporate client on the real estate aspects of a multi-million pound merger, including property due diligence, leasehold restructuring and advice on the property aspects of the corporate agreements.

Claire Ward

Claire is a senior associate in the Residential Conveyancing department at The Lakes in Northampton. She runs a large case-load of matters, dealing with a wide range of Conveyancing cases, including freehold and leasehold matters, new-build properties, deeds of variation, lease extensions, right to buy and shared-ownership. Claire has the overall responsibility for managing the conveyancing transactions from inception through to successful completion, focusing on the technical requirements of the matter.

Claire Rowe

As an adviser to Shoosmiths’ Partnership Claire provides experience and insight to the continuing benefit of the firm she has served for more than thirty years. Before stepping in to her current role, Claire was the elected chief executive officer (CEO) of Shoosmiths from 2009 to 2018, during which time she led the series of changes that has powered Shoosmiths from being a mid-range regional firm into the leading UK challenger is it today. Taking over as CEO when a UK recession was at its peak, she made and implemented a series of strategic decisions to focus the business on its commercial operations and extend its range across leading UK cities, including the opening and successful growth of new offices in Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh and Belfast and the delivery of a successful re-brand in 2012; all underpinned by a resolute commitment to the differentiator of client service and backed by investment in the firm’s people. A 30% increase in turnover and 230% growth of profitability accompanied this ten year-trajectory, together with a slew of legal sector awards have including Shoosmiths being named a top tier firm for client satisfaction in 2012 as well as winning “Law Firm of the Year” awards in both 2015 and 2018. Claire joined Shoosmiths in 1984 as a trainee solicitor and was rapidly promoted ‘through the ranks’ to become a partner in 1990. She led the firm’s dispute resolution team, and also the firm’s commercial practice group, prior to her election as CEO in June 2009. Her continuous commitment to the firm enabled her to drive an extraordinary amount of change without compromising the spirit of the business and its values. The qualities of balance, commercial pragmatism, warmth and courage she displays are highly valued by the firm in 2019 and beyond. In 2014, Claire was featured in The Lawyer’s “Hot 100” and is also a recognised role model for diversity.

Claire Checketts

Claire is a partner in the corporate team, advising on mergers and acquisitions, disposals and venture capital work. Claire works with a variety of clients including private companies, listed PLCs, management teams and owner managed businesses. Recent project experience includes advising: a joint venture company of Domino's Pizza UK and Ireland Limited on the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of AKS Partners Limited; the management team of Celaton Limited on the investment of £2.5 million by the Business Growth Fund; Downing LLP on a number of investments.

Craig Armstrong

Craig is a partner within Shoosmiths’ IT & Tech team with over 20 years of experience within the technology sector. Craig advises both customers and suppliers on a wide range of FinTech, IT and sourcing matters across a wide range of industry sectors, with a particular focus on the telecoms, financial services, manufacturing and retail sectors. Craig's diverse experience includes negotiating IT system integration agreements, SaaS-delivered platforms, infrastructure and desktop outsourcings, ERP and CRM system procurements, complex IT-centric and business process outsourcings (both onshore and offshore), negotiating software implementation, licensing and support agreements and advising on contractual arrangements relating to e-commerce trading platforms and co-branded financial services on behalf of financial institutions and retail partners. Craig also has niche expertise within financial services and regularly advises on merchant acquiring, co-branded and affinity products, customer account value added services and other commercial contracts within the financial services sector. Craig is also the co-author of PLC and Lexis Nexis merchant acquiring and PCI DSS guidance notes for commercial lawyers. As a result of his experience, Craig is a member of Lexis Nexis’ consulting Editorial Board for TMT, working alongside other leading industry experts in this field. Craig is also the author of Lexis Nexis’ System Integration precedents and PLC’s “Special Issues in IT Outsourcing” practice note. Craig is ITIL certified, the leading global best business practice for IT Service Management. Craig's experience includes advising: • a British modern luxury automotive manufacturer on its £800m digital transformation project with TCS • two systemic European banks entering into separate long term partnering arrangements with the acquirers of their respective merchant acquiring businesses • a UK bank in respect of its white labelled digital mortgage platform arrangements with a leading mortgage platform provider • a global manufacturer in respect of the procurement and roll-out of its transformative SD-WAN network solution across over 100 global sites • a UK SD-WAN solutions provider in respect of its customer contracts and contractual arrangements with resellers in other key markets • a global intelligence, events and research group in respect of its customer data platform contractual arrangements with a market leading US provider • a FinTech betting odds solutions provider in respect of its publisher arrangements with the likes of ESPN, NBC and CBS Interactive. • a UK MNO on its £250m+ IT transformation project to create a SaaS-based new IT system • a UK MNO on the potential managed service outsourcing of its entire legacy IT and core network infrastructure to two major outsourced service providers • a UK challenger bank on the replacement of its existing contractual arrangements with a key IT supplier from a managed service model to a truly outsourced model whilst also tripling the breadth of IT services provided by the supplier to the bank

Crispin Bridges Webb

With 30 years’ experience of corporate and M&A work, Crispin is a partner in the Corporate Group and a leader in his field. Crispin not only works across the UK (working between the London and Midlands offices of Shoosmiths) but also manages transactions outside the UK. He has a wide breadth of experience in terms of clients (whether UK or international private or public corporates, institutions, private equity houses, growth companies and start ups and individuals) across most sectors. Work includes M&A, divestments, equity capital markets, private equity transactions, corporate governance and general corporate matters. Crispin also jointly heads Shoosmiths International managing and co-ordinating Shoosmiths’ relationships with law firms around the globe, including through its’ membership of the World Services Group (WSG), a global network of law firms, as well as its participation in the International Bar Association (IBA). He was awarded UK M&A Lawyer of the Year 2020 by Lawyer Monthly. Legal directory quotes include: ‘cutting-edge advice’, ‘fantastic client-focused service’, 'good commercial sense with a view to getting deals done quickly’, ‘pragmatic approach to complex multi-party negotiations’.

Dan Sharman

Dan is a Partner in the Corporate Tax team in London. Dan specialises in advising on all types of employee incentive arrangements, ranging from share options, share ownership (particularly growth shares), cash-based schemes and employee benefit trusts. In addition to handling share options work, he also advises clients on all areas of employment tax, including internationally mobile employees and the tax efficient structuring of bonuses and termination payments. Dan is dual qualified as both a solicitor and a chartered tax adviser.

Dan O'Keefe

Dan is a Legal Director and clinical negligence solicitor, acting for Claimants in complex cases, all over the country. Dan has a specialist interest in spinal injury cases, in particular Cauda Equina Syndrome claims. Prior to joining Shoosmiths, Dan was a Director at Moosa-Duke Solicitors and before that he worked at Russell-Cooke in London. Since qualifying, Dan has exclusively represented claimants in high value, complex, novel and high profile personal injury and medical negligence cases. Dan has always been an enthusiastic contributor to his local legal community. Dan has served in many voluntary roles, including as Editor of the Leicestershire Law Society magazine and as President of the Leicestershire Medico-Legal Society. In 2021 Dan was awarded the accolade of Solicitor of the Year by the Leicestershire Law Society. Throughout his career, Dan has always been an active member of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), previously being Secretary for the Product Liability Special Interest Group and Co-ordinator for the East Midlands Group. Dan acted for the claimant in the case of X v University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (2019) where there was a negligent delay in diagnosing and treating Cauda Equina Syndrome. Dan recovered a 7 figure sum for the claimant, following a three week trial. In light of his expertise in Cauda Equina Syndrome cases, Dan was invited to contribute to a new Cauda Equina Syndrome pathway, being implemented by three hospital trusts.

Dan Greatorex

Dan is a Senior Associate advising clients on a wide range of commercial matters including supply and purchase terms, distribution agreements, outsourcing agreements, IT software agreements, reseller arrangements and legal compliance matters. He is praised by clients for his pro-active approach to progressing deals, understanding clients’ business objectives and providing clear, concise legal advice. He regularly advises clients in a broad range of sectors including logistics, technology, sports, media, transport and renewable energy. Recent project experience includes advising: A local authority on its £58.9m purchase of two hybrid solar farms with battery storage, and subsequent management and sale arrangements; An outsourced service provider on its £50m food and consumable UK distribution agreement; A national development bank on the outsourcing of its loan administration IT system; A Championship football club in relation to its lead shirt sponsorship deal, including advising on club, player and coach promotional inventory; Various high-profile professional athletes on their image rights, sponsorship and endorsement agreements; A sports therapy device retailer on its licensing arrangements with the British Olympic Association; An international IT service provider on its suite of supply agreements in respect of its telehealth messaging platform; An IT start-up on various data protection compliance matters relating to its ticketing platform which utilizes facial recognition technology; and A software developer on all contractual documentation relating to the release of its flagship managed services product. Outside oflarge project work, Dan works closely with several of our clients’ in-house legal teams to assist with their day-to-day commercial contracting arrangements. This work typically involves negotiating contracts based on standard terms, understanding the business’ risk profile and providing strategic commercial advice. Dan recently returned from his secondment to a Fortune 500 international outsourced service provider, during which he supported their UK onshore and global offshore operations. This support included assisting stakeholders across the business by restructuring commercial agreements to mitigate against the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dan Stamford

Daniel qualified as a solicitor in March 2021 and was promoted to Senior Associate in March 2023, having joined the firm as paralegal in 2017 and undertaking a training contract in the London office in September 2019. Daniel advises on all aspects of commercial real estate including asset management and real estate investment acquisitions and disposals, and has experience acting for landlords, tenants and portfolio holders of both freehold and leasehold properties. Daniel also has expertise in advising on all aspects relating to data centres including providing support for operators and developers and he is a member of the Data Centre team at Shoosmiths.

Dan Thomas

Dan is a Senior Associate in our Corporate department advising on all aspects of corporate law including venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, joint ventures, shareholders' agreements, investments and general corporate advisory mandates. Dan joined Shoosmiths in April 2021.

Daniel Shilvock

Dan is a Partner in the Corporate team and specialises in private equity transactions acting for PE sponsors, management teams and investee companies. He also focuses on M&A transactions (buy-side and sell-side) for a number of corporate clients and has experience across a variety of sectors. Recent experience includes advising: Livingbridge on its investments into Quorum Cyber and Nourish Care; GEMS Education on various transactions, including the disposal of its international schools based in Singapore and Malaysia respectively; the shareholders of Bramble Foods Limited on its sale to LDC and subsequent reinvestment; Mutares on its acquisitions of Alan Dick Communications and Special Melted Products; Cow Corner on its investments into Dayshape and Mitchell Charlesworth.

Daniel Halstead

Daniel is a partner in Shoosmiths’ Real Estate team and has over 20 years’ experience in the Real Estate sector. He acts for developers, funders, investors and operators on a wide range of real estate transactions with particular focus on those within the Living sector, where he has lengthy experience in purpose built student accommodation schemes as well as mixed use schemes, build to rent and co-living developments. Daniel also regularly advises investors on their acquisition programmes and has experience in a variety of asset classes including office and industrial, whilst also working on new development projects with his clients. His recent experience includes: Acting for an overseas fund on their acquisition programme of £200m worth of UK regional office investments, financing arrangements and the ongoing asset management of these portfolios; Acting for investors in national affordable housing stock with over £50m of assets over the last 12 months; Working with a regional student accommodation operator on their existing portfolio management and funding requirements as well as advising on their development pipeline of PBSA and BTR schemes; Acting for overseas investors on the development, financing and disposal of a mixed use city centre scheme including apartment sales, commercial lettings, investment sales and ground rent disposals; and Acting for major banks on the funding of nationwide student accommodation schemes for both development projects and fully operational properties.

Daniel Pugh

Dan is an associate in Shoosmiths' Manchester corporate team and advises on all areas of corporate law, including mergers and acquisitions, shareholders' agreements, venture capital, private equity transactions, investments, and general corporate advisory matters. Recent transactional experience includes: acting for a leading UK specialist real estate investment management company on a number of high value disposals of international target companies; acting for both individual sellers and corporate buyers on numerous disposals and acquisitions of SMEs in a wide range of sectors; IPO experience - primarily assisting private limited companies on the conversion to public and ultimate admission to AIM. Primary role includes due diligence, verification and the drafting of articles of association, share dealing code, board committee terms of reference, the admission document and various requisite ancillary documents; and carrying out group reorganisations involving private companies limited by shares (to include numerous share for share exchanges), private companies limited by guarantee and charitable incorporated organisations.

Daniel Kennedy

Daniel is a partner in the firm's Tax department and heads up the firm's real estate tax practice. Daniel has acted for a broad range of real estate clients including institutional investors, private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds, REITs, developers, occupiers, high net worth individuals, charities and housing associations. He has therefore received exposure to all areas of the UK commercial and residential real estate markets. He has particular expertise in advising on the acquisition and development of student accommodation and care homes, having acted on some of the largest transactions in these sectors in the last few years. Daniel also has considerable experience in providing transactional corporate tax advice, including in relation to M&A, reorganisations, demergers, MBOs and other corporate transactions. In addition, Daniel has regularly advised on personal and employment tax matters (e.g. management taxation, termination payments) and charity tax issues (e.g. VAT recovery and application of tax reliefs).

Daniela Munro

Daniela is a Senior Associate in the corporate team in the Thames Valley office. Daniela's experience encompasses a variety of areas including mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings and IPOs. She specialises in equity capital markets transactions such as IPOs and secondary fundraisings and has acted for UK listed companies, nominated advisers and brokers. Daniela has been ranked Rising Star and Key Lawyer in Legal 500.

Daren Allen

Daren is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution and Litigation team and has over 30 years experience in acting for financial institutions, large corporations, Governments and individuals in relation to complex investigations, litigation, regulatory enforcement proceedings and legal and regulatory compliance. Daren regularly advises clients on matters relating to fraud, bribery, corruption and money laundering. He assisted the Ministry of Justice in drafting the Guidance on the Bribery Act 2010. he has also advised the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group on the Guidance Notes for the financial services sector. Notable cases/matters include: • acting for the Bank in N v The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC [2019] EWHC 1770 (Comm) and in NCA v N and The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC [2017] EWCA Civ 253; • acting for the Bank in Property Alliance Group Limited v The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC in the first major Court of Appeal decision on LIBOR manipulation and Interest rate hedging products [2018] EWCA Civ 355; • acting as a Section 166 skilled person in connection with the widely publicised mis-selling of Interest Rate Hedging products to non- sophisticated customers, including designing the methodology of the file reviews, designing customer communications, recruiting and training a team of file reviewers, reviewing customer files, attending skilled persons forums at the FCA and determining redress for customers; • advising a large international Bank on anti-money laundering compliance across 22 jurisdictions; • advising on proposed deferred Prosecution agreements; • advising over 60 individuals in relation to a complex FCA investigation into a firms anti-money laundering systems and controls; • advising a payment services firm on its anti-money laundering systems and controls following an FCA visit and advising on subsequent VREQ; • acting for the bank in the seminal case of Jayesh Shah & Another v HSBC Private Bank [2009] EWHC 79 (QB), and [2010] EWCA Civ 31, [2011] EWCA Civ 1154, [2012] EWHC 1283(QB) in a US$300 million claim brought by two former customers. The claim arose out of the Bank's alleged wrongful delay in processing four payment instructions and refusal to provide information, due to (1) its making of authorised disclosures to the relevant authorities under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 when it suspected money laundering and (2) the tipping off provisions in the Act. This is the leading case in relation to Banks and their obligations to file Suspicious Activity Reports and the outcome received a significant amount of commentary; and • acting for the bank in Stone and Another v National Westminster Bank and Paul Aplin [2013] EWCH 208 (CH). This case was a claim against the Bank arising out of a significant Ponzi scheme and has been widely reported.

David Mathias

David is a specialist planning solicitor with over ten years' experience acting for a range of both public and private sector clients on all aspects of planning and related law. David has particular expertise in advising on the assembly of sites for infrastructure and regeneration projects and has led multi-disciplinary teams of professionals through all stages of the planning and infrastructure consents process. David's recent experience includes: advising Nottinghamshire County Council in relation to the promotion of a compulsory purchase order and associated side roads order for a major highways scheme delivering a 3.8km road running adjacent to the village of Gedling, unlocking the redevelopment of the Gedling Colliery site to provide over 1,000 dwellings together with a variety of employment uses; advising Walsall Council in relation to a major highway improvement scheme affecting Junction 10 of the M6. The £64.5 million scheme is being promoted by the Council in partnership with Highways England and required the making of two compulsory purchase orders, a side roads order and a special roads scheme in order to secure the land and necessary powers required to improve this heavily congested section of strategic highway; advising Liverpool City Council on the development proposals for its £1.8 billion Paddington Village Scheme, delivering upwards of 1 million sq ft of new mixed-use floor space within the Knowledge Quarter in central Liverpool; advising Cheshire East Council on the CPOs required to deliver £131 million of highways schemes including Sydney Road Bridge, Middlewich Eastern Bypass and the A500 Dualling Scheme; and advising City of York Council on the promotion of a proposed compulsory purchase order for a £38 million project to improve York's Outer Ring Road.

David Farnell

David acts for banks and other financial services providers in a variety of complex disputes, often with a cross-border element. He has extensive financial services sector experience, both in private practice and in-house, through two secondments with major UK banks. Reported cases that David has worked on are BMW v Bhagwanani (concerning whether registration of a third party keeper amounted to conversion of a motor car), Alexander v West Bromwich Building Society (representative claim challenging Society’s variation of interest rates on buy-to-let mortgages) and Carey v HSBC (approving lender’s reliance on a reconstituted agreement to satisfy the requirements of section 78 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974). In addition to general banking law, David’s specialisms include: Asset Finance His asset finance experience includes cases involving civil fraud; contractual interpretation, eg. liquidated damages clause or penalty; High Court interim orders for delivery-up or preservation of goods, eg. aircraft, plant and machinery; satisfactory quality claims; title disputes and liens; third party claims, eg. surveyor or valuer negligence; and wrongful interference. Recent cases: • negotiated a settlement between two lessors with competing title claims over undelivered construction equipment, following the supplier’s appointment of administrators • successfully defended of a misrepresentation claim against a lessor arising from the contra settlement of VAT invoices for the supply of commercial vehicles • assisted a lessor in assessing and disposing of a £1.3m claim arising from the supply of robotic milking equipment (declining a request for a standstill agreement) • advised a lessor about its £1m claim against third parties for fraudulent misrepresentation, inducing the lessor’s purchase of specialised salt machinery Receivables Finance David’s work in receivables finance includes civil fraud; exercising recourse; retention of title clauses; customer insolvency and enforcement of security Recent cases: • advised an invoice finance lender about a third-party manufacturer’s purported charge over receivables (pursuant to a distribution agreement between the third party and the lender’s customer; the case settled on terms that were favourable to the lender) • pre-empted a customer’s alleged breach of contract claim by terminating a £0.6m invoice finance facility and forcing a negotiated settlement • recovered £0.5m from a local authority in settlement of a bank’s assigned invoices, despite allegations of fraud against the assignor Corporate Lending Corporate lending disputes include issues over asset management and investment funds; civil fraud; enforcement of bank and non-bank commercial loans and related security; mis-selling complaints; priority of lenders’ charges; and Tomlinson-type allegations of misconduct) Recent cases: • various corporate and personal guarantee claims on behalf of banks, in circumstances where the corporate borrower has entered an insolvency procedure • defending a breach of trust claim against several asset management companies, following misconceived allegations of fraud against a director • disposing of a £1.5m finance brokerage dispute without the need for court proceedings • pursuing a £25m claim arising from a series of loans between offshore trust companies (with parallel court proceedings in England and the British Virgin Islands)

David Goy

David is a Legal Director and advises on a wide range of non-contentious property issues, but with particular focus on high-value and complex strategic land and development transactions, advising on all aspects from initial site assembly through to disposal for residential, commercial and mixed-use. David also has experience of advising on general acquisitions and disposals, particularly in connection with brownfield industrial land and of corporate support and secured lending transactions. David advises a wide range of clients including developers, national housebuilders, retailers and manufacturers. Current and previous clients include Henry Boot Plc, Countryside Properties Plc, Santander UK Plc, HSBC Bank Plc and Sheffield Hallam University. Recent work includes: acting for the developer in a large mixed-use scheme including the sale to various national housebuilders of 1,000 houses and to a national supermarket of a major regional distribution centre; acting for the developer on various sites in connection with planning promotion and option agreements, together with onward disposals valued at between £5 million to £25 million to national housebuilders; completing the disposal of a number of brownfield sites for an international steel manufacturer; advising an off-shore fund on the charging and subsequent disposal of a significant national student accommodation portfolio; and advising a major financial institution in connection with a reorganisation of its property interests.

David Meisel

David is a Partner in the corporate division advising on M&A transactions with significant experience acting for a range of corporate clients including on domestic and cross border transactions. David has experience across a variety of sectors with extensive experience advising clients in the dental and healthcare sectors. Recent experience includes advising: Global Critical Logistics on its acquisitions of Dynamic International Freight Services, Dynamic Dox and the CARS group; Livingbridge on its investments into Quorum Cyber Security and Nourish Care Systems; Lightpoint Medical on its sale to Telix; the shareholders of Enamel Dental on its sale to Real Good Dental Group; the sale of Dawood and Tanner Dental Practice to Dentex; and Dental Beauty Partners on its acquisitions of Kiss Dental and Ascent Dental.

David Thompson

David is head of our national Pensions team and has 32 years' experience of working with clients and professionals in the pensions industry. He advises both trustees and sponsoring employers of occupational pension schemes on issues including the closure and re-structuring of defined benefit schemes; scheme mergers; buy-ins and buy-outs of pension scheme liabilities; asset-back contribution structures and contingent assets offered by employers to support pension scheme liabilities; the legal aspects of funding negotiations; drafting scheme documentation; dealing with The Pensions Regulator, and managing complex scheme entries into the Pension Protection Fund. David advises clients across all sectors, including manufacturing, retail and not-for-profit. Recent work on which David has advised includes: • a buy-in of scheme liabilities with an insurance company; • scheme closures and mergers; • long-term funding and de-risking agreements; • a Pension Increase Exchange exercise; • establishment of an asset-backed contribution structure; • the provision of contingent assets compliant with the Pension Protection Fund requirements; • transfers to DB and DC mastertrusts; • GMP conversion exercises; and • the pensions implications of corporate group re-structurings. David has acted in a number of high-profile pensions-related High Court cases. In 2012, he advised Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Limited on an application to the High Court for rectification of its scheme rules.

David Jackson

David is Chief Executive of Shoosmiths. He is responsible for delivering the firm’s strategy and for driving operational excellence in the business to help serve our clients. Prior to being elected to the role in 2022, David practised as a specialist Technology & Outsourcing lawyer, leading Shoosmiths’ award-winning national Commercial Group for over ten years. He was recognised by the directories as a Leading Individual in his field, being described as ‘very pragmatic, very commercial and technically brilliant’. David is passionate about client service and innovating to create new ways of solving our clients’ problems. He won the prestigious Client Partner of the Year Award at the British Legal Awards following a survey conducted by Legal Week of over 1400 senior in-house lawyers who were asked to rate the client partner who’d impressed them most. David topped the poll in the UK. As Chief Executive, David combines leadership and management of the firm’s three core divisions (Corporate, Real Estate & Advisory Services) and its support directorates and is focused on uniting our people in the pursuit of excellence for the benefit of our clients and each other. David joined Shoosmiths in 2006 from an in-house counsel role. During his time with the firm, he served on its Partnership Council for six years and led the team responsible for creating connected services offering ‘Shoosmiths8’. In his role as CEO, David is committed to working hard to encourage more diversity of thought, perspective and experience in the firm and he has a personal passion to see improved social mobility across the profession.

David Parton

David Parton heads Shoosmiths’ Personal Advisory Division of Shoosmiths responsible for the management and direction of the range of legal services Shoosmiths provides for its private clients, individuals and families. These services include Wealth Protection, Serious Injury, Family, Education and Conveyancing, comprising 280 legal advisers and personnel. David was previously head of the firm's Conveyancing Department for over twenty years to 2021 building that to become a nationally renowned business for its scale capability and probably the largest business accredited with the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme. David continues to serve a discreet client following with their often complex and high net worth property needs as part of the firm's Private Wealth team. He also served as head of the Northampton Office for eight years to 2021 where he was responsible for the firm's profile in Northampton and surrounding area and the well being of its 550 personnel located there.

David Perry

David is a real estate lawyer, and Living Sector specialist, with extensive experience of acting for developers, end users, investors and funders. With a particular focus on residential development, housing and regeneration work, he advises on acquisitions, development and disposals, including site assembly, pre-lets, strategic and immediate use options and complex conditional contracts with overage, planning and development obligations, on both immediate take and major strategic land schemes. As national lead of Shoosmiths’ Affordable Housing team, David works with specialists throughout the firm to advise Registered Providers, developers and funders on all aspects of affordable housing, helping clients to manage risk in a complex regulatory and funding environment. His recent experience includes advising: • a regional local authority on a series of residential development acquisitions; • a major regional house builder on a programme of strategic land options and regears to deliver their development pipeline, including single-take schemes, phased drawdown sites, and hybrid option-promotion agreements; • various commercial lenders on a range of asset management and lending instructions to registered providers, including portfolio charging and review work; • a registered provider on the negotiation and regearing of a phased drawdown development agreement for more than 130 units, including the eventual termination of the agreement post-long stop date with recovery of deposit monies; • a registered provider on the acquisition of mixed-tenure affordable plots within a larger development of their land including secured development obligations and open market sales overage provisions; • a registered provider on the drafting of an innovative tenure structure based on traditional shared ownership leases, allowing them to release stock into the market for sale while mitigating carrying costs for void and short-term leases.

David Adams

Partner David is an experienced banking lawyer and advises some of the UK’s largest financial institutions in real estate finance, acquisition and leveraged finance (both sponsor and non-sponsor), pensions-related finance, restructuring, refinancing and asset-based lending. He has exceptional technical expertise in this area of the law, which is underpinned by a superb track record in business development. Recent examples of David’s work include: acting for a major high street bank in relation to a high profile business and property acquisition of a national fuel supply business; acting for a Midlands University in relation to two major funding projects, with funding for both development work and general corporate purposes being provided by two high street banks; acting for a Midlands based automotive parts and processes supplier in relation to the multi-jurisdictional asset based funding of a UK/Chinese joint venture; and acting for an overseas owned but Midlands based eye wear manufacturer and distributor in relation to their ongoing funding requirements.

Dean Cooper

Dean is an experienced senior lawyer in the firm's real estate team, with broad knowledge acquired over many years working with clients on commercial real estate transactions and which includes acting for investors, occupiers, developers and lenders. His experience includes advising on all aspects of commercial property related matters, including: purchasing, selling and managing investment properties; landlord and tenant matters; letting of shops, offices and industrial units; acting for large corporate occupiers; acquiring and structuring sites for commercial and residential development, as well as coordinating teams on the end unit sales process. Some particular examples of Dean’s wide experience include: acting for large industrial investment funds on acquisitions, disposals (including £150m portfolio), and asset management of large portfolios of industrial estates; acting for a large logistics operator in acquiring a new 150,000+ sq. ft. facility at London Medway pursuant to a development agreement for lease; acting for a large transatlantic financial services operator in the taking of new London headquarter premises in Paternoster Square; advising and acting for a large PLC on the disposal of its £100m+ Manchester office portfolio; acting for overseas investors in the acquisition of £60m+ plus office building in Mayfair; advising residential developers on the acquisition and structuring of residential development sites; acting for a substantial private investment and development company in its acquisition, development and forward sale of sites including for electronic vehicle charging and self-storage facilities; advising alarge property developer in connection with its proposed £150m PBSA scheme; and providing corporate support on the acquisition of care homes, acting on the real estate aspects of those business acquisitions.

Deborah Gordon Brown

Deborah has substantial experience in advising on complex transactions and portfolio acquisitions and disposals, regularly acting for major UK property funds, landlords, portfolio holders and occupiers. She also advises on the property aspects of large corporate transactions. Listed in the Legal 500’s Hall of Fame, which highlights individuals who have received constant praise by their clients for continued excellence, her experience includes the sale and transfer of major property portfolios, refinances, development agreements across the UK. Deborah serves on Shoosmiths’ strategic body, the partnership council as well as its inclusion group and community investment committee. Additionally, she is head of the firm’s Nottingham office and responsible for its contribution to, and profile within, the local business community.

Denise Stephens

Denise Stephens is a partner working in the Medical Negligence Department. Denise is one of the country's leading medical negligence specialist solicitors. She heads a team in Reading and, although based in Reading, she travels extensively throughout England and Wales representing her catastrophically injured clients. Denise has 22 years of expertise in handling numerous claims for patients across a wide medical spectrum. Denise is passionate about fighting for the rights of injured patients, she is focused, approachable and sympathetic. Denise gets to the centre of an issue quickly and with expertise. The Legal 500 describe her as: 'First rate ... handles extremely heavy cases with a certainty of touch and capability.' Chambers describes her as: 'Charismatic and forceful with a wealth of experience in the field.' Sources admire her 'client centred approach' and describe her as 'top-notch'. Denise is renowned for her work involving babies injured at birth but also has vast experience across a wide and diverse range of medical cases. Work highlights Denise has dealt with many highly complex cases involving multi-million pound claims in the High Court. Highest ever court award for medical negligence Denise achieved the highest ever court award for medical negligence. She secured the sum of £14.6 million in an 11 day trial in the case of Robshaw v United Lincolnshire Hospitals [2015] EWHC 923 (QB); MED LR 339, James Robshaw had suffered cerebral palsy at birth. This case is a landmark judgment in quantum. Cerebral Palsy testimonial Milly Evans acquired a brain injury at birth resulting in cerebral palsy and Denise recovered £10.8 million by way of damages. Andy Evans said: 'You need to have a legal team who are caring, who you absolutely trust and who will tell you the truth. Certainly from our point of view Denise Stephens from Access Legal has been absolutely amazing.' Deputy by the Court of Protection In addition to her litigation work Denise is also appointed as a Deputy by the Court of Protection to look after the financial interests of protected parties. Law Society accreditation and member of their specialist panel Denise is accredited by the Law Society as a specialist in Medical Negligence and has been on their specialist panel for many years. APIL Senior Litigator Denise has also obtained Senior Litigation status with Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL).

Dominic Murphy

Dominic heads up the national Trade Mark practice. He has significant experience in a diverse range of industries including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, electronics, telecommunications, fashion, software, high street retailers and confectionery. He assists clients with the entire range of Trade Mark work, including pre-filing searching, filing strategies, filing UK, EU and International Trade Mark applications, oppositions, cancellations and invalidity actions. Dominic’s experience includes managing the world-wide Trade Mark portfolios of global electronics corporations, biotechnology firms, clothing retailers, financial software companies and confectionery retailers. This global portfolio management routinely spanned from urgent pre-filing searching, to world-wide Trade Mark filing strategies with tiered filing priorities and costs, to Trade Mark enforcement and oppositions, to budget forecasting and yearly management. Dominic also has extensive experience in advising on and filing Designs in the UK, EU and Internationally around the world.

Edell Asquez

Edell is a Partner in the real estate team specialising in residential and commercial development, strategic land and healthcare. Key areas of her work include: advising developers and land promoters in relation to large scale strategic land transactions involving complex site assembly issues, land promotion agreements, option agreements and collaboration and equalization agreements; acting for regional and national housebuilders, strategic land developers and care home/retirement village developers; and acting on behalf of a leading motorway service area operator in relation to the development and management of its network of UK MSAs, including Cobham MSA (M25) and Beaconsfield MSA (M40) and most recently the development of the new Leeds Skelton Lake MSA on the M1.

Elaine Seamark

Elaine is the Team Manager of the largest conveyancing team located in the Northampton office, handling approximately 5000 house moves every year. Elaine’s team deal with all types of residential conveyancing including sales and purchases of houses, flats, new build properties, shared ownership properties, transfer of equities and remortgages. Her team also act for Companies in property transactions and for mortgage lenders. Elaine's team focus on delivering an excellent customer service to all clients which is evident from the Trustpilot reviews her team receives. Elaine started working in Conveyancing in 1998.

Eleanor Grindley

Eleanor is a Senior Associate and a member of the Real Estate Litigation (South) team. Her areas of expertise includes leasehold enfranchisement and landlord and tenant disputes within the long leasehold and living sector. Eleanor acts for clients including high net worth individuals, property funds and developers. Her work includes both advisory work and where necessary, as a litigator. She routinely deals with matters before the property chambers of the First Tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal (Residential Property) as well as in County and High Court.

Elia Montorio

Elia Montorio is the head of the North West Corporate team and national head of M&A at Shoosmiths, having joined as one of its senior partners in March 2022. Elia was previously a corporate partner at a global law firm, where she spent just over 28 years, ranked for many consecutive years as No.1 in deal volume in the UK, Europe and globally (Mergermarket). She practices in all aspects of corporate law, including M&A, complex reorganisations and corporate venture arrangements but with a particular focus on international cross-border transactions. She is also known for successfully managing international corporate law matters and global client relationships. Elia has been described as a very experienced, pragmatic and client-orientated lawyer, who listens to her clients and their needs. She is a recommended leading lawyer in Legal 500 and is described as 'brilliant', and an 'exceptional deal counsel'. Elia is often cited as one of the most influential and powerful businesswomen in the UK, having been included as one of the Top 50 most powerful Businesswomen (Northern Power Women), voted for four consecutive years as one of the Top 100 most influential businesswomen in the North of England (Insider, 2014-2017), won Corporate Leader of the Year award (2018, Forward Ladies) and was selected by Cambridge Judge Business School as “one of the women internationally leading the charge in the future of law”. Elia's experience includes advising on: • English law governed transaction on the sale of CEE group by listed international company. • Acquisition of Canadian-HQ international robotics group by FTSE 100 global company. • Sale of fire safety UK company to listed Swedish company, Lagercrantz Group. • Acquisition of Danish-HQ international robotics business by FTSE 100 global company. • Investment and acquisition into a UK based e-commerce and retail skincare business by the private equity arm of French leading cosmetics/skincare brand. • Swedish-based listed global company on its acquisition of a UK-based online cosmetics retailer. • Co-operative Bank plc on the corporate aspects of the sale and outsource of its mortgage book. • Sale of perfume speciality chemicals international business Fragrance Oils plc to Swiss group, Givaudan SA. • The African Coast to Europe cable consortium of around 19 West African telecom operators together with Orange France on the corporate aspects of an unprecedented, ground-breaking project for international telecoms capacity. • South African listed company, Ascendis Health, on its acquisition of global pharmaceutical group, Remedica. • Online retailer on its IPO and its international expansion. • Global corporate on its multi-jurisdictional reorganisation including US, UK, Netherlands and Ireland. • Reorganisation of a Fortune 500 business in multiple jurisdictions with merger, sale and liquidation transactions in over 16 jurisdictions in EMEA. • £1+ billion buy-back of shares of UK private company.

Elinor Sandbach

Ellie is a Partner in the Real Estate team and has experience in all aspects of property and landlord and tenant litigation, acting for a wide range of clients including public and private companies, national retailers, banking clients, commercial developers and occupational landlords. In particular, Ellie has extensive experience in dealing with retail clients, both from landlord and tenant perspectives, including working closely with numerous retail banking and high street clients. Ellie has dealt with a large range of matters, including business lease renewals (contentious and non-contentious), dilapidations disputes, service charge disputes, tenant insolvency, rights of way and easement disputes, break notices, rent arrears recovery, contractual interpretation issues and issues surrounding landlord’s consent. Ellie also specialises in agricultural law, being experienced in work governed by the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 and the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995, including termination of tenancies, recovery of possession and compensation issues.

Elizabeth McKillop Paley

Liz is a Partner in our Southern Real Estate team. She is a highly experienced real estate adviser acting for several leading banks and borrowers on high value secured acquisition and development finance of both residential and commercial sites, acting for institutional landlords, corporate investors and occupiers on disposals and lettings and well as investment and development acquisitions. Liz also supports the corporate team with the property aspects of both share and asset sales in various sectors including healthcare, education and renewable energy. Recent experience includes: acting for long standing client McKay Securities Plc on its subject to planning disposal of a 1.1 acre site in Woking to Watkin Jones who plan to construct 350 build to rent apartments on the site and part of the team who advised on its recent £180 million RCF; advising a US global client on the management of its UK property portfolio and the taking of its new Headquarters lease in central London; leading the real estate team that advised a national care home provider on the disposal of its business and consequent assignment of 40 leases; and advising investors and developers on the real estate aspects of the acquisition, finance and disposal of various solar, wind energy and biomass sites across the UK

Elizabeth Ward

Elizabeth joined Shoosmiths as a Partner in 2023. She specialises in all aspects of private equity transactions and PE portfolio company matters including advising sponsors and management teams on M&A, due diligence and equity arrangements. She has previously held the role of General Counsel with two private equity portfolio companies which included responsibility for M&A, ranging from extensive buy and build and integration projects, to exits, refinancings and management equity. Most recently, Elizabeth worked alongside Shoosmiths in the legal team of leading PE investor, Rothschild & Co (Five Arrows Principal Investments) where she advised on a number of buyout and growth equity transactions including major cross-border investments into N2Y, Mintec, Agribriefing and Kpler.

Ella Ward

Ella is a senior associate and has a wide range of experience across commercial real estate, with a particular specialism in commercial occupier matters, including conditional site acquisitions, disposals and landlord and tenant matters. Ella also acts for corporate landlords in relation to asset management and portfolio reorganisations. She regularly works with cross-departmental teams to provide real estate support to a variety of corporate transactions. Ella is involved in Shoosmiths' charity sector team, and regularly acts for charities in relation to real estate matters, from managing investment portfolios for charitable trusts to dealing with the occupational requirements of a range of charities. Ella prioritises building relationships with clients in order to understand where real estate fits in their wider strategy, so that she can provide bespoke advice for each client's individual requirements

Ellis Gardner-Browne

Ellis is an investment, retail, leisure and petroleum specialist with vast experience. He undertakes complex transactions, investment and occupier aqcuisitions and disposals, and, project work. He has worked with many household names in the retail and leisure sector including Arcadia Group, Sears Group properties, WHS, ETAM, Waterstones, Bodyshop, Swarowski, Mountain Warehouse, Pizza Hut, Karen Jones CBE, Fulham Shore Plc, Wallgreens Boots Alliance, Estee Lauder Cosmetics, Hugo Boss, Tesco, Value Retail ( Bicester Village) and others. In the petroleum sector he worked for many years with the largest independent petroleum retailer in the UK, MRH Group until sale of the group in 2017. He continues to work with Starbridge Limited and SGN. Ellis is client partner at Shoosmiths for Wallgreens Boots Alliance, Pizza Hut, Estee Lauder, SGN, Starbridge,, Mountain Warehouse, Leftfield Capital, Fulham Shore Plc, amongst others

Eloise Di Pasqua

Eloise is a principal associate and advises on both contentious and non-contentious matters but with a particular focus on intellectual property disputes. Eloise regularly advises high profile clients on the protection, exploitation and enforcement of their intellectual property rights and seeks to provide effective and pragmatic solutions. Her clients come from a wide variety of sectors such as retail, manufacturing, technology, travel and automotive, oil and gas, healthcare, fashion and education. Eloise has dealt with all stages of litigation from the pre-action work all the way through to trial and manages disputes involving trade marks, passing off, patents, copyright, database rights, groundless threats, confidential information and know how as well as comparative advertising. Her wealth of experience has meant that she has handled claims in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and Company Names Tribunal as well as many cross border cases. Eloise’s experience includes: managing a highly technical, multi-jurisdictional patent infringement and revocation claim related to technology used in the oil and gas industry being heard in the UK, Germany and the US; defending a claim for unregistered design right infringement and breach of copyright against a major UK retailer; regularly advising a global food and drink brand on the control of its brand, reputation management and enforcement of its intellectual property rights; acting for a leading travel brand in the enforcement of its trade mark rights in a variety of infringement claims being heard in the IPEC, High Court and the Court of Appeal as well managing a number of international disputes related to the same brand; advising the defendants in a High Court claim for infringement of database copyright and breach of contract and negotiating a settlement of the claim; defending a popular fashion label against a claim for design right infringement and passing off brought by a major fashion designer; advising on a complex claim for groundless threats and misrepresentation regarding a patent with a foreign party and the subsequent appeal; drafting, negotiating and finalising a variety of licences, assignments, R&D and technology transfer agreements and collaborations; and undertaking IP audits for various clients and due diligence during company acquisitions.

Emily Stocker

Emily is a Principal Associate in the national Real Estate team. She deals with all aspects of non-contentious commercial property work and has particular experience in advising clients in the education, financing, transport and investment sectors. Emily's experience includes: Advising Hitachi Rail Limited on the property aspects of the £4.5bn Intercity Express Programme and on the acquisition of its manufacturing depot at Newton Aycliffe; Managing a cross-office national project enabling a major public sector client to renew 300 of its leases; Acting as the lead client contact for the property portfolio management of a major US insurer; Providing ongoing property advice for McKay Securities PLC, with a particular specialism in landlord and tenant work; Working with the national corporate team in acquisitions and disposals, especially for clients within the education sector; Acting for NATs; Providing ongoing advice to the Defence Infrastructure Organisation in respect of its property interests; and Managing a project for a major telecommunications retailer to franchise 87 of its stores. In 2016, Emily competed a six month secondment at the Bishopsgate office of the Royal Bank of Scotland Plc. During this time, Emily provided in-house advice on general banking matters, finance agreements, and sales, purchases and sub-participations in the secondary loans market.

Emily Utley

Emily is a Principal Associate within the Technology, Digital and Commercial team. She is a highly experienced lawyer advising on a range of general commercial and technology matters across a wide range of industry sectors, in particular IT and sourcing projects. She has worked with clients on complex digital transformational projects, business critical systems procurements, software development and licensing and setting up a variety of sales channels. Emily’s experience includes advising: a global logistic company on the setting up of an offshore IT function with an Indian supplier with the option to transfer back inhouse after period of time; a leading automotive on its global framework agreement with a provider of a connected telematics based solution for its vehicles; a new entrant automotive company on its global sales channel strategy; an automotive manufacturer on its global framework agreement for supply of vehicle digital marketing services for location and purchase of pre-owned stock; a leading retailer on its IT transformation programme and the outsourcing of the group’s IT infrastructure and service management;; and a leading retailer on the disposal of part of its business by the group and subsequent ongoing transitional arrangements.

Emily Holt

Emily is a Senior Associate in the real estate disputes team. Emily has experience in advising both landlord and tenant clients on a wide range of contentious commercial property issues including business lease renewals, terminations, recovery of rent, insolvency and dilapidations. Emily’s recent experience includes: working on a portfolio renewal of circa 280 properties for a well-known high street name, half of which proceeded as a combination of simultaneous unopposed and opposed lease renewal claims; leading on portfolio management for a number of occupier clients with significant property portfolios; advising on rent strategy during the Covid-19 pandemic; acting for a brewery company on a contested break provision; and assisting on a high value and complicated joint development dispute involving two expert determinations and a mediation. Emily trained with Shoosmiths and qualified with the firm in September 2019.

Emma Lowe

Emma is an experienced commercial litigator who advises on high value commercial disputes.Emma has significant experience in acting for large international organisations, PLCs and SMEs as well as private individuals. Emma has particular experience in advising clients in complex contractual, shareholder, warranty, confidential information, professional negligence and pensions disputes. She has represented clients seeking High Court interim injunctive relief, including Freezing Orders and advised on Search and Seizure Orders.She has represented clients in the High Court and has adopted many forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution including mediation and arbitration.Emma also specialises in acting for employers and senior employees in relation to the enforcement of restrictive covenants and has experience of High Court unfair competition actions. She can also advise employers and employees alike in relation to team moves.Emma is a very capable ambitious lawyer and an invaluable part of both the Leeds and national dispute resolution teams. Clients and colleagues continue to praise Emma for her thorough yet common sense approach to litigation. As well as her legal work Emma is also on the firm’s National Equality and Diversity working group, leads the Leeds Office’s inclusion and diversity programme and is one of its mental health and wellbeing champions.

Emma Morgan

Emma Morgan is a partner in the employment team and is based in the Manchester office. Emma specialises in both employment and business immigration law. During her career Emma has worked with clients in a variety of sectors and has particular experience of advising clients in the retail, logistics and transport, financial services and housing sectors. In respect of employment law Emma advises on a broad spectrum of complex employment issues including executive terminations, TUPE transfers and reorganisations as well as discrimination and other complex tribunal claims in the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal. Emma also has considerable experience of dealing with the employment aspects of corporate transactions and commercial contracts as well as advising on contractual disputes. In respect of business immigration law, Emma regularly advises organisations on the options for bringing overseas nationals into the UK, on eligibility to work requirements and compliance generally. Emma also advises on sponsor licence applications as well as suspensions or potential revocations under Tier 2 of the Points Based System. Most recently Emma has been advising employers on the impact of Brexit both in terms of the implications for their existing European workforce(s) and their ability to recruit. As part of this Emma has also been advising on the settled status scheme and how employers may encourage their European employees to register/formalise their residency in the UK. Emma also provides training to HR professionals, in-house lawyers and compliance and resourcing teams on both employment and business immigration law. Emma routinely works with in-house teams in respect of both employment and immigration matters and understands the impact of issues on clients’ businesses and works with them to find pragmatic and practical solutions

Emma Livesey

Emma is a Principal Associate in the Corporate team based in the Solent office. She advises on a wide range of corporate matters including acquisitions and disposals, private equity transactions, group reorganisations, investments, corporate governance and compliance issues. Emma works with a variety of clients including private equity investors, private companies, management teams and owner managed businesses. Recent transactions include: advising LDC and the shareholders of BOFA International on the sale of fume and dust extraction systems specialist BOFA International, whose headquarters are in Poole, to USA NYSE listed Donaldson Company Inc for a value of £90 million. Donaldson agreed to acquire an 88% stake in BOFA for £79 million valuing the business at £90 million and Emma assisted with both the disposal by LDC and management as well as advising management on their continued shareholding post-completion. This followed the initial advice Emma provided in August 2015 when LDC completed their investment into the company to support the £23 million management buyout of the previous management team; acting on the sale of Hamleys, the famous toy retailer to Reliance Industries in a deal worth nearly £70 million. Emma also worked on the previous sale of the group in 2015 to Chinese footwear group C.banner International; and advising the shareholders on the sale of specialist IT-provider Taylor Made Computer Solutions (TMCS) to Peach Technologies, creating one of the UK's biggest IT managed providers as a result. She was awarded the 'Young Dealmaker of the Year' award at the Solent Deals Awards 2019.

Emma Pearce

Emma is a principal associate within the Real Estate team and has experience acting for corporate occupiers. Emma has been involved in a variety of Cransactions including estate management, assisting on acquisitions and the disposal of commercial premises. Emma joined Shoosmiths’ real estate practice in March 2015 from Shakespeares. Emma’s recent project experience includes advising: a number of well known high street names on all matters connected with the management of their property portfolios including disposals, lease renewals and alterations; acting on behalf of a well known Midlands retailer who was looking to assign 24 properties in a timely and pro-active manner; negotiating the sale of properties through auction; on the assignment of both simple and complex assignments of a large international retailer in the acquisition of 180 properties including the negotiation of variations and reversionary leases to ensure the new properties are in line with their standard portfolio; on the hive up of over 300 properties; and on reporting on property details of a portfolio ahead of an international acquisitions to ensure the client was aware of what they would be acquiring should the transaction proceed. Emma is very dedicated to her work and highly professional in the way she represents clients and deals with any queries raised. Emma has gained insightful knowledge of the retail world whilst carrying out a secondment at a national retailer. Prior to initiating her working career in law, Emma studied at the College of Law (LPC) and the University of Birmingham (LLM) and the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (LLB HONS).

Emma Foulds

Emma is a principal associate real estate lawyer with experience of a variety of commercial real estate matters including disposals and acquisitions, landlord and tenant work, general management of industrial and office properties and working with clients who have international real estate requirements. Her recent experience includes: advising McKay Securities Plc on all aspects of managing various properties within its portfolio; advising a provider of a new chain of high class gym facilities in relation to leasing new sites across London; and advising a client with international real estate requirements, co-ordinating with other members of the World Service Group.

Emma Woodyet

Real Estate CST

Emma Tonge

Emma is a real estate lawyer with over 20 years' experience of acting on a wide range of property transactions, with particular expertise in acting on investment acquisitions and development projects involving delivery of purpose-built student accommodation schemes, offices, hospital facilities, leisure facilities, business parks and residential and commercial mixed-use schemes. Her recent experience includes: acting on a 2.4 million square footage mixed-use office, retail and leisure scheme, including acting on one of the largest regional office deals recorded in 2021 and the largest in Manchester since 2020 advising on the forward sale and development of what (at that time) will be the most sustainable building in operation in Manchester City Centre acting on the acquisition of a 149-acre ex-colliery, including dealing with the complex site structure and financing acting for a cinema owner and operator on its UK portfolio and running the team servicing this client acting for different clients on a number of purpose-built student accommodation schemes, including dealing with the acquisition and financing Emma is named as a Rising Star in the Legal 500

Faith McLaughlin

Faith is an Associate in the construction team at Shoosmiths based in the Leeds office and qualified as a solicitor in March 2021, but has 3 years' prior experience in the team before qualification. Faith specialises in non-contentious construction law and has experience in drafting, negotiating and advising on professional appointments, novations, collateral warranties and other third party rights agreements, Faith has experience in a variety of sectors including development finance work, forward funding and conventional development projects acting for developers, forward funders, banks, purchasers and tenants.

Felicity Forward

Felicity is a Principal Associate Solicitor in the Commercial, Technology, Media and Telecoms team. Felicity advises clients on a full range of commercial arrangements, including compliance with consumer law, IT agreements, complex supply agreements for the provision of both goods and services, supply chain management and logistic agreements and distribution agreements. Felicity assists clients in navigating complex and developing areas of legal compliance, including consumer and privacy and data protection law (of which she has developed a specialism in consumer law). Felicity advises clients on all elements of e-commerce sales, assists clients in preparing bespoke terms of sale and advises clients on data protection and data privacy requirements. Felicity's most recent experience includes: advising global automotive clients on the launch of their online vehicle sales platform; preparing a complex SAAS agreement for the provision of survey services for a global fast food chain; advising on and reviewing data protection compliance for global retailers, public sector bodies and automotive clients; advising an innovative online interior design marketplace on its compliance with UK consumer rights and e-commerce law; negotiating a warehousing and logistics agreement for an international furniture fitting supplier; and advising a global automotive client on their website terms and conditions, terms of use, cookie and privacy policies. Felicity has completed several client secondments across different sectors including working with several global car manufacturers and global logistic companies. Felicity therefore has a full appreciation of the commercial and creative solutions that an in-house legal team comes to expect from its lawyers.

Fiona Teague

Fiona is a Partner in the Commercial team in Birmingham and specialises in a wide range of commercial contracts in particular warehousing, logistics, facilities and property management outsourcing arrangements, supply chain, routes to market (including distribution and agency) and manufacturing routinely with cross border reach. As an ex-GC herself, Fiona has extensive experience of working with in-house teams acting both as the interface between the legal team and the Board as well as legal team and the business. She acts both customer and supplier side advising pragmatically on commercial arrangements with a deep understanding of the need to balance risk with opportunity. Recently she has advised extensively in relation to supply chain disruption and other impacts of Brexit, Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. She advises clients across sectors including FMCG, food and beverage, food delivery, telecoms manufacturing and professional services. Fiona is also lead for Hexagon®, a Shoosmiths EIGHT Connected Services product. We help GCs and in-house lawyers identify and resolve key legal operation issues, eliminate wasted time and deliver optimal value to their businesses by utilising leading technology and real data, Hexagon® offers a clear route map to legal operational excellence.

Fleur Turrington

Fleur heads Shoosmiths Thames Valley's Dispute Resolution team and is an experienced solicitor acting for clients primarily in the Information Technology, Retail, Medical and Engineering and Construction sectors. Her experience includes acting for national and international businesses on a broad range of litigation issues which includes contractual and commercial disputes, corporate warranty disputes, professional negligence claims and product liability . Fleur has a strong reputation in Public Procurement and she leads the firm's Public Procurement contentious sector. Fleur adopts a commercial approach for clients, trying to resolve disputes at the earliest possible stage. Her recent project experience includes advising: Advising a financial organisation on a number of public procurement challenges - resulting in successful outcomes for all matters. Successfully obtaining Judgment against a German company on behalf of an English engineering firm in relation to the supply of specialised engineering equipment. Advising a client on a £16m tax liability and issuing Judicial Review proceedings to challenge the decision given. Advising an international pharmaceutical company on an urgent threat to their supply of products following their suppliers factory being shut down. Ensuring the supply of products was not interrupted and the disruption was kept to a minimum. Advising an international retail brand on a breach of supply agreement with their supplier. A successful settlement was reached avoiding protracted litigation.

Fraser Shuba

I am a Senior Associate with over 20 years experience of residential property conveyancing, covering all areas including technical areas involving development sales and purchases, options, overage and also some agricultural and commercial property work. I am currently helping to create a new case management system for the Firm which includes assisting with an overhaul of our drafted precedent documents and designing case management caseflows to be used in the new system. I am also involved in business development for the whole department and create marketing and training materials for our estate agents. Until recently I dealt with my own caseload of live files and was also responsible for a team of 8 lawyers and assistants (myself included) with a remit of ensuring that legal work is carried out correctly and that proper service and care is provided to our clients, and that estate agents' service level agreements and exchange targets were met. I deal with a small caseload of both freehold and leasehold transactions, including shared ownership and those within the Help To Buy schemes. I also assist colleagues with any technical queries on their transactions.

Gabs Rodriguez Cleary

Gabs is a Solicitor sitting in the Commercial Litigation team in Milton Keynes and has experience representing a variety of clients across a range of Commercial Disputes. Amongst the variety of disputes Gabs has worked on, highlights include: part of the team representing an international telecommunications claimant in two International Arbitrations in two separate $30 million claims; representing an international individual claimant whereby his claim was successfully registered in the UK and 100% of his claim was recovered; part of the team representing an international manufacturing claimant successfully negotiating settlement; and part of the team successfully negotiating settlement for a UK based manufacturing defendant. Gabs also has experience working on numerous matters involving defamation and harassment, contractual disputes and recoveries.

Gary Assim

Gary is the senior partner in the firm's national Retail and Intellectual Property and Creative Industry Groups in which he has built up strong reputations on both a national and international basis. He specialises in resolving disputes especially those to do with anti-counterfeiting, with particular emphasis on parallel importing. Over the past few years he has been involved in leading cases for H&M, Jimmy Choo and Dr Marten's relating to patents, trade marks, copyright and design right advice including (clients identified in bold): • Stretchline Intellectual properties Ltd v H&M Hennes & Mauritz [2015] EWHC 3298 (Pat); • J. Choo (Jersey) Ltd v Towerstone [2008] EWHC 346; • R Griggs Group Ltd v Evans [2005] EWCA Civ 11; and • Mackie Designs Inc. v Behringer Specilaised Studio Equipment (UK) Ltd RPC (1999). He acts for clients across a broad range of sectors, but is especially well known in the clothing and footwear and automotive industries. He has written articles for the New York Law Journal, International Commercial Litigation and various national and international trade press as well as being a well known commentator on television and radio on intellectual property rights. Recent accolades include being named Client Choice Awards winner for IP by The International Law Office for the years 2014 to 2018, included in the World Trade Mark Review's WTR 1000 from 2012 to 2018, awarded the Intellectual Property Magazine Innovation prize in 2010, named in the International Who's Who of Trademark Lawyers from 2009 to 2018, the Top 100 list of The Most Powerful and Influential People in Fashion in 2008 and The Lawyers Hot 100 in 2007. He is passionate about intellectual property, especially in relation to consumer brands, hence his love of fast cars, gadgets and anything sporting. He is best known for having advised H&M, Jimmy Choo, Chloe and Dr Martens as well as setting up the mentoring scheme for the British Fashion Council (organisers of London Fashion Week) to help their NewGen and Fashion Forward designers. The Times commented, after the Chloe case against Topshop, that Shoosmiths were "the legal label to die for"! He also leads the firm's international relationships and travels extensively meeting with clients, intermediaries and law firms. He was on the board of the international network the World Services Group between 2013 and 2017 and was its Chairman between 2016 and 2017. He is a member of the IBA and INTA and attends both conferences regularly. Prior to reading law at Durham University, Gary spent three years with Lombard North Central plc gaining commercial experience and an understanding of how in-house legal teams operate. He was articled with Travers Smith Braithwaite in London where he qualified and gained experience in commercial litigation and intellectual property for nine years.

Gemma Porter

Gemma joined the Shoosmiths Corporate Team in Manchester as a Principal Associate in June 2022. Gemma specialises in mergers and acquisitions, private equity, ongoing portfolio work for PE houses and general corporate matters. Her recent transaction experience includes: - advising LDC on its minority investment into CTI Holdings - advising Literacy Capital on numerous management buy outs, and assisting with their buy and build strategies and ongoing portfolio work - advising the shareholders (including NorthEdge) on the sale of Direct Healthcare to Archimed (and several bolt-on acquisitions for Direct Healthcare) - advising Phoenix Equity Partners on its investment in Mobius Life - advising the founder shareholders on the sale of Eyeko to The Hut Group - advising MyDentist on numerous disposals of dental businesses

Gemma Siviter

Gemma is a Senior Associate within the Real Estate team based in our Birmingham office. She has experience acting for corporate occupiers, with a specialism in retail and leisure corporate occupiers. Gemma has been involved in a variety of transactions including estate management and assisting on acquisitions and disposals of commercial premises in shopping centres, retail parks and on the high street. Gemma’s recent experience includes: Advising a number of well-known high street names on all matters connected with the management of their property portfolios including disposals, lease renewals and alterations; Assisting on the acquisition of 280 stores and dealing with the CMA elements of the deal and then integrating the entire estate into the Client’s core portfolio; Dealing with the acquisition of UK headquarters for a growing international company; and Conducting a review of a national retailer’s entire portfolio consisting of over 850 properties and reporting on aspects of their leases in line with their specific requirements. Acting on a 'hive up' for a national convenience store, dealing with the transfer of over 350 properties.

Gemma Rooke

Gemma is a Principal Associate in the Construction and Engineering Team. Gemma advises developers, contractors, sub-contractors and other construction and engineering professionals across a broad range of contentious issues, including payment disputes, loss and expense claims, claims for defective workmanship and design, and professional negligence claims. She advises primarily in relation to dispute resolution including conducting mediations, adjudications and court proceedings in the Technology and Construction Court (TCC). Gemma also has a background in insurance litigation and has experience in dealing in a range of disputes, including property damage related disputes. Her recent experience includes: Acting for an international main contractor in defending a multi-party, multi-million pound proceedings in the TCC in respect of alleged management, design and workmanship failings, and alleged defects relating to cladding, fire safety and Building Regulations breaches. The proceedings were successfully resolved through mediation. Acting for a logistics and housebuilding developer in defending procedurally complex, multi-party, multi-million pound proceedings in the TCC in respect of the defective construction and design of a ground floor slab and its associated foundations. The proceedings were successfully resolved through mediation. Acting for a Diocese in respect of allegations of professional negligence made against its structural engineer relating to defects in the design of a podium slab. The matter was successfully resolved through mediation. Assisting in advising a large retailer in respect of various issues arising out of an NEC3 form of contract with its contractor, including payment, compensation events, delay, defects and other third party claims. Acting for a leading developer and manufacturer of 3D/4D simulation attractions and special effects cinemas in a high value adjudication dealing with a number of issues relating to payment, delays and extensions of time, and defects. Acting for a regional contractor in an adjudication commenced by its subcontractor relating to a final account dispute, which required the commencement of enforcement proceedings in the TCC by our client. Acting for a high net worth individual in respect of major landscape restoration works undertaken at a Grade I, 18th century estate which were part funded by English Heritage and Natural England. The dispute related to defects in the design and construction of a restored water cascade, and was successfully resolved through mediation.

Georgina Rennie

Georgina works in the corporate team advising on all areas of corporate law, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, investments, corporate restructuring and corporate governance. Georgina works with a variety of clients including private and public companies, LLPs, venture capital investors, management teams and owner managed businesses. Recent project experience includes advising: VC investors on a range of investments (including VCT/EIS investments); a British clothing company listed on AIM on its acquisition of an online homeware retailer; a NYSE listed records management and storage company on the acquisition of a fine arts storage and logistics business; the seller on the disposal of an iconic Birmingham hotel; an international hotel chain on various hotel acquisitions and disposals; a German car manufacturer on its disposal of used car sites and a body shop centre; a NYSE listed company on the UK aspects of an international reorganisation and the disposal of a facilities management provider; and shareholders of a company in the vet tech sector on an MBO backed by a private equity house.

Grace Mitchell

Grace is a Senior Associate in Shoosmiths’ planning and environmental team with experience in acting for both public and private sector clients including local authorities, landowners and developers. Since qualifying with Shoosmiths she has gained experience of advising on a wide range of planning and highways matters including the drafting and negotiation of section 106 agreements, assisting on CPO matters and advising on and negotiating various infrastructure agreements.Grace has also gained experience in aspects of environmental law, and assisted in advising developers and operators of infrastructure, real estate and other businesses on transactional, regulatory and contentious issues, working alongside the corporate, real estate, commercial, and regulatory teams.

Graham Burnett-Hall

Graham is a leading patent litigator, recognised by major legal directories, with over 25 years of experience. He is ‘noted for his ability to handle highly technical mandates’ and loves his work at the interface of technology and the law. He is adept at rapidly assimilating new scientific and technological developments and providing legal advice in a clear and straightforward manner. Whilst in the majority of cases a dispute will be resolved without recourse to the courts, should legal proceedings be necessary Graham ensures that the case is prepared thoroughly but efficiently for trial and always with the determination to secure a successful outcome. Graham ‘has a highly diverse offering’ and his clients operate in all areas of technology, with a strong track record in pharmaceuticals, biotech and medical devices and other fields such as electronics, telecommunications and engineering. Graham studied chemistry before becoming a lawyer and this scientific background is an asset that he puts to good use when working with clients, their R&D teams, and scientific experts. As well as patent issues, Graham frequently advises on other intellectual property rights such as designs, trade secrets and confidential information, copyright and database rights, and on the strategic use of intellectual property assets to achieve commercial goals. The disputes Graham advises upon are frequently multi-jurisdictional and Graham has considerable experience of litigation with parallel proceedings running across Europe and in other important jurisdictions worldwide, such as the USA and China, instructing and coordinating with specialist lawyers in each country. Graham is a solicitor advocate and in appropriate cases he appears as junior counsel, working alongside leading counsel. Examples of Graham’s past cases include: Representing a global pharmaceutical company in UK Patents Court proceedings, part of a multinational patent dispute concerning RSV vaccines based on the RSV prefusion F-protein. Acting for a major Indian manufacturer of trans-catheter aortic heart valves in a multi-national patent dispute, with parallel EPO opposition proceedings alongside proceedings in multiple European courts, including the Unified Patent Court. Conducting UK Patents Court proceedings on behalf of a German client, a leading company in simulation and validation, regarding electronic interfaces used in the testing of electronical control units, in particular in the automotive sector. Acting for a multinational biotech company in patent infringement and revocation proceedings concerning the glycosylation profile of antibodies, with parallel proceedings in the UK and Germany. A technically extremely complex dispute at first instance and at appeal concerning rights under a drug development contract to a candidate drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, including entitlements to milestone payments under the contract. Representing a medical device manufacturer in a patent dispute in the UK Patents Court and Court of Appeal relating to atrial septal occluders, with parallel proceedings in Germany that reached the German Supreme Court. Acting for a UK telecommunications company in multiple patent infringement and revocation proceedings concerning graphical user interfaces. Other past cases have concerned matters as diverse as interleukin-23 inhibitors for the treatment of psoriasis, air fryers, wound dressings, cryptography, insulin-like growth factors and potato harvesting equipment. These include cases that have become legal authorities on issues such as priority rights and indirect infringement. Graham trained and qualified at Lovells (now Hogan Lovells) before joining a specialist intellectual property law firm, where he worked for 20 years, becoming a partner in 2007. He joined Shoosmiths in April 2024. He has been recognised by a number of the leading legal directories, including The Legal 500, IAM Patent 1000, Who’s Who Legal, and is listed as an ‘Patent Star’ by Managing IP.

Gregg Harris

Gregg is a Senior Associate in the Birmingham corporate team, advising and assisting on all aspects of corporate law including: venture capital, private equity transactions, mergers and acquisitions, business transfers, investments, shareholders agreements, joint ventures and general corporate advisory mandates. Gregg works with a variety of clients including private and public companies, LLP's, institutional investors, management teams and owner managed businesses.

Gurvinder Samra

Guv is a solicitor specialising in assisting parents of children and young people with special educational needs (SEN). She has been working within SEN law since 2014. Her team secures the provision of services to be funded by local authorities for children and young adults with additional needs by way of EHC plans. Guv assesses EHC plans and advises on their contents to ensure they are fit for purpose. If there are deficiencies within the plans, Guv can assist in challenging local authority decisions by way of mediation or SEND tribunal appeal. The types of services that Guv is able to secure for the children and young people that she represents include therapies such as physiotherapy, 1:1 teaching assistance and specialist placements. Guv has regularly secured independent specialist placements worth over £70,000 a year at the local authorities' expense by way of SEND appeal and through pre appeal negotiations. Guv conducts seminars informing parents of their legal rights in respect of EHC plans and how they can enforce them. She has links to local charities whom she regularly visits to assist parents of children with SEN. Guv regularly works with personal injury and clinical negligence solicitors, court of protection deputies and case managers, where, she is instructed on SEND appeals and pre appeal work achieving favourable outcomes within agreed fee budgets. Testimonial We entered into a tribunal against our local authority over an educational provision for our disabled son. We quickly realised that we needed legal representation. We had watched an online workshop hosted by Gurvinder Samra of Shoosmiths LLP and so enlisted her services. Gurvinder dealt with and arranged everything, Tribunal paperwork, expert witnesses, counsel and took charge of the case while maintaining an eye on the mounting fees keeping them at a reasonable level. We ultimately won the case, a result that without Gurvinder's input would have had a different outcome. N & H Tarratt

Gwynneth Tan

Gwynneth is an experienced employment lawyer, advising businesses and senior executives in the commercial and public sector. Gwynneth has particular experience in the retail and higher and further education sectors. Gwynneth has gained valuable insight into employer working practices from secondments to two large organisations and she continues to enjoy a close working relationship with human resources departments advising on the impact of all aspects of employment law in the workplace. Gwynneth provides strategic and commercial advice, tailored to the client’s desired outcomes, on all areas of employment law, including organisational restructures, contractual variations, employment-related support on business acquisitions and sales, TUPE in commercial agreements and business transfers/supplier change and post-termination restrictive covenants. Gwynneth regularly represents employers at employment tribunal hearings, which include complex discrimination and whistleblowing claims. Gwynneth is also an accredited trainer and delivers bespoke training to employers. Recent work handled by Gwynneth includes: advising a major retailer on TUPE aspects and the application of the Agency Worker Regulations within commercial and outsourcing contracts; advising on the employment aspects of a business acquisition of a manufacturing assembly operations, and on the effective integration of incoming employees into an existing workforce as well as a few redundancies as a result, whilst ensuring minimal disruption to workforce morale and operations; advising a large motorway service company on the employment aspects and process involved in relation to a change in contractual pension benefits; advising a company on enforcement of post-termination restrictive covenants, resulting in monetary settlement in favour of the client; successful representation of a recruitment business at an employment in its defence against a claim of unfair dismissal and sex discrimination, involving issues of employment status and pregnancy discrimination; advising on and managing a claim brought by a trade union against a University for a protective award arising out of a collective redundancy process.Gwynneth is recognised by legal directory Chambers UK and is a leading lawyer on the Legal 500. Gwynneth is recognised as a leading individual in employment law by Legal 500,2020; and is a ranked lawyer in Chambers 2020.

Hamish Corner

Hamish specialises in commercial, IT and data privacy law, including all aspects of technology, media and licensing arrangements, in particular software agreements (including SaaS, licence and implementation projects and outsourcing); EU data protection requirements, including GDPR; franchising, merchandising and co-branding agreements; as well as collaborations and joint ventures. His clients include growing businesses in the technology, media, retail and sports sectors. They range from start-ups and early stage growth companies, to scale-ups and privately held mid-sized and large corporates, in the UK, Europe and the US.

Hannah Gaskell

Hannah is a senior associate in Shoosmiths’ Corporate Restructuring and Advisory team. Hannah advises on all legal aspects of restructuring and insolvency relating to both contentious and non-contentious matters. Hannah regularly advises a variety of clients including banks, insolvency practitioners, companies, directors and creditors on all aspects of the insolvency process. Hannah’s non-contentious work includes advising insolvency practitioners on all elements arising from their appointment either as administrator, liquidator or receiver, acting for both buyer and seller in business and asset sales out of administration, advising on company voluntary arrangements, reviewing security documentation and structures and preparing court applications for insolvency related matters. Hannah’s contentious work includes advising on ROT issues, supply chain risks, formal insolvency appointments, debt collection, directors duties, director disqualification proceedings and advising on both sides in relation to antecedent transactions. Hannah has assisted on a number of high profile administrations including, ASA Resource Group PLC, Oddbins, Monarch Aircraft Engineering, Manchester House, Artisan, Late Rooms, Superbreaks and Malvern Travel Technology. Hannah’s CVA experience includes Aldo, Supercuts, Select Fashions, Poundstretcher and Jigsaw. Hannah has also undertaken a secondment with Santander UK Plc. Hannah has also been recognised as a key lawyer in the Manchester team by the Legal 500.

Hannah Farley

Hannah is a principal associate pensions lawyer, who advises both trustees and employers on a wide range of pensions issues. Experience includes: drafting consolidation rules and scheme documentation; advising on buy-ins/buy-outs, including drafting/reviewing benefits specifications and reviewing associated member communications; advising on the closure of pension schemes to future accrual, including where there is a final salary link; advising on the winding-up of a scheme; advising on the employer debt and apportioning the debt under a flexible apportionment arrangement; providing support and training to trustee boards on compliance with their obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation; advising trustees on GMP equalisation and equalisation methods; advising on pensions issues on corporate transactions; advising on incentive exercises; reviewing investment management agreements and administration agreements; and providing training to trustee boards on current legal issues. Before becoming a pensions lawyer, Hannah practised as an employment lawyer at Stewarts Law in London, advising employees and employers on employment law issues. Hannah is a member of the Association of Pension Lawyers and committee member of the Thames Valley branch of the PLSA.

Hannah Locke

Hannah qualified as a solicitor in February 2010 and joined the Solent Office as a Senior Associate in June 2020. With over 10 years practical conveyancing experience, Hannah has conduct of a variety of Conveyancing case-load matters, including freehold and leasehold matters, new-build properties, deeds of variation, lease extensions, right to buy and shared-ownership. Hannah has been accredited to the Conveyancing Quality Scheme as part of the firm’s wider accreditation to this industry-standard scheme.

Hannah Field

Hannah Field is a partner in the Dispute Resolution and Litigation team at Shoosmiths and a corporate/commercial litigator with over 20 years’ experience across a breadth of complex cross-border and domestic disputes, with particular areas of expertise which include, shareholder disputes (of all manner, such as minority shareholder disputes both for the majority and for the minority shareholder), general transactional and commercial disputes issues (such as pre-emption disputes, SPA or shareholder agreement issues, breaches of warranty, earn outs, confidentiality disputes, jurisdiction disputes etc); regulatory investigations; director/fiduciary duties; cross-border insolvencies; and financial disputes. The disputes vary in nature arising from issues such as: breach of contract, misrepresentations, unfair prejudice, contractual interpretation matters, fraud etc. Hannah has acted on some of the highest profile disputes in the UK and internationally across a breath of sectors, including numerous private equity firms, funds, major corporates and commercial entities, start-ups, technology clients, high net worth individuals and banks. Hannah spent a number of years at US firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges where she became partner and later co-head of the London International Dispute Resolution department. She then joined White & Case before moving to Goodwin Proctor to assist with the build out of their disputes team in London. Hannah’s clients have included Providence Equity, Bain, Advent, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Bain Capital, iTunes, Facebook, Yodel, Four Seasons, Access Industries, CVC, ETF, Novator, Antin, Elliott, Get Living and GSO Capital. As part of her impressive corporate/commercial practice, Hannah has acted on some of the largest shareholder disputes in the Courts, such as securing victory for the Barclay Brothers and their associated entities concerning the ownership of Claridges, The Connaught and The Berkeley. Hannah has advised on litigation for some of the largest insolvencies/restructurings such as Lehman Brothers, Worldcom, Kaupthing Bank and Paragon. She also has experience in contentious intellectual property and tax matters, including having acted for Ingenious Media (producer of major films such as Life if Pi and Avatar) relating to one of the most high profile and complex tax cases ever litigated in England. Hannah has been recognised for her commercial and corporate litigation work across Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500 and London Super Lawyers.

Hannah Howard

Hannah is a Senior Associate in the regulatory team and regularly advises companies, directors and individuals on regulatory compliance across a range of sectors including health and safety, food safety, product safety, fire safety, environmental matters and anti-bribery and anti-money laundering legislation. Hannah spent a year of her training contract working within the regulatory team before qualifying as a solicitor in September 2020. She has experience of investigations and prosecutions by various regulatory agencies including the Environment Agency, the Health and Safety Executive and Local Authorities, as well as criminal prosecutions. Hannah also has experience of large-scale Inquiries and Inquests. Prior to qualifying as a solicitor, Hannah gained 12 years of experience as a serving police officer, including ten years as an accredited detective. Hannah is qualified to a high level in conducting suspect interviews, case management and disclosure. She has extensive knowledge of serious crime and investigation, including fraud and, latterly, specialised in intelligence and financial investigation.

Hannah Turner

Real Estate Midlands

Harriet Willmore

Harriet is a Senior Associate in our core Real Estate team with a strong development background. Harriet acts for national and local housebuilders, developers and promoters on site acquisitions (including phased acquisitions) and land disposals on both an immediate and strategic basis. Harriet regularly investigates title to land and produces reports advising clients on agreements, title to land and search results together with recommendations as to the appropriate course of action. She has experience in drafting contracts, overage deeds, transfers and other legal documentation associated with the development process. Harriet’s experience includes: acting for a number of the top national housebuilders in the acquisition of sites in the North West; acting on a disposal for an educational sector client to four housebuilders, to create 450 new homes; acting on an acquisition of land for a national UK housebuilder which will see them build more than 330 new homes including an extra-care development; and acting for a retirement living provider on the acquisition of sites and site set up.

Hayley Capani

Hayley is a Legal Director in the London office of the Shoosmiths Corporate Restructuring and Advisory team. Hayley advises on both contentious and non-contentious restructuring and insolvency matters and has extensive experience in contentious insolvency matters, acting for office holders, banks and other creditors on a broad range of matters relating to administration, administrative receivership, provisional liquidation, liquidation and a range of cross-border issues. Hayley’s contentious matters include: advising the administrators of LBHI2 (a Lehman group company) in relation to a directions application in relation to the ranking of circa $8.3bn of subordinated debt; advising a group of opposing creditors who successfully challenged a proposed scheme of arrangement issued by Sunbird Business Services Limited in relation to $15m of debt; advising the administrators of the Castlebeck care home group (which previously ran the Winterbourne View care home); advising the administrators on the administration and liquidation of the UK subsidiaries of the Swiss Petroplus group; advising syndicates of banks in relation to potential international enforcement options against the failed Dubai based private equity fund Abaaj as well as (on a separate matter) the Saudi-based Algosaibi-business, Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Company; and advising Canadian lessors in relation to the administration of the English airline, Flybe Hayley's non contentious experience includes: advising a syndicate of banks on contingency planning in relation to a restructuring of a substantial PP/PFI road infrastructure project in the UK

Hayley Saunders

Hayley is a specialist regulatory criminal defence lawyer advising leading companies, directors and individuals on all aspects of regulatory compliance across a range of sectors including retail, food, manufacturing and construction. Her extensive experience includes investigations and prosecutions in areas as diverse as corporate and gross negligence manslaughter; health and safety; fire safety; inquests; waste management and environmental matters; trading standards; food safety; advertising compliance and sales promotions; and anti-bribery legislation. Hayley advises at all stages of the criminal investigation including crisis management; interviews under caution; appeals against enforcement notices and conducts her own advocacy in the criminal and Coroners’ courts. Hayley provides robust and pragmatic commercial advice and her recent work includes: successfully defending a site manager charged with gross negligence manslaughter following the death of a member of the public at a construction site; representing a national food retailer at in inquest into the death of a teenager who died from an allergic reaction; representing a supported living and care home provider throughout the health and safety investigation and inquest into the death of a service user; representing a national retailer in relation to a number of food safety prosecutions arising out of pest infestations; and representing a number of retailers prosecuted for placing unsafe electrical products onto the EU market. Hayley qualified in 2005 and joined Shoosmiths in 2007 from Greenwoods LLP where she provided extensive regulatory advice to Network Rail. Hayley has spent time on secondment at the McDonald's legal team and has experience of prosecuting on behalf of government authorities and private prosecutors giving her a great insight into the different considerations from 'both sides of the fence'. Hayley regularly speaks at public events including the Safety Expo at London ExCeL and annual IOSH events. Hayley is currently part of the research team at Cranfield University undertaking a study on Contractor Management.

Heather Chandler

Heather is an experienced pensions partner advising employers, trustees, actuaries, accountants and other legal specialists and firms on all aspects of pensions matters relating to occupational and personal pension arrangements, both contract and trust based. Her style is proactive, focusing on a thorough understanding of all the issues whilst developing pragmatic solutions to reach manageable and long term outcomes. She has a strong understanding of the issues and obligations of both employers and trustees when dealing with pension matters. Recent work undertaken by Heather includes: • advising association on investment powers and responsibilities and assisting with assessment of investment strategy; • advising clients on corporate transactions involving reorganisations on cross border sales and acquisitions; • advising an employer on its auto-enrolment duties and communicating with its members and employees effectively and in accordance with the auto-enrolment regime; • providing independent advice to employers on employment issues relating to pensions, including executive terminations and also advising on contractual issues relating to pensions and interpretation; • advising the trustees of a pension plan on the buy-out of their scheme involving contract drafting, confirmation as to benefit entitlements, advice on GMP equalisation and other data issues, member communications and trustee indemnity protections; • attending regular trustee meetings and advising on an ongoing basis on scheme management for trustees; • on not-for-profit schemes and company schemes providing advice to trustees on issues of interpretation, drafting errors and proposals put forward by sponsoring employers to make changes to the scheme and the resolution of disagreements around interpretation; • bespoke pensions training for trustees, associations. authorities and corporate clients; • drafting and negotiating documents for trustees on scheme merger relating to a multi section scheme with multiple rules; • notifiable events risk assessment, advice for employers as to whether a course of action require notification; • provision of guidance to trustees on their obligation in respect of data protection, preparing of privacy notices; • bespoke trustee secretarial service and governance advice. Heather is herself a pension scheme trustee and works closely with other advisers in that capacity to manage an occupational scheme and is also on the governance committee of a contract based scheme.. She has experience with not-for profit clients including unions, trade associations and charities and is a trustee of a mental health charity based in Milton Keynes. Heather also oversees the team’s transactional practice utilising her 20+ years of experience in managing cross border and multi-jurisdictional as well as multi firm transactions. She heads up the teams offering to other law firms who need to buy in pensions transactional and advisor experience. Heather also managed the team's data protection response and supports advice for scheme trustees, involving the specialist data protection team at Shoosmiths as necessary. Heather also works closely with the employment teams working on employee and employer pension issues on termination of contract and relating to compliance with Auto Enrolment.

Heather Midwinter

Heather is a Principal Associate real estate lawyer who qualified as a solicitor in 2013 and has experience in a broad range of real estate transactions advising investors, developers, landlords, tenants and banks. Sectors Heather is passionate about include residential and commercial development and energy and infrastructure projects. Her recent project experience includes advising: - landowners on an energy from waste, onshore wind and a bioenergy (anaerobic digestion) projects in East Yorkshire; - both buyers and funders in respect of forward funding development projects; - an investor by way of general real estate support on a £2 billion property investment portfolio; - a promoter in respect of both residential and commercial development projects; - a buyer on a £104,000,000 acquisition; and - a range of leading UK Banks on refinancing various high value sites both locally and nationally.

Helen Poulter

Helen is an principal associate in the real estate team. Helen advises on all aspects of commercial property including acquisitions, disposals, lettings, developments, strategic land and financings. Helen acts for developers, investors, landlords and tenants principally in the student, residential and leisure sectors. Helen is a lead transaction lawyer for Select Property Group and advises on the acquisition and funding of complex sites for development as student and residential accommodation. Helen advises on all aspects of a transaction from the acquisition and funding to restructures, disposals, ground rent sales and commercial lettings. Helen's clients include Urban Splash, Muse, James Hall, Hallam Land and HSBC. Helen is known to clients for being “friendly, tenacious, calm under pressure and a pleasure to deal with”.

Helen Parrott

Helen is a Legal Director real estate lawyer with experience of a wide range of property work including investment acquisitions and disposals, portfolio management, leasehold transactions (acting for both landlords and tenants) development and project work. Her main clients include investment funds, retailers and leisure operators. Her recent experience includes: the disposal of a portfolio of multi million pound investment properties for a large investment fund client; assisting in advising a household name retailer in relation to a long running planning and development dispute in Birmingham, achieving exchange of the related disposal within two weeks; the acquisition of a multi-million pound portfolio of six investment properties for a household name retailer; and advising a national retailer on the development and subsequent leasehold acquisition of new build pharmacy premises in various locations around the country.

Helen Bridgman

Helen is a Legal Director real estate lawyer with wide experience in all aspects of commercial property law in particular development work and Landlord and Tenant work (experience working for both). Helen has experience acting for developers (in particular care home developers), investor clients and corporate occupier clients and currently specialises in strategic site acquisitions for development.

Helen Westwood

Helen is a principal associate experienced in acting for commercial and residential developers, investors, end-users and lending institutions. Helen also acts for many landlord and tenant clients on estate management portfolio matters. Helen regularly acquires and disposes of investments including retail, office, industrial and leisure properties. Her recent project experience includes advising: a national UK investor on the management and sale of part of an existing multi-let residential and retail site; a number of high street lenders overseeing the property aspects of high-value property-based commercial lending transactions to ensure that the lender receives adequate security for its loan; on the refinancing of a portfolio of properties for an international investment fund transacted within a limited timescale. Helen has been an associate in Shoosmiths’ real estate practice since September 2014, having completed her training contract with the firm and qualified as a solicitor in September 2010.

Hollie Weller

Hollie is a Senior Associate specialising in Clinical Negligence. Hollie is passionate about the work which she undertakes, in particular she feels a great empathy with clients, empowering them to improve their circumstances having suffered from negligence, which can often be life altering. More recently, Hollie assists Lead Partner, Denise Stephens, on complex Cerebral Palsy and Spinal Injury claims, which are extremely high value requiring dedication, enthusiasm and attention to detail. Hollie has represented individuals suffering from: the loss of a loved one as a result of clinical negligence; psychiatric injury as a result of still birth; complex biliary injuries as a result of gall bladder removal; a brain injury as a result of spinal anaesthesia contamination; and cerebral palsy and brain injuries as a result of mismanagement of labour. Hollie feels she has found a vocation in representing clients who have experienced the trauma of clinical negligence, building strong relationships with those instructing her. She is committed to providing clients with the best service possible and ensuring the best possible outcome

Holly Hirst

Holly is a Partner, corporate lawyer with a particular focus on private equity and private M&A transactions. Holly works with private equity houses, corporate entities, individual shareholders and management on both acquisitions and disposals of their investments in private companies, as well as providing general on-going corporate advice. Holly also has experience in advising on cross-border transactions in a number of different industry sectors. Recent experience includes advising: Datix on its acquisition of RL Solutions; Kelso Place and management on the sale of RED Driving School; Five Arrows Principal Investments on their acquisition of the Karnov Group; and Downing LLP on their investment into the Magnus Care Home Group.

Holly Gerard

Holly joined Shoosmiths’ real estate team in March 2017, having qualified in 2016 at Irwin Mitchell. Holly, a senior associate, advises and assists with a wide range of commercial property matters, with particular emphasis on strategic land deals, initially dealing with the due diligence involved in site assembly and then on all advice to make sites "market ready" through to disposals. Holly also assists with urban regeneration schemes and corporate transactions. Holly has spent time in-house with a leading PLC development client and is well regarded as a lawyer who is a "pleasure to work with".

Hywel Thomas

Hywel is a senior associate in the Commercial department, based in Milton Keynes. Hywel has experience in advising on a variety of commercial matters, including supply agreements for goods and services, IT agreements, sponsorship agreements, prize promotions and confidentiality agreements. Hywel also advises clients in relation to preparing their Modern Slavery Act statements, has experience of advising on routine data protection issues as they relate to commercial contracts and has worked closely with the firm's data protection specialists on more complex matters.

Ian Nobbs

Ian is a part of the Defended Team based in Solent and is a Senior Associate. Ian has experience of dealing with defended Small Claims, Fast Track and Multi Track cases up to trial as well as Application hearings. He also manages a variety of matters involving insolvency, bankruptcy, asset recovery, and enforcement of County Court Judgments. Ian has a wide variety of litigation experience, dealing with a broad range of clients from the building, media, recruitment and financial sectors. His recent work experience includes:- successfully obtaining a County Court Judgment at trial against a large karaoke bar and restaurant who had failed to obtain a copyright music licence. Full costs were also awarded; recovering over £150K for a Recruitment Consultancy client after commencing winding up proceedings; settling a large dispute by way of a Part 36 offer and recovering full costs for the client.

Ian Reid

Ian Reid (Partner) Ian is a highly experienced British construction lawyer, who has worked around the world and advised on projects ranging from major urban redevelopment schemes in London’s docklands, city centre office buildings, one of the world’s largest liquified natural gas projects in Queensland Australia, oil rigs in the North Sea, rail infrastructure projects, mining projects in Australia’s outback, super prime residential and hotel schemes and the development of luxury resorts in the South Pacific. Before becoming a lawyer, Ian trained as an architect in the UK and worked for architectural practices in Canada. Since becoming a lawyer Ian has worked for several of London’s leading law firms and also a leading Australian practice. Ian practices both non-contentious (front end) and contentious (back end) construction law. He typically provides developer clients will a "full life cycle" or "cradle to grave" service, advising on procurement routes at the inception of a project, drafting and negotiating all forms of construction and related contracts, providing legal handholding and legal project management advice throughout the build period and then acting in construction disputes (whether they be in adjudication, arbitration, expert determination or court proceedings) in the event things do not go as planned. Ian was Lawyer Monthly’s UK Construction and Engineering Lawyer of the Year 2019, Acquisition INTL’s Most Outstanding Construction Lawyer 2019, ACQ5’s Construction Lawyer of the Year 2019, Corporate INTL’s Construction Lawyer of the Year in the United Kingdom 2021. He is also featured in the Global Law Experts 2021 handbook.

Ian Lawton

Ian is a Senior Associate in our corporate department advising on all aspects of corporate law, including venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, joint ventures, shareholders' agreements, investments and general corporate advisory mandates. Ian works with a variety of clients including private companies based in the UK and overseas and venture capital investors. Ian read law at Durham University completing his degree in 2012 and he completed the LPC with distinction at Nottingham Law School in 2013. Ian joined Shoosmiths in September 2021 following 3 years as a corporate solicitor at a national law firm.

Ian Yule

Ian is a construction lawyer with some 25 years’ experience. He has advised on various large projects, with a particular emphasis on power stations and process plants. His wide experience means that he is well-equipped to guide employers, contractors and consultants through the construction phase and beyond. He is experienced in adjudication and all other form of dispute resolution. He has been ranked in the legal directories for many years. Legal 500 says he “has a technical background which is most helpful in analysing and preparing claims and witnesses, which he does exceptionally well”. His recent experience includes: acting for a substantial contractor on a time and money claim, in which a multi-million pound sum was awarded in adjudication; guiding a university through a lengthy dispute with its FM contractor; advising a project management company on a complex High Court claim; acting for a health sector developer in an extension of time adjudication; and defending a sub-contractor in an arbitration that was then resolved by mediation..

Ian Hardman

Ian is a Partner specialising in construction and engineering. Ian has extensive experience advising on projects across a range of sectors including power/process, nuclear decommissioning, residential, retail, office and education. Ian regularly advises on large and complex infrastructure projects and commercial developments. He is experienced in all the standard forms of contract including JCT, NEC, ICC, IChemE, MF/1 and FIDIC. Ian is rated as one of the leading construction lawyers in the North-West by Chambers. Ian’s relevant experience includes: Advising the client on the procurement of a waste for energy plant. Contract value circa £250m. Advising a national retailer on the procurement of a new distribution centre including the automation and picking system. Contract value circa £250m. Advising on the procurement of new cranes for a sea container terminal. Contract value circa £100m. Advising a developer on various apartment PRS developments. Each project having a value of circa £40m. Advising in connection with and preparing contract documentation for a new €166m chlorine facility at Runcorn, Cheshire. Advising a local authority in connection with claims by a contractor for an extension of time and disruption arising out of the construction of a new by-pass. Claim value was circa £5m.

Isaac Bordon

Isaac is a Partner based in the London office and has experience in all aspects of real estate, with particular emphasis on investment, development and occupier work. He advises a wide range of clients on their real estate transactions and strategy and often leads multi-practice teams of lawyers on complex deals. Isaac acts for landlords and tenants, institutional UK funds, local authorities and private equity houses, family offices and overseas investors. He works with clients specialising across all asset classes, and his work has incorporated the office, retail, leisure, educational, industrial, logistics, data centre, residential, hotel, and student accommodation sectors. Isaac has a special interest in environmental matters and sustainability in the built environment. He also has extensive experience of the London office market and the trends which have influenced and affected the way that office space is being occupied.

Iyanu Onalaja

Iyanu is a senior associate in the real estate team with over five years’ experience. She has a great wealth of knowledge in general commercial property matters and is continually developing her experience of development work (both commercially and residentially). Her experience includes: •developing and growing client relations including responsibility for them on a daily basis including assisting the client partner for a major French motor manufacturer with a UK HQ in Coventry which involves undertaking freehold and leasehold acquisitions of retail showrooms and other premises. Most recent major instruction was undertaking freehold disposal for site in Manchester worth over £12 million; •acting for housebuilders, manufacturers, automotive clients, investment clients, lenders and SMEs; •leasehold and portfolio management; and •dealing with refinancing and land development loans.

Jade Souch

Jade is a senior associate in the RSG team based in Solent. Jade specialises in defended commercial litigation. She acts for a number of clients within the credit insurance, recruitment, utilities and trade creditor industries. Jade has particular expertise in advising clients on a wide range of contractual disputes and commercial debt recovery claims. She also has experience in alternative dispute resolution including mediation and insolvency related work, including bankruptcy and winding-up proceedings.

James Wright

Dr James Wright is a Principal Associate in the medical negligence team of the Personal Advisory Division of Shoosmiths. James acts solely for patients and their families and has experience of dealing with all aspects of medical claims ranging from anaesthetic awareness cases to child birth trauma. James has settled a number of very high value claims which involve protected parties which cannot be reported due to those matters being the subject of anonymity orders. James was also the lawyer instructed by the claimant in the much publicised Court of Appeal case of Harrison v University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust which provided clarity and guidance on costs budgeting issues. James is an experienced public speaker and has lectured to both scientific and legal audiences. James has also published articles on topics of general medico-legal interest and has had some of his successfully concluded medical negligence cases reported in publications such as Clinical Risk and PI Focus.

James Benedick

James is a real estate lawyer with wide experience of acting for, landlords, tenants, pension funds, property companies and financial institutions. He has extensive experience of all aspects of commercial property and, in particular, investment transactions. James’ experience includes sales, purchases and asset management of multi-let offices, retail parks and industrial estates. James also advises on real estate aspects of corporate and finance transactions. His recent project experience includes advising: a real estate investment company on the acquisition of prime London office and residential premises for £10.25 million with a view to converting to extending and converting to sole residential use; a multinational corporation on all matters connected with the management of their UK real estate portfolio, including a mixture of new lease acquisitions in retail parks and outlets as well as new concept stores in a range of high profile locations; a high profile British retail and commercial bank on the property aspects of a £15.9 million loan in respect of a shopping centre purchase; a pension fund on the sale of West End offices premises to an international investment company for £15.75 million; and on the property aspects of a disposal by a human resource consulting firm of a wholly owned subsidiary to a national logistics company for £5 million.

James Cullingworth

James is a Principal Associate in the London real estate team and advises on all aspects of commercial property, including, acquisitions, disposals, lettings and development. James acts for landlords, tenants and developers in a variety of sectors and his recent experience includes: acting for major institutional landlords in relation to industrial, office and retail properties across the UK; acting for a healthcare client on acquisitions, sale and leasebacks and the development of medical centres; and acting on a joint venture for a 160k square metre development in Cheshire.

James Frost

James is a Senior Associate in the Real Estate Development & Investment team, acting for mixed use developers, property companies, investment funds and institutional landlords. He advises on all aspects of commercial property, including conditional sale and purchase agreements, the grant and exercise of options, agreements for lease and pre-lets, acquisition and disposal work, as well as having extensive experience in landlord and tenant and portfolio management work. Recent experience includes: acted for property investment and development company on the acquisition of an east-midlands multi-let industrial and logistics estate. acted for property investment and development company on the acquisition of an eight-storey office building in Birmingham. acted for various property investment companies on the acquisition of multi-let shopping centres and retail parks across England. acted for property fund on the assembly, funding, development and letting of multiple logistics and distribution developments. acted for institutional landlords on the leasing and portfolio asset management of various major retail and commercial assets across England.

James Haikney

James is a commercial and projects lawyer, working in the green energy sector for almost 10 years across technologies including wind, solar, and green hydrogen. James spent three years in-house before returning to practice with Shoosmiths, and provides clear, to-the-point advice focussed on his clients’ objectives and commercial “big picture”. James advises widely on all commercial matters, including B2B and B2C commercial contract terms, and has experience delivering critical commercial contracts for green energy clients at critical stages of the realisation of new capital projects, including: manufacturing (including TSAs, EPCs, and electrolyser supply contracts) maintenance (both long and short term, whether or not supported by performance guarantees) energy offtake (including on- and off-site PPAs and hydrogen fuel offtake agreements) strategic partnerships (including commercial partnership agreements, framework contracts, joint ventures, and transitional services) James also advises on legal compliance and matters of energy regulation related to businesses in the green energy space. James joined Shoosmiths after working for three years as senior legal counsel at ITM Power, the Sheffield-based AIM-listed manufacturer of green hydrogen electrolysers. Over three years in-house James advised the business on key sale, maintenance, and supply contracts, and provided legal support on key strategic projects, including the establishment of a hydrogen mobility joint venture as well as three complex equity investment rounds totalling almost £500m.

James Bryce

James is a Senior Associate within the Real Estate practice group with over 4 years' experience acting for clients in respect of their real estate transactions. James represents a number of household name national clients, assisting them on a variety of real estate matters including landlord and tenant transactions (acting for both landlords and occupiers), acquisitions and disposals and offers other, miscellaneous real estate management support. Specifically, this includes: assisting on a number of huge, team-wide projects, most recently a £40million portfolio acquisition for a property investment client and a nationwide renewal of over 300 leases for a national retail client; acting for numerous investment landlords in respect of their asset management portfolios; acting for a variety of retail clients in relation to their leasehold management portfolio, including lease renewals and various licences and miscellaneous deeds for a number of household names; advising on and negotiating the terms of advertisement agreements for a national storage company; the preparation of a wide variety of transactional documents for both disposals and acquisitions; and investigating and subsequently reporting to clients on a wide variety of title issues and document terms.

James Speed

Jim is a partner in Shoosmiths’ real estate team with over 20 years’ experience specialising in investment and development work with a particular focus on industrial and logistics schemes. His recent experience includes: • Acting for a main market listed REIT on their c£500m investment UK portfolio in respect of acquisitions, disposals, financing arrangement and ongoing asset management; • Advising a regional developer on the strategic site assembly and realisation of a 1.5m sq ft logistics scheme in West Yorkshire and a c1m sq ft logistics scheme within South Yorkshire; • Acting on the forward funding and sale of two 500,000+ sq ft distribution warehouses within the M62 West Yorkshire corridor for a regional developer; • Acting for two different developers on the sale of 2 big box warehouse development sites in Yorkshire and the North East to a well known internet retailer; • Acting on the forward funding, development, letting and sale of a landmark office building within Leeds city centre; • Acting for a global property adviser on the disposal of its London office HQ.

James Needham

James is a partner in the real estate team specialising in commercial development, funding and strategic land. James has particular experience acting for developers in forward funded pre-let developments and on the preparation, servicing and phased disposal of strategic mixed use and residential sites. His recent experience includes advising: a national developer on the acquisition, pre-let and forward funding of a £38 million logistics hub in the West Midlands; an international logistics company taking a lease of a purpose-built automated warehousing and office facility at a major new logistics park in the East Midlands; a private investment company on securing a long-term option and promotion agreement for a 400 acre strategic development site in Staffordshire; a major UK lending institution on an £18 million development and investment facility secured against a portfolio of 34 commercial properties; and a West Midlands based property investment vehicle on the £70 million refinancing and redevelopment of a flagship office building in central Birmingham.

James Keates

James is the national head of Shoosmiths’ Corporate Restructuring and Advisory department. James specialises in acting for corporates, company directors, insolvency practitioners, private equity holders, banks and asset based lenders on all matters in relation to business restructuring, distressed lending and corporate insolvency. James has extensive experience and is particularly well regarded in relation to business restructurings and insolvencies within the retail sector. James is known as one of the industry’s leading lawyers when it comes to securing CVAs and advising in respect of administrations for a wide range of high profile retail businesses. In the last few years, James has been involved in over 20 high profile retail CVAs and administrations. These include, Monsoon Accessorize (administration), Cath Kidston (administration), Harveys and Bensons for Beds (administration), Poundstretcher (CVA), UK Window Group Limited (administration), Select Fashion (CVA and subsequent administration and a further CVA) and Regis UK (trading as Supercuts) (CVA). In addition, James’ notable experience includes the following: advising the purchaser of the brand and intellectual property of Oasis/Warehouse; advising the administrators of T.M Lewin & Sons Limited; advising the administrators of Office Outlet (formerly the business known as Staples); advising the administrators of Monarch Aircraft Engineering Limited, a company of significant strategic importance within the aviation industry with circa 800 employees, carrying out the maintenance, repair and overhaul of commercial airplanes primarily out of Birmingham and Luton airports; and advising in connection with the acquisition by Karen Millen of part of the business and assets of Coast from its administrators, including advising in connection with the structuring of the transaction to minimize risk, securing the ongoing employment for over 600 employees. James also has significant experience in challenges brought to the validity of retail CVAs, having taken a leading role in both defending and bringing such actions in respect of the most recent leading cases on retail CVAs. James Keates was the winner of Corporate Restructuring Lawyer of the year at the National Turnaround and Insolvency Awards in 2018 and is recognised in the Legal 500 “Hall of Fame” for “receiving constant praise” from his clients “for continued excellence” and for being “at the pinnacle of his profession”.

James Wood-Robertson

James is a specialist Energy & Infrastructure lawyer with over 15 years’ experience of advising sponsors, developers, funders, principal contractors and procuring authorities on renewable energy and energy from waste projects in the UK. He has acted for developers and funders on the acquisition, disposal, financing and re-financing of numerous onshore wind, solar PV, hydro and energy from waste projects. James has specialist experience in advising on power purchase agreements, having advised developers, funders and offtakers on a large number of renewable energy projects, including numerous corporate PPAs (physical and virtual) and private wire arrangements. In addition to this transactional experience, James has provided bespoke advice to renewable energy businesses and investors on PPAs, energy subsidy schemes (e.g. ROCs, Feed In Tariff, Contracts for Difference) and electricity industry agreements. James regularly presents to client groups on renewable energy matters.

James Foster

James leads Shoosmiths’ Corporate North teams (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Manchester and Leeds) and heads our Northern Private Equity practice and is nationally recognised for his private equity expertise. James specialises in corporate finance, with particular emphasis on M&A and private equity transactions, including acquisitions and divestments, venture capital, growth equity, private equity investments and joint ventures. He is recognised by clients for his hands-on and responsive approach, technical skills and commercial pragmatism. James’ client base includes acquisitive international corporates, US and European sponsors, private equity backed investee companies and UK private equity and venture capital investors. Recent experience includes advising: LDC on its sale and subsequent co-investment with Francisco Partners in ByBox; WM Morrison Supermarkets plc on the acquisition of three superstores from the Co-operative Group; Capiton AG (via its investee company the Dec Group) on the acquisition of Extract Technology from Wabash National Corporation; August Equity on its divestment of the Aspirations Group to Elysian Capital, by way of secondary buy-out; shareholders of Coppergreen Leisure Resorts on their exit to Away Resorts (backed by CVC Capital Partners Fund VII); shareholders of NSS Group on their exit to PTSG Group (backed by both Warburg Pincus and Macquirie Capital); Ellis Recruitment Group on its investment from Mobeus Equity Partners; Capfun on the acquisition of Lakeshore Leisure Group from Kings Park Capital and Management; Azets (backed by PAI Partners and Hg Capital) on numerous bolt on acquisitions in England and Ireland; Latus Health on its acquisition of ELAS Occupational Health and Industrial Diagnostics Group from Citation; Management of Building Costs Information Service Limited, a carve out from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, on its investment by LDC; shareholders of Taskmaster Resources on their sale to IPE Ventures; shareholders of BYM-Digival to Nurtur Group (backed by Tosca Fund); YFM Equity Partners in respect of their investment alongside Comhar Capital in Panintelligence; investment into Force 24; their co-investment alongside Maven Capital Partners into Summize Group; and Yorkshire Wildlife Group on its debt and equity raise from Lloyds Bank plc and BGF.

James Spencer

James is a partner in the banking and finance group of Shoosmiths’ London office with over 20 years experience and expertise in a wide spectrum of finance and structured finance transactions. James is primarily focused on the following areas of practice: advising banks, debt funds and other alternative lenders on the structuring and origination of a wide variety of syndicated and bilateral commercial real estate loans, including whole loans, senior loans , mezzanine loans and A/B loans, for both investment and development transactions across a range of asset types, including office, retail, logistics, student accommodation, hotels and BTR; advising lenders, loan servicers and borrowers on the work out and restructuring of stressed and distressed commercial real estate loans; and representing loan agents and servicers on their appointments to a variety of finance, structured finance and securitisation transactions, including CRE, CMBS, shipping, leverage, aviation, NPLs portfolios, loan on loan and warehouse lines. James has been recommended for property finance by Legal 500 since 2016.

Jamie Woods

Jamie is a Principal Associate Solicitor in the Serious Injuries Court of Protection team. Alongside the commitment and support he provides his clients, Jamie also leads the Serious Injuries Court of Protection team in Reading, responsible for its strategic development and ensuring clients are provided with the best possible advice, support and guidance. Jamie specialises in the day-to-day oversight and management of high value Deputyships. This sees him working on behalf of vulnerable clients, who lack mental capacity following a catastrophic brain injury, in managing all aspects of their finances and affairs. Jamie’s approach is centred around kindness and compassion and works with his clients, and their families, in a collaborative and down to earth way. He goes out of his way to ensure the needs of his clients are met and is constantly focused on ensuring that everything is done to facilitate decisions and outcomes that result in a positive difference to their lives, both now and into the future. Jamie genuinely cares for his clients and has previously been described by one client’s family as “not just our solicitor, but an extension of our family”. In addition to his professional deputyship experience, Jamie can provide advice to Lay Deputies on how to fulfil their legal obligations, can assist them with annual deputy report preparation, or can draft all types of applications to the Court of Protection on their behalf. More broadly, where someone has received compensation from a personal injury award and still has mental capacity to manage their financial affairs, Jamie can also provide advice and solutions in relation to safeguarding the compensation by way of a Personal Injury Trust. If needed, he can act as a professional Trustee or can help Lay Trustees set up and manage a Personal Injury Trust themselves.

Janet Dalton

Janet is the Head of Financial Services in the Manchester office. She specialises in all aspects of asset finance and financial services regulatory work - the latter encompassing the regulatory regimes for all of consumer credit, mortgage lending and introducing, and insurance mediation. Recent work has included: advising an equipment leasing company on the launch of a product for mobile phone handset leasing with a major high street retailer including all of drafting the point of sale documentation, drafting and negotiating the contract between the leasing company and the retailer, and acting on the funding arrangements relating to the project; assisting a new entrant to the motor finance sector to launch, including drafting and advising on the regulated credit agreement and ancillary documentation and drafting funder/car retailer agreements; assisting a funder in the divorce lending sector to launch a consumer credit "Regulated" product and a Regulated Mortgage Contract product, including drafting and advising on both credit agreements and ancillary documentation for both products, and drafting funder/solicitor agreements; advising lenders regarding FCA rule breaches and appropriate actions to take; and assisting a leasing company to re-negotiate its funding position with a major lender.

Janine Sutherland

Janine is a Senior Associate in the Conveyancing New Business Team and has worked at Shoosmiths in this role for 20 years. Under her management the team focus on servicing all the initial needs of new customers preparing them for the legal aspects of the home move process. The team also look after and maintain relationships with Estate Agents, Mortgage Brokers and Mortgage Lenders and their clients.

Jason Jackson

With a focus on commercial real estate development and funding, Jason has a strong track record advising on UK regeneration projects, mixed use office and commercial development, logistics and warehousing. He advises clients on site acquisitions, pre-lets and forward funding arrangements with pension funds and investors, together with joint venture arrangements between developers and property-led corporate transactions. Recent projects where Jason has advised include: advising one of the developer parties involved in the first-phase preparations for a 175 acre regeneration project for a logistics park in the West Midlands advising on the acquisition pre-let and forward funding of the largest (2020) automated parcel delivery in Europe based in the North of England Advising on acquisition development sale on the a 2.2m Amazon facility in the UK Advising on the site assembly and development of a 2m square foot logistics park in the UK the £98 million investment sale of 55 Colmore Row, Birmingham, following a back-to-frame £32 million re-development completed just eight months earlier. Jason leads the Midlands region with teams in Birmingham and Nottingham

Jennifer Clarke

Jennifer is a Legal Director in the Commercial team, who has over 15 years of experience in advising clients in both the public and private sectors on major commercial, infrastructure and technology projects. Jennifer leads the non-contentious public procurement and subsidy control advisory team at Shoosmiths, providing pragmatic, commercial advice to clients (including charities) on mitigating procurement risk and compliance with the subsidy control regime in the UK. Jennifer has specialist experience in advising procuring authorities, developers, funders, suppliers and contractors on projects in the Energy & Infrastructure and Transport sectors. Jennifer also frequently advises procuring authorities and contractors in Real Estate development and Technology projects.

Jess Ready

Jess acts for developers, institutional landlords, corporate investors and occupiers on disposals, acquisitions and lettings, as well as providing property assistance in corporate transactions. Jess’s recent experience includes advising: • an air navigation service provider in relation to its day to day occupational requirements including acquisitions and leases of radar and navigation sites and disposals of non-operational sites, with specialist input in relation to its requirements as a Code Operator; • the UK’s leading rolling stock financier and asset management company on its acquisition of the freehold interest in the largest specialist rolling stock storage site in the country; • on the acquisition of warehouse/logistics premises for a multinational electronics client with a deal value of £23m; • on the asset management of a London based investor with a large national property portfolio as well as its acquisition and disposal programmes; • a property investment company on the £220m property refinance, redevelopment and letting of restaurants and retail units at a landmark asset in Central London; and • landowner and developer clients on the grant of wayleave agreements relating to back haul provision as well as rooftop and greenfield sites.

Jessika Thumpston

Corporate

Jill Briggs

Jill is a Partner in real estate with extensive experience of working in the property sector. She specialises in acting for national housebuilders in all aspects of the acquisition process, in relation to both strategic and immediate land. She regularly deals with a variety of transaction types including conditional contracts, strategic options, promotion agreements, regeneration schemes, multi-party collaboration agreements and overages. Jill advises her clients as to deal structures and assists with heads of terms to ensure the deals progress as smoothly as possible from the outset. She has a collaborative and proactive approach and is known for driving deals forwards and effectively managing difficult situations. Jill’s experience includes: · Advising a consortium of national housebuilders in relation to a development of over 1,100 houses in Oxfordshire including partitioning of the site, day to day development advice, deeds of grant, sales required as a result of planning obligations etc; · Acting for a PLC housebuilder in relation to a large-scale inner-city regeneration project alongside a local authority; · Advising on the acquisition of a site of over 1000 units in West Sussex for a PLC housebuilder and subsequently dealing with ancillary agreements, deeds, overage payments etc to facilitate the on-going development; · Dealing with a 4-phase scheme in the midlands for a national housebuilder in collaboration with a local authority; · Working for a national housebuilder in relation to the acquisition of a 3-phase scheme via a conditional contract with deferred payment, collaboration agreement and complicated planning structure; · Acting for a PLC housebuilder on the acquisition of a 500 unit site on the south coast providing much needed new homes, affordable housing, improvements to infrastructure and local facilities.

Jo Tunnicliff

Jo is a senior associate based in our Birmingham Office, she assists and advises on both contentious and non-contentious aspects of employment law. Jo has experience in disciplinary, dismissal, grievance and redundancy processes as well as acting for Respondents in tribunal proceedings. Jo’s recent work includes: responding to unfair dismissal tribunal claims on behalf of an international consultancy business, including defending claims for disability and gender discrimination; advising on and drafting contracts of employment, executive service agreements, consultancy agreements and internal policies for a range of organisations; negotiating settlement disputes for an employer which included additional complications surrounding payments of statutory maternity and redundancy pay disputed by the employee. Advising on a range of immigration matters including sponsorship reporting obligations and right to work checks.

Joanne McGuinness

Joanne has considerable experience in advising on all aspects of commercial real estate transactions and the property aspects of corporate based matters. Her practice encompasses development work in the Rail, Industrial, Retail and Leisure sectors as well the large scale portfolio management, disposals and acquisitions in the retail, leisure and corporate occupier sectors and complex strategic acquisitions. Joanne acts for a number of well know developers, retailers, insurers, manufactures and corporate occupiers. Joanne heads up the Real Estate Team in the Solent office.

Joanne Sear

Joanne is a Principal Associate (Barrister) in regulatory and criminal lawyer, with significant experience of investigations and prosecutions by various regulatory agencies including the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, the Health and Safety Executive, Local Authorities and OFSTED. She previously worked for the Environment Agency, where she advised on enforcement and dealt with all aspects of prosecutions and civil sanctions. She has a particularly specialised knowledge of environmental law. Joanne has recent experience acting for businesses following significant pollution incidents, including assisting clients with internal investigations, and helping them to submit high-value Enforcement Undertakings (which offer an alternative to prosecution). She also advises clients on compliance with environmental regulation. Since joining Shoosmiths in 2017, Joanne has advised clients following fatal and serious accidents involving employees and customers, businesses facing nuisance complaints, retailers facing prosecution for trading standards offences, and companies who are the subject of allegations of breach of planning control. Joanne qualified as a barrister in 2005 and spent the early part of her career in independent practice. She defended and prosecuted criminal cases in the Magistrates, Crown and appeal courts. She is an accomplished advocate who understands how the criminal justice system operates. Her previous experience prosecuting for the Environment Agency and defending in criminal cases has given her a thorough understanding of regulatory enforcement in practice.

Joanne McGuiness

Jody Kite

Jody is a partner in Shoosmiths' national construction and engineering team. Since qualifying as a solicitor in 2007, Jody has specialised in adjudication, arbitration, litigation and the mediation of construction, engineering, infrastructure, energy and related professional negligence disputes. In addition to specialising in the resolution of disputes, Jody also provides strategic and risk management advice throughout the life cycle of projects and transactions, guides clients through difficult contracts and distressed projects and helps clients with avoiding disputes in the first place. From payment, delay/disruption, defect/design liability, termination and insolvency-related issues, to projects involving the construction of buildings, roads, rail, ports, gas/oil pipelines, energy plants and water treatment facilities, Jody has advised and represented all components of the construction and engineering industries’ supply chains across a broad range of sectors. In addition to advising a wide range of employer, developer, contractor and specialist sub-contractor clients from national and international law firm bases during the first 11 years of his career, Jody also spent nearly 8 years in-house acting as a ‘business protector’ at director and head of legal level for the Dandara Group. As well as playing an integral role in helping Dandara develop the private rented sector and offering on-going risk management and dispute resolution advice and representation, Jody also led and managed Dandara's non-contentious construction function (which serviced close to 60 live projects at any one time) and represented the housebuilder and build-to-rent specialist in some of the UK's largest forward-funded real estate transactions. Since 2017 (and whilst at Dandara), Jody has advised extensively in relation to cladding, fire-safety and other building safety-related matters and have guided clients through their dealings with interested third parties, including the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Jody works closely with boards of directors and project teams alike to ensure that changes are successfully managed, risks are minimised, entitlements are maximised and disputes are resolved effectively and efficiently to help clients deliver on their wider objectives. Jody’s unique experience and understanding of helping develop and protect a national real estate developer and contractor during a key period of its growth enables incisive thinking, strategic planning and a deep commercial understanding that extends beyond providing a pure legal service or just ‘doing the job’.

Joe Stephenson

Joe is a Partner and the Head of Shoosmiths' IT & Technology team (IT & technology | Commercial services | Shoosmiths lawyers). Joe is also the Head of Shoosmiths' Technology Sector group (Technology | Sectors | Shoosmiths Lawyers). Joe has helped establish Shoosmiths’ IT and Technology team as one of the leading practices in the UK; winning TMT Team of the Year at the 2023 Legal Business Awards and ranked Band 1 by Legal 500 and Chambers UK Guide. The team is described as a “[t]hriving team that draws on a wealth of expertise to handle the complete range of IT matters and represents a fine choice for clients." (Chambers UK Guide). Joe is consistently ranked as a leading individual in IT and technology by UK legal directories, being described as having “the perfect balance of deep legal expertise, extensive subject area knowledge and strong negotiation and relationship-building skills” (Chambers UK Guide). Joe has extensive experience of advising on all forms of IT and technology transactions across a range of sectors, but has particular expertise in advising on large-scale transformational outsourcings and projects in the automotive, retail and financial services sector. He is also a leading advisor on transactions involving Web3 and the Metaverse. Joe’s major recent transactions include advising: a major telecommunication provider on its £200million+ procurement of a state-of-the art, greenfield IT system; a global automotive manufacturer on various business critical IT projects, including its £50m+ next generation IT services contract and tech-enabled customer contact centre involving a full transformation program for the introduction of AI and chat bots; advising various global brands on the launch of Web3 and Metaverse projects; one of the world's largest banks on the procurement of critical IT systems and infrastructure for the operation of its new motor lending business; a global mass media company on the first generation outsourcing of its technology operations centre based in India to provide IT support and services across its entire global business; one of the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair care products on its global procurement of its customer engagement platform with one of the world’s leading providers, as well as other cutting edge technology projects involving AR and social retail; a FTSE 100 company on its multi-million pound global procurement and roll-out of a new CRM system involving various Tier 1 suppliers; one of the world's largest multinational brewing companies on various IT projects, including the design, development and deployment of a pan-European e-commerce platform and a multi-million pound supply chain and demand management system for its UK business.

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