Gowling WLG

Gowling WLG

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Natalie Barton-Howes

Natalie Barton-Howes

Natalie Barton-Howes defends companies and senior stakeholders in relation to criminal and regulatory investigations, particularly where a serious incident may give rise to offences and creates immediate legal, operational and reputational pressure.Her work is centred on health and safety offences under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, corporate manslaughter, inquests and public inquiries, acting for clients across high-risk sectors including manufacturing and construction.She has particular experience supporting organisations after deaths, serious injuries and incidents involving vulnerable people, including supporting healthcare, social housing, supported living and care providers where coronial, CQC, police and safety issues overlap.Natalie advises investors, developers, owners and managers of occupied buildings on BSR related investigations and compliance with the Building Safety Act 2022, alongside fire safety and wider building safety issues such as asbestos, legionella, electrical and gas safety, helping clients to manage risk, respond to scrutiny and avoid criminal enforcement.Her practice also covers product safety and recall, environmental issues and wider regulatory compliance.Natalie is often instructed while the factual position is still developing and early decisions will shape the investigation that follows. She helps clients identify the immediate priorities, preserve privilege, gather and present evidence properly, prepare for interviews under caution, and manage engagement with regulators, the police, coroners, public inquiries, insurers, employees and boards.Clients value Natalie's responsive, calm and pragmatic approach in high-pressure situations. She combines technical regulatory expertise with a clear understanding of the wider commercial context. Her aim is to make the process manageable, ensure the organisation's position is understood and reduce the risk of avoidable enforcement action, adverse findings, reputational harm and unnecessary business interruption.She also works with businesses to identify and reduce regulatory risk before incidents occur. Her proactive work includes compliance reviews and policy audits, as well as training, horizon scanning, board-level guidance and practical tools for site teams and management.
Sarah Campey

Sarah Campey

Sarah Campey is a legal director in property litigation specialising in a variety of assets from commercial and multi tenure residential property to urban regeneration schemes and energy and infrastructure projects. Sarah has a particular interest in rights of light and assisting clients to navigate the challenges of bringing forward developments.Sarah advises clients at all stages from strategic pre-emptive advice to guiding clients through complex litigation. Sarah is known for her strategic, commercially focused approach. Where disputes are unavoidable she helps clients resolve disputes as quickly and efficiently as possible. Sarah regularly works as an integral part of client teams working collaboratively to provide innovative solutions to achieve their aims.
Madeleine Clark

Madeleine Clark

Madeleine is a Partner in the Real Estate Finance team. With over 20 years+ experience, her work includes advising on both development and investments loans, both on a syndicated and bilateral basis. She is named as a leading individual in both Legal 500 and Chambers and has a breadth of experience across a range of asset classes including office, hotels, retail and residential. Madeleine acts for a number of real estate funds, developers and a range of lenders including the clearing banks and a number of specialised debt funds. She has experience of advising on all types of borrowing structures including limited partnerships, JV arrangements and property unit trusts. Madeleine is known for her "can do" approach, her breadth of knowledge across the real estate finance sector and her ability to deliver complex projects on time even when set challenging timeframes.
Vivian Desmonts

Vivian Desmonts

Partner     Vivian Desmonts is a European lawyer and a registered foreign lawyer in China with over 20 years' experience in Shanghai and Guangzhou. His multicultural background helps to build relationships between Chinese and international companies looking to do business together. He is Co-Managing Partner of the Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing offices of Gowling WLG. A French attorney at law admitted to the Paris Bar, Vivian is also a registered foreign lawyer with the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Justice and a member of the panel of arbitrators at the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration. He is a legal adviser to the French General Consulate in Guangzhou and an active member in the European business community in the GBA (Guangdong-Hong Kong SAR-Macao Greater Bay Area). Vivian has broad expertise in International Trade and Foreign Direct Investment laws in China, including M&A, corporate governance, commercial contracts, employment law, dispute resolution, as well as international taxation and customs. He is also well-versed on data privacy law in China and in the EU. Vivian has worked with national and international clients from all sectors, who are entering or expanding in the Chinese market. He has particular experience in advising clients on the establishment, acquisition, operations and restructuring of joint venture companies and wholly foreign owned enterprises in China. Some of the projects he has been in charge of advising European and Canadian groups in their acquisition of Chinese companies (small & mid-cap deals) are as follows: Advising a major European Group in the food industry for the acquisition of a €60 million factory in the bakery industry, with management earn-out and multi-jurisdictional elements (Hong Kong SAR common law and Chinese continental law); Advising a global leader in plant-based ingredients for the acquisition of a factory manufacturing pharmaceutical products in South China, driving the client through the public tender process for acquisition of Chinese State-Owned assets and securing the pharma licenses with the local FDA; Advising a Fortune 500 in the sale of its Chinese subsidiary in the nuclear industry to another Fortune 500, with legal and tax aspects in China related to the earn out paid abroad; Advising PE funds for acquisition or sale of shares in Chinese companies, including a Canadian PE fund investing over CAD 20 million in a paint and coating factory near Shanghai; Advising a German family office in the acquisition of a group of companies in Hong Kong SAR and mainland China specialised in quality control of metallic products; Advising a British group in a multi-jurisdictional acquisition of companies in environmental consultancy; Advising numerous European SMEs and Groups in restructuring their presence in China, including implementation of buyout or exit strategies.
Kate Featherstone

Kate Featherstone

Kate is a partner in Gowling WLG's tax team. She specialises in all aspects of business related and transactional tax, regularly advising on the tax aspects of mergers and acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, reorganisations, lending and investments. Kate's clients commonly comprise corporates, management teams, banks and other financial institutions.Kate is often recognised for providing responsive, clear advice that helps clients to deliver their projects on target and has been praised by the Legal 500 for her technical excellence.
Oliver Riley

Oliver Riley

Oliver Riley is a partner in the corporate group and specialises in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and equity capital markets.He regularly advises on IPOs and secondary issues, either acting for the company or the investment bank, with a particular emphasis on the investment funds sector.Oliver has considerable experience advising on mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, with a particular focus on real assets.Oliver's clients are primarily domestic and international public and private companies and the investment banks that advise them. They include Gravis Capital Management, Scape Student Living, ICG-Longbow, Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust, Downing Renewables & Infrastructure Trust, Life Science REIT, Cenkos Securities, Jefferies, Peel Hunt, Singers Capital Markets and Winterflood.
Kristian Rogers

Kristian Rogers

Kristian Rogers helps clients to float and raise capital on the London Stock Exchange, including the Main Market, AIM and the Specialist Fund Market, as well as on other European exchanges such as the Channel Islands Stock Exchange and Euronext Amsterdam.Kristian has considerable experience advising issuers and their sponsors or nominated advisers on initial public offerings, secondary issues (including placings, rights issues and open offers) and issues of convertible and exchangeable securities.He also advises investment trusts and companies on a wide range of alternative investment products, including structured products, hedge funds, private equity funds and real estate funds. He prides himself on his industry experience, placing as much emphasis on the commercial and practical areas as on the complex technical issues.Kristian regularly advises on a range of domestic and cross border M&A transactions, including public takeovers, joint ventures and strategic alliances.
Kate Seabourne-Pugh

Kate Seabourne-Pugh

Kate is a legal director based in London working in the corporate group and a member of the investment funds team. Kate specialises in equity capital markets and corporate finance transactions advising on investment funds, IPOs and secondary issues (Main Market, Specialist Fund Segment and AIM) as well as having experience in domestic and cross border mergers and acquisitions. In particular, Kate specialises in advising closed-ended listed funds, their managers and brokers on matters such as equity securities issues, debt issues, fund agreements and regulatory obligations.