Nick Hawkins > gunnercooke LLP > Manchester, England > Lawyer Profile

Nick Hawkins

+44 (0) 7909 873 793 nick.hawkins@gunnercooke.com View profile View profile

Work Department

Corporate

Position

Partner

Career

Nick is a Corporate Partner based in Leeds, but also operating regularly from both London and the North West. He is particularly valued by corporate clients for his enthusiastic “Can-do” approach, and his knowledge “at the sharp end” having been a CEO himself, and sat on or advised many Company Boards, and for his accessibility and speed of response.

Nick is a very experienced (37 years’ call) corporate Barrister, who has spent much of his career as an in-house Counsel working at a senior level in PLCs and in smaller companies, as Legal Director or equivalent. In recent years however he has also been a Chief Executive, raising investment for, and running for 3 years, a tech company (spun out from a University). He therefore has a real insight into the kind of practical legal advice which Directors and managers of companies need. He has advised on significant £multi-million M & A matters, Competition Law, and dealt with very significant Due Diligence matters on investment deals.

Nick also has a particular specialism in advising on legislation and the way legislation may be changed, and on regulation and regulatory bodies. In his legal and in-house business career, he has worked on many overseas matters, in the UK, Europe and the US, and as a lawyer in the biggest international firm in the Sultanate of Oman. He has had particular links with the Isle of Man having been on the Board of a Manx Company and with the Channel Islands, including extensive dealings with Jersey legal matters, and Guernsey/Alderney, on banking, financial services, cyber security/IT and gambling, legal and regulatory matters.

He has also had links in the same fields in Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, BVI, Antigua, Bermuda and Cayman Islands. In addition, Nick spent 13 years as a Conservative M.P. In Government, he served on the Front bench teams in the MoD and DNH, and he was then a Shadow Minister in a variety of roles under all the three Opposition leaders 1997-2005. His most senior role was Shadow Solicitor-General.