The Legal 500

South East: Corporate and commercial

Corporate and commercial: Thames Valley, Berks, Oxon, M4/M40

Within: Corporate and commercial: Thames Valley, Berks, Oxon, M4/M40

Boyes Turner's practice has a 'broad range of commercial law experience and business acumen', providing a 'solution-orientated approach with speedy resolutions', with 'great value for money'. Particular industry specialisms of importance for the team are technology, fintech, automotive and healthcare, with clients of note including Auto Trader, Panasonic, MortgageGym and Wayfair. 'Outstanding commercial attorney' Mark Blunden heads the team, while Robert Rice leads the corporate group. Highlights included Rice handling the acquisition of assets of PACE Financial Group for US-based client Flywire; Kate Eavis ('smart, practical, experienced and good at delivering work on time') advising Circor International on the acquisition of a target group in a project worth around $855m; and Rice assisting Spain-headquartered company Accelya with its £8m acquisition of Anari. Commercial lawyer Bill Gornall-King is 'able to bring complex business issues into a practical and straightforward and effective approach’ and assisted Accelya with numerous commercial transactions. Sarah Williamson is noted for her experience in the digital, publishing, communications and advertising sectors, acting as in-house counsel to Auto Trader and the Guardian. Associate Helen Dobson and commercial solicitor Amir Kousari joined the team from Osborne Clarke's Reading office and an in-house role respectively.

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South East: TMT

IT and telecoms

Within: Leading individuals

Bill Gornall-King - Boyes Turner

Within: IT and telecoms

The ‘responsive, professional and diligent’ Boyes Turner team possesses particular expertise in advising technology solutions providers such as Annodata, Kyocera, Bullitt and others on design and arrangements to incorporate third-party technologies into devices. The team also acts for data businesses, with complex performance auditing and data, payment transmissions, and online financial services matters among its diverse portfolio. Mark Blunden leads the commercial and technology practice and assisted Mortgage Gym with the launch of the UK’s first regulated mortgage ‘robo-adviser’ platform, constituting the first FSA-regulated mortgage platform of this type. Blunden and the ‘commercially minded’ Sarah Williamson have also continued to advise Virtualstock on the expansion of its “Edge” SaaS platform, which is set to revolutionise NHS procurement systems when it launches later this year. Bill Gornall-King advises clients on a varied range of matters across the automotive, aviation and engineering sectors, with key clients including censhare, Information Resources and the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce Group. Associate solicitor Helen Dobson joined the commercial and technology team in October 2017 from Osborne Clarke, bringing experience in co-ordinating international advice for digital business clients in relation to B2B and B2C arrangements.

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Intellectual property

Within: Leading individuals

Bill Gornall-King - Boyes Turner

Within: Intellectual property

Boyes Turner provides an ‘outstanding level of service’, with ‘great, practical advice on real problems that require quick, yet intelligent solutions’ and ‘really sharp business acumen’. Bill Gornall-King heads the department and specialises in advising clients on the commercial exploitation of their intellectual property, particular in the electronics and IT sector. Gornall-King is advising specialist software engineer Red Fox ID on the legal issues involved in its development of a new generation of software products and services for the transport sector. ‘Highly recommended’ Mark Blunden ‘is an outstanding attorney’, who ‘comes armed with multiple solutions to complex commercial issues’. Blunden and media and entertainment law expert Sarah Williamson have been acting for Brandview on its content harvesting and monetisation when licensing its solutions to retail sector customers using the solutions for price, promotions and product analytics. Associate solicitor Helen Dobson joined the team in 2017 from Osborne Clarke.

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