Browne Jacobson LLP

brownejacobson.com

Matthew Alderton

Matthew is an experienced advisor and litigator specialising in public, regulatory and information law. Matthew has provided advice and representation to clients in high profile and complex judicial review proceedings, statutory appeals, procurement challenges, and data breach/breach of confidentiality claims. Matthew previously worked within the Government Legal Department conducting high profile litigation in the areas of constitutional (the Brexit cases), health and social care (the junior doctors, accountable care and overseas charging judicial reviews), social security (the 2 Child tax judicial review), and information law. Matthew is dual qualified in the United Kingdom and Australia.

Peter specialises in advising on corporate transactions of all kinds, particularly M&A and complex joint ventures – most often acting for owners and managers of private businesses when selling to trade or financial buyers. Whilst he operates across sector lines, he has particular experience of advising on deals in the food and beverage and healthcare sectors. Peter has a strong reputation with clients and fellow market practitioners for his pragmatic, constructive and commercial approach on transactions.

Ed Anderson

Charlotte Antoniou

Senior Associate

Darren Ashworth

Darren has considerable experience of advising on a broad range of real estate matters. During his career, he has spent time in house working with an international developer and in a management role at a local authority. Darren also has project management qualifications. Darren advises a variety of clients, including property investors and developers, government bodies, local authorities and other public sector organisations, registered providers, business owners and sporting organisations. Darren acts on development and regeneration schemes, property acquisitions and disposals and landlord and tenant work. He has experience of dealing with the real estate aspects of corporate work and acting for both borrowers and lenders on bespoke lending transactions. His career highlights include working on real estate aspects of the London 2012 Olympics project, assisting a football club with a large development and acting for both public and private sector bodies on a number of major development and regeneration schemes.

Jacqui Atkinson

Jacqui joined us as our national Head of Employment Healthcare in June 2018. She joined the firm having previously spent 10 years establishing and heading up the Capsticks employment team in Birmingham and wanted to move to a practice which would be ready to meet the changing demands of the NHS as it continues to transform itself into system working and integrated healthcare systems. Jacqui has over 20 years’ experience in advising Trust Boards and senior NHS managers on employment issues in the health and care sector. In the last year Jacqui has provided thought leadership on many key workforce issues arising out of Covid-19 and has helped to support healthcare clients to support them as the system transformed to become flexible and agile to meet the demands of Covid 19. This has included supporting CCGs and NHS Trusts in sharing the workforce across the NHS and from the private sector. From a very early stage Jacqui was instrumental in setting up a Covid-19 information hub for clients and delivering webinars nationally on key issues to support the sector with one of the most challenging periods in the history of the NHS.

Jacqui Atkinson

Jacqui joined us as our national Head of Employment Healthcare in June 2018. She joined the firm having previously spent 10 years establishing and heading up the Capsticks employment team in Birmingham and wanted to move to a practice which would be ready to meet the changing demands of the NHS as it continues to transform itself into system working and integrated healthcare systems. Jacqui has over 20 years’ experience in advising Trust Boards and senior NHS managers on employment issues in the health and care sector. In the last year Jacqui has provided thought leadership on many key workforce issues arising out of Covid-19 and has helped to support healthcare clients to support them as the system transformed to become flexible and agile to meet the demands of Covid 19. This has included supporting CCGs and NHS Trusts in sharing the workforce across the NHS and from the private sector. From a very early stage Jacqui was instrumental in setting up a Covid-19 information hub for clients and delivering webinars nationally on key issues to support the sector with one of the most challenging periods in the history of the NHS. The expending employment healthcare practice now comprises a client base which ranges from CCGs, Provider organisations, care homes, dental and GP practices and independent healthcare hospitals. This enables us to provide employment expertise, policy advice and thought leadership which reflects our thorough understanding of the healthcare system as a whole. Jacqui has built up a strong reputation for her strategic advice, tactics and expertise in advising Trusts on a whole range of employment issues. She is known within the region as the go to lawyer for managing Doctors performance, conduct and capability issues.

Joe specialises in both contentious and non-contentious employment law matters across the firm’s sectors, including advising on employment tribunal claims, settlement agreements and day to day employment issues.

Graham Ball

Derek specialises in all aspects of professional and institutional default, management liability, insurance coverage and contentious insolvency.

Derek Bambury

Richard Barlow

Mark Barnett

Ben is an accomplished Partner Barrister working in the firm’s in-house advocacy team since his call to the Bar in 2008. He routinely appears in court to conduct trials, coroner’s inquests and to prosecute on behalf of government regulatory agencies at various tribunals. He is adept at drafting court pleadings, advising on issues of liability and quantum in personal injury matters, and handling complex civil procedure applications. He has had considerable success in employer and public liability matters in court and has also achieved notable victories defending against credit hire claims. He is additionally experienced in dealing with costs matters, particularly in challenging the recovery of after the event insurance premiums. Ben’s education practice also extends to prosecution on behalf of the National College for Teaching & Leadership; and advising and advocating at all levels of Tribunal in respect to Special Educational Needs and Disability Discrimination matters.

Ben is an accomplished Partner Barrister working in the firm’s in-house advocacy team since his call to the Bar in 2008. He routinely appears in court to conduct trials, coroner’s inquests and to prosecute on behalf of government regulatory agencies at various tribunals. He is adept at drafting court pleadings, advising on issues of liability and quantum in personal injury matters, and handling complex civil procedure applications. He has had considerable success in employer and public liability matters in court and has also achieved notable victories defending against credit hire claims. He is additionally experienced in dealing with costs matters, particularly in challenging the recovery of after the event insurance premiums. Ben’s education practice also extends to prosecution on behalf of the National College for Teaching & Leadership; and advising and advocating at all levels of Tribunal in respect to Special Educational Needs and Disability Discrimination matters.

Patrick is an associate in the Banking and Finance team with one year PQE.

Nigel Blackwell

Mark Blois

Tom Briant-Evans

Tom is a senior associate in the education team and has been involved in the sector for almost 10 years. Although Tom regularly advises maintained and independent schools his focus is primarily on the academy sector where, having trained as a corporate lawyer, he specialises in corporate and commercial advice to academy trusts. Tom has built up considerable experience in advising trusts on incorporations, conversions, transfers and merger projects and along the way has dealt with all types of school including special, PFI, AP, VA, VC, foundation and trust schools as well as advising on numerous free school projects. In addition to conversion work, Tom has been involved in several complex and high-profile re-brokerage matters acting on behalf of DfE appointed trustees. Away from the transactional side of his practice, Tom regularly supports trusts with amendments to their articles of association, funding agreements and wider governance issues. Tom also advises trusts on their commercial dealings be it through the incorporation of trading subsidiaries or through the establishment of robust commercial contacts and SLAs with third-party providers.

Katie Briggs

Ryan is a partner in our corporate team and is based in Manchester. He was noted as a ‘star in the making’ by The Legal 500 in 2021. Ryan advises on all aspects of corporate law but has a particular focus on private equity transactions (acting for investors, investees and management teams) and complex international M&A. Ryan has extensive experience preparing companies, shareholders and management teams for an exit. He is seen by many of his clients as an extension of their senior management team and is regularly used by his clients as a sounding board for strategic decisions, particularly those relating to incentivising senior employees, M&A, re-organisations and succession planning. He also supports a number of large corporates with their M&A strategy. Ryan’s practice covers various sectors but some of his notable clients on the private equity side include Palatine Private Equity, Maven Capital Partners and Apiary Capital and on the corporate side include Edit Agency, the CTS Group, Triangle Fire Systems and Access Creative College. Before becoming a partner, he was shortlisted for “Lawyer of the Year” at the Insider North West Young Professionals Awards 2020, the Made In Manchester Awards 2020 and the JCI Manchester Young Talent Awards 2020. He has also produced some topical thought leadership articles on the pitfalls of vendor due diligence in the context of W&I insurance and how retentions could be unlocked by utilising insurance products.

Dominic Buckley

Kelly is a Partner in the Nottingham NHS Resolution team and has been actively involved in a number of the leading cases included within our submission, in particular [non-publishable matter 1]. Kelly has extensive experience of acting in high value and/or complex clinical negligence claims for NHS bodies including NHS Resolution, NHS Trusts and NHS England along with GPs and privately insured doctors. Kelly has a wealth of understanding of the legal landscape regarding informed consent following her involvement in the leading Court of Appeal case of Shaw v Kovac. She has worked with NHS Trusts and clinicians to provide an insight into this important and developing area of law and medical ethics. See for example our video blog on consent. https://www.brownejacobson.com/health/training-and-resources/training-videos/2018/11/consent-for-clinicians She is one of the team’s mediation champions and has considerable experience of mediating the most complex and sensitive cases. This includes successful resolution of a group action involving multiple patients, a very high value claim where a GP had suffered significant physical harm during childbirth and a teenage suicide case which was covered by BBC’s Panorama programme.

Rebecca Burge

James specialises in banking & finance law and acts for banks, financial institutions and borrowers on a range of transactions including real estate finance, corporate acquisitions and general corporate lending.

James Busby

Charlotte Butler

Fiona has developed a broad professional disciplinary practice in education and healthcare over the last 21 years. Praised for ‘stellar advice which takes pitfalls into account’, she is now a trusted legal advisor to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) and sits as Legal Advisor to the Professional Conduct Committee of the Chartered Institute of Building. Fiona is a key name in a highly responsive team has strategically advised both the Teaching Regulation Agency and Department of Education in relation to the first ever case in which a teacher was prosecuted for failing to comply with the Prevent Duty as defined by s.26(1) of the Counter-terrorism and Security Act 2015. Fiona’s health practice sees her instructed in a wide range of cases from simple ‘documentary’ inquests to complex Article 2 cases, often with a high media profile. She has acted on behalf of NHS Trusts (acute, mental health, community and ambulance), local authorities, education settings, security regulators and insurers both locally and nationally. Fiona is a registered pupil supervisor with the Bar Standards Board and having pioneered the way for Browne Jacobson to become an approved Pupillage Training Organisation in 2010 and has successfully trained four barristers and assisted with the training of four others.

Since joining Browne Jacobson in 2013 as a Senior Associate, Heather has provided specialist advice and support to both public (NHS England, NHS Acute Trusts, Mental Health Trusts, Ambulance Services, Clinical Commissioning Groups) and independent health sector organisations as well as individual healthcare practitioners. More recently, her practice interest has expanded, to include Court of Protection, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and Mental Health Law. Very recently Heather impressed the team with the way she cut through a complex mental health matter concerning the interplay between the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Mental Health Act 1983 and the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions relating to this area. Heather is a really versatile healthcare lawyer, which was of vital importance when she joined our then quite small team in 2013 and she continues to play her part as trusted advisor to our clients both directly and a really knowledgeable and friendly go-to for our trainees and others joining us who are new to the healthcare team and its specialist work.

Principal Associate

Amanda Callaghan

Amanda joined Browne Jacobson in 2013 to start the Health and Clinical Negligence team in our Manchester office. Amanda specialises in clinical negligence claims and complaints, risk management, confidentiality and disclosure of medical records, consent to treatment issues and inquests. Amanda is head of the Browne Jacobson Manchester office.

Carly Caton

Holly is a Senior Associate in the Browne Jacobson Social Housing team

Kay Chand

James Coles

Richard Cox

Adam is an accountancy professional liability / regulatory specialist (in particular defending FRC cases and all forms of accounting litigation). Previously General Counsel at BDO and a criminal prosecutor, Adam brings a wealth of sector experience and a sharp focus to resolving complex accounting issues. At Stephenson Harwood, Adam handles a range of commercial litigation and professional liability matters with a particular focus on insurance related issues, the accountancy regulators (ICAEW/FRC), and the defence of claims involving tax and audit. Adam offers a client-focussed insight into the full range of accounting services and the pressures they face from regulators and claimants. This allows him to quickly grasp the key issues in accounting disputes and resolve them. His success at BDO helped it remain the only larger accounting firm at the time to avoid sanction by the FRC. Adam is referred to as joining the firm in 2020 within the Legal 500 UK Professional Negligence area, where the team is well regarded for providing "an excellent, all-round legal service with good client management, very able lawyers, with sound judgement." His references from BDO include: "Combines first-class legal knowledge and judgement with a calm and reassuring manner. A pleasure to work with" ( Mark Shaw, Head of Business Restructuring, BDO). His and his team's notable successes in litigation include BDO's win in the recent £250 million One Blackfriars case [2021] EWHC 684, Supreme Court appeal win in regulatory proceedings (Barnes v Eastenders [2014] UKSC 26), the leading recent decisions on administrator's duties: Bernsten & Anor v Tait [2015] EWCA Civ 1001 and Davey v Money [2019] EWHC 997 (which included the recent COA judgment ending the "Arkin Cap" when enforcing costs against the litigation funder), and Green v BDO [2005] All ER on the use of the Insolvency Act against accountants.

Gavin Cummings

Declan Cushley

Mark Daniels

Gareth leads our Private Equity practice in the West Midlands from our Birmingham office as part of our wider Corporate team. Gareth is part of an award winning and industry recognised team (Real Deals 2021). He is recognised by Private Equity Sponsors and Management Teams as commercial, always available and able to get deals done. In addition to his Private Equity practice, Gareth acts for corporate clients ranging from global corporations (Europe and the US in particular) to UK based PE portfolio assets, SME’s and OMB’s. Gareth has advised on multiple transactions across many different sectors, including technology, construction and real estate, education, energy and infrastructure, healthcare and manufacturing. Gareth is a member of our Financial Services and Insurance FMG focussing on Private Equity Sponsors. Clients of Gareth’s include Palatine Private Equity, NorthEdge, LDC, Apiary Capital, BGF, Altia, PBE Group, Sodexo, Equable Partners, Manor Adventure, MSQ Partners, LearnPro/XVR, Access2Music and Radiant Financial Services.

Danielle De Val

Luke Deal

Christian Dingwall

Christian qualified as a solicitor in 1986 and joined Browne Jacobson in 2019 as a partner in its Commercial Health team. He advises health and social care clients, including many NHS trusts, foundation trusts, commissioners and other bodies, about commercial and corporate law, governance, compliance and regulation. Christian specialises in organisational and service transformation in the NHS and wider health sector, including, mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, integrated care partnerships and reconfiguration. Legal directories rate him as a top lawyer for health transactions.

Senior Associate

Matthew Dorman

Andrew Douglas

Cat Driscoll

Dai Durbridge

Craig is a Partner in Browne Jacobson’s Government and Infrastructure Team and takes a lead on major projects, procurements and high-value local and central government work. Craig has over fifteen years’ experience advising public and private sector bodies in relation to PFI, PPP and other long term commercial arrangements.

Sarah Erwin-Jones

James is a highly experienced partner leading our large Technical Claims team that spans both our London and Nottingham offices. He specialises in Defendant insurance litigation, with particular expertise in complex personal injury litigation and claims arising from equality and Human Rights legislation. His very large over-arching team includes our local authority team, motor team, commercial insurance specialists, our education sub-team, housing team, and he also manages a sub-team which specialises in pursuing business recovery and debt actions. James’ breadth of expertise means he is well placed to collaborate across our broader practice both to enhance our offer and to continue to build the unique reputation his teams have developed to embed transferable skills. He currently handles a varied caseload of complex, high value litigation, acting on behalf of educational establishments, Local Authorities, Public Bodies, as well as commercial and agricultural organisations. He has considerable experience in handling catastrophic injury claims, including cases involving traumatic brain injury, amputation, fatal accidents, disease and stress at work claims. James works closely with a number of key clients, providing tailored training sessions, secondments, and advice on risk management issues. He will always look to immerse himself in the client’s philosophy and adapt his approach accordingly. James has a growing reputation in the education sector.

McConnell Faye

Stephen George

Helen is a Principal Associate in the Public Law team, specialising in biodiversity net gain (BNG), environment and nature conservation law, large scale planning projects, public law and advice relating to the discharge of statutory powers, functions and duties. Helen also has experience of leading investigations within the public sector. Helen has extensive experience in transactional, litigious and advisory matters, acting for both public and private sector clients, including regulators. Helen was previously the lead lawyer on BNG and Conservation Covenants at Natural England, and is now advising both public and private sector clients on all matters relating to BNG - including landowners, local planning authorities and developers. Helen acts on a wide range of environmental and wider public law matters, including those relating to vires and governance queries, the development of policy and legislative reforms, appeals and enforcement matters, regulatory pathways and advising public bodies on lawful decision making. Helen leads investigations for public sector clients, most recently investigating complex whistleblowing allegations, assisting with workplace investigations within the public sector and leading various Code of Conduct investigations. Having qualified, and practiced, as a projects lawyer, Helen specialises in large projects and brings a significant amount of project management knowledge and organisational skills to her matters.

Daniella Glynn

Roland specialises in landlord / tenant matters, and property management and land development projects. He has extensive experience of working with a diverse range of blue- chip companies and organisations that cut across the retail, leisure, industrial and housing sectors. He has particular expertise in carrying out large scale due diligence projects and has acted on a number of key strategic acquisitions and disposals in the public and private sector, including accommodation in PPP projects and public sector mixed-use housing schemes.

Julia Green

Lucy is an associate in our government and infrastructure team with experience advising local authority, private sector and third sector clients on a wide range of projects including major procurements, high value outsourcing and waste projects, joint ventures and development projects. Lucy’s work focuses on complex regeneration and mixed-use development schemes, including those delivered via development agreements and projects which involve establishing a corporate joint venture. Recent projects have included advising clients throughout the competitive dialogue procurement for a development partner (including advising on procurement strategy as well as the drafting and negotiation of all procurement and legal agreements).

Amba Griffin-Booth

Rebecca Hainsworth

Rebecca is a specialist commercial healthcare lawyer advising all types of healthcare organisations across the sector (NHS, independent sector, social care, voluntary sector, primary care and suppliers to the market). Rebecca specialises in advising clients on commercial and governance matters including corporate governance, mergers and reorganisations, competition law, income generation, commercial contracts and joint ventures / collaborations. Rebecca has been the operational lead lawyer on multiple major NHS transformation projects including mergers between NHS trusts / foundation trusts, creation of shared services collaboratives and the establishment of Integrated Care Systems. In 2023 Rebecca was named “Lawyer of the Year” at the Made in Manchester awards and is a member of the Pro-Manchester Healthcare committee. She has previously worked in-house at NHS Improvement / Monitor, the Care Quality Commission and the Government Legal Department.

Paula has over 20 years’ real estate experience with particular expertise in complex development projects. Paula is praised by clients for her “professionalism and commitment to understanding our requirements”, whilst other solicitors welcome “her willingness to try to find solutions that work”. Paula acts for clients from both the private and public sector and specialises in development, regeneration and investment transactions.

Clare Hanna

Gerard Hanratty

Charlotte Harpin

Matthew was promoted to partner from 1st May 2019 and has over 19 years' experience defending employers' and public liability claims and disease claims for a wide range of local authorities/commercial clients throughout the country. He is very highly regarded by his clients and regularly obtains trial wins, discontinuances and favourable results at JSM for them. He has secured a number of findings of fundamental dishonesty at trial for his clients. Matthew’s technical ability is matched by his understanding of his clients and their philosophy towards fighting claims. His notable reported cases include: McDaid v Walsall MBC (2018) Ryan v Hackney London Borough Council (2016) Millard v Walsall MBC (2014) Yew v Gloucestershire County Council (2013) Robson v Gloucestershire County Council (2013) Thorley v Vicarage Residential Care Home (2010) Matthew is described in: Legal 500 2017 as ‘knowledgeable on the law and gets to the heart of issues in a case; he has excellent perception as to which cases to fight’; Legal 500 2018 as ‘experienced in public and employer’s liability claims’; Legal 500 2019 as a ‘key figure’; and Legal 500 2020 as ‘well regarded’. Matthew regularly delivers training to his clients and has led on Browne Jacobson's highly regarded Highways Symposium attracting keynote speakers from the DfT and Road Liaison committee

David rejoined Browne Jacobson as a Professional Development Lawyer in the property department responsible for training, precedents, updates, Lexcel and general know-how. He previously worked in education, lecturing and tutoring on the Legal Practice Course, the Graduate Diploma in Law and the LLB at Nottingham Trent University. Before moving into education, David worked as a Solicitor at Browne Jacobson dealing with all aspects of commercial property work before joining Nottingham Trent University.

Victoria Hatton

Jonathan Hayden

Jonathan is client partner for a number of our CCG and NHS provider clients and leads many of our healthcare contracting projects. Examples of recent work include being one of the partner leads on the merger of Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He has co-ordinated our recent roundtable session across our health and care contacts considering the national consultation on the proposed Integrated Care Provider contract.

Victoria Hemsell

Victoria specialises in defendant public liability work including employers’, occupiers’ and highways liability cases from initial instruction to trial. Including fast and multi track work. Her work primarily involves advising local authority and other public sector clients on public and employers' liability fast-track and multi-track claims. Victoria works at both the pre- and post- litigation stage and also handles investigatory work.

David Henderson

David is a New Zealand enrolled barrister and solicitor and Chartered Accountant with a background working for a Big-Four accounting firm and Australian bank advising in the taxation and financial services sector. David advises on financial services disputes and regulation and also works closely with startups in the FinTech sector.

Marlene Henderson

David Hill

Paul Hill is a partner in the Banking and Finance team principally based in Birmingham and he also serves as the sector head for Energy and Infrastructure at Browne Jacobson. Since joining Browne Jacobson in 2019 Paul has made a real impact in the West Midlands market, not only through integration into the commercial community but also through building and developing client relationships. He has also been able to leverage strong interconnections between the West Midlands and London. He has advised on a number of high profile deals including: (1) Rcapital Partners in connection with their portfolio of debt/equity investments in new and existing businesses; (2) Blazehill Capital (and certain founder investors) on the set up of a new alternative lender; (3) Quilam Capital in connection with their portfolio debt/equity investments in new and existing businesses; (4) IB Group in connection with their corporate refinancing and subsequently the raising of CLBILS finance; (5) PBE Group on a multi-jurisdictional holdco corporate financing; (6) NatWest in connection with the provision of a revolving credit facility to a UK university; and (7) LDC in connection with their successful exit of Addo Food Group to European private equity firm PAI Partners. Within the energy and infrastructure sector, Paul has utilised his strong connections, reputation and capability to bring together the breadth of experience across the wider firm to provide a strong fully packaged offering in this area. This has culminated in a stream of high profile work, including advising on some of the highest profile recent infrastructure acquisitions in the UK market and has secured a number of collaboration opportunities in the sphere with large UK City and US white-chip firms. Selected highlights in this sector include advising: (1) First Sentier Investors in connection with their successful c £1 billion acquisition of energy-from-waste assets from SSE plc and their subsequent acquisition of the entirety of the Wheelabrator UK EfW business from Macquarie; (2) a global asset manager in respect of their proposed purchase of Suez’s UK recycling and recovery business; (3) PBE Group on a multi-jurisdictional holdco corporate financing; (4) AFC Wimbledon on the debt/equity financing and construction of their new football stadium; (5) Manchester County Council in connection with a District Heating Project; (6) Oxford University Trust in connection with a hospital PFI; (7) Performances Birmingham on the financing and redevelopment of Symphony Hall; (8) Homes England on a variety of and (9) Derby County Council on the termination of the Derbyshire EfW Waste Project. Paul has also secured a UK panel appointment for Hydromine Inc, a sustainable energy company focussed on the power plant origination and investment, on-boarded Sculptor Capital, a global alternative asset manager, as a client of the firm and has been involved in a number of panel tenders for large FTSE companies.

Gavin Hoccom

Zo has over 20 years' experience in real estate and projects, working on a full range of commercial property matters. Her specialism is development within the public sector and Zo has acted on several major high profile regeneration projects for local and central government. Clients welcome her collaborative nature, project management skills and sector knowledge. Zo also sits on the firm's International Group with responsibility for APAC & CIS.

Imogen Holmes

Andrew Hopkin

Nick is a Partner in our Government and Infrastructure team and has been recognised in directories as a key lawyer within our Government practice. He has considerable experience advising public and private sector clients on a wide range of local government projects (including major procurements, infrastructure and joint ventures), with a particular focus on complex regeneration and development. Nick assumes leading roles on major projects, working closely with other advisers, providing strategic advice and co-ordinating our inputs from a variety of legal specialisms. He has spent time on secondment in-house at both local authorities and key suppliers to government so understands (and prioritises) building strong and effective working relationships with key stakeholders to aid successful project delivery. Recent projects have included developer partner procurements, joint ventures between public bodies and private sector developers to deliver regeneration, housing and public benefit, as well as advising on the delivery of a garden town. Nick’s local government experience has also included outsourcing, commercialisation and advice on the structuring/operation of wholly-owned local authority housing/development vehicles.

Victoria Hustler

Mark joined the firm in 2008 and specialises in retail and commercial real estate including leases of property in high street, shopping centre, and business park locations. Mark also deals with lease management matters including consents for alterations and rebranding for retailers with large estates, and land management matters including the grant of easements for one of the UK’s largest landowners. Mark advises national and international retailers including leading high street brands, as well as heritage conservation organisations and charities, and one of the UK’s leading construction consultancies. Competencies: Mark specialises in commercial real estate, advising on a range of property matters including in relation to leases and 1954 Act renewals (where he has acted for landlords and tenants), acquisitions and disposals of leasehold and freehold land, as well as ongoing lease management matters such as agreements for works and consents to underlet or assign.

Jeremy heads Browne Jacobson’s financial services and insurance regulatory practice, part of the firm’s broader offering to clients in the Financial Services and Insurance markets. Jeremy’s practice covers both prudential (capital) and conduct regulation for risk-carriers (including banks, insurers and reinsurers) and intermediaries (including brokers, investment advisers and managing general agents). His practice is primarily focused on strategic advice for clients’ boards as well as their compliance, legal and risk functions. Central to this practice is advice on the growing regulatory requirements as to environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) sustainability and responsibility. A principal area of advice is the regulatory risk management of strategic projects – both in terms of value protection (eg dispute resolution involving competitors, or former counterparties or employees), and growth / value enhancement (eg corporate deals and commercial ventures). The advice involves the effective handling of regulators’ actual or prospective responses to the aims, methodologies and outcomes of such projects, and especially the handling of internal inquiries and investigations, and resultant regulatory notifications. Jeremy frequently advises on issues arising from firm authorisations, changes in control, challenges to capital adequacy (in terms of capital requirements, allocation, typology and values), cross-border business, appointed representative and other delegation / distribution arrangements, and senior manager approvals. Products and sectors on which Jeremy advises include consumer credit, derivatives, funds, general and life insurance (in particular on the UK implementation of ‘Solvency 2’ and the ‘Insurance Distribution Directive’), payment services and electronic money.

Mike Jackson

Louise Jeffers

Matt is a 3 year PQE associate in the team. He specialises in contentious construction matters and also deals with non-contentious matters. Matt works for a range of our clients including high net-worth private individuals, local authorities, façade and ground work engineers as well as for a range of tier one main contractors and sub-contractors. He has recently completed a secondment at Mace.

Senior Associate, Daljit, joined Browne Jacobson following over 11 years in local government and works within the firm’s Business Services team supporting our education clients. She specialises in providing pastoral advice to schools, academies and educational establishments within the education sector as well providing support for appeals against EHC Plans and Disability Discrimination in the First Tier Tribunal. She also advises clients on Freedom of Information requests and Data Protection.

Matthew is a Partner who specialises in real estate. He advises funds, lenders, landlords, and corporates on a variety of real estate transactions across all sectors, with a particular focus on investment. Matthew's experience includes acquisitions and disposals, funding work, asset management and occupier leasehold matters, large scale projects and as real estate lead on cross-discipline/jurisdiction transactions. Recent transactions include: funding, refinancing and disposal projects; investment acquisitions and disposals across all sectors; asset management for UK and offshore fund managers and investors; advising corporate occupiers and retailers on leasehold matters; and non-core asset transactions eg marinas, football stadiums.

Amy Keogh

Herjit has a large portfolio of claims consisting mostly of insurer-backed employers’ and public liability claims. These range from high value claims with some cases exceeding reserves of £750,000. She also deals with high value multi-track motor claims. She has a particular interest in counter fraud having overseen the counter fraud team in Nottingham and Birmingham with a portfolio of claims involving LVIs, staged/contrived accidents, multi-party fraud and bogus passenger claims. Her counter fraud experience particulary with the Health clients has seen a number of successful repudiations which invariably resulted in recovery of our costs. Herjit plays a key part in delivering an exceptional quality service to all of our motor clients; ensuring team compliance with SLAs and internal protocols. She is also responsible for delivering key management information on a monthly basis, which outlines the status of each case, up to date reserves and current defence spend. More recently she has advised and is defending claims where bullying and harrassment form the basis of their allegations; as well as dealing with claims involving cyber crime.

Paul Kirkpatrick

Paul joined the Commercial Dispute Resolution Team in Manchester in 2020 having previously led Dispute Resolution teams at national commercial law firms, based in the Midlands and the South East respectively. Paul acts for major corporates, working closely with in-house teams and General Counsel to achieve commercial resolutions to business-critical issues. Paul acts as the lead-partner on a wide variety of commercial matters, and takes overall responsibility for numerous key client relationships. Paul specialising in high-value, complex litigation, often with an international dimension. He advises on a wide variety of commercial and contractual matters, including disputes involving: breach of contract, professional negligence, breach of warranty, shareholders’ disputes, breach of confidence and numerous other commercial issues, frequently involving foreign jurisdictions. He has expertise in the automotive sector and has a wealth of experience in cross-border disputes and corporate litigation. His experience includes representing clients from pre-action through to trial and injunctive proceedings. Paul also has a substantial amount of experience in resolving disputes through alternative dispute resolution, including leading numerous mediations, without prejudice meetings and multi-party round-table discussions.

Alex Kynoch

Kevin advises upon complex and catastrophic injury claims across EL, PL and motor with an emphasis on high value claims. He has numerous claims valued between £5-£10m. He has particular expertise in the areas of sport, equine and leisure having advised governing bodies and individuals in areas of motorsport, archery, golf, tennis, judo, triathlon, horse riding, climbing and karting. Kevin’s support is often requested within days of a major incident occurring, working alongside insurers and their customers to proactively resolve a claim in a collaborative and cost effective way, whilst reducing settlement times and indemnity costs. Brand and reputation are key areas he pays particular attention to. Kevin has particular expertise in rehabilitation support for those seriously injured. He has advised over 40 case managers on rehabilitation excellence this year. Kevin also provides a wider advisory role to clients, encompassing provision of risk management advice to avoid incidents. Beyond direct claims management, Kevin leads the commercial insurance casualty strategy for the firm, and is deputy head of the Insurance Sector. This includes delivery of client facing training, advice on operational change to streamline efficiency, market intelligence and product innovation. Kevin’s key clients include Hiscox, The LTA, The PGA and Marble Arch.

Rachel has a wealth of experience advising across a range of regulatory issues covering investigations and enforcement action brought by the Health & Safety Executive, the Police, Food Standards Agency, Environmental Health Officers, the Environment Agency and Fire Authorities. Rachel’s contentious practice means she has gained significant experience in advising clients on a range of issues including: corporate manslaughter, health and safety, environmental offences (water pollution, waste, packaging, and noise, odour and light pollution, food safety including hygiene and labelling), fire safety, trading standards, consumer protection and licensing. She advises across the sectors with particular expertise in advising the: construction and engineering, retail, manufacturing , logistics, education and health. Rachel has experience of advising at the most senior level within an organisations dealing with the most urgent types of regulatory investigations including fatal accidents and has extensive advocacy experience in both the criminal and coroner courts. As well as advising corporate clients, partnerships and individuals facing investigations and enforcement she also provides non-contentious advice on range of regulatory issues including: post Brexit compliance requirements, packaging and waste regulations, crisis response protocols and supporting training, compliance requirements for product launches including tech products, medical devices regulations and bespoke training on a range of regulatory issues. Rachel also has a significant public inquiries practice and is currently instructed to represent Core Participants in the Manchester Arena and Grenfell.

Nigel is a partner working in the firm's Criminal, Compliance and Regulatory Team. Nigel has a criminal law background and has specialised in all types of contentious regulatory advocacy for many years. He has a particular emphasis upon health and safety and environmental cases. Nigel advises in all areas where fatal and non-fatal accidents result in criminal investigations. This can involve factory sites, farms, government and local authority properties, maritime incidents (both on and off shore), road traffice and all types of private and commercial premises. Nigel's experience allows him to advise in all such areas. He deals with public and private sector matters wherer therea re serious accidents and injuries. Defending companies/partnerships and individuals facing gross negligence/manslaughter/health and safety investigations involving commercial and agricultural accidents. These could result in investigations by all types of linked government bodies includign HSe, Environment Agency, Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, DEFRA, HMRC to name but a few. Nigel deals with Transport and Logistics matters for national and local transport and infrastructure businesses. He deals with DVSA investigations together with referrals leading to public inquiries before the Office of the Traffic Commissioner. Nigel advises internaional, national and local businesses on health and safety risk reviews. This has been particularly relevant with the ever changing Covid risk regulations. Nigel's regulatory expertise means that he is also regularly called upon to advise schools, multi academy trusts, higher education establishments and universities upon education sector risk issues and regulatory reviews. He also acts for hospital trusts, ambulance services and fire authorities who require regulatory advice as a result of catastrophic incidents. These can include assisting such bodies with police, coronial enquiries and at inquests.

Susan brings her considerable interpersonal skills to firm wide operational leadership of this department across our five-office network. Her experience at working at every level within the firm, along with a natural flair for spotting strengths, means that she is well placed to put the right people in the right roles. She is a qualified business coach and mentor (Institute of Leadership and Management). This involves leading on the delivery of firm strategy through key sector and departmental business planning and making sure they fit with central projects, to include IT case management and Human Resource and Learning and Development activities. Susan is a member of the firm’s Exec as well as the Core Insurance Sector and Local Authority Boards. Locally, Susan leads Nottingham’s Technical Claims and Social Care Team handling a broad range of Defendant personal injury, and RTA related litigation on behalf of Local Authorities, health bodies and other public sector clients, as well as commercial and agricultural organisations. She is an appointed nominated Partner for the NHS Resolution’s Risk Pooling Scheme and thus has responsibility for ensuring high quality service delivery from her team dealing with those claims. Susan is also client relationship partner for a number of commercial insurance and public sector clients. Susan’s work continues as Partner sponsor for the firm’s highly successful apprenticeship scheme, Browne Jacobson being the first law firm to engage a cohort of apprentices within its legal teams.

Nick MacKenzie

Nick is the national head of our education team, an executive coach and a member of the firm’s board. Recognised as a leading expert in education by The Legal 500 and Chambers for over 10 years, Nick specialises in corporate and governance advice in the education sector. He has significant experience of advising executive teams and boards in the social housing, corporate and, for well over 10 years, education sectors. Nick works with boards and executive teams to help them navigate the landscape together with helping them spot and take opportunities. He is regularly used by education clients as an external sounding board on strategic issues, using his expertise to make the complex simple. His clients include some of the largest school trusts in the country. Over the last 10 years, Nick has contributed regularly to the debate on key issues impacting the sector. He also has excellent relationships with sector bodies such ASCL, CST and NGA regularly speaking at their conferences and collaborating on joint projects. Nick was invited to join the board of the Foundation for Education Development, a CIC established to promote a long-term plan for education in England. Its work involves bringing together policy influencers from education, business, politics and beyond.

Sarah is a leading clinical negligence defence specialist. She leads a team of lawyers dealing with work on behalf of NHS Resolution, Medical Protection and Dental Protection. She is responsible for the management, supervision and development and provides the strategic overview and direction of the full portfolio of cases they handle. She is the operational lead for the claims work we undertake for Medical Protection. She has over 25 years’ experience of acting for health law clients. She has an impressive track record in defending complex and high value claims, particularly involving cerebral palsy, acquired brain, spinal and other catastrophic injuries, delayed diagnosis of cancer, meningitis and septicaemia and Fatal Accident Act Claims. She has extensive trial experience including successfully defending two multi-million-pound cerebral palsy claims involving a significant number of healthcare professional witnesses and expert witnesses. She has handled many high value claims involving the assessment of complex quantum and has negotiated settlement for sums in excess of £10m, including periodic payment order settlements. She is very experienced in dealing with claims involving multiple defendants and the strategy and tactics to deploy in negotiations on apportionment of liability whilst also working collaboratively on a joint basis where appropriate to resolve issues cost effectively.

Emma Marshall

Bradley Martin

Alex Mason

Stephen Matthew

Stephen works in our Government and Infrastructure team and specialises in joint ventures, regeneration, procurement and outsourcings. He acts for public bodies and contractors and has experience in overseas markets (notably public private partnerships). Stephen manages teams across various disciplines in delivering major projects.

Carl May-Smith is a partner and barrister specialising in regulatory and criminal law with a particular focus on the health and care sector. He and his team provide a broad variety of advice including on health and care standards (CQC and others), health & safety and fire safety. His clients include care providers (independent and NHS), investors (in health and care sector businesses or otherwise), companies requiring proactive or regulatory litigation advice and public bodies. Carl has considerable experience of advising and representing individuals and corporate bodies, whether they are facing regulatory or criminal investigations or proceedings, have been the victims of crime or are involved in such proceedings less directly. At other times he provides proactive advice and training to businesses and others on regulatory matters to help them avoid such issues arising. For investors, banks and insurers, particularly in the health and care sector, Carl and his team offer specialist due diligence services. He works alongside commercial and corporate colleagues or independently to apply his wealth of experience to help identify existing or potential regulatory risks. In addition to this work, Carl has advised and represented national and local regulators including the Health and Safety Executive, Care Quality Commission, Natural England, local authorites and fire authorities. He regularly appears as an advocate in the Magistrates' and Crown Courts as well as in Tribunals and at inquests.

Shaun heads up the Nottingham team and is one of the best known lawyers in the East Midlands market place. He heads a team of dedicated banking specialists who have a dominant position in the East Midlands. Shaun advises lenders, private equity houses and corporate borrowers on refinances, acquisitions, development finance, investment finance, asset based lending and general lending matters. Shaun has a particular expertise advising on private equity transactions and advising on asset based lending structures. Shaun is recognised as a leading individual in the legal directories. He is an experienced operator well known in the Midlands market and , during the course of this year, has advised a number of high profile deals including: • advising Palatine Private Equity on the secondary buy out of CET UK supported by senior facilities from Clydesdale Bank and mezzanine facilities from Beechbrook Capital (this transaction was named on East Midlands deal of the year by Business Insider) • advising Littlefish on its MBO backed by Lloyds Development Capital and HSBC (named as SME deal of the year in the West Midlands by Business Insider) • advising Wise Living Homes on a £33m development finance facility provided by ICG Longbow

Paul is a partner in the Corporate team (having been promoted from Senior Associate in May 2019) specialising in M&A, private equity and general company law. He has a focus on driving the team’s technology sector, including advising on the disposal of an industry leading gaming manufacturer and developer Reflex Gaming. He advised sellers and management on the private equity backed tertiary buy out of CARE Fertility Group funded by Silverfleet Capital, as well continuing to act on numerous “add-on” acquisitions for CARE. He also advised the shareholders of Delamin Nitriding Salts on the sale of its industrial salts business to the US subsidiary Parker Trutec Inc of Japanese parent company Nihon Parkerizing Co.

Faye McConnell

Stephanie McGarry

Stephanie advises on policy drafting ranging from health and safety to mental health and wellbeing. She advises and assists in relation to police, fire authority, health and safety and coronial investigations and if necessary the safeguarding process which often runs alongside such investigations. She is also familiar with issues affecting large portfolios of commercial buildings and residential premises and has produced bespoke databases for clients to assist them in managing their regulatory responsibilities as landlords, tenants and building owners. Her breadth of knowledge across the regulatory field makes her an invaluable source of expertise for clients. Stephanie regularly represents public bodies, including fire authorities, and advises in relation to the strength of evidence and liability risks both from a prosecution and defence perspective. She has a particular specialism in dealing with large scale and complex health and safety and corporate manslaughter investigations. She has advised in respect of numerous fatal and non-fatal accident criminal investigations in connection with a variety of industries. This includes deaths on construction sites, agricultural sites, in educational settings and in NHS and local authority premises. She assists clients with disclosure exercises for the purposes of the Coroner’s inquiry and police / regulatory investigations and regularly appears before coroners and magistrates’ courts. She regularly attends interviews under caution with the Health & Safety Executive and the police.

Scott McKittrick

Richard is our Managing Partner and leads the delivery of our strategy. He has 20 years’ experience working with our clients across the private and public sectors as a corporate finance partner, advising on mergers & acquisitions, private equity deals, international transactions, corporate reorganisations and the commercialisation of public services. Before becoming Managing Partner Richard headed up our Business Services department and uses his management experience alongside his expertise in corporate governance derived from his client work to manage all aspects of the firm’s operation.

Lydia Michaelson-Yeates

Katie joined Browne Jacobson as a trainee in 2007 and has nearly ten years of experience as an education lawyer. In her early career (2010), she completed a secondment to the in-house legal team at The Girls’ Day School Trust. She now advises maintained schools and academy trusts on a range of education law issues including governance, admissions, safeguarding, school intervention and parental complaints. Katie has been heavily involved in the academy conversion programme following the implementation of the Academies Act 2010. She has advised on the corporate and commercial aspects of hundreds of academy projects including the creation and expansion of multi-academy trusts and the conversion of church schools, special schools and pupil referral units. She was the lead lawyer on the first hospital school conversion in the country. She now focuses largely on group projects, working closely with a number of multi-academy trusts on their expansion, including academy merger and re-brokerage projects. Katie has also developed a particular area of expertise in school intervention and Ofsted advice and leads on this part of the firm’s practice. She provides advice to schools and academies who may be vulnerable to formal intervention measures from their local authority or the Secretary of State, including launching judicial review proceedings. She also supports schools with challenging Ofsted inspections and seeking delay to publication. As part of her work in the area of school intervention, Katie contributed to representations made to Parliament on the Education and Adoption Bill. Katie regularly speaks at seminars and national conferences including, for example, the Optimus Child Protection conference and National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) Annual Conference, as well as delivering bespoke training to governing bodies and senior leadership teams on topics such as exclusions, governance and safeguarding. She has also featured in the education press having written articles for publications such as Schools Week, The Voice (an Institute of Schools Business Leadership publication) and Attendance Matters and has been interviewed for education pieces in The Guardian and LexisPSL. She also regularly contributes to the Association of School and College Leader’s (ASCL) Leader magazine and has written briefing notes for the NAHT and Optimus as well as Browne Jacobson’s own newsletters and website. She has also delivered webinars on topics such as digital safeguarding, parental access to information and re-brokerage. Katie leads a mentoring scheme with Greenwood Academies Trust which offers career and pastoral support to students at local academies, including one-to-one mentoring and work experience.

Kelly is a senior associate and specialises in clinical negligence on behalf of NHS Resolution and healthcare trusts.

Heather Mitchell

Heather leads the employment law side of the firm’s successful education sector practice. She is an Associate in the London’s employment team, having been at the firm for over eight years. Heather has extensive experience in providing strategic advice to large Multi Academy Trusts on complex staffing matters. She specialises in advice to senior teams on resolving high profile staffing matters as well as large scale restructures and representing her clients at the Employment Tribunal. She speaks regularly at national conferences including those of the Association of School and College Leaders, Freedom and Autonomy for Schools – National Association, the National Association of School Business Management, Optimus and the Academies Finance Directors ‘Super 10’ forum

Helen is a Senior Associate in the corporate team and has experience advising on all aspects of corporate work. Helen specialises in complex group reorganisations often involving capital reduction demergers, dividends, capital reductions, intra-group business and asset transfers, reorganisations of share capital, share-buybacks and s.110 schemes and leads the team in this area. Helen also has experience providing technical company law advice, advising on the corporate aspects of Family Constitutions and advising registered societies, LLPs, property management companies and companies limited by guarantee.

Scott Mounfield

Michael Mousdale

Mike is a partner in our government and infrastructure team. Mike specialises in public procurement, commercial public sector projects and leads our Waste and Recycling Group. He is recognised as a leading expert in local government law and public procurement. Mike advises on innovative transactional work for public sector bodies and those who supply to the public sector. After an early career in local government, Mike became a leading procurement and projects lawyer, advising upon many of the first PFI/PPP projects and delivering some of the most innovative deals in the public sector, including the first LLP structured partnership Kier Sheffield LLP and a number of strategic partnerships (including joint ventures arrangements under the One Barnet programme). Mike has advised on a number of landmark PFI deals, including the Greater Manchester and Merseyside Waste schemes, the Greater Manchester Police project and a number of schools projects, including the first all secondary school estate project (Haringey), the first Voluntary Aided project (Cardinal Heenan in Leeds) and the first SEN PFI (Salford). Mike is a regular speaker on procurement and alternative delivery vehicles for organisations such as CIPF An and White Paper. He wrote the Legal Guidance on collaboration for the Welsh Local Government Association and recently authored a guide on Insourcing for CIPFA.

Joanne Mulvenna

Senor Associate, Joanne, specialises in personal injury, defendant litigation, employers liability, public liability and has a wide range of experience working with insurers.

Senior Associate, Rachael, specialises in professional negligence, property damage and insurance coverage disputes; defending professionals in the property, legal and financial services sectors.

Senior Associate, Rachael, specialises in professional negligence, property damage and insurance coverage disputes; defending professionals in the property, legal and financial services sectors.

Anthony Nagle

Jason Nash

Amelia is a Senior Associate in our health team with many years’ experience as a solicitor resolving clinical negligence claims, acting on behalf of NHS Resolution and NHS Trusts and has also represented claimants. Amelia leads on the clinical risk management work we do for NHS Resolution, NHS Trusts and our other health clients. She is involved in a number of projects to identify the learning from claims and inquests to support wider patient safety and quality improvement work, including undertaking ‘deep dive’ analysis of inquests and claims we have concluded for individual NHS Trusts to highlight and examine specific trends and identify learning from these experiences to prevent harm and hopefully also reduce litigation.

Jonathan Newbold

Jonathan specialises in dealing with claims with a financial services or management liability element. He has particular expertise in policy coverage matters. He also regularly assists underwriters with the drafting of policy wording and advises insurers on strategy and risk management across professional indemnity books of business. Jonathan is head of Browne Jacobson’s Financial & Professional Risks Group in Exeter, London and Nottingham, which comprises 12 Partners, 16 Solicitors and 8 Legal Assistants. He is one of Browne Jacobson’s leading partners for insurance coverage disputes. He advises on both primary layer and excess layer insurance matters. His coverage work has arisen primarily out of professional negligence matters but he has also received notable instructions in the context of product liability, property, public liability and employers’ liability covers. He spends the majority of his time providing strategic advice to one of Browne Jacobson’s most significant clients, Hiscox Insurance Co Ltd. As part of his role as the partner with key responsibility for managing that client relationship Jonathan also takes responsibility for the delegated authority claims handling schemes that we successfully run for Hiscox in relation to many hundreds of professional liability and employment practices liability claims.

Andrew Noble

Gary is a partner in our financial and professional risk team. Recognised for many years as a leader in his field by Chambers and Partners, Gary has specialised in the defence of claims against lawyers for over 20 years and he has been involved in several high-profile claims in this arena. Gary has acted for many of the ‘Participating Insurers’ who are authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to provide insurance cover to law firms as well as for many excess layer markets. In this capacity, Gary regularly provides coverage advice to insurers, in addition to regulatory advice to their insureds. Increasingly, Gary assists law firms to manage the consequences of data breaches including law firms who are the victims of cyber-crime. Gary has particular expertise in managing the provision of claims handling services to professional indemnity insurers, having dealt with several schemes throughout his career.

Miriam Onwochei-Garcia

$Helen O\'Dwyer$

Helen leads the delegated authority claims handling team in Nottingham. This handles a high volume (thousands) of claims a year for FTSE 250 insurers specialising in professional negligence, D&O, public liability property damage and employment practices liability insurance. Helen has particular experience handling claims against non-traditional professions in the SME market ranging from letting agents, wedding photographers to funeral directors. Helen also has good experience of policy coverage investigations and disputes.

$Hayley O\'Sullivan$

Hayley O\'Sullivan

Daniel O’Brien

Sarah Parkinson

Bethan Parry

Giles Parsons

Samantha Paxman

Samantha is a Partner and Barrister with an extensive professional disciplinary, civil and public law practice. Noted as a rising star in the professional disciplinary sector in 2019 and 2020, Samantha has been instructed on a number of complex, high profile and lengthy hearings. Samantha represents clients from initial instruction through to advocacy at the final hearing and provides advice which is technical, thorough and pragmatic. Described by an opposition barrister as both “delightful in manner and rigorously forensic”, Samantha presents cases in a manner appropriate for investigative proceedings with a sensitivity towards witnesses and respondent professionals, particularly those who are vulnerable. Samantha is one of the senior team acting on behalf of the Teaching Regulation Agency. As lead for cases at the hearing stage she provides oversight and supervision of junior colleagues along with strategic advice to the client. In the last year Samantha has provided timely advice to the client in relation to the introduction of virtual hearings. In addition to her professional disciplinary experience, Samantha also acts for public sector and insurer clients in high profile complex inquests, Court of Protection proceedings, civil trials and proceedings before the First Tier Tribunal Health, Education and Social Care Chamber.

Harry Pearson

Colin Peck

Kassra specialises in development and strategic land transactions, acting for landowners on option and promotion agreements for housing led developments as well as acting for private developers and local authorities on mixed use and commercial developments. His experience of acting for a wide range of clients – landowners, developers, local authorities, promoters – gives Kassra an understanding of all the players in a property development and can guide clients through the competing demands and conflicts that will arise along the way.

Joe Price

Bridget Prosser

Bridge is one of the leading national specialists in healthcare employment law who, having led the employment team at Capsticks' Birmingham, moved to Browne Jacobson at the end of September 2019. She has a national role with particular interest in the South West and our Exeter office. Bridget specialises in all aspect of employment law/HR in the healthcare, police and not-for-profit sectors and has additional expertise as an independent investigator and trained workplace mediator. She has achieved considerable success in defending a large number of Employment Tribunal claims, a significant number of these claims related to complex whistleblowing and discrimination issues with public/media and regulatory interest. Bridge has in-depth knowledge and many years' experience managing complex cases involving doctors in difficulty (conduct, capability, health and breakdowns in team/colleague working relationships). She is trusted in handling complex and sensitive senior People Management issues which impact on the organisation's reputation or have a regulatory angle, including the Duty of Candour; Fit and Proper Person requirements and referrals to regulatory bodies to include the GMC and NMC. Bridge's work as an investigator has ensured she has additional insight when advising on challenging investigations into grievances at senior level, sensitive whistleblowing concerns and culture reviews involving CQC and/or NHSE/I. As a trained Workplace Mediator Bridget is aware of the benefits of deescalating disputes particularly when they involve complex group dynamics.

Joanne is a Partner specialising in Defendant litigation and dispute resolution, and heads up the Technical Claims and Social Care Team in Exeter. Joanne has advised the NHS on claims under the Liabilities for Third Party Scheme since 2006 and has been Nominated Partner for our Exeter office since June 2016. Her responsibilities include supervising the team in the Exeter office, on the whole spectrum of complexity and value of civil litigation matters and providing delegated authority instructions where appropriate. She is the point of contact for NHS Resolution and NHS Trusts and drives forward a high quality professional service, providing good value and delivery on client objectives. Joanne's client base includes a range of insurers, local authorities and NHS trusts. Her practice covers the full breadth of complex and high value Civil Liability claims and she has particular expertise in local authority work and claims against public bodies having previously worked in-house for a unitary authority.

Alan is a Partner specialising in dispute resolution both in the UK and the USA, multiple claims and risk management analysis; acts on behalf of professional advisors.

Emma is a Defendant Clinical Negligence Specialist with over 25 years' experience of acting for NHS Resolution and NHS Trusts in the defence of NHS hospitals and staff. She specialises in high value catastrophic injury claims particularly those relating to complex birth injury; complex neurological injury and acquired brain and spinal injury in both children and adults. She is experienced in the resolution of liability and quantum issues both in the course of litigation and by mediation and ADR. This year notable cases she has managed include: a. A complex cauda equina case where breach of duty was admitted but causation was denied. There were factual disputes as to symptoms present at the time of the presentation and as to the likely treatment timelines even with the management contended for. The parties agreed to adjourn a CCMC and to proceed to early mediation where the case was resolved and where the Claimant was provided with an opportunity to raise queries as to the care received. b. An adult neurological injury claim relating to an alleged delay in diagnosis and treatment of a collapse of thoracic vertebrae which was alleged to have caused spinal cord compression. Causation was complex due to pre-existing comorbidities. The case was resolved by ADR. c. A child neurological disability claim relating to the management of their mother during labour and delivery. Full pre-action admissions were made. A collaborative approach was adopted between the parties with judgment entered and a stay agreed in order to await a more definitive prognosis.

Bettina is the head of our higher education sector. Recognised as a leading expert on advising higher education institutions by Chambers and Partners for several consecutive years, Bettina advises on a variety of higher education matters, including employment, regulatory and student matters. Having been a member of the Council of the University of Exeter for nine years (where she was the dual assurance lay lead for HR and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and worked closely with the teams involved in obtaining accreditation with Athena Swan and the HE equality charters), she has a deep understanding of the issues facing the higher education sector and the role of governance. She also works closely with sector associations to help their members to engage with topical legal issues. Bettina advises clients on operational and strategic issues relating to staff and students and regulatory matters concerning the Office for Students. She has developed a specialism in Equality Act issues. She has spent time on secondment to university in-house legal teams. Bettina is an ADR Group accredited mediator and has mediated a wide range of employment and education matters.

Emma specialises in drafting, negotiating and advising on a wide range of commercial contracts, with a particular focus on the retail, fashion, logistics and tech sectors. Emma has particular expertise in advising clients on agency, distribution, franchising, e-commerce and marketplace agreements, including their termination and early-stage disputes. As co-head of our retail and supply chain group, Emma has a deep understanding of the issues affecting clients in those sectors. She has extensive experience of advising on supply chain contracts including manufacturing agreements, supply of goods and services agreements, warehousing and logistics agreements, distribution agreements (including selective distribution), agency agreements, e-commerce and marketplace arrangements and consumer terms. Emma is an expert in commercial agency matters, having advised principals and agents for over 15 years on how to manage issues arising during the lifecycle of the agency relationship, from putting in place agency agreements, to advising on performance issues, to termination and handling claims for compensation or indemnity arising under the Commercial Agents Regulations. With several years spent as a litigator before specialising in commercial contracts, Emma helps clients to maximise the value from their commercial relationships whilst also anticipating potential disputes and drafting to protect her clients’ interests on termination.

Jade is a senior associate in the Birmingham Health, Advisory and Litigation team. Jade acts on behalf of NHS Resolution and various NHS Trusts dealing with clinical negligence claims.

Sian Rose

Michael Sadler

Guyanne Saul

Victoria Searle

Victoria is an associate in our admin law, environment and planning team. She advises public bodies on their statutory duties and powers, constitutional and administrative law, vires, decision making and judicial review. Victoria is a specialist environmental lawyer who advises statutory nature conservation bodies, local planning authorities, other public bodies, registered providers, and developers on their environmental and planning obligations. Having worked in the Civil Service for more than a decade before joining Browne Jacobson, Victoria is deeply committed to and a passionate advocate for the public sector. Her public sector clients benefit from Victoria’s unique insight into the sector’s priorities, ways of working and culture and her ability to provide pragmatic advice that reflects the particular challenges they face. Victoria has a particular specialism in environmental law, including environmental assessment, the Habitats Regulations, and SSSIs. Her clients include statutory nature conservation bodies, local planning authorities, arm’s length bodies and NDPBs as well as developers, registered providers of social housing and corporates. Victoria is a natural litigator, and her broad contentious practice includes judicial review, procurement challenges, public inquiries, and statutory appeals. She has acted for clients in the High Court, County Court, Technology and Construction Court and the Court of Appeal, and she has an appeal pending in the UK Supreme Court. Victoria is recognised as a key planning lawyer in the West Midlands by The Legal 500.

Clare is a Senior Associate and joined the firm in April 2020 having worked in-house at a large Local Authority for three years. She regularly appears in both the Court of Protection and the Coroner’s court, conducting her own advocacy.

Helen advises corporate and individual clients within investigations and prosecutions by the major regulators including the Serious Fraud Office, Health and Safety Executive, Environment Agency and Financial Conduct Authority.

Nick Smee

Hayley Smith

Jon is a partner in the national corporate team, based in London, specialising in advising on corporate transactions for SMEs, entrepreneurs and investors. Jon has a particular focus on advising high-growth technology companies and disruptive, tech-enabled businesses, including FinTech and InsurTech clients and has received recognition in the legal directories (Legal 500 and Chambers) for his expertise in the fields of venture capital, M&A and FinTech. Jon guides and supports high-growth businesses and their stakeholders throughout the company growth lifecycle – from start-up to exit – and advises on a broad range of UK and cross-border private company transactions, including venture capital and private equity investments, mergers and acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and reorganisations. Jon is also a French speaker and an active member of the French Chamber of Great Britain.

Nikita provides strategic employment advice to employers of all sizes, from start-ups to multinationals. She helps HR teams, directors, MDs and CEOs to make commercial decisions that maximise opportunities, minimise risk and prevent disputes. She is also experienced in business restructuring, and how to deploy employment strategies that achieve commercial objectives. Nikita advises on dispute situations that organisations can face, with particular expertise in dismissals, disciplinary and grievance processes, and post-termination restrictions. She attempts to resolve disputes using cost-effective methods such as negotiation and mediation but is experienced at handling tribunal cases if required. She also advises individuals on their employment, from recruitment through to departure, including resolving issues arising along the way. She has extensive experience in discrimination, particularly race, age, disability and maternity. She advises many senior executives on complex employment matters such as service agreements, commissions, bonus arrangements and exit provisions. Nikita has a particular interest in data privacy, advising on the new UK Data Protection Act that incorporates the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). She helps organisations to achieve compliance with the new requirements, including giving in-house seminars.

Ben Standing

Chris is a partner and joined the firm in January 2013 having worked in-house at a large acute NHS Trust for four years. He is a solicitor advocate (civil) and regularly appears in both the Court of Protection and the Coroner’s court, conducting his own advocacy. Chris brings a wealth of experience and a varied practice from his time working in-house and has subsequently undertaken long term secondments in both a major independent health sector provider and a mental health Trust. He sits on an acute NHS Trust Clinical Ethics Committee and specialises in in all aspects of mental health law, mental capacity, Court of Protection and coronial law. He is a regular speaker at training events across the country.

Zoe Stollard

Judith is an Associate in the Construction team, based in Birmingham. Judith has experience working for a range of clients including: employers, main contractors and consultants. Judith primarily focuses on dispute resolution and her experience includes litigation, adjudication and expert determination.

Mark Stubbs

Barry Sully

Dominic Swift is a partner in the Real Estate team and is also the chair of The Evolve Multi Academy Trust. Dominic has 30 years’ experience working within the commercial property field and specialises in complex projects, appreciated by his clients for bringing not only legal expertise but also strong project management skills. His clients welcome his “hands on and can do attitude”. Dominic has project managed many academy conversions and advised a number of free schools focusing particularly on strategic site assembly. He has also played a major role in developing and delivering new services to help academy trusts in their strategic planning for the rapidly changing world they face.

Dominic Swift

James is head of our Birmingham employment practice and a partner in the team dealing predominantly with private sector work. He has 19 years’ experience of all aspects of employment law dealing with both contentious and non-contentious issues. He deals with the firm’s tech, retail and manufacturing clients. He has been involved in a number of high profile reported cases in the EAT, High Court and Court of Appeal. He has particular experience of advising on: cross border transactions, advising on TUPE compliance including warranties and indemnities protecting confidentiality/trade secrets and enforcing restrictive covenants for the purposes of business protection discrimination and whistleblowing claims. James regularly trains the department’s clients with other members of our team and speaks at local and national conferences on employment law. He has provided multi-day training to a number of the firm’s international clients. He has published many articles for the local and industry press. James also undertakes international employment work and is a member of the firm’s Pangea Employment group, which is a group of international lawyers, and sits on the firm’s international desk. James is also a board member of the British American Business Council in the Midlands which is an organisation aimed at promoting transatlantic trade and business. He is also a trustee of Performances Birmingham Limited which manages the world renowned Town and Symphony Halls in Birmingham.

Simon heads up our health practice nationally, and is responsible for the sector strategy across all of Browne Jacobson’s Offices. His practice is primarily contentious, advising on regulatory matters, inquests, and clinical governance matters. Simon specialises in advising on high profile clinical investigations, including inquests often attracting national press coverage. He is client partner for a number of our key clients including the Medical Protection Society, Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Gabor has a recognised expertise in social housing development work and complex funding work and has led on the securitisation of more than £1bn of affordable housing over the last 5 years. Additionally, Gabor is currently acting for major national housing association clients assisting in the delivery of thousands of much needed affordable housing dwellings. Clients include (amongst others) Platform, EMH, NCHA, Longhurst, Midland Heart, Minster Property Group and Tuntum. Gabor (and the team as a whole) is sought out by an extensive range of clients because of this social housing expertise; including not only housing associations but also private-sector developers, funders and public bodies.

Jonathan Tardif

Bridget is an EL/PL defence specialist with expertise in the management of bullying and stress at work claims. She is Head of the Birmingham casualty team, responsible for the management and development of our casualty offer, advising our local authority and commercial insurance clients on motor, public and employers’ liability, from policy coverage through to claims and risk. Bridget is responsible for the strategic direction of the firm’s public sector insurance division, working to set strategy for growth drawing on our strength in the public sector. In that capacity, Bridget heads Foil’s Public Sector Focus Team (“SFT”), and in the last 12 months has successfully reframed the scope of the SFT to reflect core services in the sector. Her “Claims Club” is the envy of rival firms and is now run out of our key offices, bringing law to life for local authority claims managers and risk and insurance officers. Bridget has been able to build a growing adult social care practice, dealing with claims from residential and nursing care home providers. She has a particular interest in dementia care. These claims have significant reputational impact on the provider particularly where it is alleged the negligent treatment has resulted in the death of a resident. Bridget is also a key member of our commercial insurance strategic team and leads our cross-practice team dealing with the Inquiry, prosecution and compensation issues. Bridget is a Nominated Partner for the NHS Resolution Risk Pooling tranche of business.

Emma is a Partner in our insolvency practice specialising in both corporate and personal, and contentious and non-contentious matters. As a psychology graduate, Emma’s professional career began in the legal department at Muller Dairy UK. She returned to College to convert to law before going on to qualify at Eversheds in 2009. Emma is highly experienced in all forms of insolvency procedure and practice. The nature of insolvency referrals means that Emma has experience across a range of sectors including: retail, IT, education, local government, healthcare, construction, energy and agriculture. She is accustomed to acting in unusual situations and has a calming and methodical style which can help put clients at ease. Emma is regularly instructed to advise directors on their duties, on the risks of insolvency and on the appointment of insolvency practitioners through to the sale of assets and/or antecedent recovery actions. Recent instructions include advising a sub-tenant on the effect of a Part 26 Restructuring Plan and obtaining an amendment to that Plan to avoid the immediate termination of those sub-leases; advising directors on the implications of the Loan Charge and on their liabilities as a result of entry into various tax avoidance schemes; acting for a buyer of a going concern media company from administrators; and obtaining a court order to appoint the majority directors’ choice of administrators in hostile circumstances.

Associate, Helen, is based in Manchester and specialises in property transactional work. Helen has over seven years’ experience advising clients on a wide range of property matters.

Carolyn Thackstone

Carolyn is a solicitor who qualified in 2005 and specialises in regulatory law particularly in relation to work on behalf of the Teaching Regulation Agency.

Victoria Thourgood

Vicky Tomlinson

Vicky plays a key role in leading corporate transactions in the independent health and care sector. Vicky has worked with a number of private sector health and care clients on all areas of corporate work including share, business and SPV property acquisitions and disposals, group reorganisations and general company law matters including shareholder agreements, constitutional and corporate governance issues. Vicky’s clients include integrated retirements communities, care home developers and operators, private hospitals, health tech and medical device companies, domiciliary care providers, fertility clinics, children’s services and specialist care providers. Vicky works with companies at all stages of their journey, from start-ups and buy and build platforms to large care groups and internationally listed companies. Out of work, Vicky is busy looking after her toddler, she plays the violin and sings in a band, and has recently represented England winning a gold medal in the Touch Rugby European Championships.

Suki Tonks

David Toulmin Van Sittert

David specialises in complex and high value defendant clinical negligence claims representing both general practitioners and consultants.

Jonathan Vickers

Jonathan is a construction lawyer with over 12 years of experience specialising in the real estate and infrastructure sectors with particular experience in commercial, residential (including BTR and later living) and public/private regeneration projects. He has a passion for sustainability in the built environment. He has extensive experience advising all parties involved in construction projects including institutional investors, government bodies, developers, tenants, purchasers and contractors. He brings this knowledge of each party‘s commercial drivers to achieve a collaborative negotiation of construction contracts ensuring that risks are appropriately allocated and shared to allow for a successful project from the outset. Jonathan acts for both public and private sector clients from the very inception of a project advising on procurement routes and contract selection through to contract completion continuing to advise during the works on contract administration and management. He has extensive experience with all the main standard form of contracts with particular focus on JCT and NEC contracts as well as bespoke building contracts, development agreements and framework agreements. He is passionate about sustainability in the built environment. He is a member of the Decarbonisation CAB at the ICE as well as involved with The Chancery Lane Project on drafting sustainable and net zero construction provisions.

Kulpreet Virdi

Cynthia has over 25 years’ experience defending public bodies, initially within the health sector. She specialises in the defence of civil claims brought against local authorities and the police, inquests and other advisory work. Civil claims work includes personal injury, Human Rights Act, Equality Act, abuse, claims against social services departments, misfeasance, wrongful arrest or detention and malicious prosecution.

Jeniz is an Associate based in our London office.

Sarah specialises in defending substantial clinical negligence actions, particularly relating to catastrophic claims; experienced at inquests and providing representation, plus health law and risk management advice.

Angela Williams

Angela is a director in the Technical Claims team based in the Exeter office, specialising in complex employer liability claims and acting extensively for insurers, particularly NHS Resolution, with a focus on large loss claims and those involving key technical points. Angela has the leading case of Feest v SWSHA & Bay Island Voyages (2015) (The Celtic Pioneer) to her name. This Court of Appeal case is the only UK authority on the applicability of Article 14 of the Athens Convention to claims for contribution against carriers at sea and the extent of Article 16. Angela has a particular interest in occupational stress claims and claims involving bullying and harassment. Notable success in defending these claims include a discontinuance of a high-value and technical stress at work claim (confidential) and the reported case of Bailey v DPT (2014) a High Court claim by a psychiatrist for occupational stress which was dismissed by the Recorder at Exeter District Registry. Angela is an experienced litigator in this area dealing with many high profile and sensitive claims. Angela has developed an expanding practice of defending breach of confidentiality and data protection claims. Advising NHS Trusts and NHS Resolution on this increasingly important area of law, she ahs several cases to her name where Claimants have discontinued. Angela is a trusted advisor in this area, regularly providing training and advice to her clients. She has externally published in PIBU, NLJ, Westlaw and Local Government Lawyer. She also publishes and edits a newsletter to the firm's major clients each month. Angela provides support to NHS Trusts on risk and health and safety including risk management recommendations arising from claims. In collaboration with the firm's education department, Angela advises schools and academies on defending personal injury claims to staff and pupils. Recent cases involve blindness to a pupil and a serious assault to a pupil on a residential school trip.

Sandra Wong

Philip Wood

Lucy Worwood

Jess Zareh