Paula Holland > Cooley (UK) LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile
Cooley (UK) LLP Offices
22 Bishopsgate
LONDON
EC2N 4BQ
England
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Paula Holland
Work Department
Compensation & Benefits
Emerging Companies
Fintech
Life Sciences
Position
Paula Holland has over 20 years of experience in executive compensation and equity incentive issues both domestically in the UK and internationally. Her wide-ranging transactional and advisory practice is focused particularly on technology and life science companies. She has worked with clients ranging from start-ups to multi-nationals, both public and private, headquartered around the world. She regularly advises on the exporting of US and UK equity plans to multiple jurisdictions and can give strategic advice on the tax, securities laws and employment law issues in over 60 countries. Paula also assist remuneration committees in their determinations relating to retention and incentive arrangements for board members and senior management.
Paula is a partner in Cooley’s London office and is a member of the compensation & benefits practice group.
Career
Prior to joining the firm, Paula spent eight years as a partner at WilmerHale. Prior to WilmerHale, she co-founded the Shearman & Sterling executive compensation and employee benefits practice in London, having spent 10 years in the London office of Freshfields.
Education
- Queen Mary University
LLM, 1995 - Chester College of Law
LSF, 1993 - University of Oxford
MA, 1992
Lawyer Rankings
London > Employment > Employee share schemes
Praised by clients for the ability to ‘cover a wide range of countries and situations’, Cooley (UK) LLP frequently advises on the employee schemes aspects of large M&A transactions, and establishes new share plans for tech and life science companies. Additionally, the team frequently advises the boards of public and private companies on directors’ pay and hirings. Practice head Paula Holland sports extensive transactional expertise extending to UK and US IPOs. Nicola Squire, who was promoted to partner in January 2023, has longstanding experience in advising clients on private equity transactions and M&A. Bethan Chalmers has deep knowledge of share-based and cash-based incentive arrangements for employees and executives. Jia Xie is a key name to note.
Lawyer Rankings
Top Tier Firm Rankings
- Industry focus > TMT
- Risk advisory > Regulatory investigations and corporate crime (advice to corporates)
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > IT and telecoms
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > IT and telecoms
Firm Rankings
- Industry focus > Life sciences and healthcare
- Insurance > Product liability: defendant
- Dispute resolution > Public international law
- Corporate and commercial > Venture capital
- Employment > Employee share schemes
- Corporate and commercial > Equity capital markets – mid-large cap
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > IT and telecoms
- Corporate and commercial > M&A: Lower Mid-Market Deals, £100m-£750m
- Corporate and commercial > Private equity: transactions - mid-market deals (up to £250m)
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > Fintech
- Crime, fraud and licensing > Fraud: white-collar crime (advice to individuals)
- Corporate and commercial > Corporate tax
- Risk advisory > Data protection, privacy and cybersecurity
- Crime, fraud and licensing > Fraud: civil
- Insurance > Insurance and reinsurance litigation
- Dispute resolution > Commercial litigation: premium
- Dispute resolution > International arbitration
- Employment > Employers
- Corporate and commercial > EU and competition
- Risk advisory > Regulatory investigations and corporate crime (advice to corporates)