Ropes & Gray LLP > London, England > Firm Profile

‘Brilliant minds, responsive and professional, experienced and solutions-driven.’

‘If you are an underwriting bank, you want Ropes & Gray on your side due to its willingness to have a sensible conversation on what is important and what does not matter in a deal.’

‘Alex Robb is very well regarded in all aspects of acquisition finance.’

‘Alex Robb is technically excellent and commercially astute. He is solutions focused and drives the deal to closure on time.’

‘The Ropes & Gray fund formation tea has grown quite a bit over the last year and their name comes up very often as lead counsel to high-profile names – particularly US sponsors – raising funds in Europe.’

‘The property team at Ropes & Gray has a unique, proactive and entrepreneurial ability in complex, cross-border joint ventures. They take a very holistical and commercial approach to transactions and were able to join up multiple disciplines into the negotiation.’

‘Brenda Coleman is the beacon of the tax team.’

‘Brenda Coleman is very experienced, hands-on and pragmatic.’

‘Excellent in working on international private equity transactions, were timing can be extremely tight, experience counts for a lot and working together in various jurisdictions is of great importance.’

‘Brenda Coleman – very experienced, quick and knowledgeable on international and UK tax matters. A joy to work with! Andrew Howard – sharp tax mind, commercial, eye for relevant tax details but without losing sight of the bigger transactional picture.’

‘Brenda Coleman and Andrew Howard advise us on the tax aspects of particular private equity investment products. They combine strong sector knowledge with a pragmatic and “can do” approach.’

‘The team are incredibly well organised, with clear working groups supporting each project while being able to leverage expertise across the wider team as needed.’

‘Great tax team, lots of international experience, especially good at working on UK/US/EU cross border tax matters.’

‘Helen Croke is an incredible lawyer, an outstanding person and I would highly recommend her to anyone (and have). Helen is truly one of the most intelligent, knowledgeable, and experienced lawyers I have ever worked with. In any transaction, we could receive a 400 page dense mark-up, and Helen has an amazing ability to digest it rapidly within a few hours, and call me and explain the 3 primary issues, and potential solutions, in a matter of minutes.’

‘The team’s key strength is their experience negotiating and executing the legal elements of LBO transactions. They have worked on highly complex transactions on accelerated timelines with limited margin to learn on the job and have delivered.’

‘Elizabeth Todd is a tremendous partner. She is highly commercial and is able to manage both the big picture and the details. She is a particularly strong negotiator and is able to win key commercial points without antagonising the other side. Elizabeth’s judgement is very strong.’

‘John Newton is extremely knowledgeable and managed our deal in a very calm way. Shona Ha is an excellent lawyer and highly responsive and practical – my executive management team colleagues really appreciated her style and approach.’

‘Ropes and Gray just get it. They always go the extra mile, have deep and calm insights into the challenges in front of their clients. Excellent commercial and legal skills that drive complex multi stakeholder negotiations.’

‘The Ropes team has delivered exceptional service and value across the many transactions we have worked together on. The team is very proactive, willing to help and has strong technical capabilities in the healthcare space which makes a difference in the diligence process. The team is highly diverse, which usually results in a very balanced view on key topics.’

‘John Newton is calm under pressure, expertly manages his team on large transactions, and makes sure we win the important points in key negotiations.  Vicky McGrath is great to deal with and all over the detail of the transaction documents and the complex funding arrangements. She is a real pleasure to work with and never lets you down.’

‘Elizabeth Todd is the best technical lawyer I know – the person to go to with a complex seemingly unsolvable question. Shona Ha has fantastic manner and judgment – knows when to push and when to play nice – great to work with. Will Rosen is the Guru of PE.’

‘The solutions-focused Alex Robb is technically excellent and commercially astute.’

‘Jane Rogers and Alex Robb are highly intelligent and thoroughly understand their products/markets and are able to advise on complex, cross-border financing structures.’ 

‘Anna Lawry is an incredibly dedicated, detailed and technically impressive lawyer as well as being a genuinely lovely person to work with. Anna has navigated technically challenging transactions with some challenging counterparties and has done so in a clam and diplomatic manner.’

‘Their strength is in their commitment to providing timely, practical, business-friendly advice that reflects a knowledge of current market practice and the bigger picture as far as overarching risk.’

‘Lincoln Tsang has been my company’s European consultant for many years and has helped us navigate the European landscape. This individual is very attentive and comes with great recommendations/strategy. He is always willing to help review documents and provide constructive comments to make sure we have made the strongest argument in our regulatory documents. We are a smaller company but Lincoln provides us with the same level of attention as would be seen if we were a larger organisation.’

‘Lincoln Tsang is an exceptionally experienced life sciences lawyer. He has a deep knowledge of his subject matter area and is able to provide thoughtful, timely and pragmatic advice. His availability and engagement, whether are small or large project is exceptional.’

‘Knowledgeable about life sciences practice in Europe. Great network of life science law firms globally. Team is highly responsive, and goes the extra mile to service clients.’

‘We work closely with Lincoln Tsang in the UK office. He is a trusted adviser to our company, and has become an integral part of the team as it relates to understanding and executing on our regulatory strategy in Europe. He is knowledgeable and a subject matter expert in the area of life sciences law in Europe, highly collaborative and a great partner to work with.’

‘Strong team delivering pragmatic, sensible and implementable advice.’

‘Rohan Massey is knowledgeable and personable.’

‘This team is led by star Rohan Massey, who is assisted by a number of excellent colleagues. What he does not know about data risk is unimaginable.’

‘Rohan Massey is excellent in his field and is always our go-to person for data risk queries.’

‘The team includes excellent practitioners and is diverse in terms of age, gender, etc. They are all very much focused on data protection, privacy, cybersecurity and have great knowledge of the market and of the law.’

‘I know I can count on both Rohan Massey, who has extensive experience and is very smart and reliable, and Edward McNichals, who is a great data privacy lawyer and is very smart and reliable.’

‘The team really understand that work starts with a deal and so where possible, not only do their provide good commercial advice through a deal, but they also help generate the deals, which is a rare find amongst the community of real estate finance lawyers.’

‘Andrew Baker and Samuel Norris are both exceptionally helpful lawyers who truly add value to a deal process.’

‘The team deals with complex and sometimes novel financial services matters for significant clients. I have found them to be knowledgeable, and flexible and commercial in their approach. They look for realistic and workable solutions.’

‘I have enjoyed working closely with Eve Ellis over many years. She is highly knowledgeable. She is very prepared to discuss different aspects and analyses of an issue to reach realistic and workable solutions for her clients. I have also found Eve to be very approachable and pleasant.’

‘Eve Ellis at Ropes, in our opinion, is a truly exceptional regulatory lawyer. She is also extremely accessible, often responding to our requests 24/7 in order to meet our deadlines. Eve has a vast amount of experience and provides concise and highly effective advice. She is most definitely our number one go to for regulatory advice above all other counsel. Eve is a real pleasure to work with.’

‘The firm translates its global expertise into practical advice at a fair price.’

‘Rohan Massey and Ed McNicholas are both experienced practitioners blessed with integrity, judgment, and the ability to provide clear, practical, implementable advice. They are mindful of the impact of billing. And they are a true pleasure to work with.’

‘The Ropes team is the best of the best. The team is hands-on and practical and as subject matter experts, they deliver high-level practical business advice. Their approach is not buried in unnecessary analysis, but instead is to the point and timely in line with updates in the evolving legal landscape. Their dedication is resolute. Whether on longer term projects or immediate needs, they make themselves available to meet client needs, as collaborators and legal expert counselors. They appreciate the need for working with client about bespoke needs and billing procedures. In sum, they are a go-to counsel of choice.’

‘This team is able to take novel concepts involving multi-stakeholder data sharing and analysis and develop a comprehensive partnership agreement that addresses all parties concerns and needs.’

‘Working with Ropes and Grey, and more specifically Fran Faircloth and team, is the combination of experience in the innovative uses for data, the significant research they conduct to fill any knowledge gaps they may have, their customer service – relationally they are a joy to work with.’

‘They have as much, or more, experience in this area as any firm in the country. Their team is professional and prompt in their attention to these time-critical issues.’

‘Edward McNicholas and Fran Faircloth: despite the pressures of other cases, they were always prompt, knowledgeable, and helpful in addressing our issues.’