The lateral partner moves in London gathered considerable pace during March, April & May, with the stand out moves being Forsters 19 strong acquisition of Gowling WLG entire Private Client Group and Clyde & Co.’s acquisition of Curtis Mallet’s specialist Africa team. It’s also partner promotion time, congratulations to all those newly made up this year.
Headline Partner Moves | Headline Partner Moves | Headline Partner Moves | Headline Partner Moves | Headline Partner Moves |
Name | To | From | Practice Area | Notes |
Jane Kola | ARC Pensions Law | Gowling WLG | Employment and Pensions | Jane Kola is a specialist in defined contribution pension schemes. |
Kate Brimsted | Berwin Leighton Paisner | Reed Smith | Intellectual Property | Kate has 20 years’ experience in the field of data protection, ranging from global compliance assessments, privacy and security reviews of outsourced services, cross border transfers of personal data, and organisational security and investigative disclosure projects. She has advised clients in the financial services, technology and telecoms and energy and natural resources sectors. |
Mark Brailsford | Berwin Leighton Paisner | Osborne Clarke | Corporate tax | Mark specialises in complex international mandates advising on the tax elements of structured finance, securitisations, capital markets and derivatives. He has worked with financial institutions, funds and corporations, advising issuers, managers, and trustees in relation to the tax aspects of international transactions. |
Dominic Roughton | Boies Schiller Flexner | Herbert Smith Freehills | Dispute Resolution | Dominic has worked on numerous international disputes, including international boundary disputes, treaty disputes and advised on state-to-state and investor-state dispute resolution procedures. He has acted as counsel in commercial arbitrations under ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL, SCC, SIAC, JCAA, and CIETAC rules. |
Jane Ireland | Boodle Hatfield | Ashfords | Corporate | Jane has extensive experience of advising entrepreneurs and high-net worth individuals on their business and commercial interests. She specialises in mergers, acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and reorganisations. |
Erol Huseyin | Brachers | Norton Rose Fulbright | Projects | Erol has 20 years’ experience advising businesses and lenders on all aspects of commercial transactions, with a particular specialism in energy. |
Hannah Langford + team | Clarke Willmott | Clarion Housing | Social housing | Appointment of 11 new team members to the social housing team, leading by partner Hannah Langford (including senior associates Joanna Jackson, previously a specialist at Devonshires, and Angela Byrne who has 25 years’ experience in social housing litigation, as well as associate Muzammel Mian, an experienced social housing solicitor previously with the Metropolitan Housing Trust. Three new solicitors have been appointed: Sarah Cave, who has previously worked in Devonshires property team, Victoria Smith who worked for social housing specialists Glazer Delmar Solicitors and Alexis Campbell who comes from Simply Social Housing Limited. Also joining is trainee legal executive Nafisa Bibi, previously in-house at social housing provider Guinness. The team will also be supported by three new paralegals: Ashleigh Draper, Cecilia Fletcher and Laura Rolls). |
Nick Fothergill | DAC Beachcroft | Watson Farley & Williams | Corporate | Nick has extensive experience advising on M&A, joint ventures, corporate reorganisations, commercial contracts, private equity / infrastructure transactions and general company law matters. His practice focuses on transactional work in the energy (both renewable and conventional power), infrastructure, transportation and financial institutions sectors. In addition, he has particular experience of advising on the sale of UK offshore transmission assets as part of the OFTO tender regime run by Ofgem. |
Patricia Volhard | Debevoise & Plimpton | Pöllath + Partners (Frankfurt) | Private funds | Patricia is a private funds regulatory specialist, and will join the firm as a partner, operating out of its Frankfurt and London offices. Her practice is focused on advising private funds on a range of regulatory issues. She is admitted to practise in Germany and France, and speaks fluent German, French and English. |
Stephen Surgeoner | Dechert | Clifford Chance | Dispute Resolution | Stephen has more than two decades’ experience advising on all forms of commercial disputes resolution, with a focus on the banking, funds, insurance, energy and telecoms industries. He advises client in the UK and globally with high-value, cross-jurisdictional complex commercial litigation, mediation, investigations, and domestic and international arbitration. |
Celyn Armstrong | Dentons | Linklaters | Regulatory Law | Celyn has extensive experience of advising banks, insurers, investment managers, financial markets, intermediaries and other regulated firms He advises on all aspects of contentious and non-contentious regulatory matters, including enforcement investigations, s.166 reviews, internal investigations, implementation of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, governance issues, and supervisory engagement with the Prudential Regulation Authority and FCA. |
Cameron Half | Dentons | Allen & Overy | Corporate | Cameron is a senior US securities lawyer with nearly 15 years’ experience representing underwriters, lead managers and corporate and sovereign issuers and shareholders on high-profile equity and debt capital markets transactions. He focuses on European and emerging markets, including Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, Russia and CIS. His sector expertise includes banking and financial institutions, mining and natural resources, and sovereign issuers. He is a fluent Russian speaker. |
Nick Hayday | Dentons | Freshfields | Corporate | Nick specialises in debt capital markets transactions, with a particular focus on emerging markets. He represents investment banks, sovereigns, issuers and private equity clients in sectors including financial institutions, pharmaceuticals, airlines, railways, oil and gas and mining. |
Bob Cordran | Dorsey & Whitney | Marriott Harrison LLP | Employment | Bob is an experienced employment lawyer having advised clients across a wide variety of industries including retail, media, professional services, healthcare, financial services and technology. He has 20 years’ experience. |
Richard Twomey | DWF | Pinsent Masons | Arbitration and litigation | Richard specialises in international arbitration and high value complex disputes particularly in the energy, technology and manufacturing sectors. He has over 15 years’ experience in international dispute resolution. His practice primarily deals with disputes resolved through international arbitration, often concerning distressed projects, transactional fall out, shareholder and ownership disputes, as well as UK pensions regulatory work. He has acted for corporations, governments, trustees and prominent individuals, often in disputes involving several jurisdictions. |
Anthony Thompson, Catharine Bell, Nick Jacob and Daniel Ugur | Fosters Solicitors LLP | Gowling WLG | Private Client | The team will join Foster on 1 May 2017 and includes four partners as well as ten solicitors and five other members of staff. |
Guy Morgan | Fox Williams | Stephenson Harwood | Capital Markets | Guy focuses on equity capital markets transactions, takeovers and other UK Takeover Code transactions. His experience includes advising listed and unlisted companies and institutions on a range of domestic and cross-border corporate finance transactions, including public M&A, IPOs and public equity fundraisings. He also advises on private M&A, joint ventures, buyouts and corporate restructurings |
Ben Morgan | Freshfields | Serious Fraud Office | Corporate Crime / Global Investigations | Ben Morgan, who joined the SFO in 2013 from Norton Rose Fulbright where he was a senior associate, has played an active role in a number of high profile matters during his time with the SFO, including investigations into Rolls-Royce and Airbus. |
Michael Darowski | Gowling WLG | Hogan Lovells | Dispute Resolution | Michael has more than 15 years’ experience during which time he has been based in the UK and Hong Kong. He has advised on complex, high-value arbitrations and arbitration-related litigation in a number of sectors, with a particular focus on energy and natural resources. |
Ben Mellors | Holman Fenwick Willan | Beale and Co | Dispute Resolution | Ben is a specialist construction lawyer with over 18 years' experience in the industry. He advises clients on all aspects of international construction and engineering projects, with a particular focus on Southern Europe, the Middle East and East Africa. |
Daniel Csefalvay | Latham & Watkins | Linklaters | Corporate | Daniel’s practice focuses on representing investment banks, fund managers and market infrastructure providers, including trading platforms and clearing houses, on all aspects of financial markets regulation. His work includes licensing and structuring, issues relating to clearing and settlement, corporate M&A involving the financial services sector, regulatory reform projects, such as MAR and MiFID II, and questions generally relating to the marketing and distribution of financial products. He has extensive experience advising on a range of complex domestic and cross-border transactional and financial regulatory matters. |
Christopher Dearie | MJ Hudson | Freshfields | Financial services and regulation | Christopher advises asset managers, banks and domestic and international investment funds on a broad range of financial services regulatory issues. He has previously worked at Freshfields, Ropes & Gray, and Jones Day. |
Daniel Lewin | MJ Hudson | Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP | Tax | Daniel advises corporate, institutional, investment management and private clients on the UK and international tax aspects of a wide variety of transactions, including acquisitions and divestitures, financings, investment funds, investment structures, joint ventures, and employment matters. He has particular experience in the taxation of hedge, private equity, and infrastructure funds and sponsors. |
Marilyn McKeever | New Quadrant Partners | Berwin Leighton Paisner | Private Client | Marilyn specialises in international and UK tax and estate planning. She focuses on the remittance basis of taxation and on tax and estate planning for non UK domiciled clients, especially those with a US connection. She also advises on cross-border tax and legal matters, tax efficient charitable giving, and trusts in the commercial context including employee benefit trusts, disguised remuneration, unit trusts and pension schemes. She is a member of the Law Society’ tax law committee and regularly engages with HMRC on policy and new legislation in the offshore and non-dom field. She sits as a judge of the First-tier Tax Tribunal. |
Elizabeth George | Pattinson & Brewer | Leigh Day | Employment and Pensions | Elizabeth is a specialist in discrimination work, she worked as a solicitor before qualifying as a barrister with Cloisters. George has previously worked for Leigh Day where she spent seven years. |
Simon Airey | Paul Hastings | DLA Piper | Corporate Crime / Global Investigations | Simon joins from DLA Piper, where he was one of the six original members of the firm’s global investigations initiative. His practice focuses on a broad range of regulatory, criminal and civil litigation. He has extensive experience advising clients on global investigations, financial and regulatory crime, bribery and corruption, money laundering, tax and fraud inquiries, dawn raids, corporate compliance, and reputation management issues. His sector experience includes construction, defence, financial services, oil and gas, logistics, pharmaceuticals and telecoms. |
David Berman | Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan | Macfarlanes | Regulatory and investigations | Prior to becoming a lawyer, David Berman was a managing director at an international investment bank, where he held senior level roles in legal, compliance and front office functions. Berman advises financial institutions (across both buy-side and sell-side) and other multinational organisations on regulatory and compliance issues. He counsels boards and senior management teams on regulatory issues of strategic significance. He specialises in providing strategic advice, encompassing issue prevention, containment and resolution, including internal investigations. |
Stuart Nash | Rosenblatt Solicitors | Edwin Coe | Construction | A dual qualified, US lawyer and UK solicitor, Stuart specialises in construction law, property development and dispute resolution. He deals with cross-border construction disputes and has conducted ICC, LCIA and AAA arbitrations. He often acts for US companies carrying out work in Europe and the Middle East in both the construction and energy sectors. |
Emily Monastiriotis | Simmons & Simmons | Bond Dickinson | Dispute Resolution | Emily specialises in construction disputes, from an insurance perspective (professional risks), and also pure construction (mainly contractor focused). |
Matthew Knowles | Stewarts Law | Harbour Litigation Funding | International Arbitration | Matthew has experience in litigation from an advisory and client perspective having worked at Linklaters and at Norton Rose Fulbright as well as in-house at BHP Billiton where he was the senior disputes lawyer in the northern hemisphere. |
Paul Werrell | Veale Wasbrough Vizards | Clarks (Reading based firm) | Healthcare | Paul has over 20 years’ experience as a commercial lawyer, and has specialised in working for clients in the healthcare sector, with a mixed caseload of contentious and non-contentious work. He has a particular focus on advising GP practices and individual GPs. He has extensive experience drafting partnerships deeds and other partnership related documents. |
Daniel Isaac | Wallace | Withers | Employment | Daniel has extensive experience advising individuals and organisations on workplace relationships, whether involving employment law, partnership law, shareholders’ rights, or advising entrepreneurs. His sector experience includes finance and banking services, professional services and the creative industries. He has advised on sex discrimination claims and whistleblowing claims. |
Paul Hibbert | Weil Gotshal & Manges | Baker McKenzie | Finance | Paul's expertise covers leveraged finance, structured finance, real estate finance and general corporate banking, with a particular focus on advising both sponsors and lenders on financing of real assets. |
Angus Duncan | Winston & Strawn | Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft | Corporate | Angus has securitisation experience, including advising on securitisations of a range of assets including loans, consumer assets, trade receivables, commercial real estate, and hedge fund interests. His practice also focuses on insurance-linked securities, including catastrophic bond, sidecars, industry loss warranties and privately placed transactions with respect to catastrophe, mortality and longevity risk. He has also worked in the developing alternative finance markets acting for a number of new market participants. He worked at Allen & Overy for 11 years, including nine as a partner, and two as Tokyo managing partner. |
New Partner Promotions | New Partner Promotions | New Partner Promotions | New Partner Promotions |
Name | To | Practice Area | Notes |
Joel Ferguson | Allen & Overy | Banking | |
Neil Sinha | Allen & Overy | Banking | |
Vanessa Xu | Allen & Overy | Banking | |
Matthew Appleton | Allen & Overy | Corporate | |
Peter Banks | Allen & Overy | Corporate | |
Dominic Long | Allen & Overy | Corporate | |
Tom Constance | Allen & Overy | ICM | |
Daniel Fletcher | Allen & Overy | ICM | |
Tom Roberts | Allen & Overy | ICM | |
Nick Saner | Allen & Overy | Real Estate | |
Patrick Johnson | Berwin Leighton Paisner | Corporate finance | |
Gareth Stringer | Berwin Leighton Paisner | Non-contentious construction | |
Mark Lindley | Boodle Hatfield | Contentious trusts and estates | Mark is a member of the Society for Trust and Estates Practitioners (STEP), an elected member of its contentious trusts and estates SIG global steering committee, and a member of the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists (ACTAPS). |
Jamie Barton | BrookStreet des Roches | Real estate | Jamie Barton joined the firm in 2012, having trained and worked with Ashurst. He has worked in the retail team since joining the firm. He specialises in all aspects of commercial real estate work including acquisitions, disposals, renewals, re-gears, sale and leasebacks and development agreements. |
Sarah Wildsmith | BrookStreet des Roches | Real Estate | Sarah Wildsmith worked at Clifford Chance before she joined BrookStreet des Roches in 2015. She specialises in property development and investment and has worked on a number of major HQ relocations. |
Rachael Heenan | Capsticks | Senior Partner | Rachael Heenan will take up the role as senior partner from 1 May 2017. |
Paul Arathoon | Charles Russell Speechlys | Business services | Paul specialises in corporate finance. His particular expertise includes IPOs, secondary issues and boardroom and shareholder disputes for public companies, as well as advising on takeover code transactions |
Helen Hutton | Charles Russell Speechlys | Real estate | Helen deals with all aspects of planning and environmental law, for commercial, private and charity clients, in both contentious and non-contentious spheres. Her expertise includes strategic advice, planning agreements, appeals, judicial review, other Court challenges, CPO and planning objections. She has additional expertise in hydrocarbon matters. |
Rupa Lakha | Charles Russell Speechlys | Construction | Rupa is an experienced construction lawyer acting for developers and contractors alike. She focuses on contentious work, advising clients on dispute avoidance and all forms of dispute resolution. |
Michael O'Connor | Charles Russell Speechlys | Construction | Michael is an experienced construction and engineering lawyer, providing advice to both national and international clients across the full scope of construction issues ranging from procurement/contract strategies through to dispute avoidance/resolution. |
Paul Arathoon | Charles Russell Speechlys | Private Property | Sakhjit's main focus and extensive experience involves advising high net worth clients, including international billionaires, high profile entrepreneurs and ruling family members with the legal work on their London property acquisitions, handling sales and purchases of prime and super prime London residential property. In addition, she regularly advises major property companies and private banks. |
James Bole | Clifford Chance | Corporate | |
Jonathan Kewley | Clifford Chance | Corporate | |
Timothy Cleary | Clifford Chance | Finance | |
David Robson | Clifford Chance | Finance | |
Owen Lysak | Clifford Chance | Finance | |
Matt Taylor | Clifford Chance | Real estate | |
Richard Elks | Clyde & Co | Corporate | Richard has extensive experience in advising clients on M&A and investment transactions. He has acted for corporates, private equity and institutional investors and management teams in various sectors. He also advises on shareholder arrangements, joint ventures and corporate structuring, as well as providing general corporate law advice. He has a particular specialism in the real estate sector. |
Jack Shepherd | CMS | Corporate and Commercial | |
David Bridge | CMS | Dispute Resolution | |
Luke Pardey | CMS | Dispute Resolution | |
Caroline Kurup | CMS | Employment and Pensions | |
Helen Wallis | CMS | IP | |
David Crossley | CMS | Real Estate | |
Paul Silver | CMS | TMT | |
Anne-Marie Piper | Farrer & Co | Senior Partner | Elected as Senior Partner. She will succeed Richard Parry who is set to retire. He has been senior partner since 2011 and with the firm for 42 years. Anne-Marie Piper joined the charities team at Farrers as a partner in 2001. |
Mikhail Basisty | Fieldfisher | Corporate | |
Gordon Drakes | Fieldfisher | Commercial IP | |
Louise Elmes | Fieldfisher | Real estate | |
Tom Guida | Fieldfisher | Commercial IP | |
Aymen Khoury | Fieldfisher | Dispute Resolution | |
Andrew Sanderson | Fieldfisher | Dispute Resolution | |
James Seadon | Fieldfisher | IP / Technology, Protection and enforcement | |
Penny Wotton | Fieldfisher | Private Client | |
Carl Walker | Ince & Co | International Trade | Carl joined Ince & Co in 2006 and is an international trade and shipping specialist. He advises clients on a wide range of disputes across a broad range of commodities, with a particular focus on oil and gas, metals and soft commodities trading matters. He also has extensive experience of advising shipping clients in relation to carriage of goods and charterparty matters. In addition to his contentious work, Walker advises both shipping and commodity trading clients in relation to the drafting of their contracts and terms of business. |
James Paton-Philip | Irwin Mitchell | Corporate and Commercial | |
Sital Fontenelle | Irwin Mitchell | Family | |
Sarah Griggs | Irwin Mitchell | Serious Injury | |
Graham Clark | Irwin Mitchell | IT | |
Maria Gerakaris-Michanitzis | Jackson Parton | Shipping litigation | Maria Gerakaris-Michanitzis has decided to retire from legal practice after 19 years with the firm. She qualified as a solicitor in 1997 and practised at Watson Farley & Williams before joining Jackson Parton in 1998. She was made a partner in the firm in 2008. Gerakaris-Michanitzis, who is fluent in Greek, focused mainly on shipping litigation |
Richard Williams | Joelson | Licensing and gaming | Richard has more than 20 years’ experience and is currently seconded part-time to an online gambling operator based in London. Williams has a particular interest in cryptocurrency and Bitcoin payments for gambling transactions and blockchain generally. |
Andrew Bruce | Linklaters | Real Estate | Andy Bruce has been appointed Global Head of Real Estate. Bruce has worked at Linklaters for 25 years advising on complex deals in the UK and Continental Europe and has led the UK practice since 2012. He has extensive experience across the acquisition, financing, development, letting and disposal of all types of commercial real estate both in the UK and Continental Europe. |
Ben Annable | Mishcon de Reya | Corporate | Ben works in the corporate department and specialises in UK and cross-border mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures, with a particular interest in real estate related transactions including advising on and the structuring of real estate acquisitions and joint ventures. |
Susannah Kintish | Mishcon de Reya | Employment and Pensions | Susannah is an employment lawyer who acts for employers and employees on contentious and non-contentious matters with experience of the Court of Appeal, High Court and Employment Tribunal. She advises on strategic issues as well as on terminations, redundancies, settlement agreements, all aspects of discrimination and whistleblowing legislation, restrictive covenants, executive remuneration matters and corporate strategy and structuring issues. |
Chhavie Kapoor | Mishcon de Reya | Real estate | Chhavie is a member of the real estate department, specialising in real estate disputes. She has particular experience in advising developers on avoiding disputes, and how to mitigate against disputes in order to keep the development on track. This includes advising clients on minimising the potential rights of light related claims. She has acted on planning judicial reviews. |
Patrick Sweeney | TLT | Commercial |