Hall of Fame

The lawyers at the very top of the profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for their longstanding involvement in market-leading work.

Lesley Gregory

Lesley Gregory

Hall of fameMemery Crystal

Lesley Gregory is Chair and a Partner in our Corporate team at Memery Crystal As one of the few female chair at a UK law firm, Lesley Gregory has led Memery Crystal through several strong financial years, worked to expand the firm’s international offering and encourage an internal culture focused on diversity and core values – all while maintaining her top-rated corporate practice. She specialises in capital markets work including flotations and secondary capital raisings. She is a non-exec director of Aquis Exchange PLC (the growth market stock exchange). She acts for companies, nominated advisers and brokers and has acted for both UK and international companies from the US, Canada, South Africa and Australia including Petra Diamonds Limited and Gaming Realms Plc. Lesley also advises growth companies on alternative forms of raising finance, including retail corporate bonds for companies and clubs from Hotel Chocolat to the Jockey Club. In addition, she advises on acquisitions and disposals of public and private companies as well as on cross-border transactions. Lesley enjoys the challenges of working with entrepreneurs and growth companies and has previously acted as a non-executive director or special advisor to both public and private companies. Lesley has been a champion of the firm’s core values programme initiated in 2007, supporting policies and procedures to reinforce the firm’s emphasis on client care, professional development and a supportive workplace. Through her initiative, Memery Crystal became the first law firm to launch a Payroll Giving Scheme with Giveall, a HMRC approved platform enabling employees to donate to any UK charity through their salary on a monthly basis, commission free.

Richard Lane

Hall of fameFarrer & Co

Richard advises on a broad range of corporate transactions including acquisitions, disposals and investments. His clients are both public listed companies as well as fast growing private businesses. Richard is the head of the firm's entrepreneurs and family business group. In addition to advising public listed companies Richard has extensive experience in working with entrepreneurial and family owned businesses and has a particular interest in the media, technology and publishing sectors. His recent experience includes advising Mantle Diamonds Limited on its simultaneous US$25 million fund-raising from Australian private equity fund Pacific Road Capital and the acquisition of the Lerala Diamond mine in Botswana from Australian listed company Diamonex Limited and BMJ Publishing Group Limited on its acquisition of Informatica Systems Limited.

Paul Rajput

Hall of fameLewis Silkin

Partner specialising in wide range of corporate and commercial issues, principally in the marketing services and communications sector and digital technology sector, including mergers and acquisitions; private equity transactions; start-ups and joint ventures; demergers and reorganisations and debt investments.

Ashley Reeback

Ashley Reeback

Hall of fameHoward Kennedy LLP

Ashley Reeback acts on corporate transactions in both the public and private arenas, including M&A, IPOs, MBOs and MBIs. He is Head of the Corporate department at Howard Kennedy. Ashley assists clients on the full spectrum of corporate and capital markets transactions. He is a solicitor with a particular focus on mid-market M&A, as well as, public company transactions. He advises on both the purchase and sale of private companies including by way of Management Buy Outs and Management Buy-Ins. On the capital markets side of his practice, Ashley acts for clients on Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and has advised on over 40 AIM IPOs (some by way of reverse takeover), acting for both issuers and Nomad/brokers. Ashley also advises on public takeovers, as well as, early stage and pre-IPO funding rounds.

Ben Whitelock

Ben Whitelock

Hall of fameWiggin LLP

Ben is a partner in the Corporate group. He has a broad range of experience in advising media and technology companies across all aspects of their corporate legal requirements, including private and public M&A transactions, joint ventures, fundraisings and re-organisations. Ben has particular experience in advising on corporate deals in the betting and gaming sector where he works closely with Wiggin’s market leading regulatory gaming lawyers and regularly advises major operators and technology providers on M&A transactions and strategic investments as part of the waive of consolidation currently happening in the sector. In addition, Ben regularly advises on deals in the technology, publishing, TV and film sectors.

Jenny Robertson

Jenny Robertson

Hall of fameStevens & Bolton LLP

Corporate partner dealing with broad range of corporate matters including company and business sales and acquisitions, corporate finance, private equity, venture capital, joint ventures, reorganisations, share incentive schemes and corporate advice for start ups and partnership and LLP issues.

Rising stars

Rising stars with regular involvement in their team's key work, and recognition from peers or clients as being ones to watch.

Next Generation Partners

Junior partners with significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and key roles on multiple matters.

Francis Dalton

Freeths LLP

Francis has a broad corporate practice which includes both public and private M&A (including corporate finance, private equity and venture capital) and both main market and AIM capital markets transactions. He has experience in a blend of national and international transactions and is used to working across multiple jurisdictions with different laws.Francis also has a breadth of corporate advisory experience and has advised on a number of joint ventures, corporate and financial restructurings and securities offerings. He has operated in a number of sectors and has a focus on technology, media, communications and healthcare. He is a corporate lawyer based in our London office.

Sarah Melaney

Sarah Melaney

Withers LLP

Sarah is a partner in the Withers tech corporate team. She has over a decade of experience advising high growth companies and investors on investment rounds, scale-up, exits (trade sales and IPOs) and general corporate governance. As a trusted adviser, Sarah often assumes the role of general counsel for her clients providing effective advice on all commercial matters. Sarah has been ranked as a next generation partner by Legal 500. Sarah commenced her career as an equity capital markets lawyer listing companies on the AIM market and the main market of the London Stock Exchange which means that she is able to grow with companies through all stages of their life cycle. She is considered to be a leading individual in impact investment having acted for one of Europe's first and largest impact investors throughout her career. Sarah leads our initiative on diverse entrepreneurs and is also an advisory board member of FutureWorldVC, a 180 strong community of ethical impact investors. Keen to help change the current climate crisis, Sarah is also a scout for FiveThirteen, a non-profit organisation supporting gender diversity and climate action.

Leading individuals

The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.

Richard Beavan

Richard Beavan

Boodle Hatfield LLP

Richard is Head of Corporate and Commercial at Boodle Hatfield and has been a corporate lawyer since 1998. He has extensive experience of mergers and acquisitions (public and private), venture capital and private equity; public company listings and fundraisings, compliance under the listing rules and AIM rules; joint ventures; acquisition finance; corporate and share capital reorganisations; investment funds; directors' duties; corporate governance; and commercial contracts.

Daniel Bellau

Edwin Coe LLP

Daniel is a Corporate finance partner and joined Edwin Coe in January 2021.Daniel advises on all aspects of corporate law, specialising in public and private mergers and acquisitions, private equity and VC investments and fundraisings and equity capital markets transactions including flotations and secondary offerings on the official list and AIM. Daniel also specialises in partnership matters, debt finance transactions and restructurings. He has particular expertise in the real estate, TMT leisure and hotel sectors and his clients including entrepreneurs, SMEs, funds, Nomads and brokers.

Charles Claisse

Charles Claisse

Deloitte Legal

Charles has extensive experience of domestic and international (including UK/US) mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and mid-market private equity transactions, with in depth experience in TMT and healthcare. Charles's clients range from FTSE and Fortune 500 companies to funds and fast growth businesses.

Richie Clark

Fox Williams LLP

PartnerRichie is head of Fox Williams' corporate team and specialise in M&A, venture capital and capital markets transactions across a number of industry sectors. As head of corporate, Richie advises UK and international companies and financial institutions on a broad range of corporate matters including mergers and acquisitions, venture capital, AIM listings, public takeovers and corporate governance, shareholder engagement and activist investor situations. He advises clients in a variety of industry sectors with a focus on technology, financial services, FinTech and natural resources and has particular expertise in understanding the issues facing international companies entering the UK market to seek funding or make investments and acquisitions. He is a long-time director of the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce, and co-chair of its SME Forum. Richie is also a member of the Quoted Companies Alliance Corporate Governance Expert Committee and recently served on the judging panel of the UK Private Business Awards on two occasions.

David Coates

Charles Russell Speechlys LLP

David specialises in corporate finance advisory and transactional work for both public and private companies. His experience includes mergers and acquisitions, private equity and corporate reorganisations. David also acts for a number of growth companies and angel investors.

Edward Craft

Edward Craft

Wedlake Bell LLP

Edward leads on the most complex and innovative transactions delivered at Wedlake Bell and provides technical leadership to both the team and the profession. Edward has sat on the Company Law Committee of The Law Society since 2013 and served as chair 2019-2022. In that role, Edward was responsible for the guidance to solicitors in conducting verification under the new register of overseas entities. The 2021 practice note and Q&A on electronic signatures in the context of COVID has proven a very valuable resource to practitioners. Edward has a long-established practice focussed on governance and transparency, including PSC, ROE and TRS. Edward has twice been the author of the Corporate Governance Code issued by The Quoted Companies Alliance, which is used by the vast majority of companies on AIM.

Louise Eldridge

Bristows LLP

Louise advises on a wide range of corporate and commercial matters, including mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financings (including IPOs and secondary public offers) and joint ventures. Louise is particularly experienced in domestic and international M&A, equity financings and other corporate transactions for clients in technology and IP-rich businesses. Louise acts for both domestic and international clients from growth companies to financial institutions, global multinationals, venture capital and private equity investors. She advises clients across a range of industries, with particular emphasis on technology, media & marcoms, and life sciences. Louise is head of Bristows’ multi-discipline fintech practice in which role she acts for both UK and international clients across the sector from start-ups developing technology to investors and corporates investing in this rapidly expanding area. The fintech practice covers a wide range of fintech payment services, regtech, insurtech, digital transformation, A1, robotics and distributed ledger technology. Louise also has experience advising on a broad range of corporate insolvency matters including: providing strategic and advisory support for company boards; advising on directors’ duties; and restructuring transactions, administrations and liquidations. On insolvency related matters Louise acts for individual directors, company boards and insolvency practitioners.

Jo Evans

Lewis Silkin

Partner, Corporate. Work includes mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance with a particular focus on the creative industries, financial services and healthcare (especially the dental sector).

Adam Lynch

Adam Lynch

Wedlake Bell LLP

Adam is a partner and head of our corporate practice. He has a broad range of experience and expertise advising on all aspects of corporate law, with a focus on domestic and cross-border M&A and corporate finance (including venture capital and private equity deals). Adam advises a variety of clients, including public companies listed on the London Stock Exchange’s main and AIM markets, private companies, partnerships, and entrepreneurs. His practice spans a number of industry sectors including hospitality and leisure, technology, corporate real estate, healthcare and financial services.

Anthony Shatz

Fladgate LLP

I am a partner in Fladgate’s corporate team. I specialise in M&A, Joint Ventures and Investment Funds. I like to provide clear commercial advice to clients on transactions that are often complex, multi-faceted or cross-jurisdictional. I approach deals by thinking commercially, anticipating issues and solving problems, and I really enjoy working on complex deals with fast moving sophisticated clients. Legal500 has recommended me on several occasions. They have referred to me a "quick thinker with very good people skills" and as someone who has "an exceptional understanding of the nuances of transactions". I have written or maintain various publications, including: Fladgate’s Guide to “Doing Business in the UK” Fladgate’s M&A Tracker BVCA’s Guides to Real Estate Funds and Fund Restructurings Practical Law's Note on Real Estate Joint Ventures Mondaq’s Comparative Guide to M&A All of which are available on request.

Dee Sian-Bieleman

Dee Sian-Bieleman

Keystone Law

Dee is a corporate lawyer with over 20 years’ experience, specialising in venture capital, private equity and M&A transactions. She advises financial institutions and companies on their investments, refinancings and shareholder arrangements as well as acting for corporates and individuals on mergers, acquisitions and disposals. Dee has extensive experience advising on EIS and VCT investments and on M&A transactions in the healthcare sector.

Mark Tasker

Mark Tasker

Wedlake Bell LLP

Mark is a partner in our corporate practice. He has more than 30 years’ experience of advising clients on corporate transactional work in a variety of sectors including manufacturing, technology, financial services and the impact economy. His focus is advising on both cross-border and domestic private company transactions including M&A, venture capital and private equity deals. He also works extensively on corporate fundraising including equity capital markets work, in particular on AIM. Mark’s experience also includes handling joint ventures, shareholder agreements and group reorganisations and issues relating to shareholder disputes and share rights held by senior executives. Mark is valued by clients for being commercial and pragmatic, avoiding the usual “shades of grey” advice and for making firm recommendations.

Rahul Thakrar

Rahul Thakrar

Boodle Hatfield LLP

Rahul is a Partner in the Corporate and Commercial team. He advises entrepreneurs and businesses on a variety of corporate matters including equity raises, joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions as well as assisting clients with day to day commercial agreements. Rahul also advises both borrowers and lenders on debt and mezzanine finance transactions and has significant experience in advising investment funds and fund managers on structuring and regulatory issues. Uniquely for a lawyer, Rahul has undertaken all of his Chartered Financial Analyst examinations (a qualification typically achieved only by senior bankers) and therefore regularly assists clients with negotiating the key commercial terms of a transaction as well as then finding a structure which provides the necessary commercial outcomes.