M&A: Upper Mid-Market And Premium Deals, £750m+

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.
Aedamar Comiskey
Hall of fameLinklaters LLP
Aedamar is Linklaters Global Head of Corporate and specialises in public and private M&A and regulatory and corporate governance advisory work. She is the lead relationship partner and boardroom adviser for many of the firm's FTSE clients. Aedamar recently led a number of high-profile M&A deals including advising Unilever on its defence of Kraft Heinz company's US$145bn approach; Visa Europe on its €18.37bn sale to Visa Inc; Amec Foster Wheeler on Wood Group's £2.2bn recommended offer; HSBC on the US$5.2bn sale of its Brazilian bank to Banco Bradesco; and Amlin on Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance's £3.48bn recommended offer.Aedamar is also a non-executive director of FTSE company, Hames Fisher and Sons plc.  
Steve Cooke
Hall of fameSlaughter and May
Senior Partner; Steve is the Senior Partner of the firm. He headed our Mergers and Acquisitions practice from 2001 to 2016. He has a general corporate and M&A and investigations practice, with particular experience in takeover bids and other Stock Exchange related work. Steve acts for a number of listed companies including FTSE 100 clients Aviva, Barratt Developments, BAT, Centrica, Diageo, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, International Airlines Group, Reckitt Benckiser, Rolls-Royce and WPP and FTSE 250 clients Big Yellow Group, Morgan Advanced Materials, Morgan Sindall and Spectris.
Steven Davis
Hall of fameProskauer Rose LLP
Steven Davis is a partner in Proskauer's Corporate Department, co-head of its global Private Equity and M&A Group and co-head of the London office. Steven’s practice focuses on buyouts, buy-ins, and strategic mergers & acquisitions. He has considerable industry knowledge in the consumer, retail, financial, business services, sports and healthcare sectors, and has advised a broad range of clients, including private equity sponsors, management teams, financial institutions and public and private companies.
James Inglis
Hall of fameLinklaters LLP
James is a corporate partner based in the London office, and is a specialist in public and private M&A and equity capital markets transactions. He is a relationship partner for a number of clients, including Rio Tinto, Novartis, Jardine Matheson, United Technologies Corporation, Takeda and Kier Group. He also works extensively with investment banks, including Credit Suisse, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley.
Adam Signy
Hall of fameSimpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Corporate Partner whose practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, particularly public company takeovers and private equity transactions, as well as equity capital markets. Represented banks, private equity firms and corporate clients across a wide range of industries.
Ben Spiers
Hall of fameSimpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Ben focuses on public and private M&A, securities and corporate restructurings. He has spent many years advising clients on complex cross-border transactions across the globe. Commercially astute, Ben is a ‘can do’ lawyer who can implement complicated deals in a straightforward manner. He has stellar experience in UK public M&A deals and asset management M&A including minority and majority transactions involving GPs.
Spencer Summerfield
Hall of fameTravers Smith LLP
Partner, Head of CorporateSpencer has a broad corporate practice but his principle area of work is M&A, IPOs, corporate joint ventures and general corporate advice. His clients include a number of large quoted and private companies, based in the Uk and overseas and infrastructure funds.
Roland Turnill
Hall of fameSlaughter and May
Partner; Roland is Co-Head of our Financial Institutions Group and has recently stepped down after six years as Head of our Mergers and Acquisitions practice. His principal areas of work are public and private M&A, joint ventures, activism defence, governance and crisis management.
Leading partners
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Kate Ball-Dodd
Hall of fameMayer Brown International LLP
Kate Ball-Dodd has a wide-ranging corporate practice that encompasses corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions (including public takeovers), equity fund raisings, joint ventures, and corporate governance. She advises a number of quoted companies and financial intermediaries on the UKLA Listing Rules and Disclosure and Transparency Rules, the Prospectus Rules, the AIM Rules, the Takeover Code and general company law. Kate speaks regularly at external conferences on corporate governance and takeovers.
Simon Branigan
Linklaters LLP
Simon has extensive experience advising corporates, financial institutions and investment trusts on mergers and acquisitions (both public and private), joint ventures and equity capital markets transactions. He has been involved in some of the most complex and high-profile multi-jurisdictional transactions over the last few years.Simon’s experience spans the mining, retail and consumer, and oil and gas sectors. He has extensive experience in the financial services sector, and is co-head of the firm’s bank sector.
Harry Coghill
Macfarlanes LLP
Harry has broad transactional experience in public and private M&A, equity capital markets and other corporate transactions. He also advises listed clients on a wide range of corporate governance matters, including activism situations. Harry sits on the legal panel of the Investor Forum, having advised on its establishment, and has authored several publications on subjects relevant to his practice. Harry heads our international committee which has oversight of our relationships with international law firms. Harry also co-heads our consumer and retail sector group.
Rebecca Cousin
Slaughter and May
Partner; Rebecca is Head of our Equity Capital Markets practice and Co-Head of our Data Privacy practice. Rebecca’s corporate practice consists of advising clients on M&A transactions, both public and private, joint ventures, equity issues, initial public listings and long term commercial contracts. She also advises on day-to-day company law and corporate reporting and governance matters. Rebecca advises a number of clients on all aspects of Data Privacy, including on stand-alone compliance queries, in corporate transactions, e-commerce, commercial contracts and global investigations. Rebecca is a contributing author to Tolley’s Company Law Service, Privacy Laws and Business, and sits on the Consulting Editorial Board of Lexis PSL.
Paul Dickson
Slaughter and May
Partner; Paul has a broad practice covering a range of corporate and corporate finance matters for listed and unlisted clients. His experience includes advising on public takeovers and mergers, private M&A, equity capital markets and asset management transactions, together with partnership and investment fund structures.
Clare Gaskell
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Partner in Simpson Thacher’s London Office who advises clients on private M&A, public takeovers, equity capital markets (including IPOs), and general corporate matters, with a focus on private equity and other financial sponsor clients. Clare has particular experience in law and regulation applicable to U.K. listed companies, and handles complex cross-border transactions with international counterparties.
Robert Innes
Slaughter and May
Partner; Rob has broad corporate and corporate finance experience, with a focus on public takeovers, international private M&A and equity capital markets. He also co-headed our Tech Transactions Group.
David Johnson
Slaughter and May
Partner; David heads one of the firm’s corporate groups and has over 25 years’ experience advising on a wide range of corporate transactions, commercial agreements and governance matters. He has particular expertise in public and private M&A transactions, joint ventures and equity financings. David acts for a number of listed companies, including Arrow Global Group, BAT, BHP, Cineworld, GlaxoSmithKline, IAG, Marston’s, SEGRO and The Restaurant Group.
Amy Mahon
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Amy Mahon specialises in domestic and cross border M&A, domestic and international leveraged buyouts, infrastructure, private equity and consortium transactions acting for financial sponsors including infrastructure investors, private equity funds and other financial sponsors.
Simon Nicholls
Slaughter and May
Partner; Simon is co-head of our Corporate and M&A group. His principal areas of work are public and private M&A, joint ventures, activism defence, governance, crisis management and investigations. He acts for a number of listed companies, including Babcock, Diageo, GlaxoSmithKline, John Wood Group, Morgan Advanced Materials, Ultra Electronics and Whitbread.
Sally Wokes
Slaughter and May
Partner; Sally advises on a broad range of corporate and commercial transactions. Her practice mainly consists of acting for corporate clients on domestic and international transactions (including private acquisitions and disposals, public takeovers and joint ventures) and general advisory matters.
Ian Lopez
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
Mr. Lopez is a partner in the corporate department and the mergers and acquisitions and private equity practices. He has a broad range of experience in a variety of corporate finance transactions, including public M&A, private M&A, equity capital market transactions, joint ventures, and corporate restructurings. Mr. Lopez has represented companies in numerous industries, including financial services, media & telecom, insurance, healthcare, and consumer goods, among others.
Nick Rumsby
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Nick is a corporate partner based in London, and is renowned for his public M&A experience. He spent two years between 2008 and 2010 at the UK Takeover Panel as a senior case officer, where he was involved in all major decisions and policies made during that time. Nick’s other main areas of practice include private mergers and acquisitions, reorganisations, restructurings, joint ventures, demergers and equity financings. In addition to his time at the Takeover Panel, he has spent time working in-house at Schroder Salomon Smith Barney (now Citi) and in the firm’s Hong Kong office.Recent deals including advising :Unilever on the successful defence to the US$145bn approach from Kraft-Heinz; SABMiller on the recommended US$108bn offer by AB InBev, the fourth largest takeover in the world (and the largest ever of a UK company); Amec Foster Wheeler on the recommended £2.2bn offer by John Wood Group; Schneider Electric on its £3.4bn acquisition of Invensys; Kazakhmys (now called Kaz Minerals) on the £3bn offer by a consortium for Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation; Delphi Automotive on its recommended £1bn offer for Hellermann Tyton; Greene King on its £770m acquisition of Spirit Pub Company; and Ophir Energy on its London listing and subsequent capital raisings and takeovers of Dominion Petroleum and Salamander Energy.
Next Generation Partners
Junior partners with significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and key roles on multiple matters.
James Cook
Slaughter and May
Partner; James has a broad international corporate and commercial practice, advising on public and private M&A activity, joint ventures and equity capital market transactions. He also advises clients on company law and reorganisations, corporate governance and other general advisory matters. James is a member of the firm’s Tech Transactions team, and has particular experience in the TMT sector, including significant expertise in data centres and emerging tech.
Francesca Storey-Harris
Kirkland & Ellis International LLP
Francesca is a partner in the corporate group of Kirkland’s London office. She has experience across a wide range of corporate law transactions for financial sponsor and corporate clients, with a focus on public and private acquisitions, including cross-border deals.
Ian Hunter
Linklaters LLP
Ian is a partner in the Linklaters corporate department who focuses on public and private M&A, international capital raisings and joint ventures. He advises a number of the firm's major clients in the mining sector worldwide, and also advises professional services firms and networks on structure and governance. Ian is a relationship partner for a number of the firm's key mining clients, including Glencore, KAZ Minerals, and Endeavour Mining.
Victoria Macduff
Slaughter and May
Partner; Victoria has a broad corporate practice and advises on all forms of M&A activity, private acquisitions and disposals, equity capital market transactions, reorganisations, joint ventures and cyber security. Victoria has particular experience in the financial services and telecommunications sectors and is also an active member of the firm’s Commercial Contracts advisory team.
Sarah Shaw
Hogan Lovells International LLP
Sarah is a seasoned M&A practitioner with an impressive range of experience advising on private acquisitions and disposals, public takeovers, joint ventures, strategic alliances, restructurings and business transfers. Sarah's clients include a wide range of corporates, private equity funds, DFIs and infrastructure funds, whom she advises on their most complex and high-profile transactions. Sarah is a member of our M&A leadership team. She has experience across a number of sectors including, in particular, oil and gas, power, renewable energy, infrastructure and real estate. Her practice is international and includes a particular focus on Africa and other emerging markets, where she has acted on some of the most significant platform M&A transactions in the energy sector in recent years. Sarah is recommended as a Next Generation Partner by Legal 500 (2024) for M&A, and was recently identified as one of the best and brightest up and coming female lawyers in the UK by Law.com International. She is commended by clients for her user-friendly approach and ability to combine technical excellence with commercial, pragmatic advice.
Leading associates
Rising stars with regular involvement in their team's key work, and recognition from peers or clients as being ones to watch.

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