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.
Anu Balasubramanian is a corporate partner at Paul Hastings. She leads our private equity practice in London and is the vice chair of our global private equity practice. Ms. Balasubramanian's clients include Abry Partners, Oakley Capital, Accel-KKR, Aurium Capital, HIG, and Wipro Limited.
Stephen Rosen is a partner in our London office. Stephen's experience is in acting for high growth companies, investors, entrepreneurs and management teams on corporate transactions with particular expertise on company sales and purchases, mergers and acquisitions and private equity and venture capital financings across a range of industry sectors. Stephen also regularly acts for spin outs, VC funded companies and well known investors in the life sciences sector. Clients have said that Stephen is "incredibly smart and switched on" and "can be tough when required but is also calm and fair" and "he stands out for his tenacity and ability to deliver practical solutions when problems arise." Further comments include "Stephen was acting on the other side to us and we were so impressed we asked him to help us on our next deal."
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.
Nathan acts on all aspects of domestic and cross-border M&A, joint ventures and restructurings, with a particular focus on private equity and other financial sponsor-led transactions and advising high net worth individuals and families. He advises private equity houses on executing their investments, on managing their portfolio companies during the life of their investments and on helping them to deliver successful exits. He has worked with a number of well-known investors including 3i, AnaCap, Bridgepoint, Candover (now Arle Capital), Doughty Hanson, Goldman Sachs PIA and Smedvig Capital on a full range of low, mid and large cap transactions. Nathan also regularly advises management teams backed by private equity funders – examples include advising the management of The Miller Group Limited on the terms of their participation in the circa £500m financial restructuring led by GSO (part of the Blackstone Group), and advising the management of RL360 on its buyout from Royal London backed by Vitruvian. In addition, Nathan frequently advises corporate, institutional and high net worth clients, having undertaken a broad range of transactional and other work in the UK and overseas. Examples include work for Rathbone Brothers Plc, GVC Holdings Plc, MacDermid Inc, Alliance Medical Group Limited and Boris Berezovsky. Nathan regularly works on cross-border matters, often working alongside our preferred law firms in numerous jurisdictions. He has particular experience in relation to Germany (where he spent six months on secondment to Noerr’s Munich and Berlin offices) and Italy (where he regularly works with NCTM).
Leading individuals
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Partner in the corporate division advising on acquisitions, disposals, private equity transactions (MBOs, MBIs and development capital), joint ventures and other general corporate advice. Clients include 3i, Bridges Fund Managers, ECI Partners, Foresight, Graphite Capital and Piper Private Equity. Deal experience includes the secondary buyouts of the Las Iguanas restaurant chain and Kurt Geiger, the buyouts of Evans Cycles and Media iQ, and the disposals of Kerridge Commercial Systems and The Gym Group.
Shaun Lascelles has more than 20 years of experience advising on cross-border M&A and private equity transactions. He focuses on transactional public and private cross-border mergers and acquisitions, private equity and international joint ventures. He advises private equity firms, infrastructure investors and corporates in relation to complex, high-end transactions and has deep knowledge of the oil & gas and energy sectors, often across emerging market jurisdictions that include Africa and Russia. To learn more about Mr. Lascelles, please visit his full profile: https://www.akingump.com/en/lawyers-advisors/shaun-lascelles.html
Malcolm is a corporate lawyer specialising in private equity transactions ranging from acting for private equity houses in the mid-market and lower mid-market, to acting for management teams on large cap PE deals. Malcolm’s experience covers all aspects of private equity deals, including MBOs, MBIs, bolt-on acquisitions, investments and exits. Malcolm specialises in private equity transactions acting for PE houses such as Elysian Capital and FPE Capital, as well as growth capital providers such as BGF, investee companies such as Civica (an investee company of Partners Group) and management teams such as the management team of Optimum Credit on the sale to KKR backed, Pepper Money. He has acted on transactions such as Elysian Capital’s acquisitions of Key Travel and Aspirations Care, FPE Capital’s investments in Kallik, The NAV People and IWSR and the sale of Small World to Equistone. He has acted for the Civica Group on 20 bolt-on acquisitions and has acted for management teams on large cap transactions such as the sale of Almatis by Dubai International Capital (DIC) and the sale of EMP by Actis. Malcolm featured in The Lawyer Hot 100 2019 and was the most prolific M&A lawyer in the UK in 2018 and 2020 (mergermarket).
Fatema is an award-winning private equity partner whose practice focuses on providing strategic counsel to European and US private equity sponsors. She has pan-European cross sector experience on the full range of corporate matters, including leveraged buyouts, strategic mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, structured and minority equity investments, equity and debt restructurings, and management equity plans, as well as related advisory work. Fatema has received acknowledgement from numerous industry ranking guides: Chambers UK 2024 – Ranked for Private Equity: Buyouts: £500 million and above. Sources note, “Fatema is deeply knowledgeable and infinitely approachable.” “Fatema has very high capability and the ability to be creative and think outside of the box.” “Fatema’s ability is wide-ranging and she prioritises client relationships.” The Legal 500 UK 2024 – Fatema has been ranked as a “Leading Individual” for Private Equity: Transactions – Mid-Market Deals. Sources note, “Fatema is an outstanding PE lawyer. We particularly value Fatema’s ability to find creative solutions in complex situations, working with clients to find viable paths forward where one is not obvious —– this really sets her apart from others in the industry. We also appreciate how dedicated she is to her clients. Fatema is always on top of both the details and the bigger picture, even at short notice. Fatema is our go-to PE lawyer.” Fatema is distinguished by her work in promoting diversity in the legal profession. She has been included in the Class of 2021 at Law.com’s Women, Influence & Power in Law UK Awards as “Mentor of the Year” for which Fatema was the top “Outstanding Winner”. Fatema has also been actively involved in initiatives across the City, including her roles as co-founder of “Women in Law, London” (WILL) a network with over 2,000 members across London aiming to promote and engage the next generation of women leaders in law, an Events Committee member of the “City Women’s Network” (CWN), and advisory panel member of “Oxford Women in Law” (OWL). Read full biography here: https://www.mwe.com/people/fatema-orjela/
Andrew is a Partner in the Corporate department and a recognised expert in international cross border M&A and private equity transactions. His work embraces a wide range of industries but has a particular focus in financial technology, software and e-commerce, recruitment, real estate and automotive industries. He works with wide range of business types from successful entrepreneurs to multinational corporations.Andrew regularly represents clients who specialise in financial technology, software, SaaS, IaaS and other high tech services, communication services companies, private equity firms and financial institutions.He also has a proven track record of working with multinational clients and acting as a “trusted adviser” in relation to transactions in multiple jurisdictions including divestitures, recapitalisations, joint ventures and strategic alliances, venture capital and private equity transactions (including management buyouts and minority investments) and acting for management teams.
Partner specialising in all areas of corporate finance work with particular expertise in buy-out and venture capital work, acting for institutions, Newco and management teams.
Nicholas is co-leader of Dentons' global private equity practice. He has more than 20 years' experience advising on both domestic and cross-border leveraged buyouts and has led over £10 billion of LBOs in the last five years. Nicholas has worked extensively for some of the leading private equity houses, including Apax, Blackstone, Centerbridge, CVC Capital Partners, Duke Street Capital, European Capital, Graphite Capital, Investcorp, Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners and ZQ Capital.