Venture capital
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.
Rising stars
Rising stars with regular involvement in their team's key work, and recognition from peers or clients as being ones to watch.
Osborne Clarke LLP
Please see full biography at osborneclarke.com/lawyers/elizabeth-yell/
Dentons
Sheridans
Next Generation Partners
Junior partners with significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and key roles on multiple matters.
Cooley LLP
Aaron Archer is a partner in the emerging companies and venture practice in London. He specialises in representing both companies and investors who are forming, scaling and investing in high-growth often disruptive companies through a company’s life cycle; from the initial structuring to exit, and all the various types of equity financings (from seed rounds to Series A, B, C and beyond) and general corporate advisory in between. Aaron is also experienced in a broad range of domestic and cross-border corporate transactions, particularly joint ventures and private and public M&A.
Shoosmiths LLP
Helen is a Partner in our corporate department specialising in venture capital, growth capital and sustainable and next generation infrastructure investments. Helen advises both institutions and companies/founders on start-up through funding rounds and M&A. Helen works with a variety of clients but increasingly specialises helping investors and companies on capital fund raisings: Recent experience includes: • advising EV Chargers (EVC) on its £165m investment from Denham Capital • advising Equitix on its £75m investments into Grain Connect and £84m into Freedom Fibre • advising Gresham House Sustainable Infrastructure Fund on its continued investment into Go Fibre, Telcom Group and Wildanet Limited • advising Gresham House Ventures on various investments such as into Panthera BioPartners, Metrion BioSciences, Dayrize and Airfinity • advising Foresight Group LLP on its investment into F&W Network Limited • advising Burda Principal investments on its further investment into Bloom & Wilde Limited as part of its £75 million Series D fundraising led by General Catalyst and Index Ventures • advising Carbon Quota on its seed series led by Codex Captial Helen also leads on Shoosmiths spHERe initiative – our network supporting female founders and venture capitalists within the VC space. Open to all women and men, founders or venture capitalists spHERe’s goal is help women to be successful through creating a forum for more meaningful networking opportunities within the VC space and to help address the disparities that exist between female and male entrepreneurs.
Withers LLP
Iain is head of Withers tech innovation and client delivery. He has a specialist practice advising venture capital investors and venture-backed companies operating in the innovation economy. Iain has over ten years' experience advising investors, companies and founders on venture capital financings, from seed stage through to later stages, with a particular focus on companies scaling up at the Series A/B stage and beyond. Iain also advises on other types of transaction commonly used in the industry, including convertible bridge rounds (Safes; ASAs; convertible notes), venture debt transactions, and venture-backed M&A. Iain has worked alongside Susanna Stanfield as part of the team that was involved in the publication of the British Venture Capital Association model form documentation for Series A financings, and coordinates the technology and venture capital special interest group within the firm.
Osborne Clarke LLP
Rob is a partner in Osborne Clarke's corporate practice and has a particular focus on venture capital work, acting for high growth technology companies and institutional investors on refinancing transactions and company exits. Rob also works with clients in the private equity sector, where he has experience of acting on buyouts, buy-and-build consolidator projects and related exits. Many of Rob's clients operate in the life sciences and tech, media and communications sectors, where the technology has been developed at some of the world's leading research institutions based in the UK. Rob has worked on the legal drafting committee for the BVCA's early stage model documents. He co-leads OC Ventures, the firm's dedicated resource centre for the ventures ecosystem. Rob is head of Osborne Clarke's Thames Valley office. Please see full biography at osborneclarke.com/lawyers/rob-hayes/
Marriott Harrison LLP
Partner in Marriott Harrison’s Corporate team. Frances advises clients in a range of sectors on corporate and corporate finance matters including venture capital, venture debt, private equity, M&A and a wide range of other corporate matters. Frances has also worked with tech start-ups and growth companies and is actively developing a growing practice in this area through her involvement with initiatives such as Sie, an organisation which seeks to drive more capital towards female founders.
Leading individuals
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Shoosmiths LLP
Steve is a partner in the corporate team at Shoosmiths specialising in advising companies and investors on venture and growth capital investments, mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions, mainly in the technology sector. Prior to joining Shoosmiths in March 2017 Steve was a member of the Technology Companies Group in the London office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, where he regularly completed 20 - 30 investment and other transactions per annum. Examples include: Acting for a money transfer service provider on its series A and series B investment rounds which raised around $140m in aggregate. Acting for a machine learning company on its significant series A investment round. Acting for a company in the online advertising sector on its series seed and series A investment rounds. Acting for a US-headquartered fintech impact investor on various investment rounds. Acting for a UK-focussed institutional seed investor on various investment rounds. Acting on numerous angel investment rounds. Acting for a cloud services provider on its sale to private equity.
Harbottle & Lewis LLP
Tony is a Corporate Partner and Head of the firm's Venture Capital group. He is a trusted adviser to entrepreneurial businesses, and to the investors in those businesses, with a particular focus on the technology sector. He advises on a wide range of corporate transactions, including investments and venture capital deals, buying and selling businesses and shareholder arrangements.
Osborne Clarke LLP
Please see full biography at osborneclarke.com/lawyers/mathias-loertscher/
Cooley LLP
Ryan Naftulin is partner and vice chair of Cooley's business department. He represents companies and investors who are forming and financing disruptive high-growth companies, particularly in the technology and life sciences sectors. He assists clients with equity financings, M&A, strategic relationships, board governance and general corporate matters. With his experience in Silicon Valley, the East Coast of the United States, and London, Ryan is able to help companies navigate major corporate transactions across the US and UK. Ryan served on the inaugural committee of the National Venture Capital Association for model venture capital financing documents and has also moderated a webcast for that group regarding venture capital deal structures. He has served on a panel entitled "Beyond the Series A Financing – Issues to Consider in Subsequent Financings" at the American Bar Association's Section of Business Law annual spring meeting.
Withers LLP
James is a partner in the corporate team and a leading transactional venture capital lawyer, advising entrepreneurs, companies and investors through the funding life-cycle. James is a partner in the corporate team and a leading transactional venture capital lawyer, advising entrepreneurs, companies and investors through the funding life-cycle. He was the co-founder of tech law firm JAG Shaw Baker which merged with Withers to create a new legal offering, Withers tech, in 2018. James has two decades of experience helping entrepreneurs, high-growth technology based companies and investors navigate their way through multiple rounds of financing, growth, scale-up and exit/liquidity events. He's ranked as a recommended lawyer for Venture Capital in the 2017 edition of the Legal 500. James is considered to be one of the leading University spin-out lawyers for life sciences companies and he actively advises on spin-out activity from several of the leading Universities in the UK and Scotland including Oxford and Cambridge University. James works as a mentor and speaker with the Oxford Foundry, part of Oxford University's incubator initiative for past and present students. As a close adviser to many companies and investors, James also acts as Outside General Counsel to a number of innovative science-based companies and is an adviser to Parkinson's UK Biotech Business Group. And through the combination of innovation and other practice areas, James is helping to drive firm-wide Global initiatives to address the rapidly changing landscape of more traditional sectors such Real Estate, Hospitality, Sports and Fashion and Luxury Brands. James is a graduate of both St Andrews University (BSc Hons) and Edinburgh University (LLB), and is passionate about innovation and the environment. As a Scottish qualified lawyer, James also holds a committee position on the Society of Scottish Lawyers in London and is a Writer to Her Majesty's Signet.
Osborne Clarke LLP
Rob is a Partner in Osborne Clarke's corporate practice and advises investors, management teams and companies on all aspects of the private equity market, focusing on venture and growth capital transactions, private equity buyouts, buy-and-build projects and exits. He has particular expertise in advising on complex transactions involving investor syndicates. Much of Rob’s work focuses on the Tech, Media and Comms sector, particularly on high-growth companies trying to bring the latest technology to market. Please see full biography at osborneclarke.com/lawyers/robert-wood/
Dentons
Covington & Burling LLP