Employee share schemes

Paul is a Partner and co-head of the Herbert Smith Freehills London Remuneration & Incentives team, specialising in remuneration and employee incentives.

Partner

Mark is a Partner and co-head of the Herbert Smith Freehills London Remuneration & Incentives team, who specialises in employee incentives and remuneration, advising both listed and private companies.

Paul Randall heads our Employee Share Incentives practice. He brings nearly 30 years of City experience. Over this time, he has advised numerous UK and overseas companies, listed and unlisted, on the corporate, tax and regulatory aspects of the design, implementation and operation of domestic and multi-national employee share plans, employee benefit trusts and executive remuneration. He has also advised in the context of many corporate transactions, including IPOs, takeovers, reverse takeovers, buyouts and general M&A.

Nicholas has over 25 years' experience of advising companies on all aspects of employee incentives and remuneration matters. Valued by clients for his pragmatic and commercial approach, while having an in-depth knowledge of the area, he is recognised as a leading individual practising in employee incentives by The Legal 500 and Chambers UK. Nicholas advises on share plans, management incentives, bonus arrangements and remuneration-related issues. He has particular expertise in the design and implementation of bespoke share plans including advising on the tax structuring and corporate governance aspects.  He also has considerable experience of advising on the impact of corporate transactions on employee incentives, including mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings, including on the Alternative Investment Market. In addition, Nicholas works closely with Stephenson Harwood's employment team to advise on senior level appointments, remuneration and terminations, including compliance with relevant financial services remuneration codes. He is a former chairman of Share Plan Lawyers, the UK body for lawyers in this area, and also former chairman of the QCA Share Schemes Expert Group.

Partner

Rob specialises in employee share schemes and incentives and heads up the Macfarlanes remuneration practice. He advises both listed and unlisted clients on the design, operation and implementation of option plans and other employee share schemes (including the tax and regulatory aspects). Rob also advises management teams and deals with the share schemes aspects of M&A transactions. Rob has a wide range of clients but has a particular focus on the financial sector. His team covers all aspects of law relating to employee share schemes and incentives, including employment, tax, trust law and regulatory issues.  He has particular experience in tax efficient plans, including SAYE option plans, EMI options, CSOPs and SIPs. Rob also advises on the share schemes aspects of high profile international transactions. Rob is a member of the Share Plan Lawyers Group.

Stephen is a Partner in the Employment department and leads the Incentives team. He has significant experience advising on the strategy, design, implementation and compliance of UK and global employee incentive arrangements including long term incentive plans, all-employee share plans, HMRC tax-advantaged plans, management incentive plans and growth share and joint ownership plans. Stephen also advises on all related corporate, tax and trusts aspects, corporate governance issues, disclosure of directors' remuneration and share dealing regulations. In addition, Stephen works with companies on the impact corporate actions have on their incentive arrangements and has acted on many public takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, public to private transactions, initial public offerings, capital raising activities and private equity deals. He works with a wide range of businesses across several industry sectors including financial services, natural resources, entertainment, aerospace and transport. He acts for companies that are listed on the London Stock Exchange, AIM and overseas exchanges, together with private equity houses, private companies and owner-managed businesses.

Bob has spent his career advising on the global aspects of employee incentive arrangements. His work has included plan rule drafting, communications materials, trust and hedging arrangements, nominee arrangements and all other legal aspects of incentive plans from initial design to post-vesting dealing arrangements. As a leading expert on global compliance for incentives, first at Linklaters, then in-house at Shell, he brings immense practical experience in dealing with the legal documents and global compliance issues from a business perspective. Since transitioning his shares in Tapestry to the Employee Ownership Trust, Bob continues to work closely with the team as a consultant (Partner equivalent) and remains widely-respected by the industry for his wealth of knowledge and commercial approach, particularly in unique markets that Tapestry operates in, such as Japan.

Hannah is Legal Director (Partner equivalent) and advises many leading global companies on the implementation and operation of all forms of global executive and employee share and incentive plans, including the design and establishment of new plans, global compliance, managing grants and maturities under existing plans and on technical tax and legal matters. She also advises on the impact of corporate transactions that may affect a company's global incentive arrangements. In recent years Hannah has been instrumental in liaising with the UK’s tax authority (HMRC) regarding various important clearances which have enabled clients to deliver significant tax efficiencies. She is currently working with Rolls-Royce on a new application to HMRC. She leads on the work we do for clients such as The Coca Cola Company, Tesco, Rentokil and Schroders. Hannah has recently been appointed to the Practical Law Share Schemes & Incentives Consultation Board, which brings thought leadership to Practical Law's offering in this area. Hannah is closely involved in the Global Equity Organization (GEO). She holds fellowship status, which recognises her as an industry-leading professional, and serves on GEO's Board of Directors. Hannah is the Co-Chair of the Share Plan Lawyers’ Corporate and Regulatory Committee and leads a number of the Committee’s working groups, including leading the industry discussions with the FCA and HM Treasury on changes to the market abuse regulations in the UK, post-Brexit. Hannah sits on Tapestry’s Board of Directors under the Employee Ownership Trust structure.

Please see  https://www.dlapiper.com/en/uk/people/h/hipwell-nick/ for further information. 

Ras is a partner in the remuneration practice. With more than 15 years’ experience, he specialises in all aspects of UK and international employee and executive incentive arrangements. Ras’s practice includes the design, implementation and operation of a wide range of employee share plans and executive remuneration arrangements as well as the treatment and negotiation of incentives in the context of corporate transactions. He advises on all share plan-related matters including individual and corporate tax and structuring, global regulatory compliance, trust and nominee arrangements, plan administration, data protection and employment issues. Ras has a particular focus on corporate governance and remuneration disclosure for listed companies and, having spent time on secondment with one the largest UK banks, also advises on UK and European remuneration regulation within the financial services sector. Ras is a member of the Share Plan Lawyers Group and on the Steering Committee of the Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) Centre. He is also qualified as a US Certified Equity Professional (CEP).

Chris is Legal Director (Partner equivalent) and is Tapestry’s “UK Counsel”, both internally and externally. Chris has over 20 years of experience working with top-ranked legal and incentives teams delivering UK and global plan design and implementation. Chris is widely-recognised for his substantial expertise in incentive matters for all types of businesses. He can draw upon a deep range of experience when providing practical and proactive, solution-driven advice on discretionary executive plans, corporate governance and remuneration disclosures, as well as advising on broader employment related tax issues. He also has significant expertise in dealing with Employee Benefit Trusts and private equity-owned businesses. Chris’s clients include London Stock Exchange Group, Entain and Sage, as well as Vertical Aerospace. Chris regularly presents at many industry events including those run by industry body ProShare sharing his expert knowledge with the market. He has also assisted ProShare with successfully lobbying HMRC and the government on various industry practical issues, including discussions around how the government’s recent tax changes will impact share plans affecting the wider workforce. Chris is a member of the Society of Visually Impaired Lawyers. Chris’s role as Tapestry Board Director for the Employee Ownership Trust gives him invaluable practical experience of structuring employee-focussed solutions, from within.

Kiran specialises in remuneration and employee incentives, advising listed and private companies.

Niall is a senior associate in the Herbert Smith Freehills London Remuneration & Incentives team who specialises in employee incentives and remuneration, advising listed and private companies.

Matthew is a Managing Associate with broad experience in advising clients on all aspects of global incentive arrangements, with a particular focus on leading on our clients in the financial services sector. He advises a number of the world’s leading global banks, insurers and asset managers in relation to the structure of their incentive plans and their compliance with EU and global remuneration regulations, including Schroders, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, J O Hambro and Rothschild & Co. Matthew also advises multinational companies on their executive and all-employee incentive arrangements including new client Comcast, Experian and Weber. Matthew regularly presents at industry events in Europe and the US. His work in the financial services sector sees him regularly leading industry discussions in this area. Matthew also holds the roles of SPL Corporate and Regulatory Committee Co-Secretary and employee trustee director of the Employee Ownership Trust for Tapestry.