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Alison Matthews
Alison Matthews
Alison is a consultant in the London office focusing on non-contentious work for clients in the insurance sector. Alison has specialised in insurance law and regulation for over 30 years, advising on all aspects of prudential and conduct of business regulation. Most recently, she has been working with clients on the introduction of the Consumer Duty and on the post-Brexit conduct of cross-border business. She frequently advises on the implications of group supervision for domestic and international groups, including in the context of M&A transactions. Other experience includes advice on the FSMA regulatory perimeter, FCA conduct of business rules, Solvency II, and the SMCR.  Alison has worked with a number of mutual insurers on issues relating to the conduct of with-profits business. Alison is the joint consulting editor of “A Practitioner’s Guide to Solvency II” (Sweet & Maxwell, 2016).
Barnaby Hinnigan
Barnaby Hinnigan
Barney focuses on non-contentious work for clients in the financial services sector. Barney works for clients in the financial services sector, providing advice in relation to general corporate and financial services regulatory matters, restructurings, business sales, capital raising and takeovers. He has extensive experience in advising on complex M&A and restructuring transactions for banks and asset managers and on a wide range of matters in the Fintech sector. Barney also has particular experience acting on transfers of insurance and banking business, cross border reinsurance arrangements and acquisitions in the insurance and insurance intermediary sector.
Caroline Hagg
Caroline Hagg
Caroline advises her clients on the full spectrum of corporate governance issues, and regularly trains both public and private company boards and client teams on new and forthcoming legal developments. Her areas of focus includes: developments in public disclosures and corporate reporting, including in relation to annual reports and climate and sustainability reporting; annual general meetings and shareholder engagement strategies; directors' duties, liabilities and conflict issues and directors' indemnities; compliance with listed company continuing obligations, including the UK Market Abuse Regulation; corporate governance considerations, including approaches to and compliance with the UK Corporate Governance Code; corporate governance advice in relation to strategic transactions; subsidiary and joint venture governance matters. Caroline provides commercial and pragmatic advice on governance and company secretarial issues, having spent more than two and a half years on client secondments over the course of her career at HSF.
Caroline Rae
Caroline Rae
Caroline is a partner in our corporate team specialising in cross border public and private M&A. Caroline advises leading corporates and financial institutions on private acquisitions and disposals, recommended and hostile public company takeovers, joint ventures and equity capital raisings. Caroline works with clients across a range of sectors, with a particular focus on the financial services. She has worked on a range of matters in the Fintech sector. Caroline also works with a number of our listed company clients on corporate governance and  board advisory matters, listed company regulation and compliance. Caroline topped the UK M&A lawyer rankings by deal value in 2021, Mergerlinks. Caroline has been recognised in The Lawyer's 2019 Hot 100 for "her legal prowess in major public takeovers".
Clive Cunningham
Clive Cunningham
Clive is a leading financial services law and regulation lawyer. With extensive City experience, including time as a banking regulator with the Bank of England and in-house, Clive advises banks, asset managers, insurers and other financial institutions on a wide range of regulatory and compliance matters across the financial services, banking and funds sectors. Areas of special sector expertise are banking, asset management (including private wealth management) and securities regulation.
David Coulling
David Coulling
David is a Partner in Technology, Sourcing and Digital practice in the UK. David is a transactions lawyer who focusses on the technology and telecommunications sectors.  David advises tech and telecoms corporates and investors on a wide range of transactions, including joint ventures and acquisitions, technology development and adoption projects, major systems and networks projects, business transformation projects, technology licensing, data licensing and complex commercial arrangements. David particularly enjoys transactions which aim to harness the transformational powers of technology in other sectors.  With this in mind, he works closely with our clients in other sectors to help structure and implement their technology-driven strategies. Recognised by the UK directories, David has a leading technology and telecoms practice. David holds a first class MSC in Physics and Philosophy from the University of Oxford and was a Theodore Scholar at Balliol College.  He enjoys the increasing overlap between technology-enabled businesses and his passion for science fiction.
Gareth Sykes
Gareth Sykes
Gareth is a Partner and UK Head of Corporate Governance Advisory Practice, helping listed and private companies navigate the increasingly challenging corporate law and governance framework. He leads the firm's Corporate Governance Advisory Team, advising clients on a range of governance and compliance issues. His expertise includes advising on corporate reporting requirements, the UK Corporate Governance Code, continuing obligations under the Listing Rules and Market Abuse Regulation, shareholder meetings and directors' duties. Gareth is a member of the FRC's inaugural Stakeholder Insights Group, the only lawyer to be appointed to this group which reflects his expertise and status in this area. Gareth speaks and writes widely on corporate governance matters and is regularly approached by leading governance bodies to speak or write on governance issues. He organises, and speaks at, the firm's Annual Update for Listed Companies seminar, the market-leading corporate governance event for FTSE general counsel and companies secretaries.
Gavin Davies
Gavin Davies
Gavin is Head of the Global M&A practice and supports clients on international M&A, investment and governance matters. Gavin has significant expertise in public takeovers, private capital, strategic board advice and shareholder engagement. Particular focus on TMT, financial services, and real estate sectors, and on advising our US and Japanese clients. Gavin was named in 2023 in The Financial News Fifty Most Influential Lawyers, and has twice led teams winning Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards. Gavin is a member of the governing Board of our firm, and is a member of the UK Government DIT Investment Trade Advisory Group (TAG). He led the private equity practice from 2006 to 2013. Gavin works with, and is a former Chair, of The International Lawyers Project, a leading international charitable organisation providing the skills of senior lawyers to promote human rights, sustainable economic development and the rule of law worldwide. Gavin also advises the Government of Sierra Leone on investment matters, having founded our "Fair Deal Sierra Leone" pro bono project which supports the Government of Sierra Leone on a pro bono basis.
Geoffrey Maddock
Geoffrey Maddock
Geoffrey is a consultant in the London office focusing on non-contentious work for clients in the insurance sector. Geoffrey has experience of acquisitions, disposals, demutualisations, high value/longevity reinsurance, regulatory capital, securitisation and other transactions in the insurance sector, together with extensive experience of prudential and other regulatory advice to insurers and reinsurers. He has provided legal and regulatory advice on a broad range of issues arising from clients' with-profits business. He also has particular experience of transfers of insurance business, having led the firm's team advising on more than twenty five such transfers. He is the author of the chapter on Insurance Business Transfers in A Practitioner's Guide to the FSA Regulation of Insurance (5th edition, City & Financial Publishing, 2014) and joint Consulting Editor of "A Practitioner's Guide to Solvency II" (Sweet & Maxwell, 2016).
Grant Murtagh
Grant Murtagh
Grant is a corporate lawyer who specialises in the insurance sector. Grant works on M&A and other corporate transactions (including Part VII transfers), and has extensive experience of large and complex (re)insurance transactions. He also has an in-depth knowledge of the regulatory regime that applies to (re)insurers and (re)insurance brokers. In addition, he is a member of the firm's fintech group, and has worked companies looking to develop businesses in that sector. He is qualified as a Chartered Tax Advisor (non-practising) with the Irish Tax Institute, and is an affiliate member of the Society of Actuaries in Ireland. Prior to joining Herbert Smith Freehills, Grant worked with a leading Irish law firm. Prior to that, he was an in-house lawyer working in the European headquarters of a leading American financial institution.
Hayley Brady
Hayley Brady
Hayley advises on media and entertainment, consumer and digital commercial, transactional and regulatory matters. Hayley heads our media and digital practice, in London, and assists clients on global strategic and innovative arrangements.  Hayley has spent time in industry on secondment at Sky, acted as quasi-in house counsel at FilmFlex Movies for a number of years and undertook mini secondments at OSN in Dubai. Her practice is split into two: (i) advising both media companies and those in other sectors on media and entertainment matters including significant content licensing, partnering, joint ventures, regulation and marketing, sponsorship and advertising; and (ii) advising growing digital companies on partnering and product/geographical expansion and traditional companies on moves to new digital platforms.
James Palmer
James Palmer
James is a senior corporate and governance lawyer who was the Chair and Senior Partner of our firm. He is one of the UK's leading M&A, capital markets and corporate lawyers, with deep experience of corporate governance and regulation, including financial regulation. He is frequently involved in helping clients in situations where they face significant and unusual challenges. These include hostile takeovers, board and governance disputes, regulatory and other investigations, business crises, interactions with governments or government bodies, significant liability or solvency exposures, as well as significant transactions. He is also recognised as a leading expert in relation to both Brexit and foreign direct investment regulation. James is a General Editor of and contributor to Butterworth's Takeovers: Law and Practice, and has also contributed to other leading reference works on takeovers and corporate law, including Buckley on the Companies Acts and Hannigan and Prentice's Guide to the Companies Act 2006. He was Chair and Senior Partner of the firm from 2015 to 2021. James joined the firm as a trainee solicitor in 1986, becoming a partner in 1994. He was a member of the firm's governing Partnership Council from 2002-2006. He led the firm's global equity capital markets practice from 2005-2010 and was the firm's Global Head of Corporate from 2010-2012.
Jeremy Purton
Jeremy Purton
Jeremy is a senior commercial lawyer who specialises in tech transactions and complex sourcing projects. Ranked in Legal 500 each year since 2021 as a Rising Star for both IT & Telecoms and TMT Industry Focus, Jeremy works closely with clients on long-term technology-enabled transformation programmes.  He is experienced in dealing with complex legacy systems transitions, finding practical ways through distressed sourcing projects, and helping organisations to implement digital solutions that enable them to benefit from advances in technology.
Kelesi Blundell
Kelesi Blundell
  Kelesi has over a decade of experience in the financial services sector and regularly advises some of the largest investment banks, retail banks, broker-dealers and financial market infrastructure on UK financial services regulation. Kelesi has advised across a range of regulation and regulatory change in the financial services industry including Digital Assets, Brexit, MiFID II, Recovery and Resolution, Market Infrastructure Regulation and Conduct of Business requirements. Kelesi also often provides regulatory support in corporate transactions. Kelesi regularly supports industry working groups including the AFME digital securities sandbox working group, the AFME Recovery and Resolution working group and the AFME Short Selling Regulation working group. Kelesi is also a member of the Financial Markets Law Committee (FMLC) Banking and Securities Scoping Forums.
Marina Reason
Marina Reason
Marina specialises on advising banks and other financial institutions on all aspects of financial regulation. Marina has been active in the regulatory industry for a decade and a half and has established relationships with most of the large banking institutions and asset managers. Marina regularly works with the industry through trade associations including AFME, the AGC, UK Finance, FMLC, PIMFA, Digital Pound Foundation and others on hot topics of the day, including most recently on Consumer Duty and the UK the FMI Digital Sandbox for blockchain tokenisation.
Mark Bardell
Mark Bardell
Mark is a corporate partner with particular expertise in public takeovers and cross-border M&A. Mark has been a partner at the firm for over 13 years and has helped clients to close more than US$300 billion worth of transactions across the US, UK, Europe, CIS, Middle East, Africa, India, Asia and Australia. He focuses on advising corporate clients and works with boards on both transactional and advisory work. He is frequently involved in advising on significant challenges that face boards whether on transactions, shareholder activism, governance issues or regulatory investigations. In addition, he regularly works with and advises investment banks and corporate finance advisers in connection with their roles on major cross-border transactions. Mark is a General Editor of Butterworths Takeovers Law and Practice (second edition 2015) and a contributor to other leading practitioners' texts on topics including shareholder activism, market abuse, schemes of arrangement and takeovers. He lectures annually at Cambridge University to postgraduate MCL students as part of the Deals Course. In September 2011, he completed a two-year secondment as Secretary to the UK’s Takeover Panel. During that time he was closely involved in the day-to-day regulation of UK public takeovers and also in significant revisions to the UK's Takeover Code. He continues to be actively involved in consultations regarding amendments to the UK's Takeover Code. He also acts as Secretary to the Takeover Appeals Board in relation to various appeals.  
Matthew Job
Matthew Job
Matthew Job is a Partner in the firm's has more than 25 years of experience in project finance and other limited or non-recourse finance structures used to secure finance for energy and infrastructure projects. His practice is founded in traditional bank-led project finance, but also extends to institutional debt and project bonds, government and multilateral-backed structures, commodity hedging and structured receivables finance. Whilst Matthew's practice covers all of energy and infrastructure, he has a particular focus on power and infrastructure, advising on numerous FOAK projects across the UK and internationally. Matthew co-leads the UK power practice. Matthew's accoldaes include being: Ranked Band 2 Chambers Projects for 2025 Ranked as a Leading Individual in Infrastructure: Project Finance and Development and Projects, Energy & Natural Resources: Power by Legal 500 for 2025 Recommended individual for banking and project finance in IFLR 1000
Nick Pantlin
Nick Pantlin
Nick heads our TMT, Digital & Sourcing practice in the UK and is Global Co-Head of our Technology Sector Group Nick specialises in advising private and public sector clients on UK and multi-jurisdictional technology procurement, digital and business transformation, outsourcing, IT service provision, major systems implementation, communications, software development, licensing, cloud, e-commerce, cyber security,  data protection, data commercialisation and complex commercial projects. Nick advises extensively on the use and adoption of technologies such as blockchain/DLT, AI, machine learning and automation. His expertise extends across multiple industry sectors.
Shaun Lee
Shaun Lee
Shaun is a corporate partner with a focus on non-contentious work for clients in the financial services sector. Shaun advises financial services businesses and sponsors on a range of corporate transactions including M&A, equity matters, joint ventures, restructurings and management incentive arrangements. He has significant experience advising financial investors and private equity backed companies in the insurance intermediary, asset and wealth management, and private real estate sectors.
Stephen Wilkinson
Stephen Wilkinson
Stephen is a leading expert in corporate law and M&A with particular expertise in cross-border public and private M&A. Stephen has over 25 years' experience of advising major listed and other international companies on M&A and other corporate transactions including joint ventures and demergers and wider governance issues. An acknowledged expert in public takeovers and private acquisitions and disposals, Stephen has worked with clients in a range of sectors to execute their most significant transactions across the world, including many ground breaking deals. Stephen works with clients on multi-jurisdictional cross-border deals and across a range of sectors including banking, consumer products, energy, leisure and sport, manufacturing, and TMT. He works with the boards of FTSE100 and other listed companies to help them meet their governance and related obligations and to navigate through sensitive issues of risk, disclosure and compliance. He is General Editor of the leading Butterworths text "Takeovers – Law and Practice" and has written widely on M&A matters.
Tim West
Tim specialises in investment funds work and has been involved in numerous fund launches, secondary capital raisings and fund reconstructions, primarily in relation to closed ended investment vehicles (across multiple asset classes and including structured and alternative investment products) where he has led in relation to some of the largest and most complex and innovative structures both in the UK and globally. His practice also includes regulatory and similar own account work for asset managers and their funds.