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Hill Dickinson LLP

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Ben Acheson

Ben Acheson

Ben heads up Hill Dickinson’s Real Estate team in Birmingham. He trained at Macfarlanes and was admitted as a solicitor in September 2003. Ben became a Partner in 2013 and he joined Hill Dickinson as a Partner in 2024 with his team. He advises on a wide range of regeneration and development schemes, dealing with the site assembly of complex brownfield sites, and negotiating joint ventures and funding arrangements to facilitate delivery of major real estate and infrastructure projects. Recent projects include: \tActing for the developer on the proposed development of Albert and Swedish Wharves on the banks of the Thames in London. The proposal is to develop a new, block of 250 flats with a new commercial facility for the Port of London Authority. The development will bring substantial amount of new housing to this area of London and will see the regeneration of one of the last remaining industrial sites by the banks of the Thames in London. \tActing for the landowners on the delivery of the Arden Cross development (a £3.2bn opportunity to drive substantial growth across the West Midlands and national economy). \tActing for the developer on acquisition and new development at Teal Park, Nottingham on a scheme including the development, letting and forward funding of new trade and industrial units with a value in excess of c£20 million; the development and sale of new supermarket unit and the development, letting and sale of a parade of retail shops; the development, letting and sale of a new drive thru unit and collaboration agreements with residential developer to ensure the delivery of c900 new homes alongside the commercial development. Ben also advises investors and landlords on their acquisitions and portfolio management, including acting for Euro Property Investments Limited on all real estate matters connected with its substantial portfolio of UK assets.
Anthony Allen

Anthony Allen

Tony heads our world renowned yacht team, and has more than 20 years' experience of yacht-related legal issues. With an international client base and having worked with most of the leading European yacht underwriters and yards, he enjoys a reputation as one of the leaders in this field. His work focuses primarily on large yacht transactions and major yacht insurance disputes whilst he also has an active involvement in industry bodies such as the Superyacht Society, the British Marine Federation and its Superyacht UK initiative, and the Royal Yachting Association.
Stuart Armstrong

Stuart Armstrong

Initially specialising in subrogated cargo recoveries before broadening his areas of practice to include all types of logistics and commodity trade disputes, Stuart qualified as a solicitor in 1983. He joined the firm in 2001 and heads our London cargo and logistics team.Stuart's expertise lies in marine, air and road cargo claims and related marine cargo insurance and freight liability insurance disputes and his caseload now encompasses: Charterparties Bills of lading CMR and domestic road haulage Warsaw and Montreal conventions GAFTA/FOSFA contracts The Institute Cargo Clauses With experience in admiralty and commercial court cases, London arbitration and mediation, Stuart's focus is on dispute resolution in a quick and cost-effective manner.
Michael Blakey

Michael Blakey

Michael is a partner in our property and construction team based in Manchester. He is also the anti-money laundering officer for the LLP. With over 35 years' experience handling high-value commercial property investment work, Michael has been involved in some of the largest transactions in Manchester. These include: £100 million sale of the Arndale Centre Redevelopment of the Marks and Spencers store Acquisitions and sale of Lee House Churchgate House The Zenith Building and; many other multi-million pound sales and purchases, particularly office buildings in the City of Manchester. Michael acts principally for land owners and developers, including UPS Limited, P&O Shopping Centres Limited, The Wrather Group and various Friendly Societies and numerous private investors in the North West. His portfolio includes a number of covered shopping centres, industrial parks and retail parks.
Ralph Bullivant

Ralph Bullivant

Ralph is a partner in the property litigation team and advises on all types of property disputes, specialising in landlord and tenant, tenant default and lease renewals.He acts for a wide range of clients including high street retailers, NHS trusts, developers and landlords, and provides advice on issues arising out of tenant default, achieving vacant possession and lease renewals. Ralph is a member of the Property Litigation Association and is a regular presenter to the RICS and clients on contentious property issues. He also has extensive experience in advising and obtaining vacant possession of commercial lease premises whether or not with the benefit of protection under the 1954 Act and is an acknowledged expert on the recovery of commercial rent arrears. He acts on behalf of one of the country’s largest firms of certificated bailiffs and over the last 12 months has spoken to approximately 2,500 of their clients on the implementation of commercial rent arrears recovery (CRAR).
Iain Campbell

Iain Campbell

A partner in our commercial litigation team, Iain has lengthy experience of both dispute resolution and regulatory defence work for clients in many sectors, including financial services, retail and higher education.His litigation experience ranges from commercial disputes to emergency injunctions and crisis management. Iain's specialisms include competition law, restraint of trade and financial regulation. He lectures for CPD providers on technical topics such as legal professional privilege, and is also a mediator, being a member of the national panel of The Mediator Network. As a student, Iain won the Observer Mace debating tournament and subsequently graduated in law from Manchester University.
Bill Chandler

Bill Chandler

Bill is the professional support lawyer to our national property and construction team, providing technical legal support to the team and its clients.Prior to assuming his present role, Bill was a partner in the property team with over 10 years' transactional experience acting for retailers, developers and others on all aspects of commercial property work - including acquisitions and disposals, landlord and tenant, and development work.A regular speaker on property topics for the client seminar programme and at events organised by various professional bodies, he also writes regular articles for the firm's newsletters, the local press and various legal and property publications. Bill also devises and presents a number of internal training courses.Bill graduated from Cardiff University in 1993 with a first class honours degree in law and several prizes, including  best overall degree result. He achieved a distinction on the LPC at the Chester branch of the College of Law the following year.
Claire Cosgrove

Claire Cosgrove

A partner in our property team, undertaking a wide range of property tranactions with particular emphasis on acquisitions amd disposals and landlord and tenant work, Claire was originally a trainee at the firm and qualified into the property and construction team in 2005. She was promoted to senior associate in 2008 and partner in 2011. She has particular expertise in acquisitions and disposals and landlord and tenant work. Particular areas of specialism include: bulk disposals and acquisitions investment acquisitions including retail parks and shopping centres acting for tenants in the retail sector - Claire has acted for national retailers since qualification in all aspects of their property portfolios                                        
Jim Garton

Jim Garton

James is head of real estate and real estate finance in London and his particular areas of specialism are hotel and residential (and mixed use) development; real estate finance and joint venture arrangements. James has many years’ experience of acting for investment funds and institutions, property companies, developers, banks, high-net-worth individuals and end users on a diverse range of real estate work including development, investment, real estate finance and landlord and tenant. Recent successes include advising on hotel developments and mixed use schemes – including joint venture arrangements, acting on numerous secured lending transactions including hotel acquisitions and developments, investment properties, mixed use developments and restaurant premises and representing high-net-worth clients in relation to high-value residential sales and purchases. He has also been responsible for advising West Ham United in connection with its bid to take over the Olympic Stadium in Stratford following the London Olympic Games in 2012.
Barry Gibb

Barry Gibb

Barry is a solutions focused pensions lawyer who is instructed by employers and independent trustees to ‘trouble shoot’. He is innovative and responsive when advising clients.He has been involved in a number of high profile matters including:• Advising Stobart Group on the pensions issues of the proposed takeover of Flybe. • Assisting Swissport GB Limited in respect of a complex scheme merger project for three of its final salary schemes.  • Providing advice to the Trustees of the PJKI Pension Scheme in relation to a ‘PPF plus’ buy out exercise. • Advising Vynova Runcorn Limited on a complex re-write of the rules for two pension schemes following a double scheme closure.• Advising numerous trustee boards on scheme restructurings:• Trustees of the Veryards Limited Pension Scheme, putting in place a flexible apportionment arrangement (FAA) and funding guarantee; and• Trustees of the MWH UK Limited Pension & Life Assurance Plan, agreeing an FAA together with three guarantees and cash mitigation with the Canadian parent company.Barry is the training partner for the Manchester office of Hill Dickinson and sits on the Training Committee as he is passionate about the next generation of lawyers at Hill Dickinson.
Andrew Gibson

Andrew Gibson

Andrew qualified in 1989, and gained a wide range of employment litigation experience with a niche commercial law firm in Manchester before joining Hill Dickinson in September 2001. Andrew has extensive experience in a range of employment law matters, and undertakes advocacy in the Employment Tribunals, and the Employment Appeal Tribunal. He has conducted litigation in the Court of Appeal. He advises on all aspects of an increasingly complex area of law, including TUPE, the Working Time Directive, race, sex and disability discrimination and redundancy. He is also involved in extensive litigation on-going nationally relating to equal pay. Notable cases include Walton Centre for Neurology & Neurosurgery NHS Trust v Bewley and the national test issue of Jones & Ors v Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust & Ors. He acts primarily for employers, from small private companies to large PLCs, NHS Trusts, Colleges, Local Authorities and Universities. He has acted for teachers and lecturers in disputes with their employers, and as a school governor for many years has a particular interest in Education Law. He is also a prominent member of the firm’s on-going training and continuing development activities for clients and potential clients, as well as coordinating the training needs for solicitors and support staff in the employment and pensions practice group.
David Hill

David Hill

David has provided legal advice to clients in the health and social care sector in England for 9 years.  He previously worked for the Directorate of Legal Services of the Health Service in Northern Ireland.  His areas of practice include primary care commissioning, information governance and regulatory proceedings.  He has acted on behalf of a wide range of organisations in judicial review proceedings on issues ranging from public consultation about service reconfiguration to decisions about treatment funding.  He advises on the regulation of GPs, dentists and opticians.  He has a particular interest in the regulation of pharmacists.  He also represents clients at inquests, including those heard by a jury and dealing with deaths in custody and mental health services.
Jeff Isaacs

Jeff Isaacs

Partner with a recognised specialism in commodities, international trade and shipping law, with especial expertise and specialisation in sugar and cotton. Work undertaken includes commodity disputes, international sale and purchase contract litigation and arbitration (principally at GAFTA, FOSFA, ICA and RSA/SAL but also at LCIA and ICC ), and all aspects of international trade, including futures and options and other commodity-based derivatives, together with all forms of dry shipping litigation, including charterparty and bill of lading disputes, cargo claims and ship sale and purchase disputes. Clients are commodity trading houses, commodity trade associations and energy majors. Speaks regularly at seminars on all aspects of his practice, particularly sugar.
Andrew Leslie

Andrew Leslie

A highly experienced practitioner who specialises in defendant clinical negligence representing the NHS. He manages a high-value caseload of catastrophic injury claims, with a predominant focus on the most complex adult and child brain injury claims. Substantial experience in ADR, achieving multi-million pound settlements using periodical payment orders and successfully defending claims to trial when merited. Background in healthcare advisory work and coroner’s inquests, as well as lecturing to health sector audiences. Firm client relationship partner for a number of NHS clients.
David Locke

David Locke

David is a partner in the health litigation team, dealing with complex, catasrophic litigation and health sector group actions. A solicitor-advocate with higher rights of audience, regularly appearing in appeals and High Court matters on behalf clients. On a day-to-day basis, manages a caseload of maximum severity and multi-party clinical negligence claims on behalf of NHS Trusts, with a number of trial successes. Expertise relating in particular to the innovative management of complex group litigation, notably the Liverpool urogynaecology litigation and the Leicester epilepsy litigation. The ADR Protocol devised in the Liverpool litigation has now been widely adopted as the standard model in NHS group actions and has been updated following the changes to civil litigation funding rules. Has consulted on various other group actions including matters outside of the health sector.
Adrian Marsh

Adrian Marsh

Partner, Head of Transport and logistics sector. Expertise covers litigation and commercial work within the marine insurance, logistics, shipping and trade sectors. Dispute resolution experience includes: cargo recovery claims; transit liability claims (all modes); bills of lading/charterparty disputes; marine insurance coverage disputes and policy interpretation; lien and insolvency disputes; arbitration and mediation; freight recovery claims; Commercial experience includes advising/preparing logistics and supplier agreements, charterparties and COAs, standard trading conditions and bill of lading terms.
Martyn McDonald

Martyn McDonald

Acts for a number of major retailers including Poundland, Spar and Bonmarche. Long-standing client Mason Partners continue to acquire and dispose of substantial investment properties comprising retail parks, office buildings and industrial sites. Martyn’s work involves significant acquisitions/disposals, leases and property aspects of asset/share acquisitions, and specialises in retail and sector matters. He has acted over the past 12 months in relation to a programme of new leases for Poundland and in relation to a number of complex relocations for Bonmarche. Has acted for Spar in relation to the disposal of 33 stores to One Stop. Has acted for Costcutter (Bibby) in relation to the property aspects concerning the sale of 26 stores to Conviviality Retail.
David Pitlarge

David Pitlarge

Has specialised in shipping and commercial law since qualifying in 1989. Undertakes a broad range of shipping and related commercial work, including advising on contractual disputes arising from bills of lading, charterparties, MOAs, shipbuilding contracts, ship management agreements and international sale agreements (this has included investigative work following casualties); drafting and advising on documentation for shipping and shipping-related transactions, including management contracts, sale and purchase, construction, loan and ancillary security documentation; advising on insurance coverage, principally P&I and H&M issues; and advising on general commercial litigation. Clients include ship-owners/operators, P&I clubs, banks, charterers, underwriters, brokers, traders and non-English lawyers. While acting for clients from a diverse range of locations, David has a particular interest in the Mediterranean markets.
Sue Russell

Sue Russell

Sue is a legal director in our corporate team. Also holding the corproate finance qualification from the Institue of Chartered Accountants, Sue's time is predominantly spent leading acquisitions and disposals and providing strategic advice.Sue handles acquisitions and disposals of companies and businesses, corporate re-organisations and advises on company constitutional matters including shareholder issues and corporate governance. With a client base ranging from serial entrepreneurs to FTSE listed companies, she also frequently advises non-UK entities in connection with investment into UK companies.Sue has a lot of experience of working with manufacturing, production and processing companies through which she has gained a thorough understanding of the legal issues they face, which is particularly useful in resolving problematic due diligence issues. Frequently leading large and complex transactions, Sue has developed strong project management skills. She has also worked for clients in professional services (solicitors, surveyors) and in the football sector, including Everton Football Club and Blackburn Rovers.
Craig Scott

Craig Scott

National head of the corporate team, Craig's particular expertise includes advising on private equity backed transactions, mergers and acquisitions, disposals, and joint ventures.Craig joined the firm in 2010, having previously worked for 10 years at international law firm DLA Piper, and 4 years at Halliwells. He has over 19 years’ corporate transactional experience for corporates, management teams and equity houses.Craig specialises in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and private equity funded transactions covering all forms of share and asset acquisitions and disposals, auction sale processes, mergers, corporate joint ventures and investments. Craig leads a specialist team with extensive experience of private equity transactions and has also acted on several major corporate finance transactions for listed companies.Craig completed his law degree at Sheffield University (LLB Hons)and attended Chester College of Law. Craig was one of the first solicitors in the North West to hold the corporate finance qualification from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England.He has national and cross-border experience of private equity-related transactions, acting regularly to institutional investors and management teams, and has also acted on several major corporate transactions for listed PLCs. Additionally holds the corporate finance qualification from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Clients include Downing Student Management, Fishawack Group, Secured Mail, Next Wave Partners, Merseyside Special Investment Fund, Finance Wales, Thomas Hardie Commericals and Dorma UK. Recent deals include: Acting for Next Wave on its partial exit from Fox International Group Limited to Mayfair Private Equity The £18m merger of CMS Network (London) with Secured Mail to create the £100m t/o Delivery Group Representing Enterprise Ventures in connection with its investment supporting the MBO of Blue I Event Technology Limited Acting for MSIF in connection with its £2m MBO of Charles Stanley Financial Solutions Advising the vendors on the disposal of Downing Student Trust to a fund managed by HSBC Alternative Investments Limited for £193m.
Kerstie Skeaping

Kerstie Skeaping

Head of the commercial employment team in Liverpool, Kerstie leads a team of 11 solicitors who practice employment and education law. She is also an elected board member. Kerstie has practised employment law for over 20 years acting mainly for companies and senior executives. Her experience covers all areas of employment law including discrimination, TUPE and equal pay. She is a tribunal advocate with significant experience of appearing in many of the tribunals in England and Wales. She has extensive transactional support experience also acting for both the buyer and seller in share sales, asset transfers and outsourcing arrangements.Kerstie has acted for both employers and employees in claims for unfair dismissal, breach of contract, sex, race, age and disability discrimination, equal pay, whistleblowing and unlawful deduction from wages.Kerstie studied law at the University of Leeds graduating in 1992 with a 2:1 in law. She then passed the Law Society finals course with honours.                                   
David Swaffield

David Swaffield

David heads the thriving (and growing) property and construction team based in the Liverpool, Manchester and London offices. His own particular areas of expertise include property investment and development work, and landlord and tenant issues.Originally joining the firm in 1976, David has served on its board (in various manifestations) for 25 years. He currently chairs the audit committee and is its compliance officer for legal practice. He was president of the Liverpool Law Society in 2000.David has a broad commercial property practice but his particular areas of expertise include investment and development work, and landlord and tenant matters, especially in the office, industrial and logistics sectors and infrastructure projects. He acts for a number of major developers, occupiers and institutions.
Richard Taylor

Richard Taylor

Partner advising on the acquisition, development, disposal and funding of investment and redevelopment properties, and real estate transactions for a wide range of main stream businesses including: hotels, casinos and travel-related leisure businesses, healthcare, oil and energy, transport and logistics. Advises owners, financial institutions, and commercial landlords and tenants of all types of freehold and leasehold commercial property. Reflecting Hill Dickinson s long-standing international reputation, Richard has a large renowned international clientele from a wide geographical base encompassing North America, the Middle East and Far East, Africa, Italy and other Mediterranean countries. Known to be commercially astute and a good communicator who has successfully led many multi-discipline lawyer teams on large company commercial deals in which real estate is a key factor.
Sharon Thomas

Sharon Thomas

A partner in the healthcare team, Sharon has wide experience in representing NHS bodies and detaining authorities at mental health review Tribunals, inquests, in declaratory proceedings and in bringing and defending judicial review.She provides regular training sessions to NHS staff, both locally and nationally, on topics such as consent to treatment, Mental Capacity Act 2005, Deprivation of Liberty safeguards, changes to the Mental Health Act 1983, data protection and data sharing and Children Act issues. Sharon has also successfully defended a large number of judicial review and human rights claims at letter of response stage. She also advises NHS trusts in a number of high-profile matters that are not subject to litigation. Her expereince includes: R (On the Application of DR) -v- Mersey Care NHS Trust (2002) MHLR 386, QB (Admin) Re GK (Patient: Habeas Corpus) (1999) MHLR 128 Re SC (Mental Patient: Habeas Corpus) 1996 QB 599 Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust and North West Wales NHS Trust -v- Luke Winston-Jones and Rith Winston-Jones (2004) QB (Family)
Darren Wall

Darren Wall

A partner in the commodities team, with over 10 years' experience advising in the field of international trade and shipping, Darren regularly advises companies that trade, finance and transport a wide range of commodities. He is also vastly experienced in dispute resolution, having been involved in a variety of trade association arbitrations, including the LME, GAFTA, FOSFA, ICA, RSA and SAOL and arbitrations subject to ICC, LCIA and LMAA terms. Darren has also frequently appeared before the Commercial Court and also has experience at Court of Appeal and Supreme Court level appeals. He regularly contributes articles to legal publications, as well as presenting at a number of industry seminars and training events.He obtained a postgraduate diploma in law at City University, London in 2005, attending Inns of Court School of Law.
Mark Weston

Mark Weston

Mark heads our London offering for commercial, information technology (IT), intellectual property (IP), on-line commerce and media law, in both non-contentious and contentious areas. He particularly loves the technology, media and telecom (TMT) sector.Mark joined the firm in February 2016 after 12 years as partner and head of the commercial/IP/IT team at Matthew Arnold & Baldwin LLP. Before that, he spent several years at Baker & McKenzie in London and Chicago and has also previously been seconded to Hewlett Packard and other technology businesses. Mark is used as a 'trusted adviser' by many clients in all sorts of businesses and often acts as ‘private practice in-house counsel' for many clients. He specialises in tech and internet businesses. Within IT law, Mark has particular expertise in IT projects, software issues (including development, licensing, maintenance and distribution), SaaS, Cloud and virtualization issues, outsourcing, facilities management, new media solutions, transmedia development (particularly transmedia gaming), solutions for/methods of transacting on and via the internet, online retail, ecommerce generally, s-commerce, m-commerce, liability management strategies, IT audits, procurement, IT policies, data protection (privacy) and freedom of information issues. He is also experienced in dealing with commercial disputes (including software disputes and IT litigation). The increasing media side of his practice relates primarily to publishing (both real world and digital content), to games and gaming platforms (and particularly new transmedia technologies), advising companies about their advertising onscreen, online and in print and managing their public communications strategies generally - and also television, film and music exploitation. Mark completed his law degree at University College London in 1993 (achieving top first class honours) and achieved a distinction at the College of Law, London (1994). He then trained at Allen & Overy (1995-1997).