Hill Dickinson LLP

Head of cargo and logistics team. 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.

Alan Pugh

Alan is head of the construction and engineering team with over 20 years’ experience. He covers all aspects including both contentious and non contentious matters, and his work also includes environmental law.

Alex McCann

Alex is a partner in the property team.

Alison Oliver

Partner

Andrew Williams

Partner specialising in acquisition and disposal of commercial property (freehold and leasehold); all aspects of management transactions; and landlord and tenant matters.

Andrew Craggs

Head o Head of the national Health Business Group incorporating the national Health Litigation teams, Andrew has overseen the exponential growth of this practice over the last three years, including the opening of offices in London and Leeds. His expertise extends into the wider health sector and he is consulted by NHS and private clients across the country. Andrew is widely recognised as one of the most dynamic experts in the health litigation sector. He is one of the “go-to” lawyers for the senior management team at NHSR in relation to issues of strategy and law policy reform. He has a long-term relationship with NHS Resolution, having acted for them for his entire career. Andrew deals with complex clinical negligence claims, but also has a specialist practice in stress/bullying claims involving NHS executives. In that respect he is one of only a few national specialist practitioners in the field. He is also an NHS Resolution nominated partner and heads up the firm’s relationship with NHS Resolution and NHS England (amongst other high profile clients including MPS and Virgin Care). He is also the firm’s lead for patient safety and risk management issues involving the NHS. Andrew also led the team that secured the MPS contract for Hill Dickinson

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.

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.

Anthony Houghton

Partner specialising in commercial property, site assembly, landlord and tenant, large project/portfolio work, leases, multi-site telecommunications lettings and property development.

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.

Anthony Gibbons

Legal director dealing with professional negligence claims and complaints against the firm.

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.

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.

Chris Tyrrell

A partner in the commercial litigation team, Chris' expertise is in high value contractual disputes, but with particular specialisms in corporate, healthcare and financial services disputes.Chris has been with the firm since 2006 and has become widely regarded as a specialist in complex contractual claims, and has acted for clients in the aviation, sports, property and retail sectors, across a number of different jurisdictions. Hehas also developed a particular specialism in complex healthcare disputes and has led a number of multi-disciplinary national investigations into healthcare contractors, especially those involving allegations of fraud.Chris has a first class degree in Law (winner of the Law Prize) and a master of philosophy degree in law from Manchester University. His expereince includes: Successfully representing the Peel Group in High Court and Court of Appeal case of Durham Tees Valley Airport -v-bmibaby ([2010] EWCA Civ 485 Successfully representing Wayne Rooney and his company, Stoneygate 48 Limited in the claim brought by Proactive Sports Management (2010 EWHC 1807 (QB)) Chris also represented Lancashire County Cricket Club in Judicial Review proceedings against Derwent Holdings ([2011] EWCA Civ 832) Sucecssfully acting for the Peel Group in arbitration proceedings for ongoing royalties under a long-term contract Acting for eight NHS trusts in a dispute against a contractor pursuant to a £70 million service agreement Acting for former shareholders of two businesses in separate £10 million+ breach of warranty claims

Chris Johnston

Partner leading the property finance team in Manchester.

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

Colin Lavelle

Legal Director within the Liverpool Shipping team, specialising in both commercial and contentious shipping matters, having joined the firm in 2002. Acts for a cross-section of clients in the shipping sector ranging from P&I Clubs, cargo interests and Owners to Freight Forwarders, Shipping Lines and Lenders. Colin advises on matters ranging from dispute resolution to a broad range of commercial shipping issues. Recent work carried includes: recovery of large debt for bunker supplier and ships’ agent, which included the arrest and sale of a fleet of vessels in the UK and Spain; various ship sale and purchases; admiralty Court action to determine whether Filipino law or English Law applied to the calculation of a personal injury claim; advising on issues relating to the Bribery Act and alleged free trade infringements including providing in-house training for clients; handling contractual dispute to determine whether major Port was responsible to pay Agency provider on termination of contract; multimillion pound recovery of super yacht seized in Turkey on behalf of major UK Bank; acting for Liner Agents in respect of issues arising from administration of major retailers including Woolworths, Habitat and Unipart Automotive. Colin has been involved in presenting and organising various external presentations on a range of subjects including Bribery, Competition Law for Liner Agents and Commercial Shipping Issues.

Craig Walker

A consultant specialising in property litigation.

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.

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.

Darren Hamer

Darren has worked on some of largest property transactions in the north-west over the last few years and his clients are both public and the private sector. Darren's areas of recent expertise includes in respect of investment transactions, complex lease interpretation, neighbourly issues and joint venture acquisitions. He endeavours to obtain a full understanding of the client’s business that he believes is fundamental to achieving the best outcome for his clients.Experience: • Acted in provision of advice to a local authority in connection with the £80m regeneration of its town centre• Acted on the sale of a portfolio of Office buildings for a private investor for £17 million• Acted on the sale of land for residential development for a partnership for £17.45m• Acted on the sale of a central London buildings for private investors for £15.3 million• Acted on the acquisition of a shopping centre for a local authority for £27 million• Acted on the strategic acquisition of key town centre sites for a local authority for £9 million

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.

David Wareing

David is the chairman of the firm with responsibility for representing the best interest of the business from both an internal and external perspective.

David Oram

Partner specialising in contentious and non-contentious construction.

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.

David Chinn

David is a partner in the construction team and advises on both contentious and non-contentious construction and engineering work. He is also head of the business services team.David joined the firm in 1988 and became a partner in 1992. He has been advising on construction/engineering law since 1990. Involved in many high profile projects relating to football stadia, a zoo, theatres, bridges/tunnels and various iconic buildings, David is also involved in project work including advising on, drafting and negotiating building contracts, consultants' appointments, collateral warranties and other security documents. He also deals with dispute work including litigation, arbitration, adjudication and mediation.

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.

David Parry

David is head of the Commercial Employment team in Manchester. He has over 12 years’ specialist employment law experience.Acting for UK and US listed companies through to owner-managed businesses, David's practice spans the full range of contentious and non-contentious employment law, HR and ER issues. The bulk of David’s practice sees him working on significant, complex, high-value and reputationally important people matters. David is routinely instructed on heavyweight employment disputes in the High Court, including urgent claims for injunctive relief arising out of the breach of restrictive covenants, the misuse of confidential information and team-move situations. He also has particular expertise in large-scale reorganisations (especially where collective consultation is required) and the employment aspects of outsourcing, joint venture and M&A transactions.David previously spent a significant period on secondment to Barclays Bank plc where he undertook the role of legal counsel within the bank's global retail division.Recent experience includes:• Acting for the UK subsidiary of a NYSE listed global provider of diversified consumer packaging in a claim against an ex-employee who had joined a competitor and misused confidential information• Acting for an international travel group in a dispute with a former director who resigned from the business to join a competitor in breach of his restrictive covenants.• Acting for an international travel group in relation to an unlawful team move to a competing business.• Acting for an international travel group in relation to a major site closure / relocation. • Acting for a retail technology business in conducting an independent inquiry in response to allegations of sexual harassment and bullying made against members of its senior leadership team.• Acting for a casino operator in relation to a claim for injunctive relief brought in the Employment Tribunal arising out of alleged protected whistleblowing disclosures.• Acting for a global soft drinks manufacturer in relation to the implementation of a GDPR compliant data protection regime for its UK and European workforce.

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.

David Rabagliati

Partner dealing with a wide range of issues in the non-contentious commercial field. Focusing on banking and financial work, including lending and the taking and enforcement of security; the construction, sale and purchase, and finance of ships; infrastructure projects including PFI/PPP projects in the rail industry; joint ventures and other corporate transactions, and the restructuring and documentation of a wide range of commercial transactions. Major transactions include Manchester Metrolink, Midland Metro, Croydon Tramlink, the fleet renewal programme of the Libyan State Shipping Company and the restructuring of the Szczecin Shipyard.

Duncan Hope

Duncan has considerable experience of advising clients on a varied caseload of commercial disputes, with particular expertise in: Contractual disputes Professional negligence Banking and finance litigation Pension disputes Fraud and dishonesty The enforcement of restrictive covenants

Emma Stockwell

A partner in the health team who advises on all aspects of healthcare law, Emma’s particular expertise is in corporate governance, primary care commissioning and regulation, information governance, inquests and judicial review.Emma has many years’ experience in working for public sector organisations in the health and social care field, predominantly within the NHS, as well as national regulators such as the Care Quality Commission and other national bodies such as Health Education England.Emma represents clients at inquests and in judicial review proceedings often involving public consultation and service transformation issues. One of Emma’s particular specialisms is corporate governance. She advises clients on their powers and duties and has assisted foundation trusts and CCGs in drafting and applying their constitutions and standing orders. Emma also advises on commissioning issues and the regulation of primary care practitioners, undertaking work for NHS England and CCGs on all performance and contractual matters.Emma completed her law degree at the University of Leicester and subsequently studied at the College of Law in York. During her studies, Emma spent a year in Strasbourg studying law at Strasbourg University and whilst there worked at the European Parliament assisting a numbers of MEPs.

Fiona Parry

Fiona is a partner and heads the commercial litigation and dispute resolution team in Liverpool. She undertakes a broad mix of often very complex and high-value commercial and corporate dispute work including contract and tort disputes, shareholder disputes, partnership and LLP disputes, warranty and completion account disputes, injunctions, ADR/ mediation, supplier disputes, property-related disputes, fraud, professional negligence claims against a broad range of professionals, and contentious trust and probate disputes.

Fionnuala Kenny

Partner specialising in succession trusts and personal tax planning.

Geraldine Ryan

Heads the firm’s commercial litigation team. Head of Manchester office

Graham Archibald

Graham is a partner in our property team. He undertakes a wide range of property transactions with particular emphasis on acquisitions and disposals, portfolio management and development projects. With particular expertise in undertaking acquisitions and disposals, and portfolio management, Graham also has extensive experience of acting for both landlords and tenants on leasehold transactions. Particular areas of specialism include: The undertaking of development transactions Site disposals to residential developers Disposals and acquisitions of industrial estates Transactions involving the leisure sector He acts for private investors and national corporates, as well as a number of public and third sector bodies.

Helene Peter-Davies

Partner

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.

Ian Riggs

Partner in the corporate team who specialises in corporate M&A work and corporate reorganisations, acting for multinational companies, owner-managed businesses and financial institutions. Also acts for management teams on private equity transactions and advises on partnership and LLP matters. Clients include Trilanco Limited, Special Piping Materials, Elcometer Limited, Greenwood & Coope Limited, Knight Knox International Limited, GP Strategies, Idox PLC, and Little Greene Paint Company. Recent deals include acting on the sale of VIP Electronic Cigarettes to ECIG Ltd, on the take private of Pochins Plc, on the investment by PHD Equity Partners and Enterprise Ventures in Modern Rugs Limited, on sale of AST Ambulance Services Limited to SRCL Group and on merger of the Oddfellows Friendly Society and the Druids Sheffield Friendly Society.

Ian Gardiner

Training with the firm and then qualifying in 1999 before becoming a partner in 2003, Ian specialises in defending clinical negligence and employers’ liability/public liability claims (EL/PL) in the NHS setting. He also advises on most other healthcare issues and manages the Manchester health litigation team.A nominated partner for clinical negligence and EL/PL claims for the NHS Litigation Authority, ian also lectures widely to clients on health litigation topics.

Ian Gillis

Partner and head of the Manchester corporate team. His particular expertise covers private and public corporate finance work including initial public offerings (IPOs) on AIM and the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange, public takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, disposals, and corporate governance matters.He has extensive capital markets experience advising companies on IPOs, rights issues, class transactions and takeovers in addition to advising investment banks (including Zeus Capital, Cenkos Securities, WH Ireland and Allenby Capital). Deals include £70m IPO of Nanoco Group plc, £120m placing and open offer for Stobart group, £280m disposal of Eddie Stobart logistics business, disposal of Smith Knight Fay to EMH plc, sale of Swift Fire & Security to Marlowe plc and public takeover of Vindon Healthcare plc.Ian also sits on the firm’s LLP board.

Ian Maclean

Provides his international client base of ship owners, ship managers and their insurers with extensive multi-jurisdictional casualty experience, including collisions, structural failure, pollution, actual and constructive total losses, fire, and salvage and cargo damage. Known for his practical and measured approach in the emotive environment that characterises the immediate aftermath of a casualty. Also advises on the contractual and third-party disputes arising from casualties through to settlement, and has a pragmatic and proportionate approach to case management and settlement negotiations. In addition advises on MARPOL issues, hull and machinery claims, piracy and ship management disputes. Master mariner with 12 years’ seagoing experience; worked for a major ship manager in Cyprus where, as deputy director, he was responsible for the marine superintendency, safety, loss prevention and the casualty management/investigation functions. Contributes to seminars and writes for the trade press on litigation risk management, casualty management, seaworthiness and the ISM code. Has advised the Cyprus government on the introduction of shipping legislation.

James Williams

A partner in the employment and pensions team, James advises both employers and employees on a full range of matters, including day-to-day surgery advice, transactional support, executive severance and litigation.James joined the firm in April 2014, having qualified into a large European law firm in 2000 and spent eight years as a partner in a niche city employment practice. He acts for organisations across a range of sectors, with a particular focus on financial services, shipping, education and advertising. He specialises in: Tribunal and High Court litigation (including whistle-blowing, discrimination, TUPE and breach of contract claims) Dealing with team moves, post-termination restrictions and applications for injunctive relief Providing day-to-day ‘surgery’ advice Advising senior executives on their contracts and severance packages James attended the University of Liverpool, where he completed his law degree and an LLM in International Law.

James Lawson

Transactional aspects of the owning and operation of superyachts, including construction, refit, sale and purchase, design, project management, yacht management and crew management agreements and issues arising out of the ownership, operation, chartering, taxation, registration, regulation and crewing of superyachts.

Janet McWhinney

Head of Claims in London Health LitiationTeam: specialising in high-value clinical negligence claims for NHSLA, including cerebral palsy, obstetric and brain injury claims. Janet has over 20 years’ of experience in clinical negligence litigation in both the public and private sectors. She joined Hill Dickinson in October 2014 to head up the London health litigation team and is currently the contract lead for the MPS relationship as well as a nominated partner for NHSR work in London. Accordingly, Janet’s key clients are NHSR and MPS. Since joining Hill Dickinson Janet has been on regular part-time secondments at NHS Resolution with the TCU team.Janet specialises in all areas of health litigation but takes a special interest in cerebral palsy and spinal injury claims.Janet’s key cases have included representing client Trusts in high value CP claims and spinal claims, the latter for both NHS Resolution and MPS. In the past she has successfully defended a client Trust at trial on causation only in a head injury claim where breach of duty had been conceded.

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.

Jim Purves

Head of the national property and construction team, Jim joined Hill Dickinson’s rapidly-expanding Manchester property team from Pinsent Masons in May 2015 and in May 2017 became the first Manchester-based head of Hill Dickinson’s national property practice.Key sectors: logistics/industrial property; retailKey clients: DHL, Lookers Motor Group, EuroGarages, Williams Lea Taghttps://www.hilldickinson.com/people/jim-purves

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.

Joanna Trewin

Joanna has over 18 years’ experience in advising the NHS and heads the Manchester healthcare team. Under Joanna’s leadership, the team has more than doubled in size over the last few years following significant tender and client wins. Historically, Joanna and her team acted in high profile patient safety reviews and inquests and on the reported Court of Protection cases concerning the withdrawal of life sustaining clinical treatment, including the case of Salford Royal FT -v- Mrs P. and advice regarding withdrawal of treatment from Alfie Evans which received international press attention.Joanna’s team also provide a niche offender health offering and act for a number of NHS and private healthcare providers in prisons. Joanna’s team also provides advice in respect of independent homicide investigation reports to NHS England. Joanna led the successful for tender for provision of all legal services to Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, the contract for which commenced on 20th June 2016 and has now transferred to the newly constituted Northern Care Alliance NHS Group that oversees Salford Royal NHS FT as well as Pennine. This is one of the largest NHS Groups in the country.The teams' key clients include: Northern Care Alliance NHS Group (covering Salford Royal and Pennine Acute), Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, St Helens and Knowsley Hospitals NHS Trust, East Cheshire NHS Trust, and NHS England, as well as the following Clinical Commissioning Groups:- Manchester Central, North and South, Vale Royal, South Cheshire, East Cheshire, Oldham, Trafford and Warrington.

John Hulmes

Partner with the Liverpool shipping team, with particular expertise in P&I, FDD, law relating to ports and managing complex dispute claims. Increasing role in risk management issues and has advised company boards (including P&I club boards) in relation to confidential matters. Clients include leading banks, charterers, liner agents, ports and owners.

John Caddies

Head of our Marine PI and Regulatory, John worked with the previous head of department, Maria Pittordis, for 28 years and has taken over the role as a result of her sad passing. Specialising in high-value, complex personal injury and industrial disease claims, John joined the firm in 1988 and has dealt with complex and high-value employers' liability and public liability personal injury claims for over 25 years, varying from athletes to divers. A marine and transport claims' specialist, he regularly visits ports and attends onboard vessels to carry out immediate post-accident investigations, liaising with the HSE, MAIB, MCA and the police, and advising in relation to both the consequent criminal prosecutions as well as the civil claims. John has significant expertise in dealing with fatal claims, psychiatric injuries and multi-party litigation in the “BOWBELLE”/“MARCHIONESS” and “COSTA CONCORDIA” litigation, and leads a team with extensive experience in GI, legionella, norovirus and sexual assault claims. John also has specific expertise in dealing with industrial disease claims, particularly asbestos, asthma, vibration white finger and stress at work and argued the only successful date of knowledge defence for ship owners in the reported case of G Smith (deceased) -v- P&O Bulk Shipping Limited. He regularly lectures and provides training to clients both in the UK and Europe on both personal injury and industrial disease claims.

Jonathan Brown

With almost 30 years’ experience as a corporate transactional lawyer advising a wide range of public companies, large privately owned companies and SMEs, Jonathan has excellent experience in a wide variety of sectors, and a wide variety of clients undertaking transactions in the UK and abroad. Jonathan deals with all forms of corporate transactions including: Mergers Acquisitions Disposals Private equity Public equity Joint ventures Re-organisations His experience includes: Stobart Group - sale of 51 % of Eddie Stobart to DBay Capital Bibby Line Group - sale of Bibby Ship Management Edward Billington and Son Limited - acquisition of TSC Foods and Dunkleys Limited Cammell Laird - acquisition of A & P Carr's Group PLC - acquisition of Meneba Holdings including Class 1 transaction Cammell Laird Gibraltar - sale Highneal Group – section 110 re-organisation Benfield Sports - sale to IMG Swinton Group - sale of NI business Connect Airways/ Stobart Group – acquisition of Flybe Group plc Huaxiang Corporation - acquisition of Lawrence Automotive Systems Labelling – sale to Americk ( NI )

Jonathan Heap

Partner in the NHSLA team specialising in clinical negligence and personal injury. Caseload includes a full range of claims with particular interest in brain injury, spinal injury, ophthalmic and complex surgical cases. Jonathan handled the key clinical negligence case of Reaney v University Hospitals of North Staffordshire NHS Trust & Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust [2015] EWCA Civ 1119 which the Defendants successfully appealed. He regularly lectures to clients on various legal issues, with particular interest in patient safety and the application of the legal duty of candour.

Jonathan Dover

Jonathan is a partner in the Manchester property team with over 25 years’ experience working in commercial property.Prior to joining the firm in February 2009, Jonathan was a partner at Berg Legal in Manchester, having trained at Eversheds. He specialises in dealing with various aspects of commercial property including the buying and selling of property and landlord and tenant transactional work.

Julia Stansfield

A legal director in the property litigation team, Julia is experienced in dealing with a wide range of property claims, including landlord and tenant disputes, rights of way, restrictive covenants, overage and property damage claims.Julia originally qualified into the commercial property team, which provided her with the experience essential for a property litigator, before moving into a litigation role, which included dealing with a large number of property related professional negligence claims. She then took this valuable experience with her to the firm's specialist property litigation team.In addition to Julia's expertise in professional negligence and working on the ‘bread and butter’ work of a property litigator, such as landlord and tenant disputes and property damage claims, Julia specialises in ‘real property’ disputes, for example, issues relating to a variety of different easements, restrictive covenants and adverse possession. Julia also acts for a number of leading legal indemnity insurers who provide insurance to commercial and residential property owners. She is appointed to act for the policy holder when a claim is made under the policy. She also provides advice on policy/coverage issues for insurers.

Kathy Holuba

Kathy is a professional support lawyer in the corporate team, providing technical legal support to the team and its clients. Kathy advises on the technical aspects of corporate law, such as share and business sales, M&A transactions, shareholder agreements and articles of association, director issues and partnership and limited liability partnerships, including the relevant documents and procedures .

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. ��

Kevin Lee

Partner in a real estate group specialising in property litigation, particularly property insolvency, rights of light and interim remedies. His clients range from banks and insurance companies to universities and a growing number of overseas companies and investors.

Kiran Bhogal

Head of our London healthcare team with over 25 years’ experience in NHS and public sector work with a broad practice including inquests, mental health, court of protection and advisory work (ranked as a leader in her field), Kiran is listed as a leading individual in 2016 Legal 500 (healthcare) and also ranked in 2016 Chambers and Partners in band 1 in both healthcare (contentious) and Court of Protection, and band 2 in mental health.Kiran advises on a broad range of issues from judicial reviews, complex and sensitive inquests, mental health law, complaints handling, medical ethics, court of protection and patient care issues, to clinical and corporate governance issues, public consultation duties, commissioning decisions, practitioner performance, policies and procedures.Prior to qualifying in the UK, Kiran attended the Kenya Law School when she undertook mini pupillage before being admitted as a solicitor in the UK. She attained higher rights (civil) and was appointed a deputy district judge (SE circuit) in 2006.

Malcolm Entwistle

Malcolm is head partner in the London corporate and commercial team. He is experienced in all aspects of corporate and commercial law and is involved in all types of financing and equity finance structures.A director or company secretary for a number of the firm's clients, he is, and has been for over 30 years, honorary secretary of the Jubilee Sailing Trust. A high proportion of Malcolm's clients are overseas and his work involves multi jurisdictions. His experience covers all types of assets or arrangements including joint ventures, but he has a particular specialism in all types of commercial shipping transactions including shipping finance, sale and purchase, ship and yacht instructions, repair contracts, charter parties and other related contracts where he has substantial experience and expertise.

Mark Fitzgibbon

A partner and head of the commercial and intellectual property team, Mark is an expert in commercial contracting requirements across all aspects of the supply chain including public procurement advisory work.Mark trained in the city, qualifying in 1994, and has been at the firm since 2010, before which he was a partner at Cobbetts for 12 years in the commercial and projects team. Since 1998, Mark has been a trustee on the board of three charities within the Big Life Group (incorporating Big Issue in the North) and, since 2009, has also been chair of those boards. In addition, he has been a council member of the Manchester Law Society since 2014. Mark specialises in: Supply chain management commercial contract structuring and negotiation Public procurement advisory work (for providers and commissioners) Health sector contracting and commissioning Charity formations and governance

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).

Mark Walker

Best described as an international mercantile lawyer, Mark is a partner in the corporate and commercial team in the London office. His practice is a diverse one and includes expertise in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and cross-border joint ventures, finance, commercial shipping and commodities.Mark qualified as a solicitor in 2008 having completed his articles at the firm and upon qualification he joined the commercial and corporate team in London before becoming a partner in 2014. He is experienced in handling matters as diverse as the sale and purchase of ships, businesses and assets, asset finance (acting for banks and owners), trade and structured trade finance, cross-border joint venture and investment agreements, corporate restructuring and the drafting of commercial agreements. In addition, Mark is also experienced in drafting supply contracts, both domestic and international, negotiating and drafting shipbuilding contracts and regularly provides the firm’s commodities clients with advice on a range of commercial and corporate matters relevant to their businesses.Mark completed a degree in law and accountancy at the University of Brighton where he graduated with first class honours and won the American Express prize for his performance in his final year. He undertook his LPC at the College of Law.

Mark Johnson

Mark has extensive experience negotiating and documenting large-scale and complex maritime and offshore projects including advising in relation to ownership structures, construction, conversion, sale and purchase, financing, management, operation, pooling, repair, refit and recycling of all types of vessels (including FPSOs, drilling rigs, LNGCs, wind turbine installation vessels, autonomous vessels, and superyachts). Mark is co-chair of both our Shipping practice and our Autonomous Transportation practice. He regularly speaks and writes on a wide variety of shipping, offshore energy and autonomous vessel related topics. Mark has more than 25 years of experience in the maritime and legal fields, including time as captain of a ship.

Martin Hall

EMNR

Martin Penny

A marine partner in the yacht team with many years’ experience of yacht transaction and related disputes.

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.

Matt Noon

Matt Noon has built a strong and growing reputation in both the local and national advisory community. Matt is also a Hill Dickinson LLP Board member as well as being a Board member of Professional Liverpool. Matt has recently led and worked on a number of high profile national transactions including, but not limited to:- Advising the management team of JLA (a leading critical asset supply and services business for laundry, catering and heating in the UK) on the acquisition of JLA by the international private equity firm, Cinven (Confidential deal value was £640M. Only the value is confidential and our role is otherwise publishable).- Advising Carr’s Group Plc on the acquisition for £8.5m of Animax Limited and Clinimax Limited (specialists in research, development and manufacturing of animal health products); - Advising the company and management team of the indoor climbing business, the Climbing Hangar, in the £3m of growth capital investment from NVM Private Equity; and- Advising the shareholders of Fieldway Supplies Limited in relation to the £2m investment from Foresight.- Advising the shareholders of We Are Discounts Limited on the MBO of WADL.

Michael McKenna

Partner in health practice group dealing with catastrophic injury cases involving brain, spinal and cerebral palsy injuries, general insurance-related matters for major insurers, loss adjusters and brokers.

Michael Jones

Primarily advises on corporate transactional mattersincluding acquisitions, disposals, reorganisations, joint ventures and shareholder issues. Mike also has wide experience in corporate funding and joint ventures.

Michael Woolley

A partner in our construction and engineering team, Michael has a wide range of experience in the industry covering both contentious and non-contentious work including, adjudication, litigation, arbitration and mediation. Head of construction.His non-contentious work covers advice on procurement, contracts and related professional appointments whilst he has extensive experience in large developments including those for multiple business occupation. Michael's contentious experience extends to all forms of dispute resolution and he is a Technology and Construction Solicitors’ Association (TeCSA) approved construction mediator.Cases include: Baxall and Norbain v Sheard Walshaw; Henry Boot v Malmaison Hotel; George Hunt Cranes v Scottish Boiler; CRS v Taylor Young and Hoare Lee; Millers Specialist Joiner v Nobles; David McLean v Albany Building; and Construction Partnership v Leek Developments.

Michael Stephens

Consultant specialising in commercial property, retail, investment, landlord and tenant, and large project/portfolio work, for Iceland, investors and others. Leader of team on Iceland’s disposal of 28 shops to Marks & Spencer Simply Foods and Iceland’s acquisition of 51 Woolworths shops.

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.

Nick Pye

Nick is a partner in the property corporate and investment team, dealing with all aspects of non-contentious property work.Nick acts for a number of corporate clients and individuals, working with a team of experts in connection with aspects of commercial conveyancing, including sale and purchase, and landlord and tenant work. He also deals with site acquisition for residential development and all post-acquisition work, including overseeing the sale of developed residential plots.

Panos Pourgourides

Originally engaged in both contentious and non-contentious work in the commercial shipping sector, but has since focused on yacht work for most of his career. Extensive experience acting for yacht owners and almost all of the major banks involved in the provision of finance for new build projects and second-hand yachts. Also advises on the negotiation of construction agreements, sale and purchase work and other yacht-related regulatory issues.

Paul Baker

With over 30 years' experience, Paul is a partner in our private client team who deals with tax, trusts, wills, probate, succession and charities matters.He joined the firm in 1996, became a partner in 1997, and is ranked in both the Chambers and Legal 500 legal directories. He enjoys a national reputation as a leading practitioner. Dealing with all aspects of private client work, he has a particular expertise in advising high-net-worth individuals (including business owners and landowners) on tax and succession planning. This includes advice on: Will structuring The use of trusts Inheritance tax Capital gains tax Domicile and offshore matters Paul advises foreign resident and domiciled persons on offshore trusts and UK taxation. Paul also has a experience in advising individuals on establishing new charities and works closely with registered charities on constitutional and governance issues.

Paul Spence

Paul heads up the restructuring and insolvency team and works primarily with businesses, funders and insolvency practitioners focussing on the delivery of commercial solutions.Primarily a business lawyer with extensive experience in corporate and personal insolvency work, he provides strategic advice to owners and funders of distressed businesses nationally and, more recently and in conjunction with colleagues in the marine team, internationally. He has developed an ability to manage complex real estate work outs and is a council member of NARA.

Paul Walsh

Paul is a partner in the award winning commercial litigation team with wide ranging commercial dispute resolution experience - acting for corporate clients in relation to complex litigation both in the UK and internationally.Working with clients to proactively manage legal risk, Paul helps them tackle disputes effectively, whether through traditional means such as litigation or arbitration, or alternative methods including mediation and expert determination. He has particular experience advising clients in respect of claims for breach of contract and arising on termination of contracts, IT, outsourcing, technology and telecoms disputes, professional negligence claims, warranty claims, shareholder disputes, competition law claims and sports disciplinary matters.

Paul Taylor

Specialising in commodities, shipping and insurance with particular expertise in energy, Paul is a dual qualified English solicitor and French avocat. He advises traders, insurers, ship owners, charterers and operators, P&I clubs, oil majors and companies generally. In addition to his commodities and shipping expertise, Paul also has extensive marine and non-marine insurance experience.He handles disputes in England before the High Court and appellate divisions as well as disputes in ICC International Court of Arbitration, London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), London Maritime Arbitrators Association (LMAA), GAFTA, FOSFA, FCC and LME arbitration. Paule has appeared before the courts and arbitrators throughout France and he lectures around the world and publishes on issues in the commodities, shipping and insurance fields.He studied law and French Law at University College London, spending a year at the University of Aix-Marseille and qualified as a solicitor in London in 1997 and as an avocat of the Paris Bar in 2004.

Peter Jackson

Managing partner specialising in marine and goods in transit litigation and commercial litigation, mainstream activity in the area of cargo and transit work, acting for cargo and goods in transit insurers in all aspects of cargo claims, charterparty disputes, international road haulage matters, salvage, shipping casualties, arbitration work and policy interpretation matters.

Phil Sheard

Having qualified as a solicitor in 2005, Phil specialises in all aspects of commercial dispute resolution, across a wide range of industry sectors. He also heads up the commercial debt recovery and enforcement team. Phil deals mainly in finance/banking disputes with a particular specialism in invoice financing, factoring and guarantor claims. He also has expertise in relation to restitution claims for the return of mistaken payments/overpayments. As part of those restitution claims, he has a particular expertise with applications for Norwich Pharmacal Orders. Phil also handles general commercial contract disputes, misrepresentation claims and disputes relating to vehicle quality and vehicle finance. He regularly advises his clients on jurisdictional issues arising in cross-border claims and deals with claims to restore companies to the register at companies house.Phil received a first class (Hons) LLB in law at Liverpool JMU, winning the Sir Graham Day Prize and the Law Society Proxime Accessit Prize.

Phil Gazzola

Phil is a senior associate in the construction and engineering team and advises and acts in contentious and non-contentious matters

Philip Moy

Phil is a specialist in defending corporates and individuals in serious health and safety prosecutions and high-end criminal work. He is head of the regulatory team and is based in Liverpool.

Philip Bradbury

Partner specialising in the defence of medical negligence and employers’/public liability claims for health authorities and NHS Trusts. Phil has extensive experience in defending high value clinical negligence claims with a particular emphasis on obstetric claims. He has concluded multiple settlements involving Periodical Payments, including one of the first Orders made under the present regime. He also specialises in accident and disease claims for major insurance companies.

Philip Farrar

Partner and head of Hill Dickinson’s NHS employment team with over 25 years’ experience in employment law, acting for the NHS, local government and education bodies. Leading expert in matters of healthcare discipline within the NHS and extensive experience of senior level disputes and discrimination issues (in particular whistle-blowing) and industrial action. Experience includes acting for a Special Health Authority on general employment law and also advising as to the management of employees and the related unlawful discrimination claims for Postgraduate Medical and Dental Practitioners throughout England including claims for judicial review and in Employment Tribunal.

Philip Haddon

Partner dealing with casualty-related work, including collisions, salvage, groundings, strandings, oil pollution and fires. Extensive experience dealing with cases from initial instruction to final resolution, including on-site investigations, trials, arbitrations, mediation and other forms of final resolution. Also has extensive experience in marine insurance and charterparty and cargo matters.

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).

Richard Watson

A partner in the health litigation team representing the NHS in complex and varied claims, Richard is highly regarded for his expertise in defending many complex high value clinical negligence birth trauma and other high value neurological claims brought against NHS organisations. He has dealt with claims worth up to £15 million, many of which have attracted media interest. He has 30 years' experience of working in the health market place with substantial experience of defendant work and legal developments and changes in the sector generally. That experience includes not only management of challenging high value cases, but also the successful leadership of a large team of others in various health disciplines over a prolonged period of time.

Richard Capper

Partner and head of banking and finance team. Richard has almost 20 years’ experience working as a lawyer in the banking market. He operates principally out of our Liverpool office, but also spends time in Manchester and London, specialising in all forms of banking transactions including: acquisition finance, property finance, project finance and general corporate lending. Richard's clients include Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, Santander Corporate Bank, Svenska Handelsbanken, Downing Group and Peel Group.

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.

Robert Wallis

Robert is a consultant in the marine trade and energy team. He specialises in admiralty law and insurance litigation and is legal advisor to International Salvage Union.

Roderick Palmer

Partner undertaking general commercial and finance work, specialising in asset, acquisition, yacht and ship finance and aviation.

Roger Pointon

Roger is a consultant at Hill Dickinson. He specialises in all areas of corporate law including corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, re-organisations, management buy outs/ins and public markets work

Russell Gardner

Partner specialising in all aspects of shippingand superyacht litigation.

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)

Simon Felce

Experienced commercial property conveyancer who since 1995 has acted principally for property developers/landlords handling a wide range of property and planning related matters both freehold and leasehold. Extensive use is made of option agreements and conditional contracts leading to development agreements/agreements for lease with major national retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, B & Q and Dixons.

Stephen Mackin

EMNR

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.

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.

Susan Leonard

Legal director in the commodities team and practises shipping and international trade litigation and arbitration. Has acted in Commercial Court, LMAA, LCIA, GAFTA, FOSFA, and RSA/SAL proceedings.

Monica Macheng

Legal 500

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