Boyes Turner

Alexander Wright

Alexander is a Partner and professional deputy for property and affairs and works principally with clients who have suffered injuries at birth with lifelong care needs and multi-million pound settlements. His focus is managing files with complex and volatile family dynamics, matters with complicated financial arrangements, and statutory will applications. Alexander also leads the litigation support service line in the team, preparing expert reports and witness statements on deputyship and private trust costs, receiving instructions from third party law firms. Alexander became a director of the Professional Deputies Forum in 2019 and played a leading role in the case of PLK & Ors [2020] EWHC B28 (Costs), as a Deputy for PLK.

Ally Tow

Ally is a senior associate - chartered legal executive in the firm's Dispute Resolution team.  She works for a variety of companies dealing with all manner of business to business contract disputes and has over 25 years' experience. Ally has particular specialism in the handling of commission disputes for recruitment companies and estate agents. She also deals with contested probate claims.

Andrew Whiteaker

Andy is a partner and head of the highly regarded Employment team at Boyes Turner. He advises clients in a wide variety of contentious and non-contentious employment matters, including human resources support, providing employment support for mergers, acquisitions, and disposals, employment tribunal litigation and negotiating and drafting executive service contracts. Andy’s clients include national and multination organisations, and he provides international support for clients with cross-jurisdictional issues through Boyes Turner’s network of partner law firms. He focuses on providing practical advice, seeking to identify pragmatic and commercial solutions to his clients’ needs.

Barry Stanton

Barry is the Managing Partner of Boyes Turner and is responsible with the Management Committee for the overall strategic direction of the firm. Barry is also a Partner in the highly regarded Employment team at Boyes Turner. He advises clients on all aspects of employment law but has a particular interest in TUPE, restrictive covenant issues and complex discrimination claims. Barry advises a wide range of clients from international and national businesses in a variety of sectors including engineering, software and technology, professional services and logistics. He regularly writes and comments on a range of topical employment issues as well as presenting at webinars involving UK and EU employment law and works with overseas firms to manage clients’ international employment issues. He brings a positive and professional approach to understanding, resolving and managing clients’ HR issues, minimising the risk of claims and takes a pragmatic approach to resolving problems. When faced with litigation his rigorous analysis of the claim and determination to succeed secures positive outcomes for his clients.

Brian Dowling

Brian is a partner in the firm’s residential development and housebuilder team. He specialises in assisting developers, charities, government bodies and private landowners working together to unlock sites and bring them forward for residential development.  This involves advising on site acquisition and assembly, options, section 106 agreements, promotion agreements, joint ventures, affordable housing disposals, and utilities matters.

Chris Dobson

Chris is a partner in the Corporate team and advises clients on a broad range of corporate transactional and general company law matters. He acts for both national and international clients ranging from entrepreneurial start-ups, angel investors and SMEs to listed companies. He advises on legal issues across a number of business sectors and works closely with clients to advise them on all aspects of their transactions. Chris is recommended in particular for M&A transactions in the technology and healthcare sectors.

Claire Taylor-Evans

Claire is a Partner in the Employment law team and also the Corporate Immigration team. She defends complex discrimination claims and managing high-level exits on behalf of corporate clients, many of whom are household names in the Technology and Leisure and Hospitality sectors. Claire leads the firm’s gender pay gap reporting service and supports her clients in their employee diversity and inclusion strategies. A contributing author to Bloomsbury Professional’s annual “Termination of Employment” publication, her articles also frequently appear in business magazines.  

Claire Roantree

As a partner in Boyes Turner’s highly regarded personal injury team, Claire acts for clients with life-changing injuries, such as mild to very severe brain injury, spinal injury, amputation, severe burns, complex orthopaedic and musculoskeletal injury, chronic pain and PTSD. Claire has a specialist interest in acquired brain injury where her focus is on using the claims process to facilitate early intervention and timely, targeted rehabilitation. Claire’s experience with head injured clients has given her invaluable insight into the power of rehabilitation to restore mobility and independence, to assist with a supported return to work and participation in family and social activity, giving clients a sense of purpose and self-worth which all help to maximise the client’s recovery after a life-changing injury.

Derek Ching

Derek is a highly experienced partner in the property department at Boyes Turner.  He has a background in a wide variety of property and planning related sectors.  A substantial part of his practice involves advising on land development, planning related matters and ensuring the successful realisation of projects, whether for occupation or sale. Specialist areas of practice include: advising housebuilders on site assemblies and disposals. acting for landowners on disposal of land for development. care home and primary healthcare developments. acting for mineral companies involved in the extraction of sand, gravel and stone, securing options and leases of mineral rights together with related arrangements for infilling of voids created by mineral extraction. advising charities with property portfolios on property management, acquisitions and disposals including planning related matters, as well as advising on constitutional issues, appointment and removal of trustees, conflicts of interest and compliance with charity legislation.

Donna Goddard

Donna heads up the Debt recovery team. The team works closely with both our Business Support & Insolvency and Dispute Resolution teams.

Helen Goss

Helen is a partner in the firm's Employment team and heads up the Leisure & Hospitality group. She advises organisations in various sectors including technology and hospitality on all employment and HR related issues with the aim of providing a workable solution which is commercial and pragmatic. Helen has particular expertise in complex discrimination, reorganisations and acquisitions involving employees. Helen is a fully qualified and accredited work place mediator and business coach and leads Boyes Turner Coaching for corporate clients.

Helen Dobson

Senior Associate

James Pantling-Skeet

James Pantling-Skeet is an experienced Associate in Boyes Turner’s highly regarded Community Care, Court of Protection and Special Educational Needs teams. He provides a holistic, empathetic yet focused service to parents, young people, families, Attorneys, Deputies, Case Managers and Charities. His combined Community Care and Special Educational Needs expertise means he is well-placed to provide comprehensive legal advice relating to rights of children and adults living with a disability, injury, or illness.

Julie Marsh

As a Partner within Boyes Turner’s outstanding medical negligence group, Julie enjoys using her specialist claimant expertise for the benefit of her clients. Her personal interest and successful track record in cases involving cauda equina syndrome (CES) have enabled her to develop her specialism in this medically complex area. Julie’s other areas of expertise and medico-legal interest include cerebral palsy and serious neurological injury, meningitis – a cause which she actively supports through her involvement with Meningitis Now. Julie’s broader experience extends to other seriously disabling injuries arising from orthopaedic errors, amputations and other diabetes-related disability, untreated tuberculosis, maternal obstetric injury, cervical and skin cancers, and blindness following an undiagnosed brain tumour. Julie is a keen supporter of charitable causes, including Cauda Equina Spinal Cord Injury, Meningitis Now, of which she is a trustee and a mentor, and UK Sepsis Trust, and the rights of disabled people, Julie is an active fundraiser. Her recent fundraising exploits have included taking part in Pretty Mudder for Cancer Research UK, and Parallel London 5K for Elizabeth’s Legacy of Hope Charity.

Kim Milan

Kim Milan leads Boyes Turner’s highly regarded personal injury team. A specialist in catastrophic injury cases, Kim acts for clients with acquired brain damage, spinal injuries and serious orthopaedic injuries.Brain injury cases are complex and require specialist knowledge and expertise. Kim’s experience of using the claims process to help seriously brain-injured children and adults regain their independence after the aftermath of an accident has led her to recognise the critical importance of timely rehabilitation for optimum recovery.

Laura Magson

With over 15 years of specialist experience representing people with mesothelioma, Laura leads Boyes Turner’s highly regarded mesothelioma and asbestos disease claims team known for its “unrivalled" quality and ability for asbestos disease claims in the Thames Valley area the “go to firm” (Legal 500). She also applies her extensive legal expertise and exceptional client care to represent severely injured victims and the bereaved dependent families of those with fatal injuries. Laura works hard to conclude mesothelioma cases during a claimant’s lifetime and has obtained sizeable sums within months of instruction, but also obtained Court orders for provision of future private treatment costs such as immunotherapy that may not be available on the NHS, so her clients have the security of knowing any future treatments will be funded. When it is not possible to conclude the case during a client’s life-time, Laura supports the families to complete the claim on the deceased’s behalf.   Her compassion and commitment to making a difference for her clients results in a persistence which enables her to succeed in heavily defended or difficult cases. Laura is a recognised asbestos disease expert, accredited as a “leading industrial disease lawyer” (Legal 500 2021) with an excellent and well-deserved reputation and has given live interviews on BBC Radio about mesothelioma and the implications of the Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme. She is an outspoken campaigner dedicated to using her knowledge to raise public awareness and make a difference, for example through her work with local asbestos groups. Her mesothelioma clients come to her from all over the UK and abroad and from a variety of trades and occupations. Her track record of successful claims includes cases arising from low-level exposure, environmental exposure to asbestos from living near an asbestos factory or from breathing in dust from the clothes of family members. Laura takes proactive steps to secure settlements for asbestos-related disease claimants during their lifetime wherever possible and where there is a risk of future serious deterioration, she obtains provisional damages awards which preserve the claimant’s right to come back to court for further compensation in the event that the specified deterioration occurs. She succeeds in complex cases involving multiple defendants. She has both the compassion and legal expertise needed to obtain justice and compensation for sufferers and bereaved families and negotiates voluntary repayments of end of life care costs for hospices which nurse her clients. She personally supports asbestos disease sufferers at support groups coffee mornings and charity events. She also gives regular presentations and training to health care professionals throughout the country. Away from the office, Laura helps raise awareness and funds for the charities and support groups that help sufferers of asbestos-related and other diseases. Her fundraising exploits having included abseiling down The Blade, a skyscraper in Reading, the height of 32 double-decker buses, in aid of a children’s hospice, Naomi House and a 25 km Thames Path Challenge walk for Mesothelioma UK.

Laxmi Patel

Laxmi Patel leads Boyes Turner’s leading Education team. An expert in special educational needs, Laxmi works closely with parents, schools, local authorities and case managers to ensure that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the support they need to achieve their potential in their education. Laxmi provides invaluable SEN advice, representation and specialist educational support to the families of babies and children with profound and complex learning difficulties who are represented by Boyes Turner’s outstanding clinical negligence and Court of Protection teams. Her clients also come to her from other solicitors, social workers and through recommendation from families who have already received her help in securing suitable school placements and SEN support for their children.

Lydia Dunford

Lydia Dunford is an Associate Solicitor in Boyes Turner’s Education team.  She has a sound knowledge base of SEN legal issues and the SEND appeal process. She represents clients at the SEND Tribunal, including Health and Social Care national trial appeals, and has had positive outcomes in all hearings, often exceeding clients’ expectations. Lydia has experience of complex appeals and case manages them from beginning to end, securing significant packages of education and social care support.

Mark Appleton

Mark is a partner in the commercial property team and has over in this area. He specialises in the purchase, development, letting and disposal of properties for owners, occupiers and investors. He also deals with the management of investment properties and property estates. Mark deals with numerous development projects of sites ranging from residential houses to student flats and commercial premises under land promotion agreements, options, conditional agreements and joint venture agreements. His clients range from care homes, schools, doctors, developers, on-shore and off-shore investors, management companies, solar farms, golf courses, waste disposal companies, SASSs, SIPPs and pension trustees.

Natalie Roff

Natalie has worked exclusively in non-contested debt recovery since 1996 and manages the team on a day-to-day basis.   She has a strong reputation for delivering excellent client service, and has substantial experience in relation to uncontested debt recovery from negotiating settlements to enforcement of Judgments.

Nick Carter

Nick is the head of the highly regarded Commercial Property Group and has over 20 years’ experience advising clients in all aspects of commercial property transactions. He specialises in industrial and logistics and business space for landlords and tenants acting for a range of owner managed businesses to large national and international companies. He has developed a specialist practice managing portfolios of properties for large corporate clients (often in the tech, media and innovation sector and pharma and life sciences sector), working very closely with their in-house legal and property teams and with their other external advisors. As a member of the firm's inward investment team, Nick is highly experienced in advising foreign businesses setting up and operating in the UK.

Oliver Fitzpatrick

Oliver is a Partner and head of the market-leading and highly regarded Insolvency and Business Support team at Boyes Turner. He primarily acts for insolvency practitioners and provides specialist and pragmatic advice to clients on the full range of formal insolvency processes, both in a corporate and a personal context. Oliver also acts for company directors, companies, lenders and private individuals. Oliver's expertise is in not only in transactional and advisory matters, such asset realisation and protection work and dealing with an array of technical issues, but also with contentious insolvency cases that involve either challenges to appointments, antecedent transactions, asset preservation or cross boarder issues to name but a few.

Paul Lowery

Paul is a partner in the firm’s Reading based Wealth Protection team. He specialises in the preparation of wills, including complex wills with a foreign element, trusts and trust administration, estate planning for high net worth individuals, probate and estate administration including complex estates, Court of Protection applications and elderly client work.

Paul Linsell

Paul is a partner and heads up the specialist family law team at Boyes Turner. He has extensive experience in helping both married and unmarried people on all aspects of private family law, both as a solicitor and as a fully accredited mediator. Paul is known for his ability to assess a situation quickly and effectively, so as to be able to give valuable advice that is tailored to an individual’s needs and goals. His calm and persuasive manner offers clients a reassuring and steady guide through the challenges they face. Paul regularly works on complex finance cases involving international elements, business interests, complex pension arrangements and trusts. He has accredited specialist expertise via Resolution in relation to complex financial matters on divorce and in relation to the complex law surrounding issues for unmarried couples. He has a reputation for giving pragmatic advice in relation to pre and post nuptial agreement and cohabitation agreements. Paul also advises and assists on children matters, having acted for parents, grandparents and other third parties in relation to child arrangements, specific issue application (including relocation) and prohibited steps applications.

Philip Jacques

Phil is a Partner in the Commercial Property team specialising in transactional property work spanning the industrial, distribution, office, retail and tech sectors.

Phillip Baldwin

Phil is a partner in the dispute resolution team. He specialises in providing dispute resolution services across a wide spectrum of sectors with a particular emphasis on business-to-business disputes.

Rachael Allison

Rachael is an Senior Associate within the Education team. Her experience extends to assisting parents at all stages of the SEN process, including pre ECHP provision and support, refusal to assess or issue a Plan, review of draft ECHPs Plans, Annual Reviews and failure to deliver on the contents of statements ECHPs. She has particular experience with dyslexia/dyspraxia/ASD/ADHD and sensory processing needs with strong links to local specialist schools and support groups.

Rachel Baxter

Rachel has joined the education team as a SEN Specialist, helping children and young people to secure the education that meet their needs. She is very passionate about education law as she has a child with special educational needs.

Rachel Brown

Rachel has worked in debt recovery and dispute resolution for over 25 years and is experienced in advising in contractual disputes including those relating to computer software, hire agreements and professional services. She specialises in cross-border disputes and working for local governments assisting them in enforcing Liability Orders for unpaid council tax. Rachel is experienced in bringing and defending claims in both the High Court and in county courts and also have experience in resolving disputes and settling cases by mediation. She spends 75% of her time doing Dispute Resolution and 25% of her time in Debt Recovery.

Richard Money-Kyrle

Richard is a partner in Boyes Turner’s outstanding medical negligence team. Richard is deeply committed to making a difference to the lives of severely injured patients and their families. He represents clients who have been brain damaged resulting in cerebral palsy, tetraplegia and PVS, and disabled by spinal injuries, cauda equina and amputation. Richard’s gentle and compassionate manner with clients is combined with intellectually rigorous use of the legal process to secure early admissions of liability, substantial interim payments and maximum compensation to provide his clients with rehabilitation, housing, education and care.

Rowan Turrall

Rowan is a partner and head of the Dispute Resolution group.  She has been advising on a wide range of contractual disputes for over 18 years and works closely with the firm’s commercial and technology team dealing with technology-related disputes. Rowan is also the head of the firm's construction service.  She arranges and delivers a highly successful series of seminars on construction-related topics. Rowan is experienced in dealing with substantial claims in the High Court and County Court and has resolved a number of cases through mediation and adjudication. She provides practical and commercial advice to her clients who appreciate her calm approach to the issues they face.

Russell May

Senior Associate

Ruth Meyer

Ruth is a partner and the head of the highly regarded Court of Protection team at Boyes Turner and a professional deputy and trustee. Her outstanding service extends from giving expert witness evidence, to advising on and setting up Court of Protection deputyship or trusteeship, project managing and auditing essential capital expenditure, coordinating care and providing liaison, negotiation, advocacy and intermediary services with the courts, government agencies, financial advisors and other professional bodies. In her capacity as Court of Protection deputy or trustee Ruth provides a professional yet ‘bespoke’ approach to the individual needs of each client. Ruth combines her highly professional and astute management of her clients’ best interests with an approachable, down-to-earth and compassionate manner with her clients, many of whom regard her as a trusted family advisor and friend.

Sarah Williamson

Sarah is a partner and head of the Commercial & Technology team specialising in Digital & Technology. Sarah has extensive experience advising on a broad range of commercial contracts including those with an international aspect. She specialises in technology and digital media and acts for well-known online publishers. She also has experience in marketing and advertising having worked at a niche London law firm for the creative and media sectors and has advised a number of creative and digital agencies and online platforms. Sarah acts as quasi in-house counsel for a number of her clients acting either as sole legal counsel or as an extension to their legal team, providing pragmatic and commercial legal advice. Sarah is also an experienced data protection lawyer and holds the Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe (CIPP/EU) certification with the IAPP.  

Susan Brown

Susan leads the Clinical Negligence team at Boyes Turner and has specialised in complex and high value clinical negligence work for over 25 years. She has a specialist expertise in child brain injury arising from birth asphyxia and trauma, neonatal negligence, including Kernicterus, hypoglycaemia and infection related brain injury. Susan uses liability judgments and interim payments to provide early respite and life-changing resources for the client. She ensures that her clients’ true needs are reflected in settlements which balance capital costs with long-term security in terms of annual payments.

Vanessa Wand

As a senior associate-solicitor in Boyes Turner's outstanding medical negligence team, Vanessa Wand has secured millions of pounds of compensation for her clients. Vanessa deals exclusively with complex, high value medical negligence claims.  She has a specialist interest in obstetric and birth-related injuries to both mother and baby, which include cerebral palsy and severe neonatal injury, maternal death, complex stillbirth with psychiatric maternal injury, perinatal tears and cloacal injury, alongside her broad-based expertise with cases involving amputation and other life threatening, fatal and permanently disabling conditions. Working both independently and as an invaluable support to the partners in the group, Vanessa is an expert in quantifying claims involving cerebral palsy and other types of neonatal, severe, neurological injuries, consistently enabling her clients to receive the highest possible compensation awards.

William Nassau-Lake

William has over 20 years’ experience of advising on a variety of real estate transactions but specialises in acting for house builders, commercial developers, care providers, investors and land traders in connection with the acquisition, disposal and promotion of development sites and has a reputation for being one of the regions’ leading development lawyers. He also advises on planning and infrastructure agreements, joint venture arrangements and acts for funders and borrower in connection with secured lending. William is head of the Development & House Building team and also oversees the Plot Sale Group. He also advises high net worth individuals with property affairs. “William’s enthusiasm for fighting our corner and meeting (and often exceeding) our expectations is a credit to himself and his team. He has played a key role in helping us conclude many transaction transactions and helped with our growth and success”. Care Provider/London Developer “William and his team always impress. Their commercial approach combined with a rapid and user-friendly service has enabled us to meet deadlines and secure deals which we would have certainly otherwise missed out on. They are people that just get the job done.” Regional Housebuilder