Sherrards Solicitors LLP

Alasdair McMillin

Managing Partner of Sherrards since 1995 and instrumental in the major growth and success of the firm to its present day, standing as one of the leading commercial law firms in the south east. Alasdair specialises in high value, complex property matters and is renowned for his commercial and pragmatic approach. He is highly regarded within his extensive network of clients and business contacts for his ability to spot a business opportunity and to put deals together for mutual benefit. Currently undertakes ten percent fee-earning work, with the rest of his time spent developing the practice.

Asha Ngai

Partner, Residential Real Estate

Barney Laurence

Partner in the commercial litigation and dispute resolution department, handling all types of commercial disputes, specialising in actions involving High Court injunctions and injunction-related litigation, in particular in the recruitment and franchising sectors, with a particular niche in restrictive covenant cases. The majority of Barney’s work involves High Court litigation and mediation. Barney is very active in the recruitment sector and heads-up the firm’s recruitment division. On the franchising side, clients include Headmasters, Winkworth Plc, Chips Away, Property Search Group, Countrywide, Pirtek and Stagecoach, and Barney had particular success in the widely-reported High Court case of PSG Franchising Ltd v Lydia Darby Ltd [2012], a case involving breaches of restrictive covenants. High-profile cases in the Court of Appeal, House of Lords and Supreme Court include TRM Copy Centres (UK) Limited and others v Lanwall Services Limited [2009], where Barney guided the claimant to success, obtaining a landmark ruling that defined the meaning of what can be considered a ‘consumer hire agreement’, and he also represented Alan Beesley at the Supreme Court stage in the widely-publicised “barn case”, involving a building constructed as a dwelling house but disguised as a barn. Clients remark that Barney 'acts with extreme diligence and speed, leaving no stone unturned'; that he '…offers practical advice and offers clarity in what can be emotionally charged circumstances'; and that his 'considered judgement and expertise has been invaluable over the years'. Further clients comment that 'He's professional, ethical and effective. His advice is realistic and based on expert knowledge.'

Caroline Vernon

Partner, Residential Property

Charles Hodder

Charles has over 25 years’ experience in commercial property and advises clients ranging from landlords of commercial buildings to corporate occupiers and developers as well as banks and other lenders. His experience encompasses offices, shopping centres, retail units, industrial warehouses and development as well as acting on property finance transactions covering bother residential and commercial property. Charles has acted for a number of overseas clients with a particular emphasis on Malaysia and Singapore. These include major banks and investors in property acquiring and lending on UK property. Other work includes purchases and disposals, leases, renewals and lease re-gearing, alterations and portfolio restructuring, as well as corporate mergers and acquisitions, advising on personal and corporate guarantees, and rent deposits as security.

Emma Peacock

Emma is a Partner in the Employment department and is based in the London office. She advises on the full range of contentious and non-contentious employment law related issues including disciplinaries, grievances, poor performance, maternity, ill-health and more. She also has experience with business immigration.

Gregory Lunnon

Gregory is a commercial property solicitor who specialises in secured lending work as well as a broad range of non-contentious matters including franchising, overseas investment into the UK and advice to high-net-worth individuals. Gregory has over 35 years' experience in these practice areas and is well known for his ability to cut through content and identify key issues. He particularly enjoys unusual or complex cases.

Gregory Pooler

Senior Associate

Jean-Paul Da Costa

Jean-Paul originally qualified as a Barrister in Lincoln’s Inn before moving on to become a solicitor and notary public. He has wide-ranging domestic and international corporate and commercial experience across both private practice as well as in industry, and acts as legal counsel and business advisor to a wide range of UK and international clients, including Russia & CIS based companies and private investors. Before joining Sherrards in 2009 to head up the corporate commercial team, Jean-Paul was head of Thomas Eggar’s Corporate Commercial practice based in London. Through his science and technology background, he has particular expertise in intellectual property and IT law, and leads the firm’s IP practice. Jean-Paul is recognised as a legal expert in the charity and Trade Association sectors, having acted for large national and international charity and not-for-profit organisations for most of his career.

Joanne Perry

Joanne is a Partner in the employment team and advises on all aspects of contentious and non-contentious employment law, with a particular interest in discrimination and restrictive covenant issues. Joanne’s areas of employment law expertise include tribunal claims, day-to-day HR advisory work, performance management, maternity, redundancy, bullying and harassment, and disability discrimination. Working with multinationals and owner-managed businesses across many sectors, Joanne has particular expertise in recruitment agencies/employment businesses, retail and franchising. She also advises senior executives on their contracts and severance packages (known formerly as compromise agreements and now as ‘settlement agreements’). Joanne is also head of HR within Sherrards, and aims to make Sherrards an employer of choice. As part of this role, Joanne gained her CIPD Level 5 qualification. Her HR role gives her a real insight into – and understanding of – the challenges faced by businesses and the importance of getting it right. This means that the advice Joanne gives to clients reflects the reality of dealing with people, and the business’ culture, as well as the applicable legal issues.

John Brian

Full range of conveyancing services including development work, portfolio sales and purchases, acts for major lenders and estate agents as well as private clients. Co-founder of Sherrards in its current commercial form in 1995. Co-founded Homefast Property Lawyers in 2001 and managed the company until its sale to the Lending Solutions group of companies in 2005.

Jonathan Peet

Consultant

Karen Dobson

Partner in the commercial litigation and dispute resolution department and head of corporate recovery and insolvency. Karen handles a full range of commercial disputes with particular expertise in insolvency and insolvency-related litigation, banking litigation and asset finance litigation. She also has expertise in professional negligence claims. Her commercial and practical hands-on approach ensures that she has high levels of repeat business. Key clients include Aurora Leasing Limited, Habibsons Bank Plc, FRP Advisory LLP, Begbies Traynor, BDO, Quantuma LLP and Kingston Smith and Partners LLP. Chambers & Partners report: "She is not just commercially savvy but really sharp in her legal analysis and has very good instincts for cases. She is actually invested and cares about her cases". She is particularly recognised for her expertise in insolvency disputes.

Kiall Bagnell

Partner

Leigh Head

Partner in the corporate and commercial department. Predominantly involved in general corporate and M&A work, including private equity transactions, banking, financial and corporate restructuring whilst retaining a number of music and media industry clients including Graphite Media Limited, Bestival and Camp Bestival. Also acts for plc’s and privately owned SME businesses including household names in the world of franchising such as Winkworth Estate Agents, Headmasters and multiple unit franchisees within the Monkey Puzzle systems. Recent transactions include acting for the owners of Zund Plotting Systems Limited in the sale of the entire issued share capital to Zund Systemtechnik AG; continuing to act for Cambria Automobiles plc across various corporate and commercial activities including the restructure of the Group’s financial facilities and the acquisition and disposal of various Jaguar and Land Rover dealerships; acting for Bestival Limited in negotiations with production companies for filming rights for “The Festival”; continuing to act for Winkworth Franchising Limited across all corporate and commercial aspects of their franchise network and acting for ER Productions Limited, a specialist laser production company, in relation to their corporate and commercial requirement

Mark Fellows

Mark joined Sherrards' Employment team in July 2008, from an in-house role with BT plc and is now head of the Employment Team. Having spent much of his career in-house Mark has a real understanding of actual business requirements and offers commercial and pragmatic advice tailored to the needs of clients' businesses. Mark advises both employers and employees on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious employment law matters. This includes representation in relation to Employment Tribunal proceedings, advising on corporate transactions, providing employee relations guidance, drafting restrictive covenants and compiling appropriate employment documentation. Mark has experience working with businesses across numerous sectors including in particular retail, logistics, recruitment and pharmaceutical. Mark conducts seminars on developments in employment law, as well as providing in-house training to clients and is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association

Marta Grieve

 Marta joined Sherrards as the Head of The Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk in 2016 after practicing with a litigation boutique based in London. In previous years, Marta has been based in Kazakhstan and Ukraine and specialised in international arbitration and white-collar crime matters. Her particular expertise and experience is in complex multi-jurisdictional disputes that arise from corporate holdings and transactions connected to Russia, CIS and worldwide. She has successfully coordinated proceedings, including those arising out of FCPA, in numerous jurisdictions across a wide range of industries and had more recently focused her practice on asset tracing and debt recovery. Marta represents clients in a wide range of industries, including banking, energy, shipping, construction and telecom. She has represented governments and state-owned entities in both in contentious and non-contentious matters and has solid experience in investment arbitration matters.

Martin Halling

Consultant, commercial property

Matthew Ball

Matthew Ball is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution team and is the Head of the North Africa & Middle East desk. His clients range from SMEs and international corporations to high-net-worth individuals and professionals (notably surveyors, doctors and dentists), as well as Family Offices, Wealth & Asset Managers, property developers and investors, as well as those in the construction industry.

Michael Lewis

Partner

Nicole Marmor

Nicole is a private client lawyer who heads the Wills, trusts and probate department. Nicole acts for many high net worth individuals and her work includes advising on inheritance tax and estate planning via wills and trusts; the administration of estates, often with an international element; Court of Protection matters, including deputyships, lasting powers of attorney and enduring powers of attorney; elderly client matters; and declarations of trust. Nicole worked previously at Nabarros and Pritchard Englefield in London. She is a fluent German and French speaker and heads the firm’s German Group – something that is valued by her international clients.

Paul Marmor

Partner and head of litigation & dispute resolution, Paul focuses on substantial commercial litigation, particularly on international and multi-jurisdictional disputes. Much of Paul’s work is related to fraud and financial services. He is very active in Alliott Group Legal (www.alliottgroup.net), a worldwide alliance of law and accountancy firms. Paul regularly speaks at international conferences. He has been quoted in the UK Department for Internatioanl Trade publications and on their website and has made a video for the Law Society about its international division. Paul is very active in the IBA.

Stephanie Kierans

Partner, Commercial Property

Terry Fendt

Partner and head of commercial property; based in Sherrards’ St Albans office, Terry has over 30 years’ experience in commercial property. He provides specialist advice in retail property work, predominantly acting for well-known, multiple-outlet ‘high street’ retailers. He also undertakes office acquisitions and disposals (including at London ‘flagship’ locations) as well as for several London property surveying agencies who continue to recommend Terry to their clients. Major clients include FoodCo UK LLP (“Muffin Break”), Menkind Stores (including Red5), Rituals Cosmetics; Chop'D Limited, Esquires Coffee House and Henley Group.

Xueying (Laurel) Zhang

London based Solicitor Xueying (Laurel) Zhang heads up the firm’s China and Far East desk.  Laurel is a native Mandarin speaker, originally from Beijing, who graduated in law with first-class honours from one of China’s top universities.  She received a number of prizes for her academic achievements including the State Scientific Research prize for Law for Jiangsu Province, China. Laurel moved to the UK from mainland China to complete an LLM in International Business Law at UCL, before embarking on qualification as a Solicitor, and came to Sherrards from a boutique City law firm. Laurel has worked on a number of cross-border Corporate Chinese-related deals, and focuses on assisting our Chinese and Far Eastern corporate clients coming into the UK and Europe, by way of inward investment, as well as assisting our UK client base with their interests overseas, across China and the Far East. For example on a recent transaction, Laurel has involved in acting for Haier in the acquisition of the "cold chain” business and assets of Labtech International Limited and Verity Control Limited. Laurel has also had a number of academic legal articles published in the China National Social Sciences Journal, including one article published in the most prestigious Chinese journal: Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index, which is part of the China National Social Sciences Database, and also carried by Princeton University Library (ISSN: 1671-511X, Issue S2, pages 151 - 158).