Shoosmiths LLP

Abigail Gisbourne

  Abigail is a Senior Associate real estate lawyer dealing with all aspects of commercial property transactions. Abigail acts for regional and national clients including landlords, tenants, developers and investors. Her recent experience includes: acting for a multinational tech company with a presence in 130 countries in their lease agreement for new premises in the UK along with assisting on an agreement to surrender existing premises; assisting with the due diligence for a global tenant on a new lease at a purpose built logistics unit with an annual rent of £1.715 million; acting for a national haulage operation in their sale and purchase of strategic sites, including a portfolio purchase; acting for various corporate occupiers in all real estate matters/interests; acting for a REIT with its general landlord and tenant matters including the grant of leases and occupational licences; and assisting with the due diligence for a Government Body in relation to their lease regears. Abigail joined Shoosmiths in September 2017 after having qualified as a solicitor into Hogan Lovells LLP following a number of years as a Legal Executive.

Adam Frost

Adam is a Senior Associate based in the Shoosmiths’ Milton Keynes corporate team, having qualified into the team in April 2019. Adam has a wide range of expertise in corporate transactions, working with private equity houses, corporate entities and management teams on M&A transactions, disposals, investments, shareholder arrangements and general corporate governance. Adam’s recent deal experience includes advising on: Five Arrows Principal Investment’s sale of Umbria Topco Limited, the holding company of Opus 2, which is a provider of legal software; Ipsos’s acquisition of Karian and Box, a leading specialist in employee research and experience; the acquisition of Wizkids (five multi-jurisdictional entities) by the TextHelp group, who specialise in education accessibility tools and data synchronisation; the acquisition of Allocate Software by RL Datix, investee company of Five Arrows Principal Investments, TA Associates and Nordic Capital; US based Beeline group’s acquisition of JoinedUp group, a workforce management software provider, backed by the group’s investee company, New Mountain Capital; the purchase of the business and assets of Keysoe and the College Equestrian Centre; and the acquisition of Mintec Global, provider of food commodity price data and market intelligence, by Five Arrows Principal Investments. Adam has also gained significant experience on secondment, working within the legal functions of Volkswagen Group UK Ltd, Travelodge Hotels Ltd and Volkswagen Financial Services.  

Alan Corcoran

Alan Corcoran is a real estate lawyer in Shoosmiths' national real estate team. Alan advises on a range of commercial property related matters including investment and development work, site assembly, conditional sale and purchase agreements and options, together with broad asset management and property finance experience. His recent project experience includes advising long standing client, McKay Securities PLC, on the development and pre-let to St James Wealth of its 60,000 sq ft office development in Lombard Street, London, and the subject to planning disposal of a 1.1 acre site in Woking to Watkin Jones who plan to construct 350 build to rent apartments on the site. Alan also led the team which advised McKay on the real estate aspects of its recent £180 million revolving credit facility. Alan is recognised as a leader in his field of real estate by both Chambers and Partners and Legal 500. He has recently been noted in The Legal 500 Hall of Fame which highlights individuals who have received consistent praise by their clients for continued excellence. The Hall of Fame highlights, to clients, the law firm partners who are at the pinnacle of the profession as one of the elite leading lawyers for six consecutive years.

Aleksandr Bosch

Aleks is a Partner in the Milton Keynes corporate team, advising on acquisitions and disposals, private equity investments, shareholders' agreements, joint ventures, group reorganisations, corporate governance and compliance issues. Aleks works with a variety of clients including private companies, PLCs, management teams and high net-worth individuals. Recent project experience includes: acting for Five Arrows Principal Investments (Rothschild) on a number of transactions including its investment into Texthelp, a global leader in education technology and on the sale of White Clarke Group to IDS, backed by Thoma Bravo; acting for the selling shareholders and management on the sale of Metals and Materials to Advanced Scientific Materials Acquico, a newco backed by Battery Ventures; acting for Foundation Investment Partners and the management team of Strictly Education on numerous acquisitions and their subsequent exit to Supporting Education Group Limited; advising BGF on its investment alongside Peter Jones of Dragon’s Den, into e-commerce platform Localised Group and Retail Services Group; and acting for CBD business Cannaray, from start-up and its series A investments through to a number of follow-up investments and bolt-on acquisitions, including the acquisition of Therismos Limited.    

Alex Haider

Alex Haider is a Senior Associate in the clinical negligence department in Shoosmiths' Reading office. Before going to university to study law, Alex worked in the NHS as a staff nurse on a vascular surgery ward and in an intensive care unit. Alex manages cases arising from a wide variety of NHS and private medical care including delayed diagnosis of cancer, orthopaedic surgery, general surgery, ophthalmic treatments, GP errors and injuries to mothers and children occurring during labour. Some examples of cases that Alex has successfully concluded are: a settlement of over £300,000 arising from the negligent management of a wrist fracture resulting in the claimant having to abandon his career in the armed forces; a six-figure settlement due to nerve damage during a biopsy, resulting in weakness in the claimant's dominant arm; and a delay on the part of hospital doctors in the management of a young child who had swallowed a button battery, with the result that he sustained a full thickness burn to his oesophagus and required major surgery that could have been avoided.

Alexandra Triptree

Alexandra (Ali) is a finance and banking lawyer specialising in a range of debt finance work, including secured and unsecured, bilateral and syndicated lending both on a national and international level. She acts on behalf of either banks or borrowers (either corporate or private equity). Ali's experience includes acquisition finance, telecoms finance, project finance, debt restructuring as well as leveraged and investment grade corporate lending transactions. She has worked on a wide variety of transactions including: advising a South African mobile phone operator on its USD275,000,000 facilities from Chinese and South African lending institutions; advising an Indonesian mobile service provider on its USD40,000,000 facilities from an international investment management firm; advising a private equity house on various of its acquisition and unitranche facilities in connection with its separate purchases of a German payment institution, a French business intelligence company and an English insurance brokers; advising HSBC Bank plc in relation to over 20 banking facilities relating to its European Corporate Banking Centre; advising Bankmed SAL on over USD230,000,000 of term, payment and performance bond facilities in connection with the project finance of a powership.

Alexandra Tiptree

Alexandra (Ali) is a finance and banking lawyer specialising in a range of debt finance work, including secured and unsecured, bilateral and syndicated lending both on a national and international level. She acts on behalf of either banks or borrowers (either corporate or private equity). Ali's experience includes acquisition finance, telecoms finance, project finance, debt restructuring as well as leveraged and investment grade corporate lending transactions. She has worked on a wide variety of transactions including: advising a South African mobile phone operator on its USD275,000,000 facilities from Chinese and South African lending institutions; advising an Indonesian mobile service provider on its USD40,000,000 facilities from an international investment management firm; advising a private equity house on various of its acquisition and unitranche facilities in connection with its separate purchases of a German payment institution, a French business intelligence company and an English insurance brokers; advising HSBC Bank plc in relation to over 20 banking facilities relating to its European Corporate Banking Centre; advising Bankmed SAL on over USD230,000,000 of term, payment and performance bond facilities in connection with the project finance of a powership.

Amit Nayyar

Partner ,Corporate

Anna Richardson

Anna is a Principal Associate in the banking & finance team, based in the Solent Office. Anna undertakes all aspects of banking work with a focus on leveraged acquisition finance and with experience in asset and property finance as well as general corporate lending and portfolio management. Anna works for borrowers and lenders including corporates, individuals, high street and challenger banks and other (corporate and PE) financial institutions. Anna has experience working on bilateral and syndicated transactions, both nationally and internationally and is familiar with the LMA as well as most bank standard form finance documents. As well as corporate lending, Anna works with a number of our clients and their in house teams in preparing and maintaining standard form finance documents. Anna’s recent project experience includes: advising a high street bank in relation to a £20 million lend for the acquisition by a PE funder of a software company; advising a challenger bank in relation to circa £10 million of funding for two acquisitions of financial planning businesses; advising a leading venture capital house in relation to loan documentation, security packages and intercreditor arrangements to facilitate investment into growing businesses, in particular those with a focus on healthcare; advising a borrower on the English law elements of a €100 million loan from a syndicate of banks; and working with a bank client’s in house legal team to prepare and advise on a new standard form loan agreement.

Ayesha Chandegra

Ayesha is a Senior Associate in our Commercial Team, based in the Milton Keynes office and acts for a variety of clients particularly in the retail, automotive and technology sectors. Ayesha advises on a range of commercial matters including supply of services/goods, framework agreements, distribution and agency arrangements, IT (including SaaS) and outsourcing agreements. She also has specialist knowledge of consumer and e-commerce laws and regularly advises numerous large clients on its online sales platforms, including reviewing and drafting terms and conditions, website agreements (terms of use and cookie policies), internal policies and providing pragmatic advice on the client’s e-commerce customer journey to ensure it is compliant with such laws.   Ayesha has gained first-hand experience of working in an in-house environment by completing several client secondments including at a global car manufacturer and a leading recruitment and facility services provider. As a result, she understands the importance of providing commercial and practical solutions for her clients that are often faced with complex legal issues.    

Beth Jenkins

Beth is a banking and finance lawyer within the Shoosmiths Banking team and undertakes a wide variety of debt finance work, including corporate loans, acquisition, property and leverage finance. Beth acts for banks, borrowers and financial institutions and has experience of advising on both national and international transactions. Beth commenced her training contract at Shoosmiths in September 2017 and qualified into the Banking team in March 2019. Prior to her training contract, Beth worked as a paralegal in the Banking team.  

Brian West

Brian is a Partner and specialises in residential, mixed use and commercial development. He has experience of dealing with option and promotion agreements as well as letting agreements. Brian likes to take a proactive approach and build a rapport with clients to understand their business needs and reach a satisfactory result. Brian also has extensive experience of real estate matters including agreements, leases, sales and lettings management. Brian's recent work includes: acting for a number of national, regional and local house builders on the acquisition of development sites; advising on option and promotion agreements for developers and landowners; and dealing collaboration agreements and consortium sites.  

Charles Arrand

Partner

Chris George

Chris is a principal associate and specialises in acting for sophisticated landlord investors in relation to portfolio and high value/profile acquisitions and disposals, landlord and tenant matters including lease re-gears, new lettings, vacant possession programmes, finance lease structures and lease management. He also has significant expertise advising in the motor manufacturing, retail, leisure and late-night entertainment sectors while regularly acting for financial institutions, particularly in relation to real estate portfolio refinances. Chris’ recent projects include: providing ongoing advice to Volkswagen Group United Kingdom in relation to their national dealer portfolio; acting for London & Continental Railways Limited in its disposal of a key development site to facilitate the £200 million Oxpens Road, Oxford regeneration program; representing The Open University in its property reorganisation program involving acquisitions and disposals across various multi-million pound sites across the country; advising Almacantar in relation to a lease management scheme to obtain vacant possession to facilitate the redevelopment of London’s Centre Point tower; working as part of the property team carrying out the due diligence in relation to the £172 million share purchase of Park Holidays UK; advising health and fitness group of companies in connection with its fire-sale disposal of multiple health clubs; and working on a team representing a ‘Big Five’ UK bank in relation to a petrochemical company’s acquisition of a portfolio of filling stations.

Claire Rowe

As an adviser to Shoosmiths’ Partnership Claire provides experience and insight to the continuing benefit of the firm she has served for more than thirty years. Before stepping in to her current role, Claire was the elected chief executive officer (CEO) of Shoosmiths from 2009 to 2018, during which time she led the series of changes that has powered Shoosmiths from being a mid-range regional firm into the leading UK challenger is it today. Taking over as CEO when a UK recession was at its peak, she made and implemented a series of strategic decisions to focus the business on its commercial operations and extend its range across leading UK cities, including the opening and successful growth of new offices in Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh and Belfast and the delivery of a successful re-brand in 2012; all underpinned by a resolute commitment to the differentiator of client service and backed by investment in the firm’s people. A 30% increase in turnover and 230% growth of profitability accompanied this ten year-trajectory, together with a slew of legal sector awards have including Shoosmiths being named a top tier firm for client satisfaction in 2012 as well as winning “Law Firm of the Year” awards in both 2015 and 2018. Claire joined Shoosmiths in 1984 as a trainee solicitor and was rapidly promoted ‘through the ranks’ to become a partner in 1990. She led the firm’s dispute resolution team, and also the firm’s commercial practice group, prior to her election as CEO in June 2009. Her continuous commitment to the firm enabled her to drive an extraordinary amount of change without compromising the spirit of the business and its values. The qualities of balance, commercial pragmatism, warmth and courage she displays are highly valued by the firm in 2019 and beyond. In 2014, Claire was featured in The Lawyer’s “Hot 100” and is also a recognised role model for diversity.

Claire Checketts

Claire is a partner in the corporate team, advising on mergers and acquisitions, disposals and venture capital work. Claire works with a variety of clients including private companies, listed PLCs, management teams and owner managed businesses. Recent project experience includes advising: a joint venture company of Domino's Pizza UK and Ireland Limited on the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of AKS Partners Limited; the management team of Celaton Limited on the investment of £2.5 million by the Business Growth Fund; Downing LLP on a number of investments.

Claire Hayes

Claire is a Principal Associate in the Real Estate team. She has experience of a wide range of transactions, particularly specialising in residential development work. Claire has extensive experience of acting for developer clients on immediate and strategic development sites pursuant to conditional contracts and options, often including overage arrangements. She also acts for landowners. Claire's experience includes: acting for a number of well known house builders in the acquisition of land for both strategic and immediate development, advising developers on the disposal of affordable housing to registered providers, advising landowners in relation to promotion agreements to enable the possibility of development of sites; and working on site assembly and negotiating agreements for key infrastructure required to serve the London 2012 Olympic Park.  

Daniel Kennedy

Daniel is a partner in the firm's Tax department and heads up the firm's real estate tax practice. Daniel has acted for a broad range of real estate clients including institutional investors, private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds, REITs, developers, occupiers, high net worth individuals, charities and housing associations. He has therefore received exposure to all areas of the UK commercial and residential real estate markets. He has particular expertise in advising on the acquisition and development of student accommodation and care homes, having acted on some of the largest transactions in these sectors in the last few years. Daniel also has considerable experience in providing transactional corporate tax advice, including in relation to M&A, reorganisations, demergers, MBOs and other corporate transactions. In addition, Daniel has regularly advised on personal and employment tax matters (e.g. management taxation, termination payments) and charity tax issues (e.g. VAT recovery and application of tax reliefs).

Daniel Halstead

Partner

David Thompson

David is head of our national Pensions team and has 32 years' experience of working with clients and professionals in the pensions industry. He advises both trustees and sponsoring employers of occupational pension schemes on issues including the closure and re-structuring of defined benefit schemes; scheme mergers; buy-ins and buy-outs of pension scheme liabilities; asset-back contribution structures and contingent assets offered by employers to support pension scheme liabilities; the legal aspects of funding negotiations; drafting scheme documentation; dealing with The Pensions Regulator, and managing complex scheme entries into the Pension Protection Fund. David advises clients across all sectors, including manufacturing, retail and not-for-profit. Recent work on which David has advised includes: • a buy-in of scheme liabilities with an insurance company; • scheme closures and mergers; • long-term funding and de-risking agreements; • a Pension Increase Exchange exercise; • establishment of an asset-backed contribution structure; • the provision of contingent assets compliant with the Pension Protection Fund requirements; • transfers to DB and DC mastertrusts; • GMP conversion exercises; and • the pensions implications of corporate group re-structurings. David has acted in a number of high-profile pensions-related High Court cases. In 2012, he advised Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Limited on an application to the High Court for rectification of its scheme rules.  

Denise Stephens

Partner

Eleanor Grindley

Eleanor is a Senior Associate  and a member of the Real Estate Litigation (South) team. Her areas of expertise includes leasehold enfranchisement and landlord and tenant disputes within the long leasehold and living sector. Eleanor acts for clients including high net worth individuals, property funds and developers. Her work includes both advisory work and where necessary, as a litigator. She routinely deals with matters before the property chambers of the First Tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal (Residential Property)  as well as in County and High Court.

Elizabeth McKillop Paley

Liz is a Partner in our Southern Real Estate team. She is a highly experienced real estate adviser acting for several leading banks and borrowers on high value secured acquisition and development finance of both residential and commercial sites, acting for institutional landlords, corporate investors and occupiers on disposals and lettings and well as investment and development acquisitions. Liz also supports the corporate team with the property aspects of both share and asset sales in various sectors including healthcare, education and renewable energy. Recent experience includes: acting for long standing client McKay Securities Plc on its subject to planning disposal of a 1.1 acre site in Woking to Watkin Jones who plan to construct 350 build to rent apartments on the site and part of the team who advised on its recent £180 million RCF; advising a US global client on the management of its UK property portfolio and the taking of its new Headquarters lease in central London; leading the real estate team that advised a national care home provider on the disposal of its business and consequent assignment of 40 leases; and advising investors and developers on the real estate aspects of the acquisition, finance and disposal of various solar, wind energy and biomass sites across the UK

Emily Stocker

Emily is a Principal Associate in the national Real Estate team.  She deals with all aspects of non-contentious commercial property work and has particular experience in advising clients in the education, financing, transport and investment sectors. Emily's experience includes: Advising Hitachi Rail Limited on the property aspects of the £4.5bn Intercity Express Programme and on the acquisition of its manufacturing depot at Newton Aycliffe; Managing a cross-office national project enabling a major public sector client to renew 300 of its leases; Acting as the lead client contact for the property portfolio management of a major US insurer; Providing ongoing property advice for McKay Securities PLC, with a particular specialism in landlord and tenant work; Working with the national corporate team in acquisitions and disposals, especially for clients within the education sector; Acting for NATs; Providing ongoing advice to the Defence Infrastructure Organisation in respect of its property interests; and Managing a project for a major telecommunications retailer to franchise 87 of its stores. In 2016, Emily competed a six month secondment at the Bishopsgate office of the Royal Bank of Scotland Plc.  During this time, Emily provided in-house advice on general banking matters, finance agreements, and sales, purchases and sub-participations in the secondary loans market.  

Emily Utley

  Emily is a Principal Associate within the Technology, Digital and Commercial team. She is a highly experienced lawyer advising on a range of general commercial and technology matters across a wide range of industry sectors, in particular IT and sourcing projects. She has worked with clients on complex digital transformational projects, business critical systems procurements, software development and licensing and setting up a variety of sales channels. Emily’s experience includes advising: a global logistic company on the setting up of an offshore IT function with an Indian supplier with the option to transfer back inhouse after period of time; a leading automotive on its global framework agreement with a provider of a connected telematics based solution for its vehicles; a new entrant automotive company on its global sales channel strategy; an automotive manufacturer on its global framework agreement for supply of vehicle digital marketing services for location and purchase of pre-owned stock; a leading retailer on its IT transformation programme and the outsourcing of the group’s IT infrastructure and service management;; and a leading retailer on the disposal of part of its business by the group and subsequent ongoing transitional arrangements.

Emma Livesey

Emma is a Principal Associate in the Corporate team based in the Solent office. She advises on a wide range of corporate matters including acquisitions and disposals, private equity transactions, group reorganisations, investments, corporate governance and compliance issues. Emma works with a variety of clients including private equity investors, private companies, management teams and owner managed businesses. Recent transactions include: advising LDC and the shareholders of BOFA International on the sale of fume and dust extraction systems specialist BOFA International, whose headquarters are in Poole, to USA NYSE listed Donaldson Company Inc for a value of £90 million. Donaldson agreed to acquire an 88% stake in BOFA for £79 million valuing the business at £90 million and Emma assisted with both the disposal by LDC and management as well as advising management on their continued shareholding post-completion. This followed the initial advice Emma provided in August 2015 when LDC completed their investment into the company to support the £23 million management buyout of the previous management team; acting on the sale of Hamleys, the famous toy retailer to Reliance Industries in a deal worth nearly £70 million. Emma also worked on the previous sale of the group in 2015 to Chinese footwear group C.banner International; and advising the shareholders on the sale of specialist IT-provider Taylor Made Computer Solutions (TMCS) to Peach Technologies, creating one of the UK's biggest IT managed providers as a result. She was awarded the 'Young Dealmaker of the Year' award at the Solent Deals Awards 2019.

Felicity Forward

Felicity is a Principal Associate Solicitor in the Commercial, Technology, Media and Telecoms team.  Felicity advises clients on a full range of commercial arrangements, including compliance with consumer law, IT agreements, complex supply agreements for the provision of both goods and services, supply chain management and logistic agreements and distribution agreements. Felicity assists clients in navigating complex and developing areas of legal compliance, including consumer and privacy and data protection law (of which she has developed a specialism in consumer law).  Felicity advises clients on all elements of e-commerce sales, assists clients in preparing bespoke terms of sale and advises clients on data protection and data privacy requirements. Felicity's most recent experience includes: advising global automotive clients on the launch of their online vehicle sales platform; preparing a complex SAAS agreement for the provision of survey services for a global fast food chain; advising on and reviewing data protection compliance for global retailers, public sector bodies and automotive clients; advising an innovative online interior design marketplace on its compliance with UK consumer rights and e-commerce law; negotiating a warehousing and logistics agreement for an international furniture fitting supplier; and advising a global automotive client on their website terms and conditions, terms of use, cookie and privacy policies. Felicity has completed several client secondments across different sectors including working with several global car manufacturers and global logistic companies.  Felicity therefore has a full appreciation of the commercial and creative solutions that an in-house legal team comes to expect from its lawyers.  

Grace Mitchell

senior associate

Gwynneth Tan

Partner

Hannah Locke

Hannah qualified as a solicitor in February 2010 and joined the Solent Office as a Senior Associate in June 2020. With over 10 years practical conveyancing experience, Hannah has conduct of a variety of Conveyancing case-load matters, including freehold and leasehold matters, new-build properties, deeds of variation, lease extensions, right to buy and shared-ownership. Hannah has been accredited to the Conveyancing Quality Scheme as part of the firm’s wider accreditation to this industry-standard scheme.

Heather Chandler

Heather is an experienced pensions partner advising employers, trustees, actuaries, accountants and other legal specialists and firms on all aspects of pensions matters relating to occupational and personal pension arrangements, both contract and trust based. Her style is proactive, focusing on a thorough understanding of all the issues whilst developing pragmatic solutions to reach manageable and long term outcomes. She has a strong understanding of the issues and obligations of both employers and trustees when dealing with pension matters. Recent work undertaken by Heather includes: • advising association on investment powers and responsibilities and assisting with assessment of investment strategy; • advising clients on corporate transactions involving reorganisations on cross border sales and acquisitions; • advising an employer on its auto-enrolment duties and communicating with its members and employees effectively and in accordance with the auto-enrolment regime; • providing independent advice to employers on employment issues relating to pensions, including executive terminations and also advising on contractual issues relating to pensions and interpretation; • advising the trustees of a pension plan on the buy-out of their scheme involving contract drafting, confirmation as to benefit entitlements, advice on GMP equalisation and other data issues, member communications and trustee indemnity protections; • attending regular trustee meetings and advising on an ongoing basis on scheme management for trustees; • on not-for-profit schemes and company schemes providing advice to trustees on issues of interpretation, drafting errors and proposals put forward by sponsoring employers to make changes to the scheme and the resolution of disagreements around interpretation; • bespoke pensions training for trustees, associations. authorities and corporate clients; • drafting and negotiating documents for trustees on scheme merger relating to a multi section scheme with multiple rules; • notifiable events risk assessment, advice for employers as to whether a course of action require notification; • provision of guidance to trustees on their obligation in respect of data protection, preparing of privacy notices; • bespoke trustee secretarial service and governance advice. Heather is herself a pension scheme trustee and works closely with other advisers in that capacity to manage an occupational scheme and is also on the governance committee of a contract based scheme..  She has experience with not-for profit clients including unions, trade associations and charities and is a trustee of a mental health charity based in Milton Keynes. Heather also oversees the team’s transactional practice utilising her 20+ years of experience in managing cross border and multi-jurisdictional as well as multi firm transactions.  She heads up the teams offering to other law firms who need to buy in pensions transactional and advisor experience.  Heather also managed the team's data protection response and supports advice for scheme trustees, involving the specialist data protection team at Shoosmiths as necessary.  Heather also works closely with the employment teams working on employee and employer pension issues on termination of contract and relating to compliance with Auto Enrolment.

Hollie Weller

Hollie is a Senior Associate specialising in Clinical Negligence. Hollie is passionate about the work which she undertakes, in particular she feels a great empathy with clients, empowering them to improve their circumstances having suffered from negligence, which can often be life altering. More recently, Hollie assists Lead Partner, Denise Stephens, on complex Cerebral Palsy and Spinal Injury claims, which are extremely high value requiring dedication, enthusiasm and attention to detail. Hollie has represented individuals suffering from: the loss of a loved one as a result of clinical negligence; psychiatric injury as a result of still birth; complex biliary injuries as a result of gall bladder removal; a brain injury as a result of spinal anaesthesia contamination; and cerebral palsy and brain injuries as a result of mismanagement of labour. Hollie feels she has found a vocation in representing clients who have experienced the trauma of clinical negligence, building strong relationships with those instructing her. She is committed to providing clients with the best service possible and ensuring the best possible outcome

Holly Hirst

Holly is a Partner, corporate lawyer with a particular focus on private equity and private M&A transactions. Holly works with private equity houses, corporate entities, individual shareholders and management on both acquisitions and disposals of their investments in private companies, as well as providing general on-going corporate advice. Holly also has experience in advising on cross-border transactions in a number of different industry sectors. Recent experience includes advising: Datix on its acquisition of RL Solutions; Kelso Place and management on the sale of RED Driving School; Five Arrows Principal Investments on their acquisition of the Karnov Group; and Downing LLP on their investment into the Magnus Care Home Group.

Ian Nobbs

Ian is a part of the Defended Team based in Solent and is a Senior Associate. Ian has experience of dealing with defended Small Claims, Fast Track and Multi Track cases up to trial as well as Application hearings. He also manages a variety of matters involving insolvency, bankruptcy, asset recovery, and enforcement of County Court Judgments. Ian has a wide variety of litigation experience, dealing with a broad range of clients from the building, media, recruitment and financial sectors. His recent work experience includes:- successfully obtaining a County Court Judgment at trial against a large karaoke bar and restaurant who had failed to obtain a copyright music licence. Full costs were also awarded; recovering over £150K for a Recruitment Consultancy client after commencing winding up proceedings; settling a large dispute by way of a Part 36 offer and recovering full costs for the client.  

Jade Souch

  Jade is a senior associate in the RSG team based in Solent. Jade specialises in defended commercial litigation. She acts for a number of clients within the credit insurance, recruitment, utilities and trade creditor industries. Jade has particular expertise in advising clients on a wide range of contractual disputes and commercial debt recovery claims. She also has experience in alternative dispute resolution including mediation and insolvency related work, including bankruptcy and winding-up proceedings.

Jess Ready

Jess acts for developers, institutional landlords, corporate investors and occupiers on disposals, acquisitions and lettings, as well as providing property assistance in corporate transactions. Jess’s recent experience includes advising: • an air navigation service provider in relation to its day to day occupational requirements including acquisitions and leases of radar and navigation sites and disposals of non-operational sites, with specialist input in relation to its requirements as a Code Operator; • the UK’s leading rolling stock financier and asset management company on its acquisition of the freehold interest in the largest specialist rolling stock storage site in the country; • on the acquisition of warehouse/logistics premises for a multinational electronics client with a deal value of £23m; • on the asset management of a London based investor with a large national property portfolio as well as its acquisition and disposal programmes; • a property investment company on the £220m property refinance, redevelopment and letting of restaurants and retail units at a landmark asset in Central London; and • landowner and developer clients on the grant of wayleave agreements relating to back haul provision as well as rooftop and greenfield sites.

Joanne Sear

Joanne is a Principal Associate (Barrister) in regulatory and criminal lawyer, with significant experience of investigations and prosecutions by various regulatory agencies including the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, the Health and Safety Executive, Local Authorities and OFSTED. She previously worked for the Environment Agency, where she advised on enforcement and dealt with all aspects of prosecutions and civil sanctions. She has a particularly specialised knowledge of environmental law. Joanne has recent experience acting for businesses following significant pollution incidents, including assisting clients with internal investigations, and helping them to submit high-value Enforcement Undertakings (which offer an alternative to prosecution). She also advises clients on compliance with environmental regulation. Since joining Shoosmiths in 2017, Joanne has advised clients following fatal and serious accidents involving employees and customers, businesses facing nuisance complaints, retailers facing prosecution for trading standards offences, and companies who are the subject of allegations of breach of planning control. Joanne qualified as a barrister in 2005 and spent the early part of her career in independent practice. She defended and prosecuted criminal cases in the Magistrates, Crown and appeal courts. She is an accomplished advocate who understands how the criminal justice system operates. Her previous experience prosecuting for the Environment Agency and defending in criminal cases has given her a thorough understanding of regulatory enforcement in practice.

Joanne McGuiness

Joanne has considerable experience in advising on all aspects of commercial real estate transactions and the property aspects of corporate based matters. Her practice encompasses development work in the Rail, Industrial, Retail and Leisure sectors as well the large scale portfolio management, disposals and acquisitions in the retail, leisure and corporate occupier sectors and complex strategic acquisitions. Joanne acts for a number of well know developers, retailers, insurers, manufactures and corporate occupiers. Joanne heads up the Real Estate Team in the Solent office.

Joanne McGuinness

Partner

Jonathan Naylor

With 25 years’ experience advising on employment law, Jonathan is seen as a go-to contact for HR directors on complex matters such as equality and discrimination law; transfers of undertakings; trade union recognition and industrial action; restructuring and contractual changes; and post-termination restrictions. Having practised as a barrister before also qualifying as a solicitor, Jonathan is a skilled tribunal advocate, appearing regularly in employment tribunals and the EAT. On a number of occasions, he has obtained costs awards for various clients against Claimants following the successful defence of tribunal claims (such awards being extremely rare in tribunal proceedings). Jonathan also has detailed experience of handling large-scale strategic projects, such as significant corporate restructures; complex TUPE transactions; wide-ranging employment contract reviews and variations; senior leadership changes; and developing good relationships with workplace unions and representative bodies. A further aspect of Jonathan's role is to develop, tailor and present training for clients, which he does on a regular basis. Recent topics have included TUPE; handling restructuring processes; defending employment tribunals; equality and diversity; and employee use of email, internet and social media.

Jonathan Smart

Jon is the head of Shoosmiths’ mobility sector, overseeing the firm’s growth across automotive, rail, logistics and the future of transport. He also leads the firm's commercial litigation practice advising on complex, high value commercial disputes and is recommended in the 2024 Legal 500 Guide and Chambers and Partners 2024. His practice has a particular emphasis in: IT and outsourcing disputes; contract and supply chain litigation; and corporate and shareholder disputes. Jon has a particularly strong reputation in the automotive and technology sectors and works with a number of leading automotive manufacturers and global IT companies including Volkswagen Group, Mercedes Benz and Honda. Jon is also a member of the Society for Computers and Law. Recent work includes: acting for a global automotive manufacturer in a £35 million breach of contract claim in the High Court; pursuing claims for a US technology company in respect of a multi-million pound dispute arising from a global IT outsourcing agreement; advising a leading FTSE 100 company in respect of a £40 million supply chain dispute involving a leading retail chain; defending a leading IT company from claims exceeding £20milllion arising from an complex software development project;  defending one of the world's leading automotive brands from a $19 million multi-jurisdictional contractual claim; and acting in the matter of HHH v GGG in defending a £40 million claim arising from the payment of bribes to a foreign public official, which are the subject of a parallel criminal investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. Jon is regularly asked to contribute to leading publications and is the author of the Lexis Nexis chapter on “Termination of Distribution Agreements” and co-author of the first edition of the Artificial Intelligence Country Comparative Guide for Legal 500. Testimonials  “Jon Smart is an exceptional partner who fights hard to secure the best outcome for … his clients and has led the team on a number of impressive cases.” - Legal 500 ‘‘Jonathan Smart is a standout partner. He is bright, likeable, efficient and an excellent legal strategist.’’- Legal 500 "Jonathan Smart is exceptionally bright and provides sound advice. He is able to look beyond the legal elements of a case and advise with his clients’ business needs and commercial interests in mind” - Legal 500 “Jonathan Smart is a very hands-on partner. He can parachute into cases at short notice and lead counsel as necessary in the absence of his associates.” - Legal 500 “Jonathan is commercially astute, with the client's interests at his core.” - Chambers UK

Julia Ishak

Julia heads the commercial team in Solent. She specialises in commercial contracts and is experienced in a wide variety of commercial arrangements including supply chain and risk management, procurement, framework agreements, outsourcing, agency, distribution, partnering and collaboration. Julia has significant experience advising clients on strategic, complex and business critical projects both nationally and internationally across a wide range of industries. She has particular expertise in facilities management, manufacturing, waste, logistics and retail. Her recent experience includes: drafting and negotiating global framework procurement arrangements worth in excess of £1.2 billion for business critical direct materials for a top-ten FTSE FMCG business; assisting a leading supplier of LPG with the restructuring of its entire cylinder wholesale and retail distribution network including arrangements with each tier of its partner network; drafting a template agency agreement for one of the largest consumer electrical buying groups in Europe partnering across its 600 plus agency network; advising on a potential £375 million total facilities management outsourcing as main contractor at MOD sovereign base areas in British Overseas Territories; advising on structuring and drafting template global framework goods and services procurement agreements for multiple group buyers / suppliers for a top-ten FTSE FMCG business; negotiating national warehousing and logistics arrangements for one of the largest consumer electrical buying groups in Europe; and drafting a suite of template procurement agreements for a household-name international print and digital media business.

Kate Garcia

Kate is a Partner in the Tax team, based in the Solent Office. She advises on all aspects of corporate and business taxation, with a particular focus on real estate transactions and property taxes. Kate also enjoys handling contentious tax matters, including disputes with HMRC and tax appeals. She obtained Higher Rights of Audience (All Higher Courts) in 2007 and became the youngest solicitor advocate to appear in the Court of Appeal in the successful case of Revenue and Customs Commissioners v Smallwood [2007] BTC 347. She is also a proponent of alternative dispute resolution and is a CEDR Accredited Mediator. Kate is a Chartered Tax Adviser and member of the Stamp Taxes Practitioners Group.

Kate Connolly

  Kate is a Principal Associate in the Commercial Litigation team. She advises both national and international commercial clients on a wide variety of commercial disputes, including contractual disputes and termination, enforcement of restrictive covenants and complex debt recovery. Kate is well versed in forms of alternative dispute resolution including mediation. One of her more recent highlights was being a part of the team representing an international telecommunications company in arbitration proceedings in Dubai, in relation to a multi-million dollar claim against an equipment supplier. Kate also has experience working on a variety of contentious insolvency matters and has been instructed on various cases involving antecedent transactions, misfeasance and wrongful trading claims, and claims in respect of outstanding directors’ loan accounts. In 2018, she successfully completed the Insolvency Practitioners Association’s CPI exam and obtained The Certificate of Proficiency in Insolvency.

Kevin McCavish

Kevin is the head of Shoosmiths' London and Thames Valley Employment Team and leads its International Employment Group. Kevin has over 20 years of experience in providing legal support on employment related matters to in-house legal departments and HR teams. Kevin has an additional advantage of having trained, qualified and practised as a barrister. Kevin’s practice focuses on resolving employee relations issues, litigation disputes (often complex or with reputational repercussions), providing transactional support and assisting with senior executive hires/exits. He regularly supports international clients on establishing UK operations, managing employee relations, global restructurings and establishing global advice helplines. Kevin’s clients are diverse including start-ups, banks/hedge funds, manufacturers and construction firms. Kevin likes to thoroughly understand his clients’ businesses to effectively manage their employment issues, consistent with their culture. Recent relevant work handled by Kevin includes advising: • a wealth management company in navigating an allegation of serious sexual misconduct brought by one employee against another. • a foreign owned utilities company on a national redundancy exercise including collective consultation obligations. • an international marketing group on the termination of employment of a senior executive with a contract of employment governed by English and Welsh law whilst on secondment to a subsidiary company in California and who also benefitted from Californian legal protection. • a third sector employer on successfully responding to industrial action (including strike action). • on the termination of a partner from an LLP following underperformance and failure to attend the office on a sufficient basis following the ending of Covid-19 restrictions. • a large UK charity in an unfair dismissal and automatic unfair dismissal claim arising out of alleged breaches and whistleblowing concerns related to Covid-19 and health & Safety regulations. • a financial services company (US subsidiary) facing claims for disability discrimination by an employee’s line manager (head of legal) and responding to internal grievance and whistleblowing allegations. • defending a US owned IT company from allegations of race discrimination and unfair dismissal where the employee was claiming in excess of £2m in compensation. • a large employer in a claim before the Central Arbitration Committee for alleged failure to disclose information for collective bargaining purposes. • a US construction company on the employee implications and process of a pre-pack purchase of an IT company from an administrator. • in respect of allegations of sexual harassment and unequal pay brought by a senior member of staff based in the UK against her line manager who was based in the US in a Japanese owned company. • a private equity company concerning alleged inappropriate interactions between a senior member of staff exercising undue influence over a junior employee. • a bank in respect of allegations of A-Class drug taking on office premises by senior members of the HR team. • a train operator on secondment of staff for training purposes to a third party involving contractual variations, TUPE and trade union related issues. Negotiating the terms and conditions with the third party including general and TUPE related indemnities. • a US owned multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company against claims of sex discrimination by a mid-level manager against senior members of the management team. • conducting an investigation on behalf of a FCA regulated firm (US subsidiary) and reporting to its conduct committee in connection with a whistleblowing allegation made by an overseas employee against a non-executive director of its UK entity. • a BBC production company on its relocation from London to Media City, Salford, including transferring services/production teams between companies. Kevin advised on changing terms and conditions, redundancies and TUPE implications of various proposals. • one of the world's largest communication/publishing and media group company (employing over 60,000 professionals) on the high profile and controversial partial closure of one of its group companies and intra group transfer of client relationships/employees. • a firm regulated by the SRA and a senior member of staff in respect of allegations of, amongst other things, racial harassment. • a firm regulated by the FCA concerning a senior member of staff (with SMF functions) who admitted to use of an A-class drug. • an asset management company on a high profile team hire, the TUPE implications of that hire and restraint of trade issues. • a utilities subsidiary of a Dutch parent company on a sensitive sexual harassment and assault claim lodged against its CEO. • on recognition and collective agreements including negotiating with trade unions and their lawyers. • coordinating an international asset acquisition of an oil exploration company in a number of jurisdictions. • members of a political party in a claim brought by a member of staff for, amongst other things, alleged bullying. Kevin also represented Elaine Day in her claim against HRH the Prince of Wales’s Household (now King Charles III). Kevin regularly provides in-house training on employment law/practices/procedures (including Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) to senior management and In-house Legal/HR. Kevin is ranked as a "Recommended Lawyer" and is in the “Hall of fame" in the Legal 500 and "Band 1" in Chambers, a ranking he has held for 17 years.  He has also been recognised by Acritas as a leading HR lawyer and is a Recommended Lawyer in Who's Who Legal: Labour, Employment & Benefits 2023.

Kiran Dhesi

Kiran leads Shoosmiths’ private equity offering in the London office, advising PE sponsors, investee companies and management teams. Kiran also acts as lead counsel on a variety of M&A cross-border transactions across a breath of sectors. Recent experience includes advising: • Five Arrows Growth Capital on its investment into Biophorum • the sellers of White Clarke Group (including its sponsors Five Arrows Principal Investments) to IDS, backed by Thoma Bravo • RLDatix (and its sponsors Five Arrows Principal Investments and TA Associates) on its acquisition of Allocate Software from Hg Capital and Vista Partners • the management team of the Nav 365 People, including its sponsor FPE Capital LLP on their investment into a platform supported by Providence Equity • the sellers of Ixaris (including its sponsors, the Foresight Group) on its sale to Nium • Livingbridge on its investment into Quorum Cyber • the management team of Talking Talent on the investment by Bridges Fund Management Kiran was shortlisted for Young Dealmaker of the Year  at the Thames Valley Deal Awards 2019.

Kirsten Hewson

Kirsten Hewson is head of the real estate division at Shoosmiths, responsible for driving forward the strategy and vision of one of the largest real estate practices in the UK. As divisional head, Kirsten manages more than 270 legal advisers, including UK-wide teams in core real estate, construction, planning and real estate litigation. The teams are integrated across offices and managed nationally, so that well-leveraged teams (including relevant specialisms) can be selected to meet precisely the needs of project. This client-centred approach, which encourages both collaboration and flexibility, is frequently cited as a benefit by Shoosmiths’ real estate clients who include developers (residential and commercial), investors, occupiers and institutional lenders. A key focus for the real estate division is the continuing development of integrated solutions to clients, including the innovations and efficiencies (including AI) that clients expect in a changing – and potentially challenging – market. Before being appointed divisional head in 2018, Kirsten led Shoosmiths’ planning, environment and CPO team, doubling its size and gaining a top ten ranking in the prestigious Planning Law survey 2018. She is described in the current edition of Chambers UK as “a seasoned planning lawyer who is commercially-minded." A refreshingly ‘outside-in’ thinker who is not afraid to challenge law firm norms, she is valued by clients - and by Shoosmiths’ leadership team - for her strategic insights.

Kirsty Chalkley

Kirsty advises on a broad range of real estate matters with a particular focus on commercial development work including pre-lets and forward funding transactions. She has extensive experience managing property portfolios for major plc clients and household names and deals with all aspects of Landlord and Tenant work. Kirsty acts for a wide variety of clients including developers, investors, landlords and occupational tenants principally in the Later Living sector and in the retail, licensed and leisure sectors. Kirsty's experience includes: • managing acquisitions for Revolution Bars Group PLC on its ambitious bar restaurant roll out programmes, and managing all aspects of its property portfolio; • acting for private commercial development companies on conditional acquisitions, sub-sales, disposals, pre-lets and forward funding arrangements; • advising Mercedes-Benz on all aspects of its property portfolio, including acquisitions and disposals, development of new dealerships and real estate asset management matters; and • dealing with conditional turn-key development agreements for a well-known national hotel chain.

Linda Williams

Linda is a legal director and advises on corporate lending, leveraged finance, real estate finance and asset based lending transactions. She has over 20 years' experience advising financial institutions, borrowers, investors and other stakeholders on debt financing structures, key finance documents (including security, guarantee and intercreditor arrangements) and the respective negotiating positions of the parties. Linda has recently advised on the following transactions: advising a major bank on the £30 million financing of a group which invests in joint venture practices with individual practitioners and associated intercreditor arrangements and co-existent bilateral facilities from other lenders; advising a major bank on a £12 million refinancing for a commercial laundry business with the senior facilities secured on the property portfolio; advising a listed plc on its £15 million revolving credit and term loan facilities made available by a bank for acquisition finance purposes; advising on the restructuring of £20 million facilities for a major high street retail chain; acting for equity investment house on a portfolio of acquisitions; and advising an equity house on the £100 million invoice financing facility being made available to fund the investment vehicle for a major joint venture.

Lisa Williams

Lisa is a real estate lawyer specialising in development, acting principally for land owners. Lisa is a Partner in Shoosmiths’ Real Estate department based in Milton Keynes. She has a broad range of experience in all aspects of commercial property but in recent years she has specialised in the sale and purchase of land for strategic and immediate development. She has extensive experience in acting for land owners on the negotiation of complex overage deeds, collaboration agreements, planning promotion agreements, option agreements and hybrids. Lisa’s specialist knowledge of agricultural law is key to ensuring the land owners can manage and use their land during the promotion and/or planning process but still deliver vacant possession when required. Lisa also specialises in the purchase and sale of and development of land as mobile home parks, holiday parks, the acquisition of inland marinas as well as acting for landowners on the development of land for renewable energy sources. She is also a member of the Shoosmiths Private Wealth team. Lisa’s clients value her for her honest, no nonsense approach. She takes a practical and commercial view and is very quick to respond. She can make the most complicated deal accessible. Examples of work undertaken: acting for London and Continental Railways on the sale of the land to a joint venture company set up by Oxford City Council and Oxford University’s Nuffield College. The land in the Oxpen's area of Oxford is to be developed as part of a new neighbourhood with up to 500 homes plus offices, academic buildings and commercial space in a £200 million revamp of Oxford’s west end; acting for a farming partnership of six individuals on the sale of a 100 acres site in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. The Wellingborough North Development is set to have up to 3,000 new homes along with community facilities and commercial space and will be developed over three phases. The transaction involved deferred consideration secured by a first legal charge and complex overage provisions for which Lisa’s penchant for arithmetic was invaluable; in 2013 Lisa led the Shoosmiths team who acted on behalf of Park Holidays UK Limited in the £172 million sale of its entire issued share capital by independent private equity investor Graphite Capital to Caledonia Investments Limited a self-managed fund; and since 2003 Lisa has acted on behalf of the Tingdene group of companies, a leader in the park home sector, on the purchase, sale, development and management of mobile home parks, holiday parks and inland marinas.  

Lisa Sigalet

Lisa is a Partner within the Corporate department, based in the Solent office. Lisa advises on a wide range of corporate matters and her experience includes advising on acquisitions, disposals, reorganisations and corporate governance. Recent transactions include: acting for Benefex Limited in relation to the initial investment by Business Growth Fund, the first BGF investment in the UK, as well as various corporate matters including acquisitions, disposals and restructuring, and on the subsequent exit of BGF as investors following a purchase from Bain Capital Private Equity; acting for Meridian Growth Capital Limited on a number of investments, including advising on the initial investment into the start up loveholidays Limited in 2012 and the eventual £190 million sale to Livingbridge Private Equity; acting for the Matchtech plc group on the acquisition of Application Services Limited and the subsequent placing of shares on AIM; and advising Portchester Equity on a number of investments and disposals, including Chevron, Hi Technology Group and St Francis Veterinary Services.    

Luke Coleborn

Luke is a principal associate commercial litigation solicitor with Shoosmiths’ risk and litigation services department, based in Solent, Hampshire. Luke deals with contractual and tortious disputes - mostly in the automotive, construction, insurance or technology sectors - advising clients such as Volkswagen, Honda, IKEA and GAME, amongst others. He also advises companies and former shareholders in disputes regarding the sale and purchase of shares and undertakings, and retailers and other blue-chip companies in commercial disputes relating to contractual interpretation and breach, negligence, misrepresentation etc. Recent work includes: advising international manufacturers and insurers, national retailers and regional distributors in matters relating to consumer rights and protections, including product liability claims and product recall campaigns; advising sellers of a national waste management and disposal company in High Court proceedings brought by the buyers, seeking multi-million pound damages for breach of SPA warranties relating to land and legal and financial liabilities, breach of covenants relating to tax and for indemnities covering costs and expenses; and advising an international motor racing team on breach of a sponsorship agreement in a well-known motor racing tournament.

Marcus Devanny

Marcus is a Senior Associate in our Southern Real Estate team. He is a specialist with a wealth of expertise and experience in investment portfolio sales and acquisitions and landlord and tenant lease and asset management. Marcus’ experience includes: Acting for some of the UK’s largest property investment funds including Scottish Widows, Aberdeen Asset Management and AEW; Advising on large scale portfolio acquisitions and disposals and all aspects of corporate support transactions; Advising a high-end retailer in relation to its retail and restaurant occupational portfolio throughout the UK; including advising in relation to a complex Agreement for Lease; Advising U.S. based global engineering company in relation to all aspects of its commercial property portfolio; Acting for an anchor status letting in Birmingham, renewal of existing Leases in Knightsbridge and Bristol and advising in relation to its Head Office relocation; Advising one of the country’s leading corporate travel agencies in relation to its relocation programme and occupational lease portfolio in England and Wales; Advising on all aspects of asset management for investment fund McKay Securities PLC; Advising RBS, Natwest, Coutts and Direct Line in relation to the RBS Group’s property portfolio of in excess of 800 properties in relation to all aspects of freehold and leasehold acquisitions and disposals and day to day asset management of its property portfolio; Advising a global fashion retailer on all aspects of its occupational property portfolio in England and Wales; Advising one of the world’s largest technical, professional, and construction services companies in all aspects of its occupational leasehold portfolio in England and Wales; and Advising a global technology company in relation to its property portfolio and assisting with the property aspects of its global restricting programme. His most recent highlights include: Complex lease restructuring and relocation programme involving anchor and other key tenants of a leading UK shopping centre; Acting for local authority in relation to its £68m acquisition of multi let office building as part of its commercial real estate acquisition programme; Sale of large disused industrial factory in south wales to the Welsh Government for regeneration as a technical college. Transaction involved drafting negotiating and advising on complex overage and environmental provisions; Acting for US Global Engineering company in relation to its sub letting of a flagship London property to a US Flexible Working company, involving multiple consents, high value capital contribution, escrow arrangements including complex payment and repayment mechanisms and alterations to the whole property; Complex agreement for lease (involving the grant 11 leases and multiple variations to the existing patchwork lease structure), including development obligations to convert a large atrium area into lettable space on behalf of a global fashion retailer in respect of its central London landmark listed building; and Sale of a large, single let, investment property in Hampshire

Mark Shepherd

Partner

Mehar Patel

Mehar Patel is a Partner in Shoosmiths’ Real Estate team, specialising in property finance, development, landlord and tenant work, and portfolio management. He has a wide experience of dealing with large-scale property financing across multiple property portfolios acting for banks, non-bank lenders, mezzanine lenders, funds, and borrowers. Mehar also has a range of experience across a broad spectrum of property types, acting for developers, local authorities, landlords and tenants, and investment acquisitions and disposals of real estate assets for funds. In addition, he is well versed in providing corporate support in company and business acquisitions, equity injections/withdrawals and sales.

Nathan Rees

Partner

Navi Atwal

Navi is a Senior Associate based in our Milton Keynes office and provides strategic and commercial advice on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious employment law issues. Navi advises a wide range of national clients, including a number of commercial household brands, in a range of sectors including, logistics, retail, higher education and energy. Whilst Navi primarily advises employers, she has supported individual employees in successfully negotiating settlements and advising on post-termination restrictions. Navi manages a number of complex employment tribunal claims for employers, which includes defending allegations of unfair and constructive unfair dismissal, holiday pay and discrimination claims. Navi has a particular interest in employee data protection matters and is a member of employment data protection team. Navi prides herself in knowing her clients’ businesses and building strong relationships with HR teams. This provides her with valuable insight into the business, enabling an understanding of a client’s preferred outcomes and for Navi to provide pragmatic, tailored advice. Navi’s recent experience includes: successfully negotiating a complex, multi-claim disability discrimination claim which had been running for over three years for a logistics client, avoiding a 12 day Final Hearing. This involved working as an extension to the Legal and HR Team in providing strategic advice in relation to a claimant who had raised over 15 grievances, and five separate claim forms; advising a global finance software technology platform in the management of a TUPE-related, business merger and subsequent redundancy process; robustly defending disability discrimination claims for a higher education institution, with a valuation by the claimant close to £1 million; providing strategic day-to-day advice on a number of employee relation issues, including, long-term absence issues, disciplinaries, grievances and redundancies; working to protect clients' business interests in connection with the exits of senior employees and team moves, including successfully negotiating exits for key employees; regularly carrying out advocacy in the Employment Tribunal, successfully representing clients at case management and substantive preliminary hearings in relation to jurisdictional issues; supporting and working closely with corporate colleagues in relation to the employment aspects of national and global sales, acquisitions and investments, including advising on contracts/service agreements, restrictive covenants and settlement agreements; drafting employment agreements and policies and ensuring compliance with all aspects of employment legislation; and advising businesses on a range of employee data protection issues, including managing complex data subject access requests. Navi regularly writes and delivers training to clients on a range of employment law issues and is a regular speaker at Shoosmiths’ national employment seminars, and contributor to articles published by the firm. Navi has been elected as the Milton Keynes Employee Representative and regularly advises and supervises on a pro bono basis through the Milton Keynes’s Citizens Advice Bureau and the Midlands Employment Law Clinic. Navi is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association.

Nicholas Dalgleish

Nick is a Principal Associate in the Thames Valley Real Estate Team, and has experience in all aspects of real estate work. His experience includes the acquisition and disposal of retail and office schemes, and acting for corporate occupiers and institutional landlords with significant property holdings (including property investment trusts, major PLC clients and private companies).  Nick acts on all landlord and tenant matters, ranging from retail, office and industrial space lettings to relocations and day to day asset management of property portfolios. Nick was seconded to a key client in 2015 and acted in the role of property director managing the client’s property portfolio, managing all aspects of property strategy, asset management, sales and liaison with external advisers. Nick also has experience in the Telecommunications letting market (both on the landlord and tenant side) and has worked for a number of institutional landlords whose business focus is on providing sites to Telecomms operators. Nick also advises institutional landlords on a varied spectrum of telecoms related matters particularly in light of the changing market landscape following the new Code coming in at the end of 2017. His recent experience includes advising: a large investment trust on the sale of a retail shopping centre for £285 million; on the relocation of a toy maker’s main UK distribution hub with a deal value of £20 million; on the relocation a key southern distribution depot for a plant hire company on a complex site being CPO’d for use by HS2; a property trust on multiple new lettings and re-gears and subsequent sale of one of its key modern and recently refurbished office letting premises in Maidstone with a deal value in excess of £8 million; a large investment trust on multiple significant strategic lettings, tenant relocations, complex development agreements and documenting various tenant incentives / capital contributions and considerations of Construction Industry Scheme and tax consequences at a retail shopping centre with a deal value in excess of £12 million; a significant developer on a retail tenant offering for a mixed use development project in Harlseden; and a construction client on the real estate aspects for a complicated site being sold in Gloucestershire as part of a business and asset sale.  

Nick Holland

Partner

Nina Smith

Nina is joint head of office for Thames Valley and a partner in Shoosmiths’ corporate department, advising a wide variety of clients, including professional equity investors (both PE and VCs), PLCs, large private companies, management teams and owner managers on a range of corporate transactions including acquisitions and disposals of companies and businesses, management buy-outs and buy-ins and company reorganisations. Nina is also a member of the Shoosmiths Private Wealth team. Nina’s recent experience includes: advising LDC on the sale of ByBox to US PE house Francisco Partners for £221 million; advising the shareholders of Ikon Science Limited on the sale to US PE house Great Hill Partners; advising the shareholders of Phabrix Limited on the sale to Leader Europe Limited; advising nGage Specialist Recruitment on the acquisition of Henlow Recruitment Limited; advising large US clients on various largescale internal UK reorganisations; advising the shareholders of Chevron Traffic Management Limited on the exit by Portchester Equity Limited and incoming investment by Triton Partners; advising GAME Digital Holdings Limited (subsidiary of GAME Digital plc) on the £20 million acquisition of Multiplay Limited; and advising numerous private equity backed businesses on their buy and build acquisitions.

Paul Eccles

Paul is head of the insurance team at Shoosmiths, which sits within the commercial litigation practice. He specialises in all aspects of insurance-based litigation. He has a particular interest in policy cover disputes between insurers/insured, including breach of warranty, misrepresentation/mistake, non-disclosure and fraudulent claims acting for both the insured and insurers. He has a broad depth of experience in most classes of insurance business to include commercial risk, professional indemnity, employers’ and public liability personal injury claims and product liability for some major household brands. Paul regularly advises on subrogated recoveries for insurers and recoveries for corporate clients including fire claims, product liability, and liability for flooding, pollution and contamination issues, as aspects of ULR, RTA and subsidence actions. Paul has some 27 years litigation experience, 16 of which he has spent specialising in insurance and commercial litigation. In acting for both insurers and commercial clients, his background means that he has great depth of knowledge and understanding from all perspectives. His recent cases include: acting for a major utility contractor in a multi-million pound policy cover/estoppel dispute, following failure by the client’s claims managers to notify the correct insurers, some 5 years earlier, following a serious spinal injury case. The claim also includes a claim for professional negligence; acting for a financial services provider in connection with the refusal by their professional indemnity insurers to cover a claim for alleged negligent financial advice following the collapse of the Icelandic banks; acting for a major international film studio in a serious spinal injury case. Paul is the co-author of “Piercing the corporate veil – Managing Business Risk,” published by Kogan Page in 2012.

Paul Ashurst

Senior Associate  

Philip Ryan

Philip is a specialist compliance and criminal defence lawyer advising businesses and individuals on complying with the UK’s increasing regulatory burden. He balances the need for a sensible, calm approach to crisis management against the need to defend clients vigorously in disputes to gain effective outcomes. His experience helps to secure the right solution for clients in short timeframes, minimising cost and negative impact. Philip advises clients during regulatory investigations be that making representations to the Advertising Standards Authority or in an interview under caution with police or the HSE following a fatal accident. He works in the automotive, construction, FMCG, retail & leisure, tobacco, manufacturing, and life sciences sectors. Recent examples of his work include:- advising several global businesses on responses to investigations into bribery, fraud, criminal offences and disclosures to key regulators; securing the acquittal of a senior manager charged with health and safety offences as part of a corporate manslaughter trial following an explosion at a recycling plant; representing several companies in the transport industry on investigations by VOSA and during Public Inquiries before the Traffic Commissioner; successfully defending 4 different white goods manufacturers in a dozen different investigations by the National Measurement Office regarding energy labelling and efficiency of products; advising an international retailer on its response to the horsemeat scandal and dealing with associated contractual issues with suppliers; advising a major tobacco company on changes required under plain packaging legislation and the development of e-cigarettes; advising companies on compliance with export controls and international trade sanctions; advising a number of household brands on product recalls regarding tools, cereals, lamps, plugs and other domestic items; also advising on related product quality frauds in the supply chain; and advising a large travel organisation on compliance with Package Holiday, ATOL and ABTA regulations. Philip is described as a "standout name" in Legal 500 and he heads the ‘excellent team’ in the South East.

Rebecca Mauleverer

Rebecca heads up Shoosmiths' national banking and finance team. She specialises in a range of debt finance work, including secured and unsecured, bilateral and syndicated lending both on a national and international level. She acts on behalf of either lenders (be they banks, private equity, venture capital or other funds) or corporate borrowers. Rebecca's experience includes acquisition and leveraged finance, property finance, invoice finance and marine finance. She has worked on a wide variety of transactions. Recent examples include: advising a bank in relation to a financing in connection with the £70 million acquisition of an offshore cross jurisdictional trust and fund business; advising a private equity backed company (a national training and educational specialist) in relation to its £45.5 million unitranche and super senior financing; advising a leading bank in relation to its £80 million syndicated asset based lending facility (plus a £20 million accordion option) providing back to back financing for an invoice discount provider; advising a property investment fund in relation to its financing arrangements, including a £12.5 million facility to finance a London office block and an approximate £8 million facility to finance a number of national commercial and retail assets; and advising CDC Group plc in relation to a number of financings, most recently the USD15 million financing for PEG Africa, an off grid solar panel business.  

Richard Willcox

Richard is a Legal Director commercial property litigator, with a particular specialism in disputes arising under telecoms property law, acting predominantly for landowners and infrastructure providers. Aside from telecoms, his practice consists of a mix of residential and commercial property development disputes and undertaking complex landlord and tenant asset management work for major high street retailers. Recent work highlights include: successfully removing telecoms operators from site earmarked for £400 million campus redevelopment by higher education institution; advising on the strategy and the steps required to exercise a conditional break option on a £1.4 million pa central London retail unit; obtaining a direction from Ofcom granting Code Powers to a provider of critical national infrastructure; undertaking High Court proceedings, involving the complex interplay between mines and minerals and Inclosure Acts, in relation to a west London development site; and acting for a charitable trust in a hostile 1954 Act dispute, seeking to recover vacant possession of a World War II heritage building for use as museum space.  

Robin Webb

Partner ,Commercial

Rubina Zaidi

senior associate

Sanjeev Sharma

Partner ,Corporate

Sara Hampson

Sara specialises in residential and mixed use development, dealing with both immediate and strategic land. Sara acts for a number of local and national residential developers, housebuilders, retirement living developers, PLC developers and land promoters. Sara has extensive experience in negotiating conditional on planning contracts for land purchase, option agreements, land promotion agreements and hybrid agreements, as well as land sales, subsales, and affordable housing land sale and development agreements. Sara's recent experience includes: acting for well known developers in the housebuilder and residential sector in connection with site acquisition and disposal, including conditional on planning agreements, option agreements, strategic site assembly, and often advising upon and resolving complex title and practical issues arising; acting for the land promoter in the negotiation of a hybrid agreement for promotion and development of a large swathe of land currently in several different titles and ownerships; acting for a landowner in the negotiation of an option agreement with a major housebuilder and an associated collaboration with other landowners, including liaising closely with tax advisers; acting as project solicitor for a consortium of plc housebuilders on a major new town development. This work included advising on a wide variety of issues including partition of title into smaller phases/land parcels for residential, retail and town centre development, acting in the disposal of land for retail, hotel/pub, retirement living, public sector and commercial development, advising upon planning obligations, actioning the disposal of areas required for transfer pursuant to such planning obligations, and advising upon legal aspects of road and infrastructure adoption. Throughout, having oversight to title and contractual issues affecting the wider site; acting for developers in the negotiation of affordable housing land disposals with associated development agreement for the delivery of the affordable housing; and assisting in the diversion of public rights of way and creation of new public paths, regularising boundary, infrastructure and access issues, negotiating third party and adoption agreements to facilitate development, and facilitating planning agreements and variations in close collaboration with planning colleagues.

Sarah Jenkins

Sarah has been practising pensions law since 2007 and has extensive experience on a wide range of pension scheme issues.  She regularly drafts pension scheme documentation and provides advice to trustees and employers on complex scheme issues, such as equalisation and the interpretation of pension scheme provisions.  She also has a number of years’ experience as a professional pension scheme trustee, and is able to apply the lessons she has learnt from this role to much of her advisory work. Sarah is an approachable and conscientious lawyer who puts the needs of her clients at the heart of the advice she provides.  Her logical and organised approach to pensions law enables her to guide pension schemes effectively through sometimes complex pensions projects. Recent work undertaken by Sarah includes: negotiation and agreement of a benefit specification and buy-in contract on behalf of a professional trustee, including advice on the terms of and risks associated with the contract, and on the treatment of overpayments and underpayments resulting from data cleansing work; advice on adjustments to a scheme's forfeiture provisions to reflect recent case law, including consideration of the impact of the adjustments on existing forfeiture cases; advice to a trustee board on two separate scheme mergers - one being an internal transfer between two segregated sections of the scheme, and the other involving the transfer in of a scheme into a newly created section, including follow up advice on data and benefit issues identified within the transferring scheme; advising the trustees of a scheme in relation to the implications of a complex corporate restructuring proposal on the Scheme (including master trust and employer-related investment issues; employer covenant and employer debt implications; and the impact of the proposal on a PPF guarantee); drafting and negotiating a Type A PPF guarantee to remove a non-exclusive jurisdiction clause which had created some post-Brexit enforceability concerns; detailed advice on GMP equalisation and conversion, including the amendment of the scheme to allow for conversion for pensioner and deferred members and consideration of associated tax concerns, as well as the rectification of historic benefit payments; advising the trustees of a scheme about a proposal to close a scheme to the future accrual of benefits, including the consideration of complex amendments required to the rules of the scheme as a result of the closure; drafting a consolidation and update of a pension scheme’s definitive trust deed and rules for a scheme, including negotiation with employer advisers; providing pension scheme secretarial services to a number of trustee boards, including assistance with maintenance and updating of scheme records, the production and maintenance of scheme governance documents, and preparing trustee meeting packs and minutes.

Sarah Fenn

Sarah is an experienced and pragmatic commercial litigation lawyer, who has over 15 years' experience in dealing with all aspects of negligence claims such as employers liability, public liability, road traffic accidents, occupiers liability, noise induced hearing loss, hand arm vibration syndrome claims and has particular experience in defending upper limb disorder claims. She also advises clients on claims pursued via the Consumer Protection Act 1987 and Consumer Rights Act 2015 and has advised on core insurance issues such as potential broker negligence claims. Her case load has also included complicated debt recovery work on behalf of a major utility provider in addition to subsidence claims. Sarah embraces cases from the start, taking an early and practical view to achieve the best result for the client. She has successfully pursued and defended many claims recovering costs and maintaining the on-going reputation of clients. Recent experience includes: Representing the film industry by defending catastrophic injury claims (circa £1 million) and reducing payments substantially; Success at Trial, and on Appeal, defending a Manual Handling Claim for a beauty manufacturing client by successfully arguing against there being a foreseeable risk of injury (circa 500k); tactical applications striking out a claim pleaded at £185,000 based on pure economic loss which had no merit in law; obtaining full indemnities for high profile clients on behalf of major insurers; and successfully persuading claimants to discontinue claims against manufacturing and motor industry clients.

Sarah Evans

  Sarah is a Legal Director in the Real Estate Team in Milton Keynes. Sarah has over 15 years experience advising on commercial property transactions with a particular focus on landlord and tenant, acquisitions and disposals, providing corporate support on the sales and purchases of businesses and taking security over all types of commercial property. Sarah's advises landlord and tenant clients on leases, assignments, sub-lettings, licences, variations and surrenders. Sarah's recent instructions include: acting for a national lender in taking security over two garden centres acting for an automotive client in the grant of leases for the use of sites as a vehicle maintenance facility acting for a hotel operator in the grant of a lease to a serviced office provider acting for a lender taking security over an educational establishment

Sean Wright

Sean heads up the National Private Equity practice and leads the South Corporate team covering its Solent, Thames Valley and Milton Keynes offices. A top-class corporate partner, he is identified by Chambers and Partners as ""a leader in his fields"" and in Legal 500, he is ""considered to be the best corporate lawyer on the South coast."" Since joining Shoosmiths in 2004, Sean has built the private equity team into the first-class national practice it is today. Acting for equity providers, management teams and financial sponsors. the team have a unique national footprint, with a top-class equity offering across the UK from Edinburgh to Solent. Major deals where Sean has recently acted include: • acting for LDC on the sale of CIPHR to ECI Partners and its investment in FSP; • acting for Management on the buyout of Ascenti Health by bd-capital partners; • acting for the Sellers on the acquisition of and management on the buyout of Phoenix Datacom by an LDC backed Newco; • acting for the shareholders of Solent Group on its £117m sale to quoted Swedish corporate Humble Group AB (publ); • acting for the shareholders of Spectrum Corporate Finance on its sale to FRP for c £12.4m; • acting for Dukes Education Group on various acquisitions including Northwood Schools, Hampton Court House and The Kindergartens Group of nurseries; • acting for Castik Capital backed TBAuctions on its acquisition of British Medical Auctions; and • acting for management on the sale of eCogra to Hanover Investments. Sean Wright has been ranked in The Chambers 100 – a prestigious list of the best 100 business lawyers in the UK. Sean has been ranked on the list for his ‘commercial awareness and negotiation skills’, and ability to ‘maintain goodwill but win the key points’. Sean ‘provides hands-on personal service and has loads of experience and the ability to negotiate in a friendly way.’ The Chambers 100. Sean qualified in London in 1990, gaining practical experience with a year’s secondment to Shell International Plc. He joined Shoosmiths in 2004 as an Equity Partner.

Sebastian Price

Partner ,Commercial

Selina Cullen

Selina is a Senior Associate and manages the Client Services Department based in Thames Valley. The team are responsible for dealing with all new enquiries for the Private Advisory Division, from signposting leads to the relevant departments, to undertaking client and matter inception, and compliance checks. Having joined in 2001, Selina has over 15 years’ experience leading teams in a customer service environment.

Shelley White

Shelley is a Prinicipal Associate within the Solent Office's Dispute Resolution and Compliance team. She specialises in complex, high-value commercial disputes and contentious insolvency and is recommended within the Legal 500 2018 and 2019. Shelley has particular specialisms in advising asset finance based lenders and automotive clients on complex litigation and recoveries along with advising on liquidations, administrations, bankruptcy and antecedent transactions from a contentious aspect. Shelley is also a member of R3 Association of Business Recovery Professionals. Recent work includes: Pursuing recoveries of shortfalls for asset finance lenders pursuant to guarantees and repossession actions; Acting for platform lender in relation to recission of a Winding-Up Order and subsequent re-listed Petition; and Advising automotive client in relation to title dispute with third party and liquidator over vehicles.

Sian Hoare

Sian is an employment and corporate immigration principal associate in the Solent Employment Team. She provides strategic and commercial advice to a wide range of clients and always ensures that she always invests the time into understanding her clients’ business needs and provides advice in a format which is ‘on point’ and easy to digest. Sian provides day-to-day employment advice to her clients on grievances, disciplinary issues, discrimination issues, collective redundancies, enforceability of restrictive covenants and TUPE transfers.  Sian represents clients at Tribunal where she has an enviable success rate. She also provides support to the corporate team with M&A work and advises individuals/senior executives on their exit from a business and their settlement agreements. Sian regularly advises on all aspects of corporate immigration from right to work checks to obtaining and maintaining sponsor licences. Her recent work includes: successfully representing a manufacturer of contact lenses in defending a claim of constructive unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal. Sian adopted a particularly robust approach, made an application for strike out and conducted the advocacy at Tribunal where she was successful. Her approach has saved the client significant time and future legal fees; advising on a complex and sensitive investigation of a group of employees who had set up a WhatsApp group on their company phone and had made sexist and racist remarks. All but one employee resigned as a result before the disciplinary hearing. One employee was dismissed for gross misconduct. There were no resulting claims; supporting a client in the hospitality sector in the harmonisation and implementation of new contracts involving significant changes to employee remuneration including all aspects of the consultation process to over 400 employees; supporting a large retailer in reporting a change in ownership of the wider group and applying for a new licence. Sian has supported generally in the operation of its sponsorship licence including obtaining Tier 2 general visas, any change of circumstance and reporting of migrant activity; and supporting Shoosmiths’ corporate team with numerous due diligence reports, advising on indemnities and warranties in various Share purchase agreements. Sian regularly speaks at seminars, runs training sessions and interactive ‘bite size briefings' on various topics for clients. Sian trained with Shoosmiths and qualified in 2007. She was promoted to Senior Associate in 2017.

Simon Fennell

Simon is a Partner in the Employment team based in Milton Keynes. Simon is an experienced employment specialist who  provides advice to a number of large commercial clients, many of whom are household names, on all aspects of employment law. Simon has many years of experience working with private and public sector clients and is the main contact for employment work with a local university and many well established organisations in the retail and manufacturing sectors.  Simon is the lead employment contact for a number of our automotive clients and is frequently referred to by these clients as the "go to" individual when drafting and negotiating their contractual TUPE provisions. Simon is renowned for delivering advice in a straightforward and easy to understand manner and his down to earth approach puts clients and witnesses at ease. His recent work includes: • acting as independent appeal chair with delegated responsibility to a disciplinary process which had seen a director/shareholder and manager dismissed from the business.  Simon conducted interviews with all relevant witnesses and considered a significant volume of evidence before preparing a detailed outcome report.  In the successful judgment, the Employment Judge stated that the original process was flawed but those defects were corrected on appeal by the ‘excellent, thorough, thought and balanced rehearing by Mr Fennell’ •  assisting a number of private sector organisations with multi-level redundancy and restructuring processes; • pre-contract negotiations to TUPE (transfer of undertakings) clauses; and • support to the corporate team with M&A work. Simon writes and provides training sessions for clients on a range of subjects and is a regular speaker at Shoosmiths' national employment webinars. Simon is a member of the Employment Lawyer's Association and in 2023 contributed to the ELA's response to government changes to whistleblowing legislation.

Simon Barnes

Partner

Simon Foster

Head of Thames Valley team

Siobhan Atkin

Siobhan is an experienced employment lawyer advising HR professionals and senior executive staff on a wide range of employment law issues including; unfair dismissal, sex, race, religion, disability and age discrimination claims, restrictive covenants, collective redundancy processes and disciplinary and grievance matters. As well as acting for the private sector and high net worth individuals, Siobhan also advises public sector clients such as a Police Authority, educational establishments and charities. Siobhan recognises the importance of providing clients with commercial solutions to employment law issues and she takes the time to understand their businesses and how they operate. Recent work handled by Siobhan includes advising: a software company on enforcing restrictive covenants through injunctive proceedings in the High Court; a university in respect of defending tribunal claims of discrimination and trade union issues; a police force in respect of a sensitive discrimination case in the tribunal; a training board on defending a substantial levy appeal from an employer in the off-shore sector and, in respect of a further levy appeal case, successfully defending an appeal against a tribunal decision in the Administrative Court; high net worth individuals in relation to negotiating settlement packages including advice on bonus entitlements. Siobhan trains HR professionals and managers in employment law and she is a regular speaker at Shoosmiths' national employment seminars.

Soma Fattah

Soma is a Senior Associate real estate lawyer based in Milton Keynes. She works with a wide range of clients, including property investors, landowners, developers and corporate occupiers. Soma also supports the corporate team on the real estate aspects of business sales and acquisitions. Soma’s experience includes sales and acquisitions together with the negotiation of agreements for lease, leases and leasehold management documentation. She also assists in the sale, purchase and letting of agricultural land and has acted for charities on the purchase and sale of land. Soma's recent projects include: assisting as part of a team in connection with the sale of agricultural land for the sum of £10.1 million; acting for a developer in the acquisition of land for mixed use development; negotiating licences for alterations to permit corporate identity works for an international car manufacturer; and processing the assignments of a portfolio of 40 leases for a national care home provider. Prior to joining Shoosmiths, Soma read law with International Relations at Keele University (including spending a semester abroad in Canada), before completing her Legal Practice course in London.  

Stephen Porter

Steve Porter is head of the corporate division at Shoosmiths, responsible for the management and direction of the range of services Shoosmiths provides for the owners, directors, investors, funders and shareholders of companies. As divisional head, Steve manages more than 130 legal advisers, who between them provide a full range of corporate transaction advisory services, together with specialist teams in banking & finance, venture and growth capital, private equity, corporate restructuring and advisory, company secretarial and tax (including EIS work). Steve has more than 20 years’ experience advising on corporate transactions, specifically mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, capital fundraising and reductions, compliance and corporate governance. He is equally at home providing strategic advice to the board of a PLC client or to the management team on a buy out or exit. He is described in the current edition of Chambers UK as “an excellent lawyer who is very pragmatic at doing deals." As divisional head, Steve is driving a clear-sighted strategy for Shoosmiths to be the natural choice for any UK organisation seeking the benefit of trusted and continuous strategic legal advice throughout the business lifecycle, whether advising on successive funding rounds, buy-and-build expansion, or the consolidation and re-shaping of larger group structures in line with a rapidly changing global economy.

Stephen Eastley

Stephen is a Senior Associate commercial litigation lawyer. He specialises in advising clients on a wide range of contractual disputes, debt and asset recovery claims. Stephen has experience in both High Court and County Court litigation and alternative dispute resolution including mediation. Stephen advises national and international clients on a range of instructions as part of a team of lawyers based in the firm’s Solent office. Stephen’s advice centres on achieving commercially productive results for clients and clients have praised both his proactive attitude and business orientated advice. Recent work undertaken by Stephen includes: representing a high-street bank’s commercial brand in recovery of secured lending against a property worth £1.3 million; acting for national building materials group in relation to a director’s guarantee of company credit; and advising a worldwide recruitment agency on a tri-party recovery and indemnity claim.

Steve Reading

  Steve is a Principal Associate in the Solent Residential Conveyancing Team and has over 20 years of experience in residential conveyancing. His teams deals with all types of residential matters including the sale and purchase of house, flats, new build properties, shared ownership property, Transfers of Equity, Help To Buy and unregistered land.

Stuart Little

Stuart Little is head of the advisory services division at Shoosmiths, responsible for the management and direction of one of the firm’s largest groupings. As divisional head, Stuart is responsible for leading almost 400 legal advisers, including 70+ partners, working across a portfolio of the firms core commercial disciplines including commercial, IP, employment, pensions, regulatory, and commercial litigation. Within this broad commercial frame work the division is also able to offer support across specialist service lines including privacy & data, cyber, competition compliance, international arbitration and insurance. Complementing its specialist technical expertise, the division is focussed on delivering a solutions-based approach to clients drawing on technology and the use of AI to enhance the overall client experience. He works closely with general counsel (GCs) and in-house legal teams and is a regular panel speaker at in-house lawyer events (most recently the GC Summit in London in 2019). In conjunction with the GC of a leading US technology company, Stuart pioneered a risk and reward pricing model which was a winner of one of the first FT Innovative Lawyers Awards, for innovation in billing and fees. He maintains a hands-on role as the client partner for one of the firm’s major technology clients and is a member of the Society for Computers and Law. A skilled negotiator, he has utilised ADR processes to achieve early commercial resolution, frequently preserving what are important commercial relationships between the parties.

Stuart Lawrenson

Stuart is head of Shoosmiths' Solent Employment Team and has nearly 20 years of experience in providing employment law support to HR teams and senior executives. Stuart advises a broad range of clients, local and national, on all aspects of employment law, both contentious and non-contentious. He is an experienced and successful Tribunal advocate where he has successfully defended claims, including the obtaining of costs awards, brought against employers. He has also successfully brought claims on behalf of employees. Stuart has a particular interest and expertise advising clients in the retail sector and has a wealth of experience advising and supporting clients with HMRC national minimum wage investigations. He prides himself in giving commercial, practical and “no-nonsense” advice. Stuart regularly deals with knotty disciplinary and grievance issues often involving senior employees and claims of discrimination. On a more strategic level he has much experience advising on restructures, senior executive terminations, large scale redundancies and the employment aspects arising out of corporate transactions including TUPE. Recent advice has included: advising in relation to a complex outsourcing scenario involving multiple contractors. The project involved advising on the application of TUPE and the drafting of bespoke employee provision for the commercial contract; advising on the employment issues arising when a client went into a property led CVA; providing strategic advice ahead of a complicated national restructure of a key client which included advising on the need to collectively consult; advising and dealing with a particularly complex data subject access request brought by an in-house lawyer involving over 280,000 documents. The project required the documents to be reviewed for both the purposes of the DSAR but also for the purposes of disclosure relating to satellite litigation; successfully pursing a claim for unfair dismissal on behalf of a senior manager against a city council, the claim being worth circa £300,000 to the individual as a result of the pension element; advising on a complex Tribunal claim brought by a Head of HR. The claim included claims of unfair dismissal, sex discrimination and equal pay. Stuart advised throughout and represented the client at Judicial Mediation where the claim was settled; and advising three clients in the retail sector in relation to HMRC national minimum wage investigations. In addition to his advice work, Stuart is a keen and passionate trainer in employment law and best business practice. He has designed and delivered bespoke courses for both managers and HR professionals on topics ranging from practical investigation training, employee representative training (collective consultation) to various courses on GDPR (including how to deal with data subject requests). Stuart speaks regularly at internal and external seminars and conferences on employment law and best business practice. Stuart is ranked as a "Leading Lawyer" in the Legal 500.

Stuart Angus

Principal Associate Stuart Angus is a Principal Associate Solicitor in the Private Property team with over 20 years experience within the residential property market. Stuart enjoys the technical aspects of residential property and has particular skills in the drafting or complex conveyancing documentation including transfers of part, overage agreements, options agreements and deeds of easement As part of the Private Property Team Stuart looks after the property needs of some of the firms most valued clients, as well as high net worth individuals recommended to the firm, working closely alongside colleagues in the Wealth Protection, Family and Tax teams to ensure a tailored approach is provided to best meet client needs.

Susan Prior

Sue is a Clinical Negligence Partner and leads a team in the Clinical Negligence department in the Thames Valley Office. Sue joined Shoosmiths in November 2009 as a Senior Solicitor in the Serious Injuries Unit and moved into the Clinical Negligence Department in July 2012, bringing with her a wealth of litigation experience. She acts for and supports clients with a diverse range of claims across clinical negligence, including brain injury and spinal cases, birth injury cases, cases arising from sub-standard surgery, failure to diagnose/treat cancer, sepsis and fatalities. Sue strives to provide the highest level of support, legal advice and compensation for her clients. She appreciates the need to deal with matters both efficiently and compassionately for clients who are struggling to come to terms with the effect their injuries, or the injuries that their loved ones have suffered, have had on their lives.  She is highly regarded by her clients, who describer her as caring, patient and understanding, She is known for her ability to listen carefully and provide reassurance throughout the legal process. Sue holds Senior Litigator status with the Association of Personal Injury Solicitors (APIL) and is ranked as a Leading Individual in the Legal 500. What clients say: It is difficult to describe how thankful we are for all of your hard work and support throughout these past few years. In fact, no email will be able to accurately show the true extent of our gratitude for your effort. Nonetheless, my mum and I would like to let you know it means the world to us … with the result being unquestionably success. I cannot thank Susan Prior and her team enough for all their care, patience and understanding taking my claim forward and bringing this to closure.  Sue was always there to answer any questions and explaining every step of the way which was very reassuring to me.  Sue listened carefully to everything about my husband and getting to know who he was and the kind of person he was.  Which not only to me but also my family showed how caring and professional Susan is.

Suzanne Burrell

Suzanne is an experienced pensions lawyer advising both trustees and employees on a wide range of pensions issues. Suzanne has experience advising on both defined benefit and defined contribution schemes of all sizes ranging from under £10m to schemes in excess of £1bn. Suzanne has particular experience advising clients in the co-operative sector and is familiar with the typical pension scheme structure in that sector. Additionally, she advises schemes run by charity sector employers and is well versed in the pensions issues facing charity employers. Suzanne’s recent experience includes: advice to employers on the implementation of auto-enrolment including amendments to a pension scheme rules for a defined contribution scheme to ensure compliance with the automatic enrolment legislation; advice on redesign of pension benefits including capping pensionable salary and introduction of career average benefits and draft scheme documents to implement the changes; advice in relation to the closure of a pension scheme to future accrual including the setting up of an escrow account and security over the scheme sponsor’s assets in exchange for a decision to defer winding up of the pension scheme; pensions aspects of corporate transactions including advice on a flexible apportionment arrangement and review of a clearance application to the Pensions Regulator where the target company was to be de-linked from the group pension scheme; negotiations between trustees and scheme sponsors on employer covenant issues around, and pension scheme funding including the drafting and negotiation of contingent asset documents including parent company guarantees (including pension protection fund compliant guarantees); advice on interpretation of scheme rules including advice on whether historic changes have been properly implemented; review and advice on agreements with third party providers including agreements on employer covenant review, administration agreements and investment management agreements; internal dispute resolution procedure and ombudsman cases on a wide range of disputes including a challenge by a member on the way his pension is increased. Suzanne also advises clients on public sector pensions issues. This includes advice on steps to be taken by private sector employers on the transfer of employees with public sector benefits, whether on the setting up of a broadly comparable scheme or the review and negotiation of admission agreements.

Suzanne Love

Suzanne is a banking and finance principal associate, undertaking a wide range of debt finance work, including acquisition finance, invoice and receivables finance and property finance on a bilateral, club or syndicated basis. Suzanne acts for borrowers, banks and financial institutions at both senior and mezzanine level. She has experience of advising on regional, national and international transactions. Suzanne works with a range of documentation including facility agreements, security documents, intercreditor agreements and legal opinions. Her experience includes working with bilateral bank standard documentation as well as Loan Market Association and bespoke finance documents. Suzanne's recent experience includes: acting for a corporate owner and operator of hotels in relation to a £30.4m development finance facility from a major UK clearing bank; acting for an education provider group (backed by a private investment business) in relation to a £10.5m term and £8.5m revolving credit facility from a major UK clearing bank, together with the acquisition of two education targets; advising a global B2B agency network in relation to a £8.5m term loan facility with a specialist fund manager to finance, amongst other things, the acquisition of two companies; acting for the invoice finance arm of a major UK clearing bank in relation to a £4m receivables facility and £7.5m inventory facility to a supplier of toys; advising a major UK clearing bank in relation to a £35m facilities agreement to finance, amongst other things, an onlend to an Indian subsidiary for the manufacture of flatbreads; advising a co-educational independent and boarding schools group in relation to a £37.5m term loan facility from two major UK clearing banks to finance, amongst other things, an acquisition by the group of a triple newco structure and the refinance of existing facilities; advising an asset finance provider in relation to a £6.3m loan to finance four wind farms; advising an invoice finance provider in relation to a £8 million invoice discounting agreement and £2 million asset based lending agreement to a manufacturer and retailer of soft toys; advising a UK bank, invoice finance provider and asset finance provider in relation to the £13 million term loan facility, £7.5 million lease purchase facility and £6 million receivables finance facility to a high end UK meal preparation provider; advising an invoice finance provider in relation to a back to back invoice discounting facility to a UK company to finance receivables finance facilities provided by the borrower to its customers; and advising a UK bank, invoice finance provider and asset finance provider in relation to a £13 million receivables finance facility, a £5 million revolving credit facility and a £30 million lease purchase agreement for the funding of UK based imaging equipment, scanners and truck mounted mobile scanning units. Suzanne has been recognised as an "Associate to Watch" in Chambers 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. In addition, Suzanne is recognised in Chambers 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 as a "Notable Practitioner".

Tom Wilde

Tom is a partner in the tax department and heads up the firm’s enterprise investment scheme (EIS) and venture capital trusts (VCT) tax practice, which recently won the "Best SEIS/EIS Tax Adviser" at the EIS Association Awards 2018. Tom is one of the UK’s leading experts in this field and has extensive experience advising a wide range of investors and investee companies on structuring and implementing tax efficient investments, reorganisations and exits in compliance with the EIS and VCT regimes. In addition, Tom has substantial experience of providing tax advice to companies and individuals on both one-off business transactions and on-going compliance. Tom regularly implements share option schemes including EMI options, employee shareholder shares and company share option plans, as well as negotiating with HMRC on both contentious and non-contentious matters. He is also a member of the Shoosmiths Private Wealth team. His recent experience includes: advising a number of EIS and VCT investors including Octopus Investments and Oakfield Capital on the impact on their existing and proposed investments of recent and forthcoming changes to the EIS and VCT regime; acting for Octopus Investments on over 40 EIS and VCT compliant transactions per year, including obtaining advance assurances from HMRC; advising a number of investee companies on how to structure EIS-compliant offers to investors; advising a VCT on how to implement a complex restructure of an existing investment so as to ensure continued compliance with the VCT regime whilst securing the future of the investee company, including negotiating with HMRC; acting for the management team on the sale of a group of companies to a large trade buyer including drafting and negotiating tax warranties and covenant, and providing detailed advice on the effect of the transaction on the client’s company share option plan; setting up a number of EMI option schemes including for a UK-based performance improvement company and an American corporation; and advising an American group on its UK company share option plan and delivering an explanatory training session to its UK-based employees.

Tracey Hemingway

Tracey is a Partner in our pensions team.  She has 24 years experience of advising trustees and employers in relation to their work-based pension schemes. Tracey’s key areas of expertise include: drafting scheme trust deeds and rules and complex deeds of amendment; advising on scheme rules interpretation; scheme design and benefit changes; scheme mergers and projects; corporate guarantees; employer debts to pension schemes under section 75 Pensions Act 1995, including corporate restructuring, debt triggers and ways of managing the debt, such as flexible apportionment arrangements; and pensions litigation including Court applications and Pensions Ombudsman cases.