Shoosmiths LLP

Aaron is a Partner in the corporate department's restructuring and advisory team.  Aaron’s practice includes advising include banks, asset based lenders, insolvency practitioners and company directors in connection with in all aspects of corporate insolvency. Aaron has particular expertise in the retail and financial services sectors, having advised in connection with the administrations and company voluntary arrangements of a number of well-known retailers (Monsoon Accessorise Limited, Cath Kidston, Coast, Modelzone, Supercuts, Select Fashion and Store Twenty One). In addition, Aaron is leading the team advising the administrators of Lendy Limited, and its associated company, Saving Stream Security Holdings Limited, a major insolvency in the sphere of peer to peer lending and advised the directors of Wellesley Finance Limited, an alternative financier providing listed bond investment products to retail customers, in connection with its successful CVA.  Aaron also advised the administrators of ASA Resource Group Plc a company with gold, nickel copper and diamond mining interests in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, culminating with the negotiation of a number of transactions to realise the Company’s overseas interests with an aggregate value of in excess of £27m. Aaron has also advised in relation to the following: • The administrations of Monsoon Accessorize Limited and Accessorize Limited and the sale of the business and assets of these companies; • The administration of Cath Kidston Limited and the sale of its online business and brand; • The purchase of certain of the business and assets of Coast from its administrators; • The CVAs of Thomas Sabo, Fuel Juice Bars and Forever 21; • The administration and subsequent sale of the business of T.M. Lewin & Sons Limited; • The administration of Jaeger Retail Limited and the subsequent sale of its assets to Marks & Spencer; • The CVAs of the restaurant chains Chilango, Polpo and Thai Leisure Group; and • The CVA and subsequent administration of Monarch Aircraft Engineering Limited, a company with specific strategic importance in the aviation industry.

Adam is a corporate senior associate based in the Thames Valley office. Adam has experience in a range of transactions including acquisitions, disposals, venture and growth capital investment, private equity investment, reorganisations, shareholder investments, private to public re-registrations of companies, share buy backs, conducting legal due diligence as well as general corporate governance. Adam has experience working with investors, management teams and companies, particularly in the manufacturing, tech, media and communications sectors. Adam’s recent experience includes: assisting with the £221 million sale of smart locker technology and field service solutions company Bybox to private equity backer Francisco Partners; assisting with the acquisition of Wax Digital, an independent Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business by a private equity house; advising LDC on its £16 million investment into national hair salon operator, Rush Hair; advising Downing Ventures and Gresham House Ventures on its combined £8 million investment into Funding Xchange, a FinTech company offering its customers instant access to personalised quotes for business funding; advising Downing Ventures and Foresight Group on its investment into Masters of Pie, a virtual reality and augmented reality software company; advising NVM Private Equity on its £3.1 million investment into Clarilis Limited, a provider of automated solutions software for the legal industry; advising NVM Private Equity on its £2.2 million investment into Mo, a recognition, employee reward and ideas platform; advising NVM Private Equity on its £2 million investment into Duke & Dexter, an award-winning footwear manufacturer; advising Treetops Nurseries on its expansion through a number of acquisitions of other nursery sites; advising the shareholders of Xtrac, a world leader in the design and manufacturer of high performance transmissions for the motorsport and automotive industry, in a buyout deal with Inflexion Private Equity; advising the shareholders of Phabrix Limited, a manufacturer of video and audio broadcast test and measurement instruments, in their exit and sale of shares to Leader Electronics; advising on a company re-registration from private to public limited status, including the UK’s first re-registration of a private Community Interest Company to a Community Interest Public Limited Company; advising company directors in relation to a proposed public offer of investment; and principal advisor on the acquisition of a specialist case management company providing rehabilitation services to clients with severe and complex injuries.  

Partner

National Head of Litigation

Alex has a breadth of experience in all aspects of real estate, including: • landlord and tenant; • freehold sales and disposals; • strategic portfolio acquisitions and disposals; • investment sales and purchases; • transfers of going concern; • licensed premises; • corporate support; and • working in-house / setting up secondment functions at clients' offices. Alex acts predominantly for tenants, but also landlords, in high street, office, industrial and retail parks and shopping centre locations. Alex's main clients include Whistles, Hobbs, Phase Eight, Sk:n, Waterstones, Mercedes-Benz, Euro Garages, Mountain Warehouse, Iron Mountain, Accident Exchange, Topps Tiles.

Alistair is a Partner in the corporate department advising on all aspects of corporate law, with particular specialty around mergers and acquisitions, growth and venture capital, private equity and joint venture arrangements. Alistair is one of the country’s leading and most active venture capital lawyers - advising on early stage seed investments to series A and later rounds and through to exits. Alistair works with a variety of clients including for prominent investors such as Octopus Ventures, BGF, Triple Point, Hambro Perks, Blackfinch and Mercia on a serial basis, private companies (from start-ups to large corporates), listed plcs, founders and management teams.  

Andrew specialises in providing advice on non-contentious construction related issues to a wide variety of entities, including developers, contractors, public bodies and funders. Andrew has also previously undertaken a six month secondment as a commercial legal adviser at one of the UK’s largest contractors at their head office. During this time he advised on a wide variety of legal issues (including both construction and non-construction issues) and gained a useful first hand perspective on the client’s and an in-house lawyer’s approach. Recent examples of work include: Acting for one of the UK’s largest regeneration specialists on the construction aspects (including strategic advice) on: the agreements relating to the design and construction of a major heavy manufacturing and assembly facility in South Wales. As part of this, Andrew advised on the building agreement with the purchaser as well as the building, infrastructure and remediation contracts, professional appointments, rail asset protection agreements, collateral warranties and performance security; three phases of a major town centre redevelopment in the West Midlands with a construction value of over £70m. These phases included advising on the construction aspects of the relevant development agreements with major retailers and negotiating all of the relevant construction documents with all the parties involved in the redevelopment; various development, infrastructure and remediation works across its various sites in the UK (including advising in relation to the JCT and NEC3/NEC4 forms of contract, the construction aspects of agreements with Highways England, professional appointments and framework appointments, collateral warranties, performance security measures and in relation to insolvencies in its supply chain). Advising a real estate investment trust on the design and construction of a circa £35m office building in the City of London, which involves a confined site, the demolition of a large existing structure and negotiations with one of the UK’s largest contractors. Andrew also advises this real estate investment trust in relation to all of its construction activities across its portfolio; Advising one of the UK’s largest private developers on two of its key strategic sites, including advising on the construction aspects of agreements for lease and sale, the building contracts for site preparation and infrastructure works together with the design and construction of industrial logistic units (including for one of the UK’s largest speculative industrial units together with the works to create a new junction on a strategic highway), professional appointments, utility delivery contracts, collateral warranties and performance security; Drafting bespoke building contracts and framework agreements for two large listed residential developers and subsequently working with the clients to update these forms of contract so that they evolved to meet the each client’s aims as they sought to grow and expand their business.

Andy is the National Head of the Costs Team and a Legal Director and Costs Lawyer. He has specialised in both Claimant and Defendant costs for 20 years. As an experienced costs draftsman and litigator he has dealt with a wide range of complex and high value claims throughout his career, including claims in clinical negligence, catastrophic injury, construction and property litigation and commercial disputes and is heavily involved in phone-hacking litigation. Andy and his team are able to prepare Costs Budgets, attend CCMCs, prepare Bills of Costs and deal with the entire costs of assessment process through to attendance at detailed assessment hearings or mediation/arbitration. Andy also regularly advises on any technical costs issues that may arise and has provided training to the Legal Advisers in our advisory teams. Andy regularly appears as an advocate in the Royal Courts of Justice and regional Courts across the country and has taken cases to the Court of Appeal.

Andy is a Senior Associate Costs Lawyer within the Costs Team based in Birmingham who whilst beginning a costs career acting on behalf of Defendants has over the last 10 years specialised in Claimant costs. Andy initially commenced a career in the costs sector as a Defendant representative in considering claims and costs before moving to deal with Claimant costs. He has considerable experience in complex high value claims including claims in clinical negligence, personal injury and commercial litigation. With a background on both sides he has significant experience in all aspects of costs and has a good working knowledge of procedure and costs law. Andy is able to draft and prepare Bills of Costs and Costs Budgets as well as preparing both Points of Dispute and subsequent Replies whilst also negotiating favourable settlements. He is also able to provide advice on any costs issues. Andy has appeared as an advocate at regional courts across the country.

Antonia is an experienced employment lawyer providing commercially focused advice to businesses and individuals on all aspects of employment law, both contentious and non-contentious, including proactively managing Employment Tribunal claims and providing pragmatic advice on a broad range of HR issues such as disciplinary and grievance procedures, discrimination complaints, business reorganisations, executive severance issues, union related matters and the application and effect of TUPE. Throughout her career, Antonia has advised across a variety of sectors, especially retail, manufacturing and logistics, working with many household names. Her particular specialism is in negotiating indemnities and warranties for business transfer agreements and outsourcing projects in a commercial manner whilst retaining key protection for her clients. Recent work handled by Antonia includes: negotiating indemnities and warranties in various outsourcing agreements between an international service provider and several financial institutions covering up to 88 jurisdictions; advising on a national reorganisation programme including the approach to consultation and providing training to up-skill the HR officers on the process to be followed; successfully representing a major logistics client in defending six separate employment tribunal claims brought against it by a serial litigant, including various discrimination complaints, ensuring that all claims were struck out by the Employment Tribunal at a preliminary stage; advising a major logistics client on various union issues including voluntary recognition agreements, pay disputes and threatened strike action; updating a major retail client’s HR Manual, handbook and employment contracts and advising on the implementation process. Antonia’s understanding of the key challenges facing her clients allows her to write and present both bespoke and general training programmes, in addition to regularly speaking at externally organised events.

Barbara is real estate lawyer with experience of acting for a range of property clients from investment funds, retail clients, to industrial landlords, mixed use developers and larger plc clients. She advises on all aspects of commercial property, from the grant and exercise of options, to conditional contracts, agreements for lease and pre-lets, acquisition and disposal work and is experienced in landlord and tenant and portfolio management work. Recent experience includes: acting for a major FTSE 250 brewery company in relation to its property portfolio, including all aspects of a large scale disposal programme and development of new build pub sites; acting for sustainable property investment fund on the sale and purchase of investment and development property; acquisition and disposal of leasehold properties for high street retailers, including new build retail schemes and contracts which are conditional on substantial landlord’s works; acting for an industrial landlord on lettings and/or disposals of large warehouse space, including contracts which are conditional on planning and works; acting for a commercial developers and a national house builder in relation to pre-lets on mixed use development schemes.  

Ben is a Partner with over 25 years’ experience of corporate transactional and advisory work, specialising in M&A (buy-side and sell-side); PE transactions; restructurings; and fundraisings with a particular focus on Germany, the Nordics and the USA. He is regarded as an excellent contributor at board level and praised by clients for his hands-on approach to delivering complex transactions smoothly and within budget. He has particular expertise in technology, consumer, financial services and national security sectors and advises large corporates (including several PE-backed corporates), high growth businesses and entrepreneurs across these and other sectors. Recent highlights include: advising Heligan Private Equity on the establishment of their funds and on multiple investments in national security, crime prevention and public safety; advising Waterstones on a significant group restructuring of its UK businesses; advising Peloton on a UK strategic acquisition advising a listed US software business on its UK acquisition programme. Ben heads the Corporate department nationally and is responsible for the management and strategy of our venture capital & growth, private equity and M&A teams. Ben joined Shoosmiths as a partner in 2013, having previously been a partner at boutique corporate practice Hill Hofstetter (formerly part of Reed Smith). He is praised by clients as someone who “gets things done” and who builds “strong relationships with clients”.

Ben is a Commercial partner based in the firm's Birmingham office. Ben supports clients across the full range of commercial law disciplines, including supply of goods and services arrangements, technology contracts, outsourcings, warehousing and logistics, facilities management, joint ventures, routes to market, and consumer/e-commerce law. Ben has a particular focus in the Automotive and Technology sectors, especially where these two worlds collide: working on transformational and award-winning projects in the “Future Mobility” space. Ben’s work and profile in this area has seen him appointed to specialist boards and working groups within the UK Automotive Council and SMMT.  His role in the Automotive Council sees him working with Government, OEMs, and other industry stakeholders to ensure that the UK automotive industry remains competitive internationally. Ben has also provided evidence to a House of Commons Select Committee on the regulatory changes needed to facilitate the development and deployment of autonomous vehicles in the UK. He has previously been involved with a range of automotive and mobility research projects and is now working with the DfT and CCAV on the implementation of the Automated Vehicles Bill. Ben is recognised in Legal 500 for the advice he provides to both traditional businesses and disruptive start-ups and is described as having “a wealth of experience handling contractual arrangements in the automotive industry”.

Beth is a real estate partner in our Birmingham Office and leads the Corporate Occupiers Team.  Beth specialises in providing strategic, commercial real estate advice tailored to suit her clients and together with her team strives to offer an excellent client experience. Beth has 17 years' experience in providing a broad spectrum of real estate advice to clients including amongst others Castle Galleries, Crown Paints, Krispy Kreme, Poundland, Topps Tiles, The Foschini Group and Waterstones. Beth's recent experience includes: Providing corporate support on both asset and share sales. Acting for national retailers on all of their real estate requirements in a variety of locations and concepts. Advising a National Retailer floating on the stock exchange and with an initial IPO together with preparing all the property due diligence. Leading on the acquisition of 250 stores and dealing with the CMA elements of the deal and then integrating the entire estate into a core portfolio in a six month period. Beth and her team have developed/are developing and implementing transparent and client focused products for designed to enhance the client experience and is using technology to increase their offering.

Brian is a Partner with 20 years' experience in private sector commercial and mixed-use property investment, development, funding and leasing deals.  Most recently I have focused on managing real estate investment, financing and development transactions, both where these are property-led or part of a wider corporate transaction. I have recently completed a Real Estate Economics and Finance course at the London School of Economics which has given me an insight into the rationale behind clients' real estate investment decisions. My recent experience includes advising: •  on the sale of a company that owns 47 industrial sites; •  re-financing 44 industrial properties; •  on the re-financing of 72 cash and carries; •  development finance for 6 logistics depots in Greater London; •  re-financing a portfolio of 7 retail parks. I have been recognised personally in industry directories as “an investment specialist who is very strong on technical detail".

Caroline provides commercial law advice to a variety of public and private bodies, including: outsourcing arrangements; franchise agreements; IT; supply of goods and services; distribution; consumer law; direct marketing; advertising; and modern slavery. Caroline has extensive in-house experience through various client secondments. Caroline has managed internal and external legal teams across several disciplines and often implements new processes to maximise efficiency for both in-house legal teams and business leads; including by developing suites of template agreements and how-to guides; introducing legal policies and document management procedures; and by providing legal training presentations and workshops. Caroline understands first-hand the pressures our clients are under, which enables her to provide wide-ranging pragmatic and solutions driven support. Recent experience includes: supporting a leading provider of assurance services in the food safety audit and certification sector, covering the food supply chain “from farm to fork” on a number of issues. Recently Caroline advised and led the negotiation of the contract in relation to this client’s supply of auditing services to three well known fast food brands, covering the brands’ restaurants and franchises across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. providing ten template agreements to our global publisher client relating to online publication subscriptions, online webinars, sponsorship and events management, advertorials, editing services and workshops. preparing and negotiating complex framework agreements on behalf of a global car manufacturer for the supply of marketing services, across several global brands. supporting the Global General Counsel at a global mass media company while on secondment as the sole UK Legal Counsel in 2019. Caroline handled day-to-day queries and provided advice globally in relation to a wide variety of issues. Caroline’s highlights were: managing several global IT projects; creating and rolling out new global licensing terms regarding the company’s branding; creating events sponsorship terms for the company’s luxury events; and working closely with the social media / influencer marketing teams on a variety of marketing issues. acting as our global client’s interim Regional Legal Counsel while on full-time secondment, covering the client’s operations in the assurance, risk and compliance sector across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, including managing 25 legal entities and various branch offices. Caroline prepared and negotiated agreements in relation to the company’s software subscription service offering, its world-wide auditing of a number of household food brands, standards certification (including farm assurance schemes) and its other risk management services. while on secondment as Senior Legal Counsel at a British multinational retailer and international franchisor, Caroline managed and supervised the junior team on domestic and international BAU matters, overseeing several outsourcing projects, and implementing efficiency changes throughout the company. providing full on and off site legal support to a leading cereal manufacturer, including in relation to the purchase of advertising and media services, locally sourced ingredients (including wheat and sugar), packaging, haulage services and facilities management. advising a start-up tech company in relation to the legal requirements involved in providing social media services through the hosting of a website and innovative mobile app, including direct marketing advice

Catherine is a real estate lawyer who works to enable real estate investors, developers and corporate occupiers to successfully fulfil their property requirements. She has 20 years of experience including a three year part-time secondment to a shopping centre developer as sole in-house counsel. Her special  expertise is in the management of complex and multi property deals and she has a particular interest in automotive, health and shopping centre sectors. Examples of the types of work Catherine has undertaken include: acquiring landmark listed building 55 Colmore Row, Birmingham and working on the financing, ongoing redevelopment letting and subsequent sale for £98m for IM Properties plc; Working with IM Properties on their industrial and logistics development at Hinkley. negotiating and agreeing legal documentation for CBRE's new office in Birmingham; advising a French motor vehicle manufacturer on all aspects of their English property portfolio including acquisitions, taking leases, redevelopment, underlettings, and disposals (including a nine property sale and leaseback) and the sale of their main UK assembly plant; providing real estate support to purchaser's principal legal advisor on Project Isobel (RBS debt sale with a value of over £1billion). Managing a team which reviewed security over 900 properties, sampled titles for more detailed reporting, responded to specific questions on the portfolio, liaised with overseas counsel in relation to real estate/security matters and co-ordinated planning, banking and insolvency specialists; managing real estate due diligence team acting for a US private equity firm acquiring Farnborough Business Park for over £70 million including dealing with real estate aspects of the financing and undertaking major land disposals; leading the real estate team acting for a UK private equity house on property elements of the acquisition of a special education provider. Catherine reviewed and supervised review of 15 certificates of title, negotiated property aspects of corporate sale agreement and dealt with real estate aspects of debt funding. Subsequently acquiring a freehold property leased to the company and dealt with debt and equity financing aspects; acting for investment companies, individuals and  pension funds acquiring and disposing of investment properties and portfolios (retail, office and industrial); completing land sales for residential and commercial development (including phased payments with security, overage and multiple land draw downs) and "contaminated" and "remediated" land (both with and without overage) for utility suppliers. advising  healthcare developers (within and outside LIFT) on developments such as the Portway Lifestyle Centre, the Lyng Centre for Health and Social Care, the City of Coventry Health Centre and advising PCT's on property solutions for equitable access programmes.  

Charles specialises in all aspects of non-contentious restructuring and insolvency, advising banks, insolvency practitioners, company directors and creditors on all aspects of the insolvency process, with particular emphasis on company voluntary arrangements and administrations in the retail and hospitality sector. Known for his excellent technical skill and commercial awareness, Charles has recently advised on a number of high profile retail CVAs (Poundstretcher, Moss Bros, Jigsaw, Monsoon Accessorize Limited, Accessorize Limited, Office Outlet (formerly Staples), Supercuts and Select Fashions).  Charles also advised in connection with the restructuring of Monarch Aircraft Engineering Limited, culminating in the implementation of a CVA, and continues to advise the administrators of Monarch Aircraft Engineering Limited following the failure of the CVA. Charles’ notable experience includes: advising the administrators of Harveys and Bensons for Beds;advising Healthy Retail (trading as Pure), Thai Leisure Group and Iberica Restaurants in connection with their successful CVAs; advising the directors of Office Outlet (a company operating from 87 stores formerly under the Staples brand) in connection with its company voluntary arrangement; advising Regis UK Limited, trading as Supercuts, a company operating hairdressing and beauty salons from 223 outlets, in connection with its restructuring through a company voluntary arrangement; advising the administrators of Gelpack Excelsior Limited and Gelpack Industrial Limited; advising the administrators of the Sealine group of companies; advising the administrators of the Ham Baker Group of companies;

Charlotte is a Principal Associate in our corporate department advising on all aspects of corporate law, including venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, turnaround/distressed situations, and private equity transactions. Charlotte works with a variety of clients including private companies, venture capital investors and companies, management teams and owner managed businesses. Recent experience includes advising: EVC Chargers Ltd on the £165m investment by Denham Capital; BGF on their investment into Brompton Bicycle; Pentech Ventures, Pi Labs, Outward VC and West Loop Ventures on their exit from Vauban; Twenty7Tec Group on its acquisition of Bluecoat Software; N Family Club on the £42.5m investment by Gresham House; Peloton, on its acquisition of Rogo Scott; Gresham House's British Sustainable Infrastructure Funds on their £164 million follow-on investment into Borderlink Broadband Limited; the shareholders of Bramble Foods Limited, a successful manufacturer and distributor of fine foods, on the investment from mid-market private equity firm LDC; GEMS Education on the sale of GEMS' international schools, Tropicana Metropark in Kuala Lumpar and Pearl City in Penang, to XCL Education; VivoPower, an international battery technology, electric vehicle and solar power services company, on their capital raising of $28.75 million through the issuance of new shares on Nasdaq; Gresham House Ventures on their £63 million investment into Telcom Group Ltd, a full-stack UK internet service provider; MML Capital Partners on the disposal of training and education platform, Learning Curve Group, to Agilitas Private Equity; Titgemeyer, a German manufacturing business on its acquisition of Yorkshire based Cirteq Limited, a leading international circlip specialist; and Safanad, an American private equity fund on its investment in Rimstock, a Cayman manufacturing business.

Charlotte is a Principal Associate in the Corporate Restructuring & Advisory department.  She advises a range of clients including insolvency practitioners, directors, creditors and banks on all contentious and non contentious matters arising out of corporate insolvencies. Charlotte's expertise include; advising on the sale and purchase of businesses and assets in an insolvency context, conducting security reviews and advising on the enforceability of security, as well as advising insolvency practitioners in relation to antecedent transactions.

Chris is a Partner within the Shoosmiths's Real Estate team in Birmingham Chris is an experienced lawyer working with developers, investors, operators and occupiers to deliver their real estate requirements. He has over 16 years’ experience helping clients to structure and plan their projects and transactions, understand and manage risk and protect their interests. He draws on his legal experience acting regularly for parties on both sides of the negotiating fence to make him perfectly placed to quickly focus on what will be most important to his clients and pragmatically to deliver the right end results.

Craig is a partner within Shoosmiths’ IT & Tech team with over 20 years of experience within the technology sector.  Craig advises both customers and suppliers on a wide range of FinTech, IT and sourcing matters across a wide range of industry sectors, with a particular focus on the telecoms, financial services, manufacturing and retail sectors. Craig's diverse experience includes negotiating IT system integration agreements, SaaS-delivered platforms, infrastructure and desktop outsourcings, ERP and CRM system procurements, complex IT-centric and business process outsourcings (both onshore and offshore), negotiating software implementation, licensing and support agreements and advising on contractual arrangements relating to e-commerce trading platforms and co-branded financial services on behalf of financial institutions and retail partners. Craig also has niche expertise within financial services and regularly advises on merchant acquiring, co-branded and affinity products, customer account value added services and other commercial contracts within the financial services sector.  Craig is also the co-author of PLC and Lexis Nexis merchant acquiring and PCI DSS guidance notes for commercial lawyers. As a result of his experience, Craig is a member of Lexis Nexis’ consulting Editorial Board for TMT, working alongside other leading industry experts in this field. Craig is also the author of Lexis Nexis’ System Integration precedents and PLC’s “Special Issues in IT Outsourcing” practice note. Craig is ITIL certified, the leading global best business practice for IT Service Management. Craig's experience includes advising: • a British modern luxury automotive manufacturer on its £800m digital transformation project with TCS • two systemic European banks entering into separate long term partnering arrangements with the acquirers of their respective merchant acquiring businesses • a UK bank in respect of its white labelled digital mortgage platform arrangements with a leading mortgage platform provider • a global manufacturer in respect of the procurement and roll-out of its transformative SD-WAN network solution across over 100 global sites • a UK SD-WAN solutions provider in respect of its customer contracts and contractual arrangements with resellers in other key markets • a global intelligence, events and research group in respect of its customer data platform contractual arrangements with a market leading US provider • a FinTech betting odds solutions provider in respect of its publisher arrangements with the likes of ESPN, NBC and CBS Interactive. • a UK MNO on its £250m+ IT transformation project to create a SaaS-based new IT system • a UK MNO on the potential managed service outsourcing of its entire legacy IT and core network infrastructure to two major outsourced service providers • a UK challenger bank on the replacement of its existing contractual arrangements with a key IT supplier from a managed service model to a truly outsourced model whilst also tripling the breadth of IT services provided by the supplier to the bank

Dan is a Legal Director and clinical negligence solicitor, acting for Claimants in complex cases, all over the country.  Dan has a specialist interest in spinal injury cases, in particular Cauda Equina Syndrome claims. Prior to joining Shoosmiths, Dan was a Director at Moosa-Duke Solicitors and before that he worked at Russell-Cooke in London. Since qualifying, Dan has exclusively represented claimants in high value, complex, novel and high profile personal injury and medical negligence cases. Dan has always been an enthusiastic contributor to his local legal community. Dan has served in many voluntary roles, including as Editor of the Leicestershire Law Society magazine and as President of the Leicestershire Medico-Legal Society. In 2021 Dan was awarded the accolade of Solicitor of the Year by the Leicestershire Law Society. Throughout his career, Dan has always been an active member of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), previously being Secretary for the Product Liability Special Interest Group and Co-ordinator for the East Midlands Group. Dan acted for the claimant in the case of X v University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (2019) where there was a negligent delay in diagnosing and treating Cauda Equina Syndrome.   Dan recovered a 7 figure sum for the claimant, following a three week trial.  In light of his expertise in Cauda Equina Syndrome cases, Dan was invited to contribute to a new Cauda Equina Syndrome pathway, being implemented by three hospital trusts.

Dan is a Senior Associate advising clients on a wide range of commercial matters including supply and purchase terms, distribution agreements, outsourcing agreements, IT software agreements, reseller arrangements and legal compliance matters. He is praised by clients for his pro-active approach to progressing deals, understanding clients’ business objectives and providing clear, concise legal advice. He regularly advises clients in a broad range of sectors including logistics, technology, sports, media, transport and renewable energy. Recent project experience includes advising: A local authority on its £58.9m purchase of two hybrid solar farms with battery storage, and subsequent management and sale arrangements; An outsourced service provider on its £50m food and consumable UK distribution agreement; A national development bank on the outsourcing of its loan administration IT system; A Championship football club in relation to its lead shirt sponsorship deal, including advising on club, player and coach promotional inventory; Various high-profile professional athletes on their image rights, sponsorship and endorsement agreements; A sports therapy device retailer on its licensing arrangements with the British Olympic Association; An international IT service provider on its suite of supply agreements in respect of its telehealth messaging platform; An IT start-up on various data protection compliance matters relating to its ticketing platform which utilizes facial recognition technology; and A software developer on all contractual documentation relating to the release of its flagship managed services product. Outside oflarge project work, Dan works closely with several of our clients’ in-house legal teams to assist with their day-to-day commercial contracting arrangements. This work typically involves negotiating contracts based on standard terms, understanding the business’ risk profile and providing strategic commercial advice. Dan recently returned from his secondment to a Fortune 500 international outsourced service provider, during which he supported their UK onshore and global offshore operations. This support included assisting stakeholders across the business by restructuring commercial agreements to mitigate against the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

  Dan is a Senior Associate in our Corporate department advising on all aspects of corporate law including venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, joint ventures, shareholders' agreements, investments and general corporate advisory mandates. Dan joined Shoosmiths in April 2021.    

Dan is a Partner in the Corporate team and specialises in private equity transactions acting for PE sponsors, management teams and investee companies. He also focuses on M&A transactions (buy-side and sell-side) for a number of corporate clients and has experience across a variety of sectors. Recent experience includes advising: Livingbridge on its investments into Quorum Cyber and Nourish Care; GEMS Education on various transactions, including the disposal of its international schools based in Singapore and Malaysia respectively; the shareholders of Bramble Foods Limited on its sale to LDC and subsequent reinvestment; Mutares on its acquisitions of Alan Dick Communications and Special Melted Products; Cow Corner on its investments into Dayshape and Mitchell Charlesworth.  

David is Chief Executive of Shoosmiths. He is responsible for delivering the firm’s strategy and for driving operational excellence in the business to help serve our clients. Prior to being elected to the role in 2022, David practised as a specialist Technology & Outsourcing lawyer, leading Shoosmiths’ award-winning national Commercial Group for over ten years. He was recognised by the directories as a Leading Individual in his field, being described as ‘very pragmatic, very commercial and technically brilliant’. David is passionate about client service and innovating to create new ways of solving our clients’ problems. He won the prestigious Client Partner of the Year Award at the British Legal Awards following a survey conducted by Legal Week of over 1400 senior in-house lawyers who were asked to rate the client partner who’d impressed them most. David topped the poll in the UK. As Chief Executive, David combines leadership and management of the firm’s three core divisions (Corporate, Real Estate & Advisory Services) and its support directorates and is focused on uniting our people in the pursuit of excellence for the benefit of our clients and each other. David joined Shoosmiths in 2006 from an in-house counsel role. During his time with the firm, he served on its Partnership Council for six years and led the team responsible for creating connected services offering ‘Shoosmiths8’. In his role as CEO, David is committed to working hard to encourage more diversity of thought, perspective and experience in the firm and he has a personal passion to see improved social mobility across the profession.

David is a real estate lawyer, and Living Sector specialist, with extensive experience of acting for developers, end users, investors and funders. With a particular focus on residential development, housing and regeneration work, he advises on acquisitions, development and disposals, including site assembly, pre-lets, strategic and immediate use options and complex conditional contracts with overage, planning and development obligations, on both immediate take and major strategic land schemes. As national lead of Shoosmiths’ Affordable Housing team, David works with specialists throughout the firm to advise Registered Providers, developers and funders on all aspects of affordable housing, helping clients to manage risk in a complex regulatory and funding environment. His recent experience includes advising: • a regional local authority on a series of residential development acquisitions; • a major regional house builder on a programme of strategic land options and regears to deliver their development pipeline, including single-take schemes, phased drawdown sites, and hybrid option-promotion agreements; • various commercial lenders on a range of asset management and lending instructions to registered providers, including portfolio charging and review work; • a registered provider on the negotiation and regearing of a phased drawdown development agreement for more than 130 units, including the eventual termination of the agreement post-long stop date with recovery of deposit monies; • a registered provider on the acquisition of mixed-tenure affordable plots within a larger development of their land including secured development obligations and open market sales overage provisions; • a registered provider on the drafting of an innovative tenure structure based on traditional shared ownership leases, allowing them to release stock into the market for sale while mitigating carrying costs for void and short-term leases.

Partner David is an experienced banking lawyer and advises some of the UK’s largest financial institutions in real estate finance, acquisition and leveraged finance (both sponsor and non-sponsor), pensions-related finance, restructuring, refinancing and asset-based lending. He has exceptional technical expertise in this area of the law, which is underpinned by a superb track record in business development. Recent examples of David’s work include: acting for a major high street bank in relation to a high profile business and property acquisition of a national fuel supply business; acting for a Midlands University in relation to two major funding projects, with funding for both development work and general corporate purposes being provided by two high street banks; acting for a Midlands based automotive parts and processes supplier in relation to the multi-jurisdictional asset based funding of a UK/Chinese joint venture; and acting for an overseas owned but Midlands based eye wear manufacturer and distributor in relation to their ongoing funding requirements.  

David is a Partner in the corporate division advising on M&A transactions with significant experience acting for a range of corporate clients including on domestic and cross border transactions. David has experience across a variety of sectors with extensive experience advising clients in the dental and healthcare sectors. Recent experience includes advising: Global Critical Logistics on its acquisitions of Dynamic International Freight Services, Dynamic Dox and the CARS group; Livingbridge on its investments into Quorum Cyber Security and Nourish Care Systems; Lightpoint Medical on its sale to Telix; the shareholders of Enamel Dental on its sale to Real Good Dental Group; the sale of Dawood and Tanner Dental Practice to Dentex; and Dental Beauty Partners on its acquisitions of Kiss Dental and Ascent Dental.

Partner

Dominic heads up the national Trade Mark practice. He has significant experience in a diverse range of industries including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, electronics, telecommunications, fashion, software, high street retailers and confectionery. He assists clients with the entire range of Trade Mark work, including pre-filing searching, filing strategies, filing UK, EU and International Trade Mark applications, oppositions, cancellations and invalidity actions. Dominic’s experience includes managing the world-wide Trade Mark portfolios of global electronics corporations, biotechnology firms, clothing retailers, financial software companies and confectionery retailers. This global portfolio management routinely spanned from urgent pre-filing searching, to world-wide Trade Mark filing strategies with tiered filing priorities and costs, to Trade Mark enforcement and oppositions, to budget forecasting and yearly management. Dominic also has extensive experience in advising on and filing Designs in the UK, EU and Internationally around the world.

Ellie is a Partner in the Real Estate team and has experience in all aspects of property and landlord and tenant litigation, acting for a wide range of clients including public and private companies, national retailers, banking clients, commercial developers and occupational landlords. In particular, Ellie has extensive experience in dealing with retail clients, both from landlord and tenant perspectives, including working closely with numerous retail banking and high street clients. Ellie has dealt with a large range of matters, including business lease renewals (contentious and non-contentious), dilapidations disputes, service charge disputes, tenant insolvency, rights of way and easement disputes, break notices, rent arrears recovery, contractual interpretation issues and issues surrounding landlord’s consent. Ellie also specialises in agricultural law, being experienced in work governed by the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 and the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995, including termination of tenancies, recovery of possession and compensation issues.

  Eloise is a principal associate and advises on both contentious and non-contentious matters but with a particular focus on intellectual property disputes. Eloise regularly advises high profile clients on the protection, exploitation and enforcement of their intellectual property rights and seeks to provide effective and pragmatic solutions.  Her clients come from a wide variety of sectors such as retail, manufacturing, technology, travel and automotive, oil and gas, healthcare, fashion and education. Eloise has dealt with all stages of litigation from the pre-action work all the way through to trial and manages disputes involving trade marks, passing off, patents, copyright, database rights, groundless threats, confidential information and know how as well as comparative advertising. Her wealth of experience has meant that she has handled claims in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and Company Names Tribunal as well as many cross border cases. Eloise’s experience includes: managing a highly technical, multi-jurisdictional patent infringement and revocation claim related to technology used in the oil and gas industry being heard in the UK, Germany and the US; defending a claim for unregistered design right infringement and breach of copyright against a major UK retailer; regularly advising a global food and drink brand on the control of its brand, reputation management and enforcement of its intellectual property rights; acting for a leading travel brand in the enforcement of its trade mark rights in a variety of infringement claims being heard in the IPEC, High Court and the Court of Appeal as well managing a number of international disputes related to the same brand; advising the defendants in a High Court claim for infringement of database copyright and breach of contract and negotiating a settlement of the claim; defending a popular fashion label against a claim for design right infringement and passing off brought by a major fashion designer; advising on a complex claim for groundless threats and misrepresentation regarding a patent with a foreign party and the subsequent appeal; drafting, negotiating and finalising a variety of licences, assignments, R&D and technology transfer agreements and collaborations; and undertaking IP audits for various clients and due diligence during company acquisitions.

Emma is a principal associate within the Real Estate team and has experience acting for corporate occupiers. Emma has been involved in a variety of Cransactions including estate management, assisting on acquisitions and the disposal of commercial premises. Emma joined Shoosmiths’ real estate practice in March 2015 from Shakespeares. Emma’s recent project experience includes advising: a number of well known high street names on all matters connected with the management of their property portfolios including disposals, lease renewals and alterations; acting on behalf of a well known Midlands retailer who was looking to assign 24 properties in a timely and pro-active manner; negotiating the sale of properties through auction; on the assignment of both simple and complex assignments of a large international retailer in the acquisition of 180 properties including the negotiation of variations and reversionary leases to ensure the new properties are in line with their standard portfolio; on the hive up of over 300 properties; and on reporting on property details of a portfolio ahead of an international acquisitions to ensure the client was aware of what they would be acquiring should the transaction proceed. Emma is very dedicated to her work and highly professional in the way she represents clients and deals with any queries raised. Emma has gained insightful knowledge of the retail world whilst carrying out a secondment at a national retailer. Prior to initiating her working career in law, Emma studied at the College of Law (LPC) and the University of Birmingham (LLM) and the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (LLB HONS).

Fiona is a Partner in the Commercial team in Birmingham and specialises in a wide range of commercial contracts in particular warehousing, logistics, facilities and property management outsourcing arrangements, supply chain, routes to market (including distribution and agency) and manufacturing routinely with cross border reach. As an ex-GC herself, Fiona has extensive experience of working with in-house teams acting both as the interface between the legal team and the Board as well as legal team and the business. She acts both customer and supplier side advising pragmatically on commercial arrangements with a deep understanding of the need to balance risk with opportunity. Recently she has advised extensively in relation to supply chain disruption and other impacts of Brexit, Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. She advises clients across sectors including FMCG, food and beverage, food delivery, telecoms manufacturing and professional services. Fiona is also lead for Hexagon®, a Shoosmiths EIGHT Connected Services product. We help GCs and in-house lawyers identify and resolve key legal operation issues, eliminate wasted time and deliver optimal value to their businesses by utilising leading technology and real data, Hexagon® offers a clear route map to legal operational excellence.

Gemma is a Senior Associate within the Real Estate team based in our Birmingham office. She has experience acting for corporate occupiers, with a specialism in retail and leisure corporate occupiers. Gemma has been involved in a variety of transactions including estate management and assisting on acquisitions and disposals of commercial premises in shopping centres, retail parks and on the high street. Gemma’s recent experience includes: Advising a number of well-known high street names on all matters connected with the management of their property portfolios including disposals, lease renewals and alterations; Assisting on the acquisition of 280 stores and dealing with the CMA elements of the deal  and then integrating the entire estate into the Client’s core portfolio; Dealing with the acquisition  of UK headquarters for a growing international company; and Conducting a review of a national retailer’s entire portfolio consisting of over 850 properties and reporting on aspects of their leases in line with their specific requirements. Acting on a 'hive up' for a national convenience store, dealing with the transfer of over 350 properties.

Gemma is a Principal Associate in the Construction and Engineering Team. Gemma advises developers, contractors, sub-contractors and other construction and engineering professionals across a broad range of contentious issues, including payment disputes, loss and expense claims, claims for defective workmanship and design, and professional negligence claims. She advises primarily in relation to dispute resolution including conducting mediations, adjudications and court proceedings in the Technology and Construction Court (TCC). Gemma also has a background in insurance litigation and has experience in dealing in a range of disputes, including property damage related disputes. Her recent experience includes:  Acting for an international main contractor in defending a multi-party, multi-million pound proceedings in the TCC in respect of alleged management, design and workmanship failings, and alleged defects relating to cladding, fire safety and Building Regulations breaches. The proceedings were successfully resolved through mediation. Acting for a logistics and housebuilding developer in defending procedurally complex, multi-party, multi-million pound proceedings in the TCC in respect of the defective construction and design of a ground floor slab and its associated foundations. The proceedings were successfully resolved through mediation. Acting for a Diocese in respect of allegations of professional negligence made against its structural engineer relating to defects in the design of a podium slab. The matter was successfully resolved through mediation. Assisting in advising a large retailer in respect of various issues arising out of an NEC3 form of contract with its contractor, including payment, compensation events, delay, defects and other third party claims. Acting for a leading developer and manufacturer of 3D/4D simulation attractions and special effects cinemas in a high value adjudication dealing with a number of issues relating to payment, delays and extensions of time, and defects. Acting for a regional contractor in an adjudication commenced by its subcontractor relating to a final account dispute, which required the commencement of enforcement proceedings in the TCC by our client.  Acting for a high net worth individual in respect of major landscape restoration works undertaken at a Grade I, 18th century estate which were part funded by English Heritage and Natural England. The dispute related to defects in the design and construction of a restored water cascade, and was successfully resolved through mediation.

Georgina works in the corporate team advising on all areas of corporate law, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, investments, corporate restructuring and corporate governance. Georgina works with a variety of clients including private and public companies, LLPs, venture capital investors, management teams and owner managed businesses. Recent project experience includes advising: VC investors on a range of investments (including VCT/EIS investments); a British clothing company listed on AIM on its acquisition of an online homeware retailer; a NYSE listed records management and storage company on the acquisition of a fine arts storage and logistics business; the seller on the disposal of an iconic Birmingham hotel; an international hotel chain on various hotel acquisitions and disposals; a German car manufacturer on its disposal of used car sites and a body shop centre; a NYSE listed company on the UK aspects of an international reorganisation and the disposal of a facilities management provider; and shareholders of a company in the vet tech sector on an MBO backed by a private equity house.  

Gregg is a Senior Associate in the Birmingham corporate team, advising and assisting on all aspects of corporate law including: venture capital, private equity transactions, mergers and acquisitions, business transfers, investments, shareholders agreements, joint ventures and general corporate advisory mandates. Gregg works with a variety of clients including private and public companies, LLP's, institutional investors, management teams and owner managed businesses.  

Guv is a solicitor specialising in assisting parents of children and young people with special educational needs (SEN). She has been working within SEN law since 2014. Her team secures the provision of services to be funded by local authorities for children and young adults with additional needs by way of EHC plans. Guv assesses EHC plans and advises on their contents to ensure they are fit for purpose. If there are deficiencies within the plans, Guv can assist in challenging local authority decisions by way of mediation or SEND tribunal appeal. The types of services that Guv is able to secure for the children and young people that she represents include therapies such as physiotherapy, 1:1 teaching assistance and specialist placements. Guv has regularly secured independent specialist placements worth over £70,000 a year at the local authorities' expense by way of SEND appeal and through pre appeal negotiations. Guv conducts seminars informing parents of their legal rights in respect of EHC plans and how they can enforce them. She has links to local charities whom she regularly visits to assist parents of children with SEN. Guv regularly works with personal injury and clinical negligence solicitors, court of protection deputies and case managers, where, she is instructed on SEND appeals and pre appeal work achieving favourable outcomes within agreed fee budgets. Testimonial We entered into a tribunal against our local authority over an educational provision for our disabled son. We quickly realised that we needed legal representation. We had watched an online workshop hosted by Gurvinder Samra of Shoosmiths LLP and so enlisted her services. Gurvinder dealt with and arranged everything, Tribunal paperwork, expert witnesses, counsel and took charge of the case while maintaining an eye on the mounting fees keeping them at a reasonable level. We ultimately won the case, a result that without Gurvinder's input would have had a different outcome. N & H Tarratt

Partner

  Helen is a principal associate experienced in acting for commercial and residential developers, investors, end-users and lending institutions. Helen also acts for many landlord and tenant clients on estate management portfolio matters. Helen regularly acquires and disposes of investments including retail, office, industrial and leisure properties. Her recent project experience includes advising: a national UK investor on the management and sale of part of an existing multi-let residential and retail site; a number of high street lenders overseeing the property aspects of high-value property-based commercial lending transactions to ensure that the lender receives adequate security for its loan; on the refinancing of a portfolio of properties for an international investment fund transacted within a limited timescale. Helen has been an associate in Shoosmiths’ real estate practice since September 2014, having completed her training contract with the firm and qualified as a solicitor in September 2010.

Ian is a construction lawyer with some 25 years’ experience. He has advised on various large projects, with a particular emphasis on power stations and process plants. His wide experience means that he is well-equipped to guide employers, contractors and consultants through the construction phase and beyond. He is experienced in adjudication and all other form of dispute resolution. He has been ranked in the legal directories for many years. Legal 500 says he “has a technical background which is most helpful in analysing and preparing claims and witnesses, which he does exceptionally well”. His recent experience includes: acting for a substantial contractor on a time and money claim, in which a multi-million pound sum was awarded in adjudication; guiding a university through a lengthy dispute with its FM contractor; advising a project management company on a complex High Court claim; acting for a health sector developer in an extension of time adjudication; and defending a sub-contractor in an arbitration that was then resolved by mediation..

Iyanu is a senior associate in the real estate team with over five years’ experience. She has a great wealth of knowledge in general commercial property matters and is continually developing her experience of development work (both commercially and residentially). Her experience includes: •developing and growing client relations including responsibility for them on a daily basis including assisting the client partner for a major French motor manufacturer with a UK HQ in Coventry which involves undertaking freehold and leasehold acquisitions of retail showrooms and other premises. Most recent major instruction was undertaking freehold disposal for site in Manchester worth over £12 million; •acting for housebuilders, manufacturers, automotive clients, investment clients, lenders and SMEs; •leasehold and portfolio management; and •dealing with refinancing and land development loans.

James is a partner in the  real estate team specialising in commercial development, funding and strategic land. James has particular experience acting for developers in forward funded pre-let developments and on the preparation, servicing and phased disposal of strategic mixed use and residential sites. His recent experience includes advising: a national developer on the acquisition, pre-let and forward funding of a £38 million logistics hub in the West Midlands; an international logistics company taking a lease of a purpose-built automated warehousing and office facility at a major new logistics park in the East Midlands; a private investment company on securing a long-term option and promotion agreement for a 400 acre strategic development site in Staffordshire; a major UK lending institution on an £18 million development and investment facility secured against a portfolio of 34 commercial properties; and a West Midlands based property investment vehicle on the £70 million refinancing and redevelopment of a flagship office building in central Birmingham.    

James is the national head of Shoosmiths’ Corporate Restructuring and Advisory department. James specialises in acting for corporates, company directors, insolvency practitioners, private equity holders, banks and asset based lenders on all matters in relation to business restructuring, distressed lending and corporate insolvency. James has extensive experience and is particularly well regarded in relation to business restructurings and insolvencies within the retail sector. James is known as one of the industry’s leading lawyers when it comes to securing CVAs and advising in respect of administrations for a wide range of high profile retail businesses. In the last few years, James has been involved in over 20 high profile retail CVAs and administrations. These include, Monsoon Accessorize (administration), Cath Kidston (administration), Harveys and Bensons for Beds (administration), Poundstretcher (CVA), UK Window Group Limited (administration), Select Fashion (CVA and subsequent administration and a further CVA) and Regis UK (trading as Supercuts) (CVA). In addition, James’ notable experience includes the following: advising the purchaser of the brand and intellectual property of Oasis/Warehouse; advising the administrators of T.M Lewin & Sons Limited; advising the administrators of Office Outlet (formerly the business known as Staples); advising the administrators of Monarch Aircraft Engineering Limited, a company of significant strategic importance within the aviation industry with circa 800 employees, carrying out the maintenance, repair and overhaul of commercial airplanes primarily out of Birmingham and Luton airports; and advising in connection with the acquisition by Karen Millen of part of the business and assets of Coast from its administrators, including advising in connection with the structuring of the transaction to minimize risk, securing the ongoing employment for over 600 employees. James also has significant experience in challenges brought to the validity of retail CVAs, having taken a leading role in both defending and bringing such actions in respect of the most recent leading cases on retail CVAs. James Keates was the winner of Corporate Restructuring Lawyer of the year at the National Turnaround and Insolvency Awards in 2018 and is recognised in the Legal 500 “Hall of Fame” for “receiving constant praise” from his clients “for continued excellence” and for being “at the pinnacle of his profession”.

Dr James Wright is a Principal Associate in the medical negligence team of the Personal Advisory Division of Shoosmiths. James acts solely for patients and their families and has experience of dealing with all aspects of medical claims ranging from anaesthetic awareness cases to child birth trauma. James has settled a number of very high value claims which involve protected parties which cannot be reported due to those matters being the subject of anonymity orders. James was also the lawyer instructed by the claimant in the much publicised Court of Appeal case of Harrison v University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust which provided clarity and guidance on costs budgeting issues. James is an experienced public speaker and has lectured to both scientific and legal audiences. James has also published articles on topics of general medico-legal interest and has had some of his successfully concluded medical negligence cases reported in publications such as Clinical Risk and PI Focus.  

James is a Senior Associate in the Real Estate Development & Investment team, acting for mixed use developers, property companies, investment funds and institutional landlords. He advises on all aspects of commercial property, including conditional sale and purchase agreements, the grant and exercise of options, agreements for lease and pre-lets, acquisition and disposal work, as well as having extensive experience in landlord and tenant and portfolio management work. Recent experience includes: acted for property investment and development company on the acquisition of an east-midlands multi-let industrial and logistics estate. acted for property investment and development company on the acquisition of an eight-storey office building in Birmingham. acted for various property investment companies on the acquisition of multi-let shopping centres and retail parks across England. acted for property fund on the assembly, funding, development and letting of multiple logistics and distribution developments. acted for institutional landlords on the leasing and portfolio asset management of various major retail and commercial assets across England.  

With a focus on commercial real estate development and funding, Jason has a strong track record advising on UK regeneration projects, mixed use office and commercial development, logistics and warehousing. He advises clients on site acquisitions, pre-lets and forward funding arrangements with pension funds and investors, together with joint venture arrangements between developers and property-led corporate transactions. Recent projects where Jason has advised include: advising one of the developer parties involved in the first-phase preparations for a 175 acre regeneration project for a logistics park in the West Midlands advising on the acquisition pre-let and forward funding of the largest (2020) automated parcel delivery in Europe based in the North of England Advising on acquisition development sale on the a 2.2m Amazon facility in the UK Advising on the site assembly and development of a 2m square foot logistics park in the UK the £98 million investment sale of 55 Colmore Row, Birmingham, following a back-to-frame £32 million re-development completed just eight months earlier. Jason leads the Midlands region with teams in Birmingham and Nottingham

Jill is a Partner in real estate with extensive experience of working in the property sector. She specialises in acting for national housebuilders in all aspects of the acquisition process, in relation to both strategic and immediate land. She regularly deals with a variety of transaction types including conditional contracts, strategic options, promotion agreements, regeneration schemes, multi-party collaboration agreements and overages. Jill advises her clients as to deal structures and assists with heads of terms to ensure the deals progress as smoothly as possible from the outset. She has a collaborative and proactive approach and is known for driving deals forwards and effectively managing difficult situations. Jill’s experience includes: · Advising a consortium of national housebuilders in relation to a development of over 1,100 houses in Oxfordshire including partitioning of the site, day to day development advice, deeds of grant, sales required as a result of planning obligations etc; · Acting for a PLC housebuilder in relation to a large-scale inner-city regeneration project alongside a local authority; · Advising on the acquisition of a site of over 1000 units in West Sussex for a PLC housebuilder and subsequently dealing with ancillary agreements, deeds, overage payments etc to facilitate the on-going development; · Dealing with a 4-phase scheme in the midlands for a national housebuilder in collaboration with a local authority; · Working for a national housebuilder in relation to the acquisition of a 3-phase scheme via a conditional contract with deferred payment, collaboration agreement and complicated planning structure; · Acting for a PLC housebuilder on the acquisition of a 500 unit site on the south coast providing much needed new homes, affordable housing, improvements to infrastructure and local facilities.

Jo is a senior associate based in our Birmingham Office, she assists and advises on both contentious and non-contentious aspects of employment law.  Jo has experience in disciplinary, dismissal, grievance and redundancy processes as well as acting for Respondents in tribunal proceedings. Jo’s recent work includes: responding to unfair dismissal tribunal claims on behalf of an international consultancy business, including defending claims for disability and gender discrimination; advising on and drafting contracts of employment, executive service agreements, consultancy agreements and internal policies for a range of organisations; negotiating settlement disputes for an employer which included additional complications surrounding payments of statutory maternity and redundancy pay disputed by the employee. Advising on a range of immigration matters including sponsorship reporting obligations and right to work checks.

Joe is a Partner and the Head of Shoosmiths' IT & Technology team (IT & technology | Commercial services | Shoosmiths lawyers).  Joe is also the Head of Shoosmiths' Technology Sector group (Technology | Sectors | Shoosmiths Lawyers). Joe has helped establish Shoosmiths’ IT and Technology team as one of the leading practices in the UK; winning TMT Team of the Year at the 2023 Legal Business Awards and ranked Band 1 by Legal 500 and Chambers UK Guide. The team is described as a “[t]hriving team that draws on a wealth of expertise to handle the complete range of IT matters and represents a fine choice for clients." (Chambers UK Guide).   Joe is consistently ranked as a leading individual in IT and technology by UK legal directories, being described as having “the perfect balance of deep legal expertise, extensive subject area knowledge and strong negotiation and relationship-building skills” (Chambers UK Guide).   Joe has extensive experience of advising on all forms of IT and technology transactions across a range of sectors, but has particular expertise in advising on large-scale transformational outsourcings and projects in the automotive, retail and financial services sector.  He is also a leading advisor on transactions involving Web3 and the Metaverse. Joe’s major recent transactions include advising:   a major telecommunication provider on its £200million+ procurement of a state-of-the art, greenfield IT system; a global automotive manufacturer on various business critical IT projects, including its £50m+ next generation IT services contract and tech-enabled customer contact centre involving a full transformation program for the introduction of AI and chat bots; advising various global brands on the launch of Web3 and Metaverse projects; one of the world's largest banks on the procurement of critical IT systems and infrastructure for the operation of its new motor lending business; a global mass media company on the first generation outsourcing of its technology operations centre based in India to provide IT support and services across its entire global business; one of the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair care products on its global procurement of its customer engagement platform with one of the world’s leading providers, as well as other cutting edge technology projects involving AR and social retail; a FTSE 100 company on its multi-million pound global procurement and roll-out of a new CRM system involving various Tier 1 suppliers; one of the world's largest multinational brewing companies on various IT projects, including the design, development and deployment of a pan-European e-commerce platform and a multi-million pound supply chain and demand management system for its UK business.  

Jon is a Partner and co-heads our Financial Services Sector working with a broad team of solicitors across all divisions of the firm. Jon is an experienced finance lawyer specialising in acting for both borrowers and lenders on asset based lending transactions, both domestic and cross border. The majority of Jon’s clients are the funders, including the main high street banks that are active in asset based lending as well as a great many non-high street bank or independent funders (including Shawbrook, Arbuthnot Latham, Investec, Close Brothers and Hitchai Capital). A typical transaction would include a combination of receivables finance alongside one or more of plant and machinery, inventory, property and/or cashflow facilities. The purpose of such facilities can range from a straightforward re-finance to a family cash out, PE investment, trade sale/purchase or a more distressed situation. Recent examples of transactions include: acting for Shawbrook Bank in the $70,000,000 syndicated facility alongside Wells Fargo, providing funding to Project Piper to assist with working capital and growth plans; advised Close Brothers on the acquisition finance aspects of Trust Tech Inc's acquisition of GAP Personnel and assisted with the £20m funding facility; represented Shawbrook on an asset based lending package to Webster & Horsfall; advising Arbuthnot on a £5m asset based lending facility to Morris Angel & Son; advising ABN on a £16m receivables finance facility with Affinity Workforce; advising Arbuthnot on a £6.5m ABL facility being made available to the Fluorocarbon group. In the directories, Jon is ranked as a tier 1 “Leading Individual – Hall of Fame” finance lawyer in the West Midlands by Legal 500 - one of only three lawyers with that ranking – and is regularly ranked in tier 1. The team was also ranked tier 1 nationally in asset based lending alongside Mayer Brown.

Kashmir won the accolade of “Partner of the Year” at the Birmingham Law Society Awards 2018, beating off competition from several big name firms, in part in recognition of her work on behalf of patients injured by rogue breast surgeon Mr Ian Paterson. She also won “Clinical Negligence Lawyer of the Year” at the national Eclipse Proclaim Personal Injury Awards in November 2018. Again, along with other considerations, her campaign to expose Ian Paterson’s criminal behaviour and deliver justice to those he injured impressed the judges who unanimously agreed to award her this prestigious title. She has been a member of the Law Society’s specialist clinical panel since 2004, having specialised in clinical negligence since 1996. Most of her clients have suffered significant and serious injuries and her extensive experience results in multi million pound settlements. These cases include children and young adults who have suffered brain injury at the time of or shortly after birth. In addition, she has worked on a range of complex cases including amputations, spinal cord, head injuries and fatalities, securing significant compensation. Her particular expertise is in multi-party actions, having been the lead solicitor in the complex litigation arising from the surgical procedures performed by the disgraced breast surgeon, Mr Ian Paterson. She was involved in the criminal and regulatory proceedings that led to his conviction and being struck off the GMC register and pivotal to raising the profile of the issue including campaigning to secure a change in the law to protect patients treated in private hospitals. Kashmir is the lead Solicitor in a number of claims relating to surgery performed by Mr El - Maghraby, a Consultant Neuro surgeon both in the NHS, at the University Hospitals of Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust and also a number of private Midlands hospitals.  

Kate is a partner in our real estate disputes team.  She deals with all types of property litigation work from the provision of pre-emptive advice and risk analysis through to complex proceedings in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.  Kate acts for institutional landlords, developers, investors and corporate occupiers across the entire property sector. Kate has been practising for over 16 years.  She is recognized for her reasoned and proactive approach to dispute resolution.   Her core areas of expertise include lease renewals (contested and uncontested), rent and service charge disputes, rent reviews, dilapidations, contested break options and property insolvency, as well as the provision of strategic land assembly and tenant re-engineering advice.  Recent projects include: advising an AIM listed retailer on the contentious elements of the £250m acquisition of a competitor's leasehold portfolio; dealing with the restructure of a property portfolio on behalf of a FTSE listed retailer.  Advising on all aspects of the transition of 600 properties from the old franchise business model to a new bespoke model; acting for a plc investor/developer on all elements of site assembly and clearance, including the release of rights to light and other easements in the context of a £4.3bn extension and redevelopment project.

Senior Associate

  Kate is a Senior Associate who specialises in dealing with serious personal injury claims, including workplace illnesses, industrial disease, asbestos related claims, and catastrophic injuries. In particular, she has expertise in dealing with multiple defendant claims and those where the former employer is no longer trading. She also has experience in working with a diverse range of personal injury cases, including complex accidents at work or in public places, serious road traffic accidents and uninsured driver claims (MIB). Kate will work closely with clients to obtain as much information as possible to successfully resolve their claim, as well as carrying out complex investigations into the corporate history of the defendant employers. In addition, Kate spent a number of years working within the Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP) Breast Implant Group Litigation, dealing with a varying range of over 600 clients and settling claims involving the complex injuries and losses sustained as a result of the faulty breast implants. Kate is quoted in the Legal 500 and was previously the President of the North Staffordshire Junior Lawyers Division. Clients have remarked that Kate was a ' breath of fresh air,' and 'given us the knowledge to enable us to make the correct decisions and demonstrated the professionalism that has made our difficult journey easier to manage.’

Kirsty is a Senior Associate in the Regulation, Business Crime and Compliance team. She advises companies, directors and individuals on regulatory compliance across a range of areas including health and safety, food safety, weights and measures, underage sales, trading standards, product safety and fire safety. She has experience of large scale inquiries and inquests. Kirsty is also an experienced licensing lawyer and provides expert advice on alcohol, late night refreshment, entertainment and gaming licensing. Taking a break from the law, Kirsty gained practical compliance experience as the Technical Manager for a producer of cooked and smoked poultry where she was responsible for all compliance matters for the company including HACCP, audits, health and safety, food labelling and fire safety. Kirsty then worked as a Compliance Officer in a school, as well as a Clerk to the Governing Body, extending her knowledge base to the education sector. Kirsty has also been a School Governor, sat on the Scrutiny Board for Education at Solihull MBC and clerked a charity which supported local good causes.

Laura is a Senior Associate and supports the work of the employment team in providing meaningful legal assistance to companies and individuals. She has previous experience in both contentious and non-contentious employment matters, which includes the following: preparing for and attending an 18 day hearing concerning a complex whistleblowing and sexual orientation discrimination claim. In particular, Laura co-ordinated the respondent's response to an application for further disclosure made by the claimant three days before the final hearing; completing corporate due diligence, including reviewing employment contracts, policies and litigation and producing a detailed due diligence report which highlighted key risks for the client; producing external briefing notes for clients, covering topics including termination, grievance handling and general HR queries; and drafting and advising in relation to settlement agreements.  

Louise is a senior associate in the Corporate Restructuring and Advisory team in the Shoosmiths' Birmingham office. Louise advises on all aspects of insolvency and restructuring and her clients include insolvency practitioners, banks, companies and creditors. Louise's experience includes advising on company voluntary arrangements, acting both buyer and seller side in business sales out of administration and advising banks in connection with their security documentation. Louise has advised on a number of retail CVAs including Mucho Mas Ltd T/A Chilango, Elvetham Limited T/A Abokado, Thomas Sabo UK Limited and Polpo Limited. Louise has also assisted with a number of high profile administrations including Oddbins, and ASA Resource Group PLC. In addition to non-contentious work, Louise also advises on contentious matters. Her most recent notable success includes successfully defending an appeal against an order for the repayment of sums held to be preference payments pursuant to Section 239 of the Insolvency Act 1986.

Lynette is an experienced pensions lawyer who advises both employers and trustees. Having also gained considerable experience as a transactional corporate lawyer, she has a particular expertise in dealing with pensions related issues on transactions and in stressed and distressed situations.  Her experience gives her the ability to put pensions issues into the context of the event in question. Lynette is also experienced in drafting scheme documents as well as providing ongoing advice on the day to day running of pension schemes, including having acted as the chair of trustees of a defined benefit pension scheme for a number of years. She is also well known for her expertise in relation to the employer debt legislation, negotiating bulk annuity (buy in/buy out) policies and the rules relating to Pension Protection Fund contingent assets. Lynette is recognised for her pragmatic and practical approach to matters and her ability to distil complex legal issues to clients. A client recently complimented her proactive approach stating that he wished all of his advisers were like her.  She has also been described as "very clear and very commercial."  Lynette is a member of the Association of Pension Lawyers (APL) and is Secretary to the East Midlands Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA).

Mandip is a Senior Associate in our corporate department advising on all aspects of corporate law, including venture capital, infrastructure investments, mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, joint ventures, shareholders' agreements, investments and general corporate advisory mandates.

Marcus-Adam is a Principal Associate in the corporate division, advising on mergers and acquisitions, group reorganisations, shareholders’ agreements and share capital reductions.  Marcus-Adam works with a variety of clients including companies based in the UK and overseas.

Martin is a Senior Associate Costs Lawyer within the Costs Team with over 20 years’ experience. He specialises in complex high value claims including claims in clinical negligence, catastrophic personal injury, construction, property and commercial litigation. He has considerable experience in all aspects of costs with an extensive understanding of the wide ranging and complex area of costs law. He is able to prepare Costs Budgets, Bills of Costs, Points of Dispute and Replies as well as to be able to advise upon technical queries and assist in any negotiations. Martin also has considerable advocacy experience and regularly attends both CCMCs and Detailed Assessments in the Royal Courts of Justice and regional Courts across the country.

Legal Director

  Michelle is a Senior Associate in the Employment team, providing advice on contentious and non-contentious matters to a range of clients including national retailers, logistics companies and individuals. Michelle's recent experience includes: defending employment tribunal proceedings, including unfair dismissal, discrimination and whistleblowing claims; delivering client-specific and national training sessions; negotiating settlement of disputes on behalf of employers and individuals; and advising on business immigration matters, including right to work and sponsorship queries.  

Natalie is an experienced finance lawyer specialising in acting for both borrowers and lenders on asset based lending transactions, both domestic and cross border. Natalie typically acts for financial institutions and corporates on asset finance transactions including receivables finance, plant & machinery loans, inventory loans, property loans and cashflow facilities. Recent examples of work include: acting for HSBC Bank Plc and HSBC Invoice Finance (UK) Limited in connection with a full asset based lending facility and term loan to support the management buyout of Parweld (manufacturer and wholesaler of welding equipment) and provide ongoing working capital; acting for IGF Business Credit Limited in connection with a £3.9m invoice discounting and plant & machinery package to support Thames Card Limited (developer, manufacturer and distributor of payment, gift, loyalty and commercial cards); acting for Arbuthnot Commercial Asset Based Lending Limited in connection with a £10.7m all asset finance package to support Anglian Windows (one of the UK’s leading end-to-end retailers, manufacturers and installers of home improvement products); acting for Arbuthnot Commercial Asset Based Lending Limited in connection with a flexible £8m receivables finance facility to support the refinancing of MAN Commercial Protection Limited (a national high-end security services provider). Natalie joined Shoosmiths as a partner in 2019 following six years at Irwin Mitchell and prior to that six years at Squire Patton Boggs.  

Natalie is a specialist non-contentious construction lawyer with over 13 years’ experience working in the construction industry advising a range of clients including contractors, employers and developers across a wide variety of sectors including infrastructure, energy, commercial development and PFI/PPP. Recent project experience includes: advising one of the UK’s largest contractors on its bids for the £6.6 billion High Speed 2 Civils Package tenders. Natalie was the lead lawyer for this bid which involved her negotiating and agreeing complex terms of a joint venture agreement with JV partners and advising the board on the terms of the construction contract with HS2, leading to the successful award of two civils works packages worth approximately £1 billion each; advising the contractor on the £5 billion bid to run the next Wales and Borders Rail Franchise and to build the next phase of the Metro where she negotiated terms of a JV agreement with proposed JV partners and advised on the terms of a complex franchise agreement with Transport for Wales; advising the Employer in its Ofgem-regulated sale of offshore transmission construction assets on one of the UK’s largest offshore wind farms to a third party purchaser as part of Ofgem’s OFTO regime; advising an international renewable energy client on its procurement contracts with key contractors for its offshore wind farm projects; advising leading UK developer clients on the building contract, collateral warranties and consultant appointments for various projects including the expansion of a holiday accommodation business at various UK sites and for a new hotel to form part of its UK hotel chain; advising the Authority on the construction contract and ancillary documents relating to the design, build, operation and management of a £125 million Energy from Waste Facility; and advising employers, developers, contractors and consultants on standard form and non-standard form construction contracts (including JCT, NEC, ICE, GC Works, Alliance contracts, PPC2000 and TPC2000), consultants' appointments, collateral warranties, letters of intent and agreements for lease.

Natasha is a Principal Associate Solicitor in the Medical Negligence department at Shoosmiths. She qualified as a solicitor in 2009 after already working in clinical negligence for one year during her training contract. Natasha has been ranked in the Legal 500 as rising star and described in the same directory as 'exceptionally well prepared, very bright and focussed. Natasha never misses a point and always gets the very best for clients. Natasha has a very caring way with clients and gives them sensible practical advice.' Similarly, Natasha is ranked in Chambers and Partners, and described as 'phenomenally bright, extremely hard working and very determined', and as 'an exceptionally able solicitor who never gives the opposition an inch. Tireless, tenacious and fierce.' Natasha has a varied caseload of serious injury claims against NHS trusts, private hospitals/practitioners and General Practitioners. She has particular experience in cases relating to spinal injury, often caused by cauda equina syndrome, abscess/discitis, myelopathy and haematoma. Natasha also specialises in brain injury, and in particular stroke, Wernicke's encephalopathy, and birth/hypoxic injury. She also has experience in a wide range of cases such as surgical error, gynaecological injury, sepsis/infection, and ophthalmic injuries. She represents adults and children and acts on behalf of claimants only. She also has experience of assisting clients during the inquest process and representing families in the Coroners' Courts throughout the country. Natasha has a reputation for achieving positive outcomes where cases are particularly difficult, novel or have complex loss of earnings arguments. Work highlights include: • acting on behalf of an aspiring barrister who was required to change her career plans due to the severe and permanent long term effects of a delay in diagnosis of appendicitis; • acting on behalf of a successful international racehorse vet who was unable to return to her previous employment or follow her intended career path due to alleged negligent anterior cruciate ligament (knee) surgery; • acting on behalf of a widow during a four day long inquest at Birmingham Coroners court. This was a very tragic case where a vulnerable man was allowed to escape from a psychiatric ward and died from his injuries after falling from the hospital roof. A jury found that the hospital's neglect had contributed to his death. Following this, Natasha brought a civil claim on behalf of the widow who received a substantial sum in compensation; • assisting in bringing a claim in clinical negligence on behalf of a 28 year old former professional photographer and mother of three. The Claimant suffered a cauda equina (spinal) injury resulting in significant disability and inability to return to her professional photography work. The Claimant was awarded a seven figure sum in compensation at trial. • Natasha assisted in bringing a claim in clinical negligence on behalf of a 35 year old lower limb amputee which ultimately settled for a seven figure sum.  

Nichola has spent significant time working in industry, including with OEM and Tier 1 automotive suppliers; and with a leading global supplier of innovative software solutions. She is able to apply her technical knowledge, combined with over 15 years legal experience, to provide expert advice to her clients in the exploitation of their ideas, inventions, designs and technology. Nichola is passionate about new technology and innovation. She works closely with companies across the whole innovation ecosystem, including FTSE 100 and global technology companies, SMEs with market leading technology and research intensive universities. She advises clients in relation to: research and development agreements; funding arrangements; through licensing, joint ventures, revenue sharing agreements or spin outs; and supply and manufacturing agreements. Nichola also advises clients in relation to branding and marketing, including the protection and licensing of trade marks, trade dress, get up and social media.Recent examples of Nichola’s work include: working closely with the Commercialisation and IP department of the a Russell Group University, acting as an extension of their legal team in the drafting and negotiation of a number of IP commercialisation agreements; advising DataLase Ltd in relation to a variety of development, licensing, and supply agreements concerning innovative printing technology; advising a producer of specialist cycling equipment in respect of a number of development and collaboration agreements, including projects funded through Innovate UK.

Nick is a Partner and Head of Shoosmiths’ Property Litigation practice. Having joined Shoosmiths as its only property litigator in 1999, Nick has been at the forefront of the development of the team into the heavyweight national practice that it is today. With 22 Legal Advisors specialising in all areas of property litigation, and with an unrivalled reputation, his team is the team of choice for numerous real estate clients including household names in the retail and leisure sectors, property developers, and investors. In addition to our wide ranging commercial real estate practice, we also have specialists who advise our clients on leasehold enfranchisement and housing management issues. Nick is an incisive property litigator with a proven track record of achieving and exceeding his clients’ aims. In addition to an excellent win rate in Court, Nick is equally effective in generating results in an advisory capacity, pre-empting, avoiding and resolving conflict wherever possible. Nick is ranked by Chambers as a leader in the property litigation field, with recent editions of the directory saying that “he understands his clients’ needs, as well as understanding the technical and practical realities of the law” and that “you might not always get the advice that you want, but you certainly will get the advice that you need”.  Feedback from clients includes that “I am confident in Nick’s immediate grasp of any situation”. Nick’s recent experience includes: Advising a landlord client through to trial on a hotly contested claim for possession of light industrial premises, the claim having been met with a counterclaim alleging wrongful forfeiture and seeking substantial damages. Acting for a retail client on a significant seven figure terminal dilapidations damages claim, advising on a number of fronts including in relation to the landlord’s loss of rent claim; supersession; and the tenant’s Section 18 defence. Advising a developer client on a strategy for the clearance of a site for residential redevelopment, the site being occupied by multiple commercial tenants with a mixture of leases within and outside of the protection of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954. Acting as a legal assessor for a rent review arbitrator, providing advice on the determination of a preliminary legal issue in relation to the interpretation of rent review assumptions and the arbitrator’s ability to take into account anticipated plant repair costs during the remainder of the terms of the lease. Advising a landlowner in relation to the enforceability of a restrictive covenant seeking to prevent residential development on the land, including on the merits of an application to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) for the modification or discharge of the covenant; recommending a strategy leading to the release of the covenant by agreement thereby unlocking the land's substantion value.  

I am a partner in the medical negligence team based in our Birmingham office. I specialise in serious injury cases on behalf of patients and focus particularly on problems caused by spinal and brain injuries. I have acted only on behalf of claimants in medical negligence claims for over 20 years and have completed many successful claims involving serious and, often, life-changing injuries. The patient charity Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA) choose a panel of medical negligence specialist solicitors which I have been on for the past 15 years. I am recognised by the UK legal directories, Legal 500 and Chambers. I enjoy working closely with people to understand their lives and plans for the future. This is essential before then working out, with advice from experts in medical and other fields, what compensation they need to give the best chance to recover as much as possible and to get the most out of their lives in the future. I assisted my former client, Heather, with her claim following misdiagnosed cauda equina syndrome which she refers to in her video interview with the charity AvMA. I negotiated a settlement of £2.5 million in 2018 for a client who suffered an above knee amputation. In 2019 achieved an unusually good outcome in the contested costs hearing, this enabled the client to retain 100% of her damages.

Nick is a Partner in the employment team, based in the Birmingham office. His approach is to provide commercial, solution-focused advice and during his career has worked with a wide range of different clients, including many household names. Nick is experienced in advising clients on all aspects of employment law, including the termination of employment, disciplinary and grievance issues, discrimination, settlement agreements and redundancies and restructures. In addition, Nick has experience of conducting Employment Tribunal claims throughout the full lifecycle of Tribunal proceedings, starting with managing any pre-claim aspects and dealing with the initial claim/response all the way through to representation at the final hearing. Nick also has extensive experience in advising on the employment aspects of corporate acquisitions and on TUPE issues in outsourcing and insourcing situations.

Nick is a principal associate and has considerable experience in all aspects of corporate transactions, but particularly mergers and acquisitions, company restructuring, joint ventures and private equity led transactions. Recent highlights include acting for a property investment company on its £50m acquisition of a limited company which comprised of a mix of properties, including nine health & leisure clubs.

  Pam is a medical negligence senior associate with over 18 years' experience in advising people who have suffered injury due to medical errors. Pam has experience in dealing with a wide range of cases, including orthopaedic injuries, gynaecological procedures resulting in fertility and urological issues, stillbirths, delays in diagnosis and claims involving babies and children. Pam has a passion for improving patient care and in the management of their needs after life changing injuries. She has a sibling with cerebral palsy and has first hand experience of the impact on the individual and their families, as well as a real understanding of what their needs are. Pam joined Shoosmiths in 2013 from Challinors Solicitors, having previously spent over 8 years as a solicitor in the Clinical Negligence team at Davies and Partners. Outside of work, Pam enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, walking and weight training. Much to people's surprise, she also has a motorbike licence.

Patrick is a construction lawyer who has advised development clients on a broad range of non-contentious construction matters for over 15 years. His recent project experience includes advising:- a major national developer on the acquisition and then the £1 billion remediation and redevelopment of a 1000 acre former oil refinery to create an urban village; on many town centre redevelopment projects including procurement advice and advice on the major infrastructure energy and utilities contracts and liaising with the public bodies, funding and acquiring assets at the relevant site; an international energy company on procurement of on-shore and off-shore wind farm projects and associated infrastructure contracts; on construction and environmental elements of a deal for the UK’s leading regeneration developer in its negotiations for the acquisition and development of 3500 acres of land in 3 counties; on the Turbine Supply Agreement for one of the world’s largest off shore wind farms; St. Modwen Properties Plc Group Companies on substantially all of its national development portfolios including distribution warehouses, head offices for international and national companies, major infrastructure projects and remediation projects.

Paul is a partner and head of the Birmingham property litigation team. Paul acts for developers, investors, corporate occupiers and landlords of property in a whole range of contentious property issues. Paul advises in claims to possession of land, litigation concerning applications for landlord's consents, break notices, rent review and the renewal of business tenancies. Paul also regularly advises on issues effecting property which arise from insolvency and in relation to licensed premises. Paul focuses on advising clients early in a transaction, with the aim of preventing a potential dispute from escalating to court. He has represented many clients at without prejudice meetings and mediations. Paul's approach is to work with a client to identify the issues early on and set a clear course for dealing with those issues. His recent project experience includes: arranging service of over 80 price notices under options which will form a substantial residential development; representing a client in a multi-million pound dilapidations claim; and advising in relation to a landlord’s rights to develop adjoining land of a large tenanted shopping centre.

Paul is a principal associate in the Firm's Commercial group in Birmingham. Paul advises clients on a range of commercial matters, with a focus on IT & technology transactions. Prior to joining Shoosmiths, Paul trained and qualified with White & Case LLP, working in London, Tokyo and Singapore, and subsequently worked in-house with Guinness World Records in Beijing and London. Paul is qualified in England & Wales and California and speaks Japanese and Mandarin Chinese.

Pav is a Principal Associate in the Employment team, based in the Birmingham office. Pav has a track record of providing practical and straightforward advice to employer clients within a variety of different sectors. Pav's expertise includes defending Employment Tribunal claims, advising on redundancies & restructures, capability & sickness, and the thorny issue of TUPE. Pav also has extensive experience in advising on the employment aspects of corporate transactions and on TUPE issues in relation to service provision changes. He has a keen interest in enforcing restrictive covenants and preventing employees from using confidential information. For the businesses which Pav acts for, he describes himself as being an extension to their workforce rather than an external lawyer.

Phil is the National Head of the 50 strong Shoosmiths Medical Negligence team. He has specialised in representing claimants in clinical negligence claims for 19 years. As an experienced litigator he has dealt with a wide range of complex and high value claims throughout his career, including neurological injury, child birth trauma, amputations, group actions involving intraocular lens implants, surgical errors, misdiagnosis and fatal claims. He has a specialist interest in infection and sepsis cases. Phil regularly appears as an advocate before Coroners and has been involved in a number of high profile inquests.    

Priti is a Senior Associate within Shoosmiths' Band 1 Technology, Media and Commercial practice. Advising on a range of technology and general commercial matters across a wide range of industry sectors, Priti has a particular focus on IT and sourcing projects. Priti has been heavily involved in high value and highly publicised outsourcing and commercial matters.  Priti has worked with national and international clients dealing with complex IT-centric and business process outsourcing, payment facilitator models, cross-border IT terms and conditions, software design, development, implementation and support, ‘Big Data’, cloud hosting and SaaS and IaaS arrangements, 'bring your own device' and virtual desktop projects. Priti's experience includes advising: a major regulatory body in relation to its single largest business and ICT transformation programme involving the multi-million pound replacement of its entire IT environment; a global FTSE 100 company to support its global IT service desk, extending this to support Office365 and rolling-out to over 40,000 users; a global FTSE 100 company on an e-commerce development, application and support solution to be rolled out internationally across the company and its international supply chain; a leading FinTech automation provider on its partnership with a next generation cloud system integrator and managed services provider; a leading UK commercial bank on the £225m outsourcing of its transactional print and outbound mail service and £120m+ outsourcing of its imaging and incoming mail processing services for all of its UK operations; a leading FM services provider on a subcontract for the provision of catering services within various hospital sites in the UK: a leading credit card provider on the launch of its payment processing services in taxis - one of the first of its kind; and a global telecoms player on a joint bid as an unincorporated JV for the provision of mobile network data for Transport for London. Priti also has niche experience within the research and development sphere having advised on a number of multi-party collaboration agreements both within the UK, Europe and internationally, as well as addressing conferences on this topic.  Priti’s recent R&D work includes advising a global automotive manufacturer on a multi-million pound autonomous vehicle research programme and a multi-million dollar global research alliance with Harvard University. Priti has gained invaluable in-house experience having carried out secondments at Google, Jaguar Land Rover, Capital One, NCR Limited, Barclaycard and Morgan Advanced Materials. Passionate about equality in the workplace, Priti sits on the Shoosmiths’ 'Lean In' Steering Committee and Gender Equality Working Group.  

Rhodri has extensive experience across a breadth of real estate work - investment, finance, development and energy / infrastructure - advising various stakeholders across the life cycle of property assets, including acquisition, lettings, funding and disposals. Examples of the types of work Rhodri has undertaken include: delivering the first strategic land acquisitions by a developer for substantial logistics developments, acting on their acquisition and pre-letting of a distribution hub development set to be the largest of its kind in Europe; project managing the re-finance of a thirteen site, £160 million warehousing portfolio, with 70+ occupational leases; advising a property investment / development company in securing a 229 acre site for the promotion and potential acquisition of land for c.8 million square feet of employment development, via a hybrid promotion / option agreement acting for the UK's largest service area operator on the acquisition of substantial motorway service station site off the M25 managing the due diligence review of 100+ service station sites for a 'supermajor' oil & gas company on projects for potential re-development; leading the property support on corporate acquisitions of windfarm portfolios for a global investment manager advising lenders on an investment finance of £320 million UK wide portfolio acquisition, and a £43 million finance restructuring of a landmark resort/sporting venue pursuant to a Canadian corporate amalgamation; disposals of substantial property portfolios for administrators and LPA Receivers, including shopping centres, hotels, marinas, retail and residential/mixed use developments;

Richard has acted successfully in a variety of clinical negligence claims, drawing on his wealth of experience. Since 1992, he has undertaken claimant clinical negligence claims exclusively. He is highly admired for being “very focused and experienced”, “practical and pragmatic” and “a very reliable and effective practitioner”, in addition to establishing “good practical solutions to difficult problems”. His standing in the field is well-known and respected, especially in complex issues which include obstetrics, oncology, orthopaedics, brain injury, general surgery, fatal accidents and representation at inquests. Richard has been accredited to the Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA) Specialist Solicitor’s Referral Panel since 1997. He is routinely top ranked in the Chambers Guide to the UK Legal Profession as a leading Clinical Negligence Lawyer who is a “people person” and “popular with clients”, “highly regarded” and “very pragmatic, direct and sensible”. In 2019, the Chambers Guide recognised him as an Eminent Practitioner in this field.  

Richard is a Principal Associate within Shoosmiths' Commercial Team, based in the Birmingham office. Richard advises on a wide range of commercial matters, with a particular interest in technology, innovation and digital media. Richard works with a variety of clients across a wide range of industry sectors, ranging from start-up businesses through to multinational companies and his recent work experience includes: a long-term secondment to a global OEM: (i) advising on its R&D activities and academic engagements; and (ii) providing advice and support to its motorsport function; negotiating numerous collaboration agreements for multi-party, government funded automotive research projects; and negotiating a technology and title partnership agreement for a team in the ABB FIA Formula E Championship.  

Rosie is currently a Principal Associate in our corporate department and has more than 10 years of extensive mergers and acquisitions experience, acting principally for major corporate clients on domestic, international and cross border acquisitions and disposals. Rosie has experience advising on joint ventures, private equity transactions (including exits), debt/equity reorganisations and international group restructurings. Rosie also advises clients on general corporate governance matters. Recent experience includes advising: the shareholders of Datapath Group Limited, a market leader in the design and development of video wall, multiscreen displays and control room solutions, on their (£ confidential) disposal of the same; the shareholders of Skycon Ltd, a company specialising in display advertising and paid advertising on channels that include sports media, on their £45m disposal to Better Collective A/S; the shareholders of Findauniversity Ltd, a digital post-graduate recruitment business, on the (£ confidential) sale of its parent company to a Norwegian listed company, Keystone Academics Solutions AS; the shareholders of ALE Holdings Limited, a global business operating in over 45 jurisdictions, on their (€ confidential) disposal of the same to Mammoet; CRH on its (£ confidential) disposal of Anchor Bay Construction Products Limited, FCA Wholesalers Limited and Plaka Ireland Limited; Amber REI Holdings Limited on its (£ confidential) acquisition of Elan Homes Holdings Limited the shareholders of United Living Group Limited on their (£ confidential) disposal of the same to Fastflow Group, creating a group with a combined turnover of approximately £400 million; Anglian Water on its joint venture with Northumbrian Water to create Wave, a new retailer of water and wastewater services to non-household customers; Legal & General on its recent £49 million business and asset acquisition of Hampton by Hilton, Stansted Airport; Tarmac Building Products Limited on its (£ confidential) disposal of 75% of the share capital in Tilcon-Huttenes Albertus Limited to Huttenes Albertus UK Limited; the selling shareholders of R. Griggs Group Limited (the licensee of the Dr Martens brand) in relation to their disposal of the same to Permira for £300 million; the selling shareholders on the £50 million sale of Your Cash Europe Limited to Euronet Worldwide, Inc; James Finlay Limited on its disposal of Finlays Horticulture Investments Limited and Finlays Horticulture Holdings Limited for £95 million; and Dignity Funeral services, RPS Group plc and Edif Group Limited on multiple acquisitions.

I am a corporate M&A lawyer with significant experience in the financial services sector. I have been Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of a high frequency trading firm. My practice involves advising clients in the trading industry (exchange-listed and over-the-counter), particularly those which trade algorithmically, in all aspects of their businesses. I have considerable experience in financial services regulation. I assisted the EU legislature in drafting parts of the current EU-wide financial services rules and regulations as well as responding to numerous consultations on other aspects of those rules and regulations with non-legal industry working groups and associations.

Simon Boss is Shoosmiths' former CEO. In this role, Simon combined leadership and management of the firm’s core divisions (real estate, corporate, business advisory and personal advisory) and support directorates, and focused on providing the unifying drive to take Shoosmiths into three years of exceptional financial growth for the firm. During his leadership, Simon also balanced business with purpose, and championed Shoosmiths’ commitment to ESG with a focus on key issues such as social mobility, diversity and climate action. Examples of action during his tenure include the launch of grant-making body, The Shoosmiths Foundation; joining Justine Greening’s Levelling Up Goals; and establishing regular roundtables with clients on these topics to share best practice. Simon has also discussed the firm’s involvement in the UN Global Compact’s Target Gender Equality Programme at their annual Business and Human Rights summit, and remains a committed member of the Business in the Community’s West Midlands Leadership Board. Previous to his role as CEO, Simon was national head of the firm’s real estate division, which over six years saw a 120% increase in income and 130% increase in profit.

Simon is a Partner in the commercial team who specialises in large scale outsourcing arrangements including logistics and warehousing, property and asset management, facilities management and soft services. His practice also encompasses agency and distribution arrangements (he is published on PLC in this area) and a range of other B2B contracting models. Simon leads the Commercial team's Logistics and Warehousing Team as well as leading Shoosmiths' Resource Solutions service which offers a range of outsourced managed legal services for in house legal teams together with market leading legal tech offerings such as Cia (the firm's AI powered contract review service) and Live Working (bespoke online hubs for clients). Simon advises clients in a range of sectors including the retail, logistics, food, health and automotive sectors. Recent work includes: • Advising Aramark, the Fortune 500 global professional services company, in relation to its £nine figure deal with Merlin group in respect of the first generation outsourcing of all of the food and beverage services at its UK and US theme parks. • Advising a major supermarket chain in relation to its £nine figure ground-breaking joint venture arrangements with a leading logistics provider relating to its UK warehousing. • Advising a high-end retailer in respect of its £eight figure first generation outsourcing of its central distribution centre to a major logistics provider. • Advising one of the UK’s largest logistics providers in relation to a renegotiation of its £eight figure deal with a major retailer. • Advising a leading manufacturer of high end sports and leisure footwear in relation to the renegotiation of its central distribution centre arrangements with a major logistics provider. • Advising a major food manufacturer in relation to its bespoke £multimillion cold storage facility agreement with a leading provider of cold storage facilities. • Advising a Global cosmetics manufacturer in relation to the consolidation of its UK wide distribution network into a major new UK distribution hub. Simon has extensive experience of working closely with in house legal teams, having spent time on secondment with Aramark the Fortune 500 global professional services company, Informa the FTSE 100 publishing giant, Iron Mountain the global records company, and Cambridge University Press and having been seconded as acting head of legal for a major electronics company. Simon spent the early part of his legal career specialising in Commercial Litigation and as such has extensive experience of commercial disputes including contractual arrangements that have been subject to inter-party and judicial scrutiny.

Steph is a senior associate in the employment team who offers legal advice with a commercial and practical approach. She advises on both contentious and non-contentious employment law matters to a range of clients including national retailers, engineering, and logistics companies. Steph’s previous experience includes: bringing and defending employment tribunal proceedings, including unfair dismissal, discrimination and whistleblowing claims; conducting the advocacy in the employment tribunal in relation to those claims, including at preliminary and final hearings; advising on a range of HR topics including disciplinary and grievance procedures, policies and employment terms and conditions; drafting and advising in relation to settlement agreements on behalf of employers and individuals; delivering client-specific and national training sessions; advising on business immigration matters, including right to work checks and the EU settlement scheme. Steph started as a paralegal with Shoosmiths in 2016 and has since completed her period of training with the firm, qualifying as a solicitor in March 2020.

Stephen is a specialist regulatory criminal defence lawyer and advises companies, directors and individuals on regulatory compliance across a range of sectors including advertising and marketing compliance (including sales promotions, prize promotions and Gambling Act compliance), anti-bribery legislation (including customer and third party incentive schemes), food and drink; tobacco law, inquests, health and safety, fire safety and product safety. Stephen’s experience includes: regularly advising retail, food and drink and automotive clients on advertising and marketing compliance; regularly advising an international tobacco product manufacturer on tobacco laws, hybrid products and e-cigarettes; advising retail and automotive clients on customer and third party incentive schemes; advising a major building and plumbing merchant on sales promotions and prize promotions; representing and advising corporate and individual clients at various Inquests; advising retail, telecommunications and automotive clients on product labelling, CE Marking and EU conformity; and assisting in corporate transactions by carrying out regulatory due diligence on target companies. Stephen is a member of the Health and Safety Lawyers' Association and the Food Law Group.  

Steve is a partner in the corporate team at Shoosmiths specialising in advising companies and investors on venture and growth capital investments, mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions, mainly in the technology sector. Prior to joining Shoosmiths in March 2017 Steve was a member of the Technology Companies Group in the London office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, where he regularly completed 20 - 30 investment and other transactions per annum. Examples include: Acting for a money transfer service provider on its series A and series B investment rounds which raised around $140m in aggregate. Acting for a machine learning company on its significant series A investment round. Acting for a company in the online advertising sector on its series seed and series A investment rounds. Acting for a US-headquartered fintech impact investor on various investment rounds. Acting for a UK-focussed institutional seed investor on various investment rounds. Acting on numerous angel investment rounds. Acting for a cloud services provider on its sale to private equity.

  Sumit is Senior Associate working in the medical negligence department. He specialises in pursuing claims for patients who have suffered as a result of medical negligence by hospitals, GPs and other healthcare professionals. Sumit has successfully represented claimants in an extensive range of cases. He has particular experience with claims involving below-knee leg amputations, complex orthopaedic injuries, urological injuries, cardiac conditions, bowel injuries and cancer. He has also represented bereaved families in fatal cases arising from medical negligence. Some of Sumit’s recent/notable cases include: a six-figure award of damages for an elderly gentleman who had to undergo a leg amputation following negligent treatment; a six-figure award for a young man who suffered a serious wrist injury following a delay in diagnosing a scaphoid fracture; recovering a substantial sum for the family of a lady who died as a result of severe Grade 4 pressure sores in a privately owned care home. Also assisting the bereaved family at the inquest; a substantial award of damages for a young man who had to undergo surgery to remove a damaged kidney due to a delayed diagnosis of pelvic ureteric junction (PUJ) obstruction; multiple successful claims on behalf of children and adults involving a delayed diagnosis of testicular torsion and other urological injuries and conditions; a substantial award of damages in a claim concerning negligently performed subtalar joint fusion (ankle) surgery; a successful claim against three GP-Defendants for joint failures in identifying a patient in cardiac failure. The claim settled shortly before trial; and assisting claimants in maximum severity claims, including birth injury claims.

Sue is a Senior Associate in the Real Estate Team specialising in the corporate occupiers sector and has extensive experience in acquisitions and disposals of both freehold and leasehold properties acting for both Landlords and Tenants. Sue heads the asset management team, acting for a national convenience store operator dealing with their portfolio management including TOGC disposals, underlettings, lease renewals and licences. Her recent experience includes advising: acting for high street retailers in respect of acquisitions, disposals and management of their portfolios; a national convenience store operator on the acquisition of a portfolio of more than 30 properties; the assignment of 300 properties due to group company restructure; Sue has been an Associate in Shoosmiths’ real estate practice since 2009, having joined the firm from Eversheds in 2005. Sue previously worked at Wragge & Co where she qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives

Tim is a real estate lawyer advising on all aspects of commercial real estate for investors, commercial developers, funders and end users. In addition, Tim works closely with the corporate, insolvency and restructuring teams at Shoosmiths providing real estate expertise. His recent experience includes: Disposal of multi-let office and retail development for £95m. Acquisition of a multi-let office block in Birmingham city centre. Acquisition funding for 30 petrol stations for circa £100m. Advising a funder on the financing of a £35m business park acquisition. Acting for a national plc on the acquisition of a portfolio of properties. Site acquisition, negotiation of pre-let agreements and disposal of a 21 unit mixed use retail and leisure development.

Partner

Tom is a legal director in the Corporate Restructuring and Advisory team. Tom has previous experience working within a global legal practice as well as working within the legal arm of the one of the ‘Big Four’ professional services firms. Tom acts for lenders, insolvency practitioners, distressed investors, corporates and directors in relation to all aspects of transactional restructuring, insolvency law and financial restructurings. Tom has worked on a number of high-profile insolvencies locally and nationally in sectors such as retail, manufacturing and automotive, ranging from early options and contingency planning through to administration pre-packaged sales/purchases and trading administrations. Tom looks to lean on his experience of managing both solvent and insolvent re-organisation projects, nationally and internationally, to provide solutions across the full corporate lifecycle.  

As Partner, Client Technology & Service Improvement, Tony's role is to ensure that we are continuously innovating  to meet our clients' changing needs: leveraging new technology as it emerges and always looking where the puck is moving. This applies both to finding smarter, faster and better ways of providing legal services to clients, as well as working with our Director of Shoosmiths EIGHT Connected Services to offer innovative ancillary non-legal solutions to meet our client's needs. Tony is a nationally recognized thought leader and conference speaker on how technology and innovation is impacting positively to improve the outcomes and experience that law firms can give their clients. His team won the Legal Business Legal Tech Team of the Year Award in 2021 and he was listed in The Lawyer Hot100 in 2022. In 2023, he co-wrote the book ‘Legal Practice in the Digital Age’, in which he and his fellow authors explore how the legal profession can adapt and thrive in the years to come. He was also listed in the Financial Time 2023 Innovative Lawyers report.

Expert in relation to issues facing clients moving into ‘smart’ or digital industry, Victoria is praised by clients for her pragmatic and strategic thinking.  With over 17 years' experience, she has a strong specialism in patent litigation. Clients benefit from Victoria’s technical background in software development, enabling her to advise on high tech patents and other IP issues in complex technology sectors. Her skill in quickly grasping diverse subject matter is highlighted and she has particular expertise in patent and FRAND issues within wireless communications and other standards-based industries. Unusually, Victoria also has considerable experience in life sciences patent litigation and a specialism in medtech and digital health. Experienced in providing FTO analysis and opinions, Victoria helps pharma and medtech clients bring products to market including through co-ordinating complex, cross-border patent and SPC cases. Speaking fluent German, Victoria provides a seamless service on matters with a German aspect.  For clients outside Europe, she adds strategic value in leading multi-jurisdictional patent matters across Europe. Experience includes: acting for a major US wireless communications company in one of the largest patent actions before the UK courts, involving 35 patents declared 'essential' to 3GPP standards relating to wireless technology; acting in a major patent and FRAND case in relation to Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology and patents declared essential to IEEE standards, including a trial of two patents in January 2019; advising a client moving into digital health on issues relating to connected devices from R&D and technical standards through to FRAND licensing and strategies for enforcement; acting for a generic pharmaceutical company in its successful revocation of a Supplementary Protection Certificate for a dual-combination drug used for the treatment of HIV; supporting a client in patent licence negotiations including a review of a patent portfolio; and acting for clients in disputes relating to copyright in software, where an ability to understand the source code has been important; acting in successful defence of an action to revoke a pharmaceutical client’s patent for its blockbuster drug, achieving settlement on the first morning of a 13-day trial.