Shoosmiths LLP

Aaron Harlow

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.

Alan Corcoran

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

Aleksandr Bosch

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

Alex Bishop

National Head of Litigation

Alexandra Triptree

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

Alexandra Ventham

Alexandra has experience of advising employers and trustees of occupational pension and life assurance schemes on all aspects of pensions law, and providing advice in relation to pensions issues on corporate transactions and pensions litigation. Alexandra’s experience includes: Advising both pension scheme trustee and employer clients on scheme mergers, drafting documentation to implement such mergers, and taking on a project management role to ensure completion of mergers in required timescales. The de-risking of occupational pension schemes, recently advising an independent trustee on a buy-in of the scheme's liabilities and plans to achieve a full buy-out and wind-up. Advising on scheme closure exercises, including the implications of scheme amendment powers and case law requiring salary linkage. Advising on the updating and consolidation of pension scheme trust deeds and rules. Drafting scheme contingent assets, such as PPF compliant company guarantees. Advising employers on automatic enrolment obligations. Defending complaints brought under scheme internal dispute resolution procedures and before the Pensions Ombudsman. High court pensions litigation, including acting for an employer and trustees in multi-defendant professional negligence proceedings associated with equalisation issues. Alexandra also has experience of mediation and settlement of high court disputes. Advising on TUPE transfers and share sales, including drafting contractual provisions, advising on obligations during and following such transfers/ sales and whether section 75 employer debts may be triggered and the appropriate steps to mitigate such risks. Advising on the establishment of group life assurance schemes.      

Andrea Rusbridge

Andrea is head of the clinical negligence team in Northampton consisting of six legal advisors and two PAs. In 1998 Andrea was accepted onto the AvMA panel of specialist solicitors and has retained that accreditation ever since. Andrea sat on the legal aid assessment panel for dealing with appeals against decisions by the legal aid agency and continued to volunteer for this for four years. Andrea is now a CEDR accredited mediator having completed the 5 day CEDR mediation course in October 2019. Andrea has experience of many types of medical negligence case, including cerebral palsy/birth injury, obstetrics, gynaecology, vascular, amputation, cardiology, and delayed diagnosis of cancer, wrongful birth, neurological injury and cauda equina. She regards her legal expertise primarily as the means to help rebuild the lives of people and their families who have been injured as a result of negligent medical treatment and maintains that it is important to provide support and understanding throughout the process as well as achieving the best outcome that she can for her client. Work highlights • Mrs Chaudhry deceased - this was a claim against Northampton General Hospital for delayed diagnosis of breast cancer which led to the early death of Mrs Chaudhry. The claim was for the pain and suffering of Mrs Chaudhry before she died and a claim for financial losses for her and her husband and children. • Mrs Quadling - a claim was brought against Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation trust for the negligent insertion of a placebo contraceptive device which led to the birth of twins. Mrs Quadling recovered compensation for loss of earnings and pain and suffering. • Mrs Meehan - recovered compensation for delay in diagnosing and treating necrotising fasciitis against Heart of England Foundation Trust. She was compensated for loss of earnings, changes to her home, childcare and for pain and suffering now and in the future. • Mrs N - cauda equina injury caused during spinal surgery, colostomy required and stroke injury following surgery due to failure to treat atrial fibrillation. Client lost capacity to provide instructions and a litigation friend had to be appointed. Compensation included pain and suffering as well as a claim for care for herself and care she could not provide to her husband who was diagnosed with Parkinson's during the lifetime of the claim, the additional cost of holidays and activities were also included. • Mrs Parkin - surgical injury to iliac vein which prevented her return to previous number of hours as a pharmacist and caused swelling and pain reducing her mobility significantly. Claim included provisional damages for the risk of ulcer development and potential loss of her leg. She claimed loss of earnings, care and additional costs of holidays to accommodate her mobility. • Mr C- compartment syndrome injury to both legs causing foot drop and constant pain. The client could not play with his children and so his whole family were introduced to wheelchair basketball. The client claimed for care, the cost of adapted accommodation, a salt pod, case manager, loss of earnings and additional cost of holidays to see his family who live abroad in homes that do not accommodate disability. • SXC - a child who suffered from cerebral palsy birth injury, judgment has been obtained as well as substantial interim payments to provide care, therapy and assistance to age 13 when he can be assessed for the rest of his life. • Mr D - claim for failure to diagnose cancer leading to partial collapse of spine. Claim included care, loss of earnings and compensation for additional pain and suffering. • Ms W and Mr B- claim for the loss of their child to Kawasaki disease as a result of the failure of the hospital to treat the disease when it was diagnosed. The claim settled at a mediation which allowed the trust to provide an oral apology and an explanation about what steps have been taken to prevent this happening again. Testimonials from clients Paul Cockerton - “Very impressive service, as much in the manner with which it was handled, as getting the best result for us.” Mrs Meehan – “I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you and all your team from myself and my family you have made a massive difference to our lives.” Mr Chaudhry – “As I got the best possible service, I have no idea how you can improve your service. I am 100% behind the service I received. From the start to finish I/we were updated on what was going to happen.” Mrs Coles – “Genuine empathy and interest in the case and in my daughter as a "real" person and not just a source of income.” Andrea has been ranked in Chambers and the Legal 500 both individually and for her team for many years.

Andrew Whalley

Partner

Andrew Outram

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.

Antonia Blackwell

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.

Ben Turner

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”.

Catherine Hood

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 Arrand

Partner

Chris Garnett

Chris advises public and private companies on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, capital fundraisings and restructurings and corporate governance.  He now works closely with the Corporate Divisional Head on strategic projects, including the significant level of partner recruitment being undertaken to drive the growth of our wider corporate practice. Chris also leads our corporate team in the North. His transactional experience includes advising: British Gas the acquisition of JK Environmental (UK) Limited, a company providing environmental, sewer cleansing and tankering services, and ECL Contracts, which provides cladding and insulation services to a range of commercial and industrial clients; the family shareholders and management team on the management buyout of leading UK packaging business Benson Box, backed by LDC – voted 'Deal of the Year' at the Midlands Insider Deal Awards 2012; and the management team on their £41m takeover of AIM listed Workplace Systems International plc. Under Chris' leadership the Corporate Practice Group enjoyed a period of significant growth. They were voted ‘Law Firm of the Year’ at the UK M&A Deal Awards in 2015 and in 2016 were ranked No 1 in the Experian Corpfin deal league table, handling more M&A deals in the UK than any other law firm.

Chris McKinney

Chris is a Partner and leads the Personal Injury team at Shoosmiths. He qualified as a solicitor in 1984. Ranked as a notable practitioner by Chambers, and a recommended lawyer by the Legal 500 Chris has been undertaking personal injury claims for more than 30 years and only act for the victims of accidents. He acts for individuals who have suffered life changing injuries. Chris provides support to his clients and their families from his first instruction to the end of their claim making sure he is available and accessible to them. Most of his instructions come from personal referrals from existing and former clients and other professionals. Brain injury Chris has a particular interest and specialism in brain injury claims and has won numerous £ million compensation claims for the victims of such accidents, and several multi-million pound claims. He is currently instructed in more than a dozen such claims. He is a member of the Headway Panel and a trustee and company secretary of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Headway. Spinal injury Chris has an expertise in spinal injury cases and has acted for clients who have suffered both quadriplegic and paraplegic injuries, and has negotiated settlement of claims both on a lump sum and annual payments basis. He is currently instructed in a number of spinal cord injury claims of the utmost severity. Amputation injuries Chris has undertaken many claims for inured people who have suffered amputation injuries and catastrophic injuries that have resulted in surgical amputations. Advocacy Chris carries out much of his own advocacy, and regularly appear as an advocate in inquests and in the county and High Court. Testimonials "My Solicitor has been brilliant from the beginning through to the end.  He helped and guided me through the many ups and downs of a 5 1/2 year compensation claim which was extremely stressful.  Nothing ever seemed too difficult, no question was ever deemed to be too trivial, deadlines were always met well in advance, and every stage, however complicated and confusing, was handled professionally but also compassionately." (Sally Francis) “The situation I have been involved in has been overwhelming and having such good support from Mr McKinney was the stability I needed and guidance” (Michelle Aveyard) “Exceptional service, knowledge, approachability. Professionalism of the highest order” (Wayne Smith). “From the initial meeting to discuss my case I felt that I was being dealt with as a person rather than a reference number. All queries I had were answered promptly and thoroughly I would have no hesitation in recommending Shoosmiths” (Will Stephens) “Thank you for everything you have done for me over the last few years. You made a stressful time feel easy to understand” (John Quinn). "Thank you! Chris and his team at Shoosmiths have both been an amazing comfort and asset to have on our side. It’s been a pleasure working with you." (Chris Hadley) “..would like to say thank you for all the work you have done and the result you got for me, I am so pleased its done with and now we can get on” (Paul Kavanagh). “I wanted to send a personal email of thanks for all your hard work during the case.  From start to finish nothing was too much trouble and you demonstrated your wealth of knowledge and experience.  I think the service your team led by yourself provided was second to none.  I am most grateful for how you dealt with the case” (RH). "From the very outset I had 100% confidence that I was in the best possible care with regards to my case. Chris's“I wanted to send a personal email of thanks for all your hard work during the case.  From start to finish nothing was too much trouble and you demonstrated your wealth of knowledge and experience.  I think the service your team led by yourself provided was second to none.  I am most grateful for how you dealt with the case”. empathy, clear communication and professionalism were all excellent and I know I had the best possible outcome" (Cathryn Hancock). ‘Chris McKinney has always been excellent. He provides comprehensive and clear advice and is obviously very knowledgeable. He is also very pleasant to deal with, both by email and telephone’. Legal 500 2022. "His advice is always relevant, timely and personal. He clearly knows his area of expertise inside out” Chambers 2022." ‘Chris McKinney has been leading my case and he is exceptional. His communications are professional and clear, but also easy to understand from a lay person’s perspective. It is clear that he brings with him a huge amount of experience in this area and in discussions we have had during the course of my claim, he has explained all options available to me in a very open and understandable way’. Legal 500 2023. Chris McKinney is one of the best claimant PI solicitors out there. He never fails to get results for his clients, who universally adore him. He's very reassuring and technically able." Chambers 2023. My case was headed up by Chris McKinney, his depth of knowledge in personal injury claims and rehabilitation was extremely vast. From start to finish I felt comforted that Chris Mckinney and his team had my best interests in hand. Anytime I wanted to speak to Chris I had his personal mobile phone number’. Legal 500 2024 Chris McKinney is one of the finest serious injury lawyers in the country. Highly experienced and someone who will never stop fighting for his clients – he cannot be recommended highly enough Legal 500 2024 "He's one of the best lawyers in the country for claimant work." Chambers 2024

Christine Burrows

Christine has over 12 years’ experience as a non-contentious construction lawyer. Christine acts for clients across both the public and private sector.  Her work involves negotiating building contracts, bonds, guarantees, collateral warranties, professional appointments and construction aspects of development agreements and agreements for lease. Her recent projects experience includes: Advising a developer on a number of high profile city centre developments including the preparation and negotiation of building contracts, appointments, warranties and security documentation; Advising investors in shopping centres and retail parks on their construction projects relating to the operation of and extension to the centres.  In addition advising the investors on the construction elements of the sale of such assets; Acting for a local authority on a large town centre re-development project including retail, cinema and car parks; Advising funders on a variety of construction projects.  

Claire Rowe

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

Claire Checketts

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

Craig Armstrong

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

Daniel Kennedy

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

David Thompson

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

David Jackson

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 Parton

David Parton heads Shoosmiths’ Personal Advisory Division of Shoosmiths responsible for the management and direction of the range of legal services Shoosmiths provides for its private clients, individuals and families. These services include Wealth Protection, Serious Injury, Family, Education and Conveyancing, comprising 280 legal advisers and personnel. David was previously head of the firm's Conveyancing Department for over twenty years to 2021 building that to become a nationally renowned business for its scale capability and probably the largest business accredited with the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme. David continues to serve a discreet client following with their often complex and high net worth property needs as part of the firm's Private Wealth team. He also served as head of the Northampton Office for eight years to 2021 where he was responsible for the firm's profile in Northampton and surrounding area and the well being of its 550 personnel located there.

David Perry

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.

David Adams

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.  

Deborah Gordon Brown

Deborah has substantial experience in advising on complex transactions and portfolio acquisitions and disposals, regularly acting for major UK property funds, landlords, portfolio holders and occupiers. She also advises on the property aspects of large corporate transactions. Listed in the Legal 500’s Hall of Fame, which highlights individuals who have received constant praise by their clients for continued excellence, her experience includes the sale and transfer of major property portfolios, refinances, development agreements across the UK. Deborah serves on Shoosmiths’ strategic body, the partnership council as well as its inclusion group and community investment committee. Additionally, she is head of the firm’s Nottingham office and responsible for its contribution to, and profile within, the local business community.

Elizabeth McKillop Paley

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

Ellis Gardner-Browne

Ellis is an investment, retail, leisure and petroleum specialist with vast experience. He undertakes complex transactions, investment and occupier aqcuisitions and disposals, and, project work. He has worked with many household names in the retail and leisure sector including Arcadia Group, Sears Group properties, WHS, ETAM, Waterstones, Bodyshop, Swarowski, Mountain Warehouse, Pizza Hut,  Karen Jones CBE, Fulham Shore Plc, Wallgreens Boots Alliance, Estee Lauder Cosmetics, Hugo Boss, Tesco, Value Retail ( Bicester Village) and others. In the petroleum sector he worked for many years with the largest independent petroleum retailer in the UK, MRH Group until sale of the group in 2017. He continues to work with Starbridge Limited and SGN. Ellis is client partner at Shoosmiths for Wallgreens Boots Alliance, Pizza Hut, Estee Lauder, SGN, Starbridge,, Mountain Warehouse, Leftfield Capital, Fulham Shore Plc,  amongst others

Gary Assim

Gary is the senior partner in the firm's national Retail and Intellectual Property and Creative Industry Groups in which he has built up strong reputations on both a national and international basis. He specialises in resolving disputes especially those to do with anti-counterfeiting, with particular emphasis on parallel importing.  Over the past few years he has been involved in leading cases for H&M, Jimmy Choo and Dr Marten's relating to patents, trade marks, copyright and design right advice including (clients identified in bold): • Stretchline Intellectual properties Ltd v H&M Hennes & Mauritz [2015] EWHC 3298 (Pat); • J. Choo (Jersey) Ltd v Towerstone [2008] EWHC 346; • R Griggs Group Ltd v Evans [2005] EWCA Civ 11; and • Mackie Designs Inc. v Behringer Specilaised Studio Equipment (UK) Ltd RPC (1999). He acts for clients across a broad range of sectors, but is especially well known in the clothing and footwear and automotive industries. He has written articles for the New York Law Journal, International Commercial Litigation and various national and international trade press as well as being a well known commentator on television and radio on intellectual property rights. Recent accolades include being named Client Choice Awards winner for IP by The International Law Office for the years 2014 to 2018, included in the World Trade Mark Review's WTR 1000 from 2012 to 2018, awarded the Intellectual Property Magazine Innovation prize in 2010, named in the International Who's Who of Trademark Lawyers from 2009 to 2018, the Top 100 list of The Most Powerful and Influential People in Fashion in 2008 and The Lawyers Hot 100 in 2007. He is passionate about intellectual property, especially in relation to consumer brands, hence his love of fast cars, gadgets and anything sporting.  He is best known for having advised H&M, Jimmy Choo, Chloe and Dr Martens as well as setting up the mentoring scheme for the British Fashion Council (organisers of London Fashion Week) to help their NewGen and Fashion Forward designers.  The Times commented, after the Chloe case against Topshop, that Shoosmiths were "the legal label to die for"! He also leads the firm's international relationships and travels extensively meeting with clients, intermediaries and law firms.  He was on the board of the international network the World Services Group between 2013 and 2017 and was its Chairman between 2016 and 2017.   He is a member of the IBA and INTA and attends both conferences regularly. Prior to reading law at Durham University, Gary spent three years with Lombard North Central plc gaining commercial experience and an understanding of how in-house legal teams operate.  He was articled with Travers Smith Braithwaite in London where he qualified and gained experience in commercial litigation and intellectual property for nine years.

Gurvinder Samra

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

Gwynneth Tan

Partner

Hayley Saunders

Partner

Heather Chandler

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

Ian Yule

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..

James Needham

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 Keates

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”.

James Wood-Robertson

James is an experienced commercial infrastructure lawyer, who has advised on major capital projects across a variety of sectors in the UK and overseas, including energy from waste, renewable energy, transport, education, health, leisure, and serviced accommodation. James is a recognised specialist in the waste sector having advised at procuring authority, sponsor or funder level on more than twenty waste PPP projects in the UK, Europe, the GCC and Africa.  In recent years, James has advised on a significant number of renewable energy projects, including the acquisition, disposal, financing and refinancing of onshore wind and large scale solar PV projects and rooftop solar PV schemes involving local authorities and housing associations.  He also has considerable experience of advising generators, end-users/off-takers and licensed suppliers on power purchase agreements, including corporate/end-user PPAs  and heat supply agreements and district heating projects. His recent experience includes: advising a West Yorkshire local authority on the procurement of its waste management PPP project and advising a major UK waste business on its successful bid for a waste PPP project in Scotland; advising a leading Chinese solar manufacturer and developer on the drafting and negotiation of EPC and O&M contracts on several ground-mounted solar PV projects and advising on the disposal of its developed sites; advising Taiwan's leading solar PV panel manufacturer on all of its UK housing association rooftop solar PV projects; advising a leading UK bank on the negotiation and completion of its power purchase agreement with an operator of a portfolio of landfill gas power plants, which provides sufficient electricity to meet 20% of the bank's energy requirements; advising an onshore wind developer on its end-user power purchase agreements with two large corporates and advising the developer and funder of a large onshore wind farm in Scotland on its Contract for Difference (CfD) PPA; advising a national infrastructure business on heat supply agreements with a school and a residential development in respect of heat generated by the transformers in a major substation being constructed in Highbury, North London; and advising the UK’s leading airline on its project agreement governing its move from the North Terminal to the South Terminal at Gatwick.

James Foster

James leads Shoosmiths’ Corporate North teams (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Manchester and Leeds) and heads our Northern Private Equity practice and is nationally recognised for his private equity expertise. James specialises in corporate finance, with particular emphasis on M&A and private equity transactions, including acquisitions and divestments, venture capital, growth equity, private equity investments and joint ventures. He is recognised by clients for his hands-on and responsive approach, technical skills and commercial pragmatism. James’ client base includes acquisitive international corporates, US and European sponsors, private equity backed investee companies and UK private equity and venture capital investors.   Recent experience includes advising: LDC on its sale and subsequent co-investment with Francisco Partners in ByBox; WM Morrison Supermarkets plc on the acquisition of three superstores from the Co-operative Group; Capiton AG (via its investee company the Dec Group) on the acquisition of Extract Technology from Wabash National Corporation; August Equity on its divestment of the Aspirations Group to Elysian Capital, by way of secondary buy-out; shareholders of Coppergreen Leisure Resorts on their exit to Away Resorts (backed by CVC Capital Partners Fund VII); shareholders of NSS Group on their exit to PTSG Group (backed by both Warburg Pincus and Macquirie Capital); Ellis Recruitment Group on its investment from Mobeus Equity Partners; Capfun on the acquisition of Lakeshore Leisure Group from Kings Park Capital and Management; Azets (backed by PAI Partners and Hg Capital) on numerous bolt on acquisitions in England and Ireland; Latus Health on its acquisition of ELAS Occupational Health and Industrial Diagnostics Group from Citation; Management of Building Costs Information Service Limited, a carve out from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, on its investment by LDC; shareholders of Taskmaster Resources on their sale to IPE Ventures; shareholders of BYM-Digival to Nurtur Group (backed by Tosca Fund); YFM Equity Partners in respect of their investment alongside Comhar Capital in Panintelligence; investment into Force 24; their co-investment alongside Maven Capital Partners into Summize Group; and Yorkshire Wildlife Group on its debt and equity raise from Lloyds Bank plc and BGF.

Jason Jackson

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

Jennifer Clarke

Jennifer is a Legal Director in the Commercial team, who has over 15 years of experience in advising clients in both the public and private sectors on major commercial, infrastructure and technology projects. Jennifer leads the non-contentious public procurement and subsidy control advisory team at Shoosmiths, providing pragmatic, commercial advice to clients (including charities) on mitigating procurement risk and compliance with the subsidy control regime in the UK. Jennifer has specialist experience in advising procuring authorities, developers, funders, suppliers and contractors on projects in the Energy & Infrastructure and Transport sectors. Jennifer also frequently advises procuring authorities and contractors in Real Estate development and Technology projects.

Joanne Sear

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

Joanne McGuiness

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

Joe Stephenson

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.

Jonathan Naylor

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

Jonathan Smart

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

Judy Fawcett

Judy is a real estate lawyer with wide experience of acting for investors, developers, landlords, banks and funding institutions. She has extensive experience of investment, development and asset management work and also leads our Real Estate Finance team in the north working closely with the Banking and Finance team. She regularly advises institutional and other business client by getting involved with them from initial appraisal through to completion and offers proactive solution driven advice to them and their wider teams. Sectors that Judy is passionate about include real estate finance, living sector, PRS, PBSA, student accommodation, hotel and leisure, residential development, BTR, sustainable finance, ESG, social housing, further education, healthcare, retail, manufacturing and logistics. Her recent project experience includes advising: Allied London on all property aspects of the portfolio of properties at Spinningfields and St Johns in Manchester and Leeds Dock with notable recent deals including the sale of No.1 Spinningfields, the deal with Aviva at St Johns and the sale of high profile trophy assets at Spinningfields Estate; on a £42 million student development disposal in Leicester; on a 290 bedroom student build to rent scheme in Birmingham; a range of leading UK Banks on development funding and refinancing of various high value sites across the Yorkshire region and nationally; and on a range of acquisitions, disposals and property management deals for a national investor client. Accreditations: Recommended lawyer 2019 Legal 500 Top ranked firm 2017

Kashmir Uppal

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 McCall

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.

Kathryn Jump

Partner

Kevin McCavish

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

Kiran Dhesi

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

Kirsten Hewson

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

Kirsty Black

Kirsty is a partner in our real estates disputes team. She specialises in all aspects of contentious property advice including business lease renewals, rent reviews, restrictive covenant issues, rights of occupation, landlord’s consents, dilapidations and service charge disputes. Kirsty is recognised nationally for advising national retailers on their property portfolios. Her advice has been described by clients as "invaluable". She also advises a number of the firms development clients and has particular expertise in restrictive covenant issues. Her recent experience includes: advising high street names on their response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including advising board members on the strategy to be adopted and updating on the numerous changes of legislation, and dealing with in excess of 200 sets of proceedings for rent arrears including the case of AEW UK Reit Plc v Sportsdirect.com Retail Limited [2021] EWCH 1013 (QCB) which included defences of rent suspension, implied term and frustration; advising a landlord on a multi-million pound dilapidations strategy, including service of a notice to repair, to achieve a settlement which was not curtailed by the section 18 cap as a terminal claim would be; providing strategic advice on a portfolio renewal of circa 280 properties, half of which are proceeding via formal lease renewal claims with the result of them having to be batched and case managed innovatively. The initial case resulted in the tenant successfully securing a 5 year term with a 3 year break and large discounts on quantum and frontage to depth; acting for a strategic land client to advise on a restrictive covenant threatening a large development scheme having previously been successful at Tribunal in obtaining a modification to a covenant limiting use of land to a public house to allow a development; and acting for a large house builder on the interpretation of a sale agreement threatening the purchase of an important strategic site. She frequently presents at industry events and is recognised in both Chambers and Legal 500.

Lisa Williams

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

Liz Sweeney

Liz is a banking and finance partner with over 20 years’ experience. She is head of the Manchester banking team and the wider banking north (which consists of teams in Manchester, Leeds and Edinburgh). She is a well known and respected banking partner in Manchester and is recognised as one of the leading real estate finance lawyers outside of the City. Liz works on a wide range of high profile real estate finance matters (often with complex capital structures) as well as advising on acquisition finance, funds finance, social housing finance, sustainable finance, leveraged finance and general corporate lending matters (both domestic and cross border). She is known for being highly experienced and having a constructive approach to deals. She is experienced in acting both for the lenders and borrowers, bringing a balanced view to transactions. Clients include most of the major UK clearing banks as well as other financial institutions, alternative lenders, institutional investors, public bodies and corporates. Sectors that Liz is passionate about include financial services, funds finance, real estate finance, living sector, PRS, PBSA, student accommodation, hotel and leisure, residential development, BTR, sustainable finance, ESG, social housing finance, further education, healthcare, retail and manufacturing. Recent transactions include: acting for a major North West student accommodation developer on senior and mezzanine investment facilities relating to PBSA of over £80,000,000; acting for a leading South African retailer (Truworths plc) on £100,000,000 facilities relating to the operation of the Office shoe retail chain; acting for a major high street bank on £30,000,000 senior and mezzanine facilities, including a complex intercreditor agreement and hedging, relating to the acquisition of a retail park; acting for a leading developer on residential development funding of £75,000,000; advising Select Property Group on a £54,000,000 senior funding from Lloyds Bank plc and Wells Fargo Bank, and a £30,000,000 mezzanine funding from Pramerica Real Estate Capital to finance the acquisition and development of two luxury student accommodation schemes; acting for Crown Street (Manchester) Limited - a Renaker company on aggregate funding of £128,000,000 loan in relation to two high-rise residential developments in Manchester; advising luxury hotel developer and operator Hotel la Tour on £22,000,000 development financing from Coutts & Co of a new landmark hotel in Milton Keynes; advising a care home developer and operator on £12,000,000 development facilities for a new care home; acting for the GMCA and GMHF on various projects including real estate finance loans and grant funding agreements in the further education sector.

Lyndsay Crowder-Barton

Director

Marcus Devanny

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

Matthew Kenwood

Matthew is a real estate lawyer with experience in advising on a wide variety of commercial real estate transactions. He acts for prominent occupiers and investors and is particularly experienced in matters relating to the retail and leisure industries (including retail units in travel locations). Matthew’s commercial approach to complex documentation and transactions is focused on ensuring that his clients’ aims and deadlines are achieved. His recent experience includes advising: The Safestore Group in relation to their property portfolio including acquisitions of development and trading sites; Various national UK retailers on acquisitions of and matters relating to properties within UK and non-UK airports; A major UK and European investor acquiring and managing a portfolio of high value commercial and residential properties across southern England. A major independent Co-op on matters relating to their programme of acquisitions including new build and trading convenience stores and funeral homes;

Mehar Patel

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

Melanie Chell

Mel is the Director of Client Experience and Culture at Equivo and also represents Shoosmiths interests on the board of this subsidiary. Mel provides advice to the finance industry in relation to recovery of assets and monies and is also responsible for Equivo’s "end to end" motor and asset finance recoveries service. Mel is well known within the Finance and Leasing Association and other trade bodies and supports with training course and conferences.  Mel is also a fellow of the Leasing Foundation sitting on its diversity and inclusion committee. Mel has more than 20 years experience in the finance industry and is known for being robust and commercial. Mel regularly advises clients in relation to best practice in collections and recoveries as well as assisting clients with technical asset finance disputes and complaints. Mel has particular expertise in dealing with fraud and injunctive relief in relation to motor vehicles and other high-value assets to include cross border and out of jurisdiction recoveries. Melanie also specialises in title disputes, innocent purchaser claims, satisfactory quality disputes, liens and consumer credit issues.  

Melissa Barker

Partner and Head of Plot Sales  

Michael Bennett

Legal Director

Nichola Jenkins

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.

Nicholas Shepherd

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.  

Nina Smith

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

Patrick Garner

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 Stokey

Paul leads the Shoosmiths National Employment Team. Paul is known for investing time to understand his clients with a genuine focus on generating demonstrable improvements and savings in his clients' businesses. Paul provides solutions and advice on a range of employment matters including - mitigating equal pay issues, managing trade union relations, consulting on the implications of business acquisitions and disposals, designing restructuring solutions, defending all types of tribunal claims and advising on executive severance (for both companies and individuals). Paul has significant experience working with, and often embedded within, clients' Human Resources teams. Paul quickly understands the issues in hand, their impact on his clients' business, how they affect individual stakeholders and then works with his clients to deliver pragmatic, practical solutions. Paul has over 17 years’ experience as a specialist employment solicitor and is known for his innovative thinking and solutions focused approach. Paul’s experience includes:- Working collaboratively with a leading national supermarket to design and implement a store restructuring programme resulting in the reduction of over 20,000 roles. This included positive trade union engagement, detailed communication and consultation plans. Working as a dedicated part of the HR team of an international and national newspaper – working with the client to ensure smooth implementation of change programmes and senior exits. Working with a passenger transport client which was experiencing absence problems. Paul designed a bespoke training solution, which resulted in substantial absence reduction, saving the client over £1m. Designing and implementing a national manager training programme for a retailer – the focus was on improving manager communication, streamlining disciplinary and grievance processes and improving manager capability. Over 3,500 managers were trained and the results were a significant reward on investment – over 10,000 manager hours were saved and reinvested on the shop floor in the first 6 months alone, the number of appeals reduced by 87%, grievances reduced by 57% and Tribunal claims fell by over 50%. In addition, as the quality of manager decisions and the way in which they were communicated improved, employee engagement benefited. Successfully defending over 2,000 unlawful deduction and breach of contract claims brought on behalf of members by two trade unions. Working with a number of large business’ to protect their equal pay position and delivering gender pay reporting confidence. Paul is a TUPE expert and is currently engaged in a multi-party public/ private commissioning project on behalf of one of the UK’s largest private health care companies

Paul Knight

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 Eccles

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

Paul Ashurst

Senior Associate  

Peter Duff

Peter Duff is the chairman of Shoosmiths. His role is to lead the firm’s partnership in the delivery of its strategic vision, to be the UK’s leading law firm, famous for its client experience. In addition, he has overall responsibility for the firm’s quality and compliance standards.Before being elected to the role in 2015, Peter was head of the firm’s commercial division and, prior to that, head of the employment & pensions department. Throughout his career, Peter has dealt with clients at board level and advising directors on the best tactics to achieve their strategic aims. As a result, he has developed a keen insight into, and understanding of, people, business culture and motivation which make him ideally placed to chair Shoosmiths’ partnership.What clients want from their law firms is changing and Peter’s role is to ensure that this is mirrored precisely in the way that the firm’s legal teams are developed and supported, whilst sustaining its strong and distinctive culture, which is an authentic point of difference for Shoosmiths in a competitive legal market.Peter remains a practising employment lawyer, advising predominantly corporate clients where he can use his extensive experience advising on boardroom disputes, large-scale business restructuring, collective issues and other strategic advice.

Philip Ryan

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

Rebecca Mauleverer

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

Richard Bellamy

Richard is a real estate lawyer with wide experience of acting for banks, building societies and secondary lenders. It is in the area of enforcement, restructuring and recovery that he has gained a national reputation, providing project management expertise on large scale disposal projects and high value/complex real estate. His approach is typified by assisting lenders early on with reviews of security and title to understand their available solutions and, where necessary, the enforcement options available. His experience means that he naturally considers the wider aspects, for example commercial or reputational impact. Richard provides a full property service for lenders which includes refinance and security work. He has for many years provided a 24/48hr turnaround service for relationship managers on property queries and document checking (lease reviews, planning documents, sale contracts, etc). He acts for insolvency practitioners and fixed charge receivers in both disposal transactions and asset management. He has successfully worked with stakeholders, IP’s and agents to provide considerable improvements on anticipated realisations and has also worked with many borrowers and their advisors on consensual work-outs and refinances. Richard joined Shoosmiths' real estate practice in October 2016, joining the firm from Addleshaw Goddard Leeds. He is based in Leeds and works with clients across the UK. His recent experience includes advising on high value projects, local and national: acting for Deloitte as administrators of the Angelic Portfolio, consisting 342 residential buy-to-let and a variety of commercial properties; advising RBS on a consensual work-out and plot sales of a large rural farm in the East Midlands which included residential and commercial buildings, telephone masts, large woodlands and arable land. Working alongside the finance litigation team to deliver specialist real estate advice; leading the property advice for KPMG (London) as administrators on a large commercial investment portfolio. Management and disposal involving a number of commercial retail properties and shopping centres. Involved detailed seller due diligence and presentation of documents via an online dataroom to improve transparency and ultimately realisation. sale of a number of former Southern Cross Care Homes, acting initially for Bank of Ireland and then CBRE as receivers, including lease variations, corporate support/business sales and development agreements; acting for Endless on a new lease, tenant option and pre-emption in relation to a large high tech distribution centre, office and retail space in Peterborough following the acquisition of the Kiddicare business from Morrisons. The early part of deal also dealt with the surrender of the leases on all of the retail outlets; and acting for Bank of Ireland and then O’Hara & Co as receivers on the club leases and disposal of Belle Vue Stadium, Wakefield over a period of six years.

Ruth Clare

Ruth is a partner in the real estate team and advises on a wide range of issues facing occupier, investor and corporate clients across the range of their property interests. Ruth provides bespoke advice with regard to the circumstances and the business drivers of her client in each transaction. She specialises in advising retail and other clients in respect of the expansion, disposal and management of their property portfolios. She also provides real estate input to corporate and financing transactions. She aims to be an extension of her clients, understanding and working alongside her clients to achieve their goals. Her recent project experience includes: advising a retail client and leading the cross-border team in respect of the acquisition of a 140+ store portfolio of properties from administrators and then re-gearing numerous leases to help deliver the new business’ strategy; the acquisition of 45+ properties and financing of a corporate client’s full portfolio of 170+ properties; advising a retail client across an 12 year period from its first to its sixtieth store opening.

Samantha Grange

Sam is a member of Shoosmiths’ Planning and CPO Team – recognised as Planning Law Firm of the Year at the Planning Awards 2022 and a Top 5 Team in the Planning Law Survey 2022. Sam advises both public and private sector clients on the legal aspects of the planning approval process, as well as the constraint/risk and land acquisition strategies required to unlock the delivery of major regeneration, infrastructure and renewable energy projects. She also provides planning due diligence and transactional advice, with a particular focus on ensuring a project’s compliance with statutory planning and policy related requirements. Sam has been an integral part of the multi-disciplinary teams charged with both consenting and securing the implementation of prominent schemes within the house building, build-to-rent, student living, leisure, mixed use, rail & road infrastructure and renewable energy sectors. She can advise on the legal and regulatory aspects of the environmental impact assessment process and how to ‘de-risk’ a project and planning application from this perspective. Where required, she can also provide advice on land assembly and the formulation of an acquisition strategy which supports and aligns with a project’s funding strategy and delivery programme. Sam has experience of acting for clients with a planning application at appeal, as well as on a number of planning focused judicial review and statutory High Court challenges. She has also worked on a number of complex compensation claims, representing both the scheme promoter and objectors, which she has prepared for hearing in the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber). Sam is recognised as a “Next Generation Partner” by Legal 500, Planning and Environment (2024). Sam’s recent experience includes: Advising Brenntag, a global chemical storage & distribution company, in connection with the implementation of the development consent order (DCO) secured by Transport for London (TfL) in order to authorise the construction of Silvertown Tunnel, a twin bore road (1.4km long) tunnel providing a new connection between the A102 Blackwall Tunnel Approach on Greenwich Peninsula and the Tidal Basin roundabout junction on the A1020 Lower Lea Crossing/Silvertown Way. Development consent for the Silvertown Tunnel was granted by the Secretary of State for Transport in May 2018. Main construction activities commenced in 2020 and the new tunnel is currently planned to open in 2025. Acting on multiple CPO compensation claims at the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) arising as a result of the construction of the A6 to Manchester Airport Relief Road which was promoted by Stockport Council. Advising landowners who have and continue to be affected by the project and whose positions have had to be preserved noting the limitation period associated with the compulsory acquisition of their interests in land subject of the CPO. Pursuant to instructions received from the site developer/seller, undertaking planning due diligence and inputting into the transactional documents prepared in connection with the sale of two onshore wind farms located on constrained sites in the Scottish Highlands. Acting for Historic England, development partner to Shropshire Council, on the compulsory purchase orders required to assemble land and to secure the timely delivery of the final phases of the redevelopment of Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings – a project intended to revive and restore the site’s complex of historic buildings, including the internationally significant Grade I listed Main Mall which dates back to 1797. It is anticipated that upon completion of the project, the Flaxmill and neighbouring complex of listed buildings will attract in the order of 20,750 visitors per annum. Further, the project will create c.1,000 jobs across the construction and operational phases of the redevelopment, as well as make a contribution of approx. £5.5 million GVA to the local economy.

Sean Wright

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

Sean Burke

Sean is an experienced real estate lawyer with wide knowledge of development, leasing and portfolio transactional work, as well as substantial project management expertise, spanning both private and public sectors. His approach is typified by focusing early on the practical outputs of what a client is aiming to achieve and then instilling a pro-active approach to the advice given by him and his team. Recent project experience includes advising: an international investment company and leading the cross-discipline team in relation to the first strategic acquisition of a shopping centre and car park in west London for this client; a national UK retailer on all matters connected with the management of their English/Welsh real estate portfolio, including a mixture of new lease acquisitions, both high street and edge of town, lease renewals and regears; on a portfolio disposal involving eight properties, transacted within a four week timetable; and the JV partners in a major UK Enterprise Zone project. He also serves on the Board of The Renewal Trust, a charitable trust which aims to stimulate enterprise and develop communities to relieve poverty in economically and socially deprived inner city areas of Nottingham.

Shelley White

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

Simon Boss

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 Fennell

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

Simon Meek

Simon is a real estate lawyer with wide experience of acting for investors and developers. His areas of expertise and recent project experience are as follows: • residential/student investment. Clients include Moorfield Group for whom he’s acted on a number of forward funded development schemes including developments at Newcastle, Manchester and Runnymede; • commercial investment. Clients include Evergreen/Extra (an M3 Capital Platform). • care homes/retirement living. Simon’s clients in this sector include Cinnamon Group for whom he has acted on numerous schemes throughout the UK; and • strategic Land. Simon acts on behalf of Highwood Group, one of the south coast’s fastest growing property companies, on various sites, bringing forward several thousand residential units in the last two years.

Siobhan Atkin

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

Sophie Tracey

Sophie is a Principal Associate real estate litigation lawyer with experience of acting for landlords, tenants and portfolio holders. She has substantial estate management expertise, spanning both private and public sectors, as well as experience of dealing with a broad range of property disputes whether negotiating a settlement or resorting to court proceedings. Sophie’s approach is typified by providing clear and concise legal advice with a focus on achieving clients’ commercial objectives. Her recent experience includes advising: Two of the country’s leading shopping centres in relation to all aspects of estate management including debt recovery, insolvency, dilapidations, service charge and forfeiture; A major investment fund in respect of its large portfolio of office, retail and industrial properties, notably with regards to tenant management and default; A global telecommunications company in relation to its telecoms mast sites, including strategic advice in relation to the Telecommunications Code and the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954; Private and public sector commercial landlords and tenants in relation to the operation of lease break options and lease renewals in the context of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954; A national institution in relation to a rates dispute with the valuation office agency. Sophie takes a keen interest in pro bono activities, most recently supervising Manchester University students in giving legal advice to the general public.

Stephanie MacPherson

Stephanie specialises in both contentious and non-contentious construction and engineering law. She has experience acting for a broad range of public and private sector clients including employers, financial institutions, NHS Trusts, social housing associations, Universities and Higher Eduction suppliers, developers, contractors, specialist sub-contractors and professionals. She has experience in adjudication, litigation and arbitration as well as less formal methods of dispute resolution, mediation and negotiation.  Stephanie has also advised upon construction insolvency, renewable energy and party walls.

Stephen Porter

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

Stuart Little

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

Stuart Lawrenson

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

Suman Dally

Partner  

Susan Prior

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

Suzanne Burrell

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

Tom Wilde

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

Tony Randle

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.

Tracey Hemingway

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

Victoria Bentley

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.