Simmons & Simmons

dam advises on complex, high-value disputes, including litigation, arbitration and regulatory investigations. He acts for clients across a range of sectors, notably for clients in banking, private equity, hedge fund, commodities, natural resources and tech sectors. Much of Adam’s work is cross-border, including where jurisdiction is disputed, and has recently obtained anti-suit injunctions for clients. Several of these cases involve parties affected by financial sanctions, including cross-border litigation involving Russia. He frequently manages multiple sets of proceedings (civil, criminal, regulatory) in parallel, and cross-border. Adam has litigated financial markets disputes across a wide range of wholesale banking issues. Recent work in that area includes disputes relating to derivatives, securitization, investment fund suspension, mis-selling, market abuse and commodities trading. He is regularly instructed on disputes between company directors, or involving partnerships/LLPs. Recent work has included breach of duty claims and seeking to enforce restrictive covenants. Adam also has a broad range of experience in handling securities litigation, including shareholder claims and derivative actions. This includes the ongoing defence of multiple parallel claims brought under s.90A of FSMA against a listed defendant in respect of allegedly misleading disclosures. Adam is recognised for his expertise in civil fraud matters, including fraudulent misrepresentation, market misconduct, insider dealing, and asset recovery. He has obtained urgent injunctive relief on behalf of clients facing these issues.

Adam Cooper

Adam is a project and development finance lawyer based in London and focused on the Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure (ENRI) industries. Adam has 25 years’ experience advising on major ENRI projects and transactions. In that time, Adam has advised energy companies, commercial banks, private equity funds and development finance institutions on a broad range of innovative and ground-breaking deals. Recent transactions include advising the Mitsubishi / QEWC joint venture, UHP, on the financing of Facility D in Qatar, currently the biggest IWPP in the Middle East, advising CIB, EBRD and IFC on the financing of the Sonker Bunkering Terminal in Egypt, and advising Orion Resource Partners on the financing of the Mantos Copper project in Chile.

Alex Brown

Alex is the head of the firm's Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) sector and a specialist in technology transactions as well as data compliance and commercialisation. He is a partner in our Digital Business Group in London. He’s an expert in advising users and suppliers of technology products and services. He is also a leading expert on data protection and privacy and he guided a large number of clients through their GDPR implementation projects. His experience on technology and outsourcing transactions includes handling large scale, complex outsourcings, software development, licensing and maintenance, telecoms equipment and services contracts and contracts for cloud services. Alexander is adept at making the complex simple and finding practical solutions to legal rules and problems. Since joining Simmons & Simmons in 1997, Alexander has been on secondments to clients such as Virgin Media and O2. He became a partner in 2007 and was appointed as TMT Sector Head in 2015. Alexander is a member of the firm's Accelerate Digital group, focused on guiding clients through digital transformation. Alex Brown’s legal expertise and guidance has been invaluable to the creation and design of the product CtrlTransfer.

Alexander Keepin

Alexander is a partner in our Public Markets Group within our UK Corporate practice and specialises in transactions involving listed issuers on both the Main Market and AIM. He also has considerable experience in mergers and acquisitions, JVs and takeovers, including reverse takeovers. Alexander acts for both issuers and underwriters/sponsors on a range of ECM transactions including equity offerings, listings and transactions on the London markets, almost exclusively on transactions involving natural resources companies. Alexander is recognised in the Hall of Fame for mining in the Legal 500 and is recognised as a Leading Individual for both Mining and Capital Markets: AIM by Chambers and Partners. Alexander’s practice also includes acting for private equity funds and sovereign wealth funds on transactions in the natural resources sector. Alexander is also closely involved with UK regulatory and corporate governance developments and provides regular advice and training to clients on the FCA’s sponsor regime, the UK Listing Rules, the AIM Rules, the UK Prospectus Regulation as well as the UK Market Abuse and UK Corporate Governance Codes.

Alexander Brown

Alexander Thavenot

Alexander specialises in complex cross-border disputes and investigations, with a focus on wholesale banking and wealth management. Alexander is a partner and solicitor advocate in the dispute resolution group in London and Bristol. He regularly acts for international financial institutions and asset managers on disputes involving structured products, derivatives, asset financing, real estate, and commodities. His recent experience includes the defence of a $800m dishonest assistance claim, the defence of a £30m swaps misselling claim, a claim for breach of put options, debt recovery and enforcement proceedings, shareholder disputes, and internal investigations into trader misconduct.

Alexandra Webster

Alexandra is a managing associate in the Disputes & Investigations group in London. She advises corporates and individuals on complex criminal investigations and proceedings and has particular expertise in managing the strategic, legal and procedural issues that arise in high-value, high-profile cases involving parallel civil litigation. See our website Parallel Proceedings: Pathways to solutions for more information. She was a member of the team awarded Commercial Litigation Team of the Year (Legal Business Awards), Litigation Team of the Year (The Lawyer Awards) and Banking Litigation Team of the Year (Legal Week Commercial Litigation & Arbitration Awards) in 2019, for successfully defending Grant Thornton and others against claims brought by the Tchenguiz brothers. Her recent work also includes: Global financial institution: advising the defendant to a £1bn+ civil fraud claim in the context of a related criminal investigation and prosecution R v Shahenshah and Ullah: defending the former COO of Afren Plc in a Serious Fraud Office prosecution for fraud and money laundering offences, and advising on parallel civil claims and director disqualification proceedings. Alexandra also regularly advises on the application of key financial crime legislation and has particular expertise in bribery, sanctions and money laundering compliance.

Ali Crosthwaite

Ali is co-lead of our Cross Border Real Estate Transactions Group and has extensive experience within the real estate market with a particular focus on prime City of London and West End investment grade property. She acts primarily for institutional investors, private equity sponsors and asset managers leading multi-practice teams in relation to structured acquisitions and disposals, joint venture arrangements and development. She is particularly experienced in relation to inbound investment into the UK and Europe and has led complex transactions across a range of asset classes including logistics, hotels, PBSA, residential PRS, retail and office schemes. Ali also acts for major corporate occupiers in relation to their leasing requirements. In addition, Ali is one of the firm’s two responsible business partners for the environment.

Alyson Lockett

Alyson is a finance and restructuring partner with a particular focus on restructuring and distressed debt investment, distressed financings and secondary market debt and claim trading. She acts for many of the most active investors in the European market (both US and UK-based funds, broker-dealers, financial institutions and corporates).

Amer Siddiqui

Amer is a partner in the Structured Finance and Derivatives Group in London and member of the asset-backed finance and securitisation team. He has extensive experience of a variety of asset-backed finance transactions and securitisations, with a focus on residential mortgage-backed securitisations (RMBS), commercial mortgage-backed securitisations (CMBS), covered bonds, asset sale and warehouse financing arrangements, and secured corporate bonds.

Amie Knighton

Amie specialises in real estate litigation and has a wide range of experience in advising on contentious issues for landlords, tenants and developers. Her work covers all aspects of traditional estate management work including commercial lease renewals, break notices, forfeiture, dilapidations, assignments, commercial debt recovery, lease interpretation and property related insolvency issues. In addition Amie also has extensive experience and interest in dealing with possession actions against trespassers.

Andrea Finn

Andrea is an advisor to clients on all employment law issues. She is trusted by clients to deal with their most high value and sensitive matters, including litigation and strategic responses to changes to the law. Her advice is pragmatic and commercial and tailored to the needs and culture of different client organisations. Over the last few years, Andrea has been at the forefront of advising clients in financial services on how they deal with their regulated people – i.e. the interplay between employment and financial services regulatory issues. In particular, she has developed expertise on financial services remuneration regulation and the implementation of new regulatory regimes for banks and other financial services firms, including the upcoming extension of the SMCR to all FCA-regulated firms. She has also advised on sensitive employment issues arising out of regulatory investigations. Andrea is a regular speaker at conferences on these issues. Andrea is a member of the firm’s Governance and Culture Advisory Team (GCAT) which advises on all aspects of corporate governance, culture, remuneration and risk. The GCAT Team helps clients navigate the increasingly challenging legal and regulatory requirements in relation to governance and culture.

Andrew Petry

Andrew Petry is a London-based partner and finance specialist in our Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure team. He has recent experience on transactions in the renewables (on and off-shore wind, solar, battery, green hydrogen, biomass and hydropower), PPPs, mining, waste, CCGT, telecoms (including masts, cables and datacentres), transport (including airports), accommodation (including hotels), gas transmission and LNG sectors. Andrew's clients are financiers, project sponsors, borrowers, institutional investors and infrastructure funds and public sector entities. He advises on many kinds of finance transactions including multi-source project financings, IFI/DFI and ECA debt, warehouse facilities, bond financings, trade financings, working capital facilities, borrowing-base financings and sovereign debt. Andrew is fluent in Dutch and German and regularly works in those languages. His practice is very international and in addition to UK deals he is currently advising on transactions in Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Benelux, Nordics, the Balkans and Latin America. He also co-chairs the Simmons & Simmons cross-border group that focusses on Infrastructure Fund Formations and Transactions.

Andrew Hutchinson

Andrew has experience working on a full range of contentious and non-contentious intellectual property matters, with a strong focus on patent litigation and regulatory issues (including supplemental protection certificates) in the life sciences sector. Andrew has acted for clients in a broad spectrum of industries, including pharmaceutical products (for human and veterinary use, including medical devices), cosmetic products, TMT, manufacturing (e.g. can making) and has represented clients in disputes before the English Courts (Patents Court and Court of Appeal), the European Patent Office and the Court of Justice of the European Union. Andrew also advises on licensing and contractual agreements relating to the development and exploitation of intellectual property rights.

Angus McLean

Angus is head of FinTech at Simmons & Simmons. He is an IP specialist with a particular focus on advising clients on the IP aspects of commercial and corporate transactions in a range of sectors including Financial Institutions and TMT. Angus also specialises in copyright and breach of confidence/trade secrets disputes arising out of employee moves. His clients range from top tier investment banks and market leading software developers to some of the UK’s most exciting FinTech start-ups. Angus teaches the IP aspects of the Corporate and Commercial transactions module on the Oxford University Graduate Diploma in IP law and practice. He is also the Contributing Editor of the FinTech edition of Lexology’s Getting The Deal Through; a multi-jurisdictional guide that answers the key legal and regulatory questions affecting FinTech companies across 31 countries.

Ania Rontaler

Ania has wide-ranging expertise in the asset management sector, and is particularly skilled at advising start-up hedge funds and asset managers on M&A. As co-chair of our gender network, she’s also at the forefront of retaining and attracting female talent within the firm and beyond. Ania is also heavily involved with the firm’s ESG strategy, both internally and in relation to advising clients. Ania is a partner in our Corporate group in London. She knows the asset management sector inside out, advising on transactional M&A work as well as managers of all sizes on day to day matters including reorganisations and partnership and shareholder arrangements. As a specialist in start-up hedge funds, Ania works closely with asset managers to understand their business objectives, and delivers carefully tailored, practical legal advice to match. She was instrumental in developing LaunchPlus: US to UK, our online resource for US hedge fund managers expanding into the UK. As co-chair of our gender network, TNOC, Ania is passionate about developing and retaining female talent in the firm, and across the wider business community. Since joining Simmons & Simmons in 2003, Ania has completed secondments at our offices in the Netherlands and Hong Kong, as well as with a US hedge fund.

Arthur Stewart

Arthur has wide-ranging expertise in private acquisitions, disposals, mergers and joint ventures in the asset management sector. He leads our UK Company & Commercial Group and serves as a member of our UK Management Committee. Arthur is a partner in our UK Corporate group. He has extensive experience in acting for regulated clients in regulated sectors on domestic and cross border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, commercial agreements, securities offerings and corporate restructurings. He is particularly experienced in advising private equity, venture capital, infrastructure, institutional funds and global asset managers. Shortlisted for ‘innovative deal of the year’ for his work on competitive auction processes in M&A, he worked closely with our Solutions Business to produce our Interactive Deal Handbook, an innovative post transaction deal tool. Arthur has completed client secondments to: IBM, RSA Group, BofA Securities and Macquarie. Since joining Simmons & Simmons, Arthur has served on many of the firm’s key Partnership Committees, including on the firm’s Board.

Ashika Patel

Ashika has a wide range of experience in dealing with commercial landlord and tenant disputes. She acts for landlords, property developers and commercial tenants.

Barry Gross

Barry is a UK based real estate lawyer with over 20 years experience acting on all aspects of real estate investment, development and financing. He acts for a range of clients including institutional, private equity and ultra-high net worth investors. Barry is sought after for his commercial and solutions-oriented approach with the focus on achieving the client’s desired outcomes in the most efficient manner. Barry advises clients who own and operate businesses where real estate is core to the business such as care homes, motorway service areas and electric vehicle charging. He is a leading specialist in the data centre sector advising data centre developers, investors, operators and customers. He has acted on a range of data centre transactions including development, leasing and service agreements, sales, mergers and acquisitions and financings in multiple jurisdictions. He jointly leads Simmons' multidisciplinary cross border data centre team. Barry is also highly experienced in restructuring and special situations having acted on numerous restructurings and enforcements in real estate and real estate intensive scenarios. His clients in this space include insolvency practitioners, financial institutions and buyers who value his ability to focus on real risks and deliver value.

Basil Woodd-Walker

Basil is a member of the firm’s Disputes & Investigations team. He has wide experience of arbitration and litigation for corporate and government clients. His practice focuses on disputes arising out of commercial contracts and complex transactions, primarily in the finance, telecoms, energy and mining sectors. Much of his work involves multiple jurisdictions, notably in Africa and Asia. Basil is listed as a Next Generation Lawyer for International Arbitration by Legal 500 UK. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a qualified Solicitor Advocate. Basil is also a member of Simmons & Simmons' contentious ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) team with experience of disputes relating to, for example, renewable energy incentive programmes, investor-State structuring advice, allegations of corruption, and international human rights and international humanitarian law. He previously worked as a corporate social responsibility consultant, providing insights into broader ESG policy issues.

Ben Jones

Ben specialises in corporate restructuring and insolvency. His focus is on situations where businesses are distressed, providing strategic advice to boards and stakeholders. Ben is a partner in our Restructuring and Special Situations team in London. He is experienced in advising in situations where companies are, or are likely to become, subject to formal insolvency proceedings, undertaking contingency planning and providing strategic advice to stakeholders, most recently in the airline, real estate and infrastructure sectors. He also has extensive experience in refinancings and distressed M&A.

Camilla de Silva

Camilla is a partner in our Disputes & Investigations team based in London. She brings a unique perspective as a former SFO prosecutor, including experience of settling corporate resolutions from both positions, previously on behalf of the SFO, and now for corporate clients. As an investigations specialist with high quality prosecutorial experience and strong commercial insight, Camilla provides practical legal advice partnering with international corporate clients in the FI, AMIF, Telecoms, Media, Technology, Oil and Gas, Industrial and Lifesciences, sectors to understand their business objectives and wider interests. Camilla advises on all aspects of financial crime, cybercrime and ESG risks that Boards and businesses face in the UK and internationally. This includes managing regulatory and criminal law risk from the start of a process, for example a whistle blower account to the endpoint of an enforcement process and potential satellite shareholder actions. Camilla is instructed to conduct internal investigations, compliance and remediation reviews, and to assess potential investment opportunities for financial crime risks. Her work includes advising corporates and individuals in relation to alleged financial misstatements, modern slavery and supply chain issues, money laundering, facilitation of tax evasion, bribery and corruption, and sanctions breaches and, how to judge and control the dynamic and engagement with domestic and international enforcement agencies.

Caroline Hunter-Yeats

Caroline is a specialist financial markets litigator and contentious regulatory lawyer. Her practice includes: FCA/PSR Enforcement investigations structured and investment product disputes disputes relating to high net worth individuals financial markets litigation. Caroline is a member of the firm’s Governance and Culture Advisory Team (GCAT), which advises on all aspects of corporate governance, culture, remuneration, and risk. She is also a member of the firm’s LIBOR steering group, focused on guiding clients through the IBOR transition and remediation process. Caroline is well known for her gravitas with senior individuals, tact in sensitive investigations, forthright analysis and straight-talking when needed. Caroline is a member of the firm's Accelerate Digital group, focused on guiding clients through digital transformation.

Caroline Turner-Inskip

Caroline is the head of our Bristol office. Caroline has a wealth of experience advising on the acquisition, disposal and portfolio management of commercial real estate assets. She specialises in advising banks and funders dealing with real estate financing. She also has experience dealing with renewables assets and acts for both investors and funders in this is area.

Charles Hawes

Charles has extensive experience advising on international capital markets transactions and US securities law matters. As a partner based in our London office, he has represented many issuers and investment banks in connection with debt and equity offerings. He has wide-ranging experience advising clients outside the US on compliance with US securities laws in the context of cross-border transactions. He has acted for clients on many Rule 144A offerings, private placements and programme issuance of debt, equity and asset-backed securities.

Charlotte Stalin

Charlotte is head of the firm's financial institutions sector group and is a leading advisor to global investment firms and banks on the provision of financial services. This includes acting as a strategic advisor across all aspects of their businesses including the establishment and structuring of their businesses, ongoing regulatory reform and compliance with PRA and FCA rules. Charlotte is also in charge of the firm’s market leading cross-border regulatory offering: navigator.

Cherie Spinks

Cherie is Of Counsel in the Disputes & Investigations team specialising in corporate crime and contentious regulatory investigations. She has significant experience in advising individuals, financial institutions and corporates on bribery and fraud investigations in both the UK and internationally. Cherie is a lead member of Simmons & Simmons’ Sanctions team advising on compliance with UK and EU sanctions regimes. She also has extensive experience of advising on technical money laundering issues, including disclosure obligations, and on implementation of anti-money laundering policies and procedures. Cherie has spent time on secondment to the legal department of an international energy company advising on anti-corruption and anti-money laundering compliance issues.

Chloe Morris

Chloe is a managing associate in our Disputes & Investigations team in London and has particular experience in civil fraud and s.90 and s.90A of FSMA liability claims. Her recent experience on high-value civil fraud claims, include acting as the lead associate in the defence of a FSMA s.90A liability claim brought by Hewlett Packard against Sushovan Hussain, the former CFO of Autonomy plc, and Dr Michael Lynch (the former CEO) following Hewlett Packard’s acquisition and subsequent $8.8bn write-down of Autonomy plc. The case was the UK’s biggest fraud trial and judgment is awaited. Chloe is currently advising a substantial UK PLC on the defence of threatened claims by a group of 80 shareholders under s.90A of FSMA. Chloe is also advising an insolvent investment manager on a potential claim against a major professional services company for negligence and fraud. She was the lead associate in the defence of the former COO of Afren Plc, Shahid Ullah, on civil claims brought by Afren Plc and its Nigerian subsidiary for unlawful conduct causing the collapse of the companies. The case was successfully settled. She was also part of the team that advised Grant Thornton in the successful defence of claims brought against it by the Tchenguiz brothers for conspiracy to make fraudulent representations (Tchenguiz & others vs Grant Thornton UK LLP & others). She has advised a global professional services firm in relation to a high-profile dispute involving a large online retailer and a claim of unlawful means conspiracy and advised a listed pensions administrator in relation to a potential fraud claim and associated tax and regulatory penalties resulting from breaches of pensions rules. In addition to her civil fraud practice, Chloe advises on commercial disputes involving financial institutions, including advising a large international bank as to a potential contempt of court claim brought by a company alleging that the bank had breached of a world-wide freezing order.

Colin Passmore

Colin served as the senior partner of Simmons & Simmons between August 2011 and July 2021. He has now become the Firm’s Client Development Partner but will also maintain his litigation practice. Over the last 36 years Colin has worked in England, Hong Kong and the Middle East from where he has developed a varied commercial litigation practice that encompasses both international and domestic disputes. His particular focus areas have been finance litigation, extradition disputes and large professional indemnity claims. Colin published the 4th edition of Privilege in December 2019. This is one of the leading textbooks on the subject of legal professional privilege.

Corinne Noel

Corinne specialises in energy and infrastructure project development and finance. She advises developers and borrowers in connection with project developments, financings, debt and corporate restructurings and acquisitions and disposals. Corinne is Of Counsel in the firm’s Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure team in London. Her most recent work includes advising: a Nigerian gas seller in connection with a French language gas sales agreement with the Benin utility; a Romanian alumina producer in connection with a facility with the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank; and European sellers in the disposal and restructuring of their logistics infrastructure portfolios in Europe. Corinne has also been involved in a number of project developments in Africa over the years, including in Cameroon, Sierra Leone and Ghana.

Craig Kirkham-Wilson

Craig specialises in complex tax investigations and litigation. Qualified as a Higher Courts solicitor advocate for civil cases, Craig supports clients at all stages of a dispute, from initial discussions through to written and oral advocacy. Craig works closely with clients and counsel to develop a clear strategy from the start of a matter and see it through to successful conclusion. Craig is equally comfortable conducting proceedings before the tax tribunals, the English courts, and in arbitration. He guides clients through the process of alternative dispute resolution with HMRC and represents clients in mediation. His tax investigations practice covers the whole spectrum of contentious tax issues, from internal tax reviews to managing mixed civil and criminal investigations by HMRC and other regulators. He is often instructed by clients looking to test opinions they have received from other tax advisers, and to identify alternative approaches. Craig also acts in commercial claims against tax advisers and against counterparties on matters arising from tax provisions in transaction documents.

Craig Bisson

Craig specialises in financial services law and regulation, with a focus on investments. Clients include asset managers, insurers, pension schemes and major corporates. Craig is a partner in our Financial Services group in London. He specialises in the contractual architecture supporting transactions for the world’s largest investors. He regularly advises firms on the terms of their investments in the international financial markets. These include SFTs (including repos and stock loans), futures, OTC derivatives and open/closed ended fund investments. His experience includes advising on segregated mandates (IMAs/TMAs), product distribution, custody, prime brokerage and UCITS eligible assets. He is a leader in global benchmark reform (including LIBOR), helping clients develop and implement their IBOR transition plans, including through machine learning and AI. Craig is an expert in financial markets regulation, including EMIR, SFTR and MiFID2. He has advised a number of clients on VM and IM documentation. He regularly co-ordinates cross-border netting and collateral projects and developed our innovative Netting + Collateral Reviewer product. As UK Knowledge Partner, he is responsible for co-ordinating our Knowledge function and further developing our knowledge strategy.

Dan Bryan

Dan is an associate in our pensions practice in London, advising employers and pension scheme Trustees on a number of issues. These include, for example, advising on notifiable events for scheme Trustees, employer-related investments, pension sharing orders, defined benefit to defined contribution transfers, and clearance applications to HMRC. Dan recently completed a six-month secondment in the Employment legal team of a global bank.

Danny Tsang

Danny specialises in pensions law and has 25 years of experience in advising on all aspects of pensions and benefits matters. His clients include employers, trustees as well as insolvency practitioners. His practice focuses on advising clients in relation to pension strategy and includes the restructuring of pension schemes such as scheme mergers and changes to benefit structures and de-risking solutions. He also advises on the pensions aspects of corporate transactions liaising with the Pensions Regulator, whenever necessary, as well as assisting the pensions dispute resolution team on pension dispute matters.

Darren Fox

Darren specialises in UK and European regulation of buy side and sell side clients, including hedge fund managers, private equity houses, investment banks and broker dealers. He is widely acknowledged as a leading regulatory advisor in the hedge fund sector. Darren regularly advises a wide range of financial sector clients on all aspects of the law and regulation applicable to the discretionary management of investments, the trading, clearing and settlement of transactions in securities, derivatives and other financial instruments (both on exchange and over the counter), investment banking activities and other financial services. Darren’s areas of specialism include hedge fund manager regulation, exchange traded derivatives and banking regulation (including capital adequacy requirements).

Darren Oswick

Darren has broad ranging transactional, advisory and tax disputes expertise. He leads both the UK and international tax practices and has a market leading reputation for his tax advisory practice advising major investment banks and asset managers. Darren advises on a wide range of tax issues, with a focus on clients in the Financial Institutions and Asset Management and Investment Funds sectors. He has extensive experience in the corporate and individual tax issues which arise for such clients. He also regularly acts for clients in relation to their disputes with tax authorities, across a variety of taxes.

Darren Meale

Darren is a soft IP litigator and brand portfolio manager, an award-winning innovator and a Deputy District Judge in the IPEC (the UK’s specialist IP court). Darren’s practice spans IP litigation in the UK courts, registry disputes at the UKIPO and EUIPO and international trade mark and design prosecution. He works across a range of sectors, in particular the media, technology, finance and fintech sectors. To give a flavour, he has advised clients on intellectual property rights in relation to everything from cartoon characters to whisky bottles, clothing, knitting needles, lingerie, soft drinks, mobile phones, TV programmes, films and hotels. He is an award-winning innovator, twice recognised for his innovative approach to solving legal problems, including by the Financial Times who previously named him Young Innovator of the Year. Darren is also a respected thought leader in the IP community, writing the Retromark round-ups on the IPKat blog, sitting on INTA’s Famous Marks committee and the editorial board of journal JIPLP. Darren also sits as a Deputy District Judge in both the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and the English County Court. Darren is the creator of Rocketeer, the world’s first AI trade mark lawyer. You can find out more about this product here: Rocketeer.

David Parkes

David is a leading corporate partner acting on mergers and acquisitions, disposals, equity investments, joint ventures, re-financings and re-organisations, equity raisings (public and private) as well as strategic advisory work. He acts for corporates, institutions, PE groups and high net worth individuals both on domestic and international transactions. His work covers a number of sectors including asset management, financial institutions, life sciences, TMT as well as energy and infrastructure, real estate and consumer/retail. David has spent many years undertaking transactions in Emerging Markets including in particular Africa.

David Trapp

David advises clients across all aspects of contentious and non-contentious EU and UK antitrust and competition law. His merger control work has included high profile UK and global transactions where he has managed the regulatory approval processes within the UK, the EU, and around the globe. His contentious work includes acting for clients subject to the European Commission interchange fee investigations as well as Competition and Markets Authority pharmaceutical probes. David has experience of working within a broad range of industry sectors including financial services, retail and various consumer goods, technology media & telecommunications, energy and infrastructure. David has spent time on secondment to the CMA where he was part of the policy team, and into the competition team of a multinational universal bank.

David Hicks

David advises both institutional and independent clients on constitutional and governance arrangements, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions and raising funds. He specialises in corporate advisory, corporate finance and transactional work, particularly within the financial services and wealth management sectors, and for investment trusts. His work for quoted companies includes leading the firm’s corporate compliance, annual reporting and general meeting work for listed clients. David advises listed, AIM-traded and other public and private companies on various company law and compliance matters, including in relation to the Companies Act 2006, listing rules, disclosure and transparency rules, UK corporate governance code and AIM rules. He advises investment trusts on fundraising and other matters, including a bonus issue of subscription shares for Fidelity Japanese Values plc which closed in summer 2014. David acts for a number of limited liability partnerships on structuring, constitutional and governance arrangements, particularly within the wealth management sector. He has advised on strategic and complex restructuring and transactional matters for wealth managers, insurers, insurance brokers and other authorised firms and individuals, both within the UK and internationally.

David Kidman

David specialises in resolving product liability disputes, and advising on product recalls. Complementary to this, he is experienced in handling recovery claims (domestically and internationally), regulatory investigations and compliance, insurance policy coverage issues, group litigation, and jurisdiction disputes. David routinely advises producers, distributors, retailers and their insurers on a range of product types, such as medical devices, automobiles, toys, and electrical goods. He has particular expertise in the life sciences, tech, food & drink, and retail sectors. He is experienced in robustly defending claims and navigating complex expert evidence, while upholding the reputation of his clients and finding commercially sensible outcomes. He advises on product compliance issues, product safety and corrective action management plans, and stress-testing of due diligence exercised prior to release of products onto the market. His group litigation experience includes co-drafting a claims handling agreement for predictable and cost-effective resolution of approximately 2,000 claims (Linkwise Group Litigation), and leading the defence in the PIP Breast Implant Group Litigation, which culminated in a unanimous Supreme Court win on a discrete insurance issue for his client. David’s life sciences expertise includes advising clients in relation to spinal disc implants, surgical knives, experimental stem cell treatment for cerebral palsy, and pathology reporting for cancer treatment. His tech sector and novel product expertise includes advising on products including firewall devices, lithium-ion batteries, autonomous vehicle technology, and lightweight bullet-proof vests. He regularly advises clients on tomorrow’s technology, and the risks and opportunities they pose.

David Toole

David is a structured capital markets specialist covering a range of securitised and OTC derivatives and structured finance transactions. He has a particular focus on risk sharing and synthetic securitisation transactions structured as credit derivatives, financial guarantees and credit insurance contracts and acts for a wide range of arrangers, originators and investors in these products, including public sector institutions. He also has extensive experience of credit, equity and fund-linked products. David also acts for government and multilateral financial institutions on their risk sharing and guarantee schemes including as counsel to the British Business Bank on the UK Government’s COVID-19 guarantee schemes and to the European Investment Fund on its pan-European guarantee schemes, including the European Guarantee Fund.

Davide D'Affronto

Davide heads the Financial Markets group in Milan. He has extensive experience in banking; advising on acquisition financing, leveraged and cross border syndicated lending, and debt restructuring. He also has considerable experience in project financing, asset finance, trade and export finance.

Deian Rhys

Deian is a partner in our Real Estate group in London and advises on investment, leasing and development opportunities in a range of real estate asset classes. His clients include public and private investors and developers and he has extensive experience in acting for occupiers as well as landlords in the leasing context. Before he joined us in 2016, Deian spent a number of years at Goldman Sachs, most recently as senior real estate counsel within the legal team with responsibility for assets in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India. Deian has a keen interest in ESG matters and is active in diversity and mentoring efforts inside and outside the firm.

Douglas Robinson

Douglas specialises in complex, high-value disputes, including litigation, regulatory investigations, and internal investigations. He acts for clients across a range of sectors with a particular focus on crypto, FinTech and banking. He also contributes to Crypto View. Douglas is experienced in handling litigation with parallel regulatory proceedings and enforcement actions by multiple regulators. Recent work includes acting for the defendant to a £1.5bn civil fraud claim in PCP Capital Partners LLP v Barclays Bank plc, for a crypto exchange provider appearing before the FCA’s RDC and for a firm subject to a regulatory investigation into FinTech. Douglas also provides advice to clients on anti-bribery and anti-money laundering compliance. Douglas has completed secondments in litigation and investigations roles for two leading global financial institutions, spending over a year in-house.

Duncan Athol

Duncan has extensive experience in all aspects of commercial development. From offices, mixed-use schemes to logistics. Over a number of years, he has acted for institutional developers and global tech companies on both the developer and occupier side. He also has a focus on data centre procurement (for both developers and occupiers) as well as renewable energy infrastructure. Duncan has extensive experience in advising clients on all major forms of construction procurement including traditional contracting, design and build, construction management, and EPC projects, both in the UK and internationally. Duncan also works closely with his colleagues in the firm's Asset Management & Investment Funds, Financial Institutions and Healthcare and Life Sciences sector groups providing non-contentious transactional construction advice to owners, developers, occupiers and funders.

Ed Crosse

Ed specialises in handling complex financial and regulatory disputes for financial institutions and has close to 30 years’ experience of advising clients in this area. Ed also represents clients on corruption and civil fraud related matters, notably in the area of suspected corrupt payments.

Edward Smith

Edward has over 15 years’ experience of advising on all aspects of pensions law and regulatory strategy. As well as maintaining a strong trustee practice and advising employers on the full gamut of endgame and run-on strategy, Edward is particularly focussed on assisting corporate sponsors and their other advisers mitigate regulatory risk in both the transactional and business as usual spaces. He has extensive experience of buy-ins and buy-outs, having led the pensions team’s input on three such matters recently. Edward also helps lead the team’s response to GMPe – advising clients on compliance with their legal responsibilities in a proportionate manner. Edward leads the team's response to the Government's proposals to encourage pension schemes to invest in productive finance (having supported the HM Treasury Working Group developing the Long Term Asset Fund), pensions tax changes (including the abolition of the Lifetime Allowance) and GMP equalisation.

Eleanore Di Claudio

Eleanore is a managing associate in our Disputes & Investigations team based in London. She is also a qualified Solicitor Advocate (Higher Courts Civil Proceedings). She specialises in litigation and arbitration arising out of commercial contracts and complex transactions involving multiple jurisdictions. Eleanore has a particular focus on contentious competition matters. She has previously been seconded to the litigation divisions of a major bank and a large telecommunications company.

Elizabeth Davison

Elizabeth is a partner in the firm’s Disputes & Investigations team. She represents a variety of financial institutions and commercial clients in high-value disputes and contentious regulatory and internal investigations. Elizabeth’s litigation practice includes a focus on banking related misconduct, complex investment products and cross-border competition follow-on damages claims (including relating to benchmark manipulation). Elizabeth also has a strong advisory practice providing advice to clients on how to mitigate legal risks associated with significant market events (such as the effects of Covid-19 and Brexit) and regulatory developments (for example, the increased focus on firms’ culture and conduct). Elizabeth is a member of the Law Society’s Private International Law sub-committee and regularly contributes as an industry expert on matters relating to civil justice (including governing law, jurisdiction, arbitration, process agency and sovereign immunity). In addition, she is interested in public law issues relating to the financial services industry. Elizabeth enjoys exploring the positive effect developments in technology can have on the way in which legal services are provided to clients to maximise costs efficiency and accessibility. For example, she developed Disputes Aviator, an online risk management tool which won the ‘Most Innovative Use of Technology’ at The Lawyer Awards and was shortlisted for an FT Innovation Award. Since then, she has continued to deliver smarter solutions for clients that draw on a diverse blend of legal and technical skills.

Elliot Beard

Elliot is a partner in the Financial Markets group in London and specialises in acquisition finance and corporate debt. Consistently helping to deliver first-class outcomes for clients on time and on budget, Elliot advises on a wide range of international transactions with a focus on acquisitions and other event driven financings for banks, borrowers and special situations funds. Elliot advises investment banks and bidders on the implementation of public bids under the Takeover Code and acts for a number of large listed and unlisted corporates on their debt and treasury work. He has also acted on numerous cross-border debt restructurings.

Elliot Beard

Emily Agnoli

Emily is a Partner in the Disputes & Investigations team in London, specialising in investigations for corporate crime and contentious regulatory matters. She is recognised as a rising star in her field, spending the last decade working on some of the largest and most high-profile corruption investigations including representing Petrofac Limited in its successful resolution of a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into allegations of bribery and advising Barclays on an SFO investigation regarding two capital raisings during the 2008 financial crisis. Her work this year has spanned clients in energy, pharmaceuticals, financial institutions, technology and engineering, IT services, TMT and securities. She was recognised as one of GIR’s Top 100 Women in Investigations 2021. Her work advising individuals has ranged from a multi-billion-dollar fraud involving two prominent Saudi families, to representing two individuals facing INTERPOL Red Notices and various individuals interviewed under caution or as witnesses by external agencies and enforcement authorities. She previously advised a former director at a major multi-national financial institution under investigation by HMRC resulting in no charges being brought against the individual following representations made on his behalf. She regularly advises and provides training on the application of key financial crime legislation and has particular expertise in bribery and money laundering compliance, contributing to Lexis Nexis Practice Notes covering Corporate Crime and to Practical Law Global on anti-corruption issues. As a founding member of Simmons & Simmons eDiscovery experts committee, Emily has comprehensive experience of using eDiscovery review platforms in large scale investigations and disputes. She has been a speaker at Relativity Fest London and regularly provides training (internally and to clients) in this area.

Emily Monastiriotis

Emily is international head of Dispute Resolution and leads the practice firmwide. She specialises in construction disputes, professional indemnity claims and is an expert on cladding. She advises insurers and all sides of the construction industry on a wide range of construction and engineering disputes and has pursued and defended claims for delay and associated costs, final accounts, fees and defective works. Emily is well known for her cladding expertise and handles cladding portfolios for key clients. She also regularly speaks at conferences and industry events on fire safety issues. On the professional indemnity side, Emily acts for PI Insurers and professional insureds - in particular architects, engineers, quantity surveyors and other construction specialists - in professional negligence claims. She is also experienced in domestic and international arbitrations, court proceedings and adjudications, regularly acting in arbitrations involving construction projects in the Middle East (where she travels to frequently).

Emma Spence

Emma specialises in product liability matters, including property damage and injury claims, and the policy indemnity issues which are frequently associated with those claims. She often works with manufacturers, distributors and retailers, and their insurers, from a range of sectors, including retail, food and drink, life sciences and the construction industry. She also has expertise in handling product recall claims and related regulatory investigations. She commonly deals with claims which involve international supply chains and regularly provides advice in relation to the jurisdictional challenges which these claims can present. In addition to product liability matters, she handles a range of property damage claims typically involving fire or escape of water within residential or commercial premises. She is well versed in dealing with the policy indemnity issues which often accompany public and product liability claims. She advised in relation to financial loss extensions, considered the concept of "damage" in admixture claims and advised in relation to the application of recall and replacement exclusions. She has also considered the remedies available to insurers for the breach of risk and claims conditions, and arguments surrounding waiver and estoppel.

Emma Sutcliffe

Emma is Head of the Disputes and Investigations Group in the UK. She has acted on a range of major investment banking disputes on both the financial markets and retail banking side and is a leading partner in the contentious regulatory practice. In particular, Emma has extensive experience of contentious financial services work, including regulatory investigation and enforcement (including from time spent on secondment to the FCA). Emma has advised multiple clients on conduct risk queries including assessment of conduct rule breaches and fitness and propriety, regulatory reporting requirements and regulatory references. Emma also frequently advises on the implications of the changes to firms introduced by the Senior Manager & Certification Regime.

Eucharia Bragg

Eucharia’s practice covers a wide range of structured capital markets products, encompassing securities, derivatives and related collateral arrangements, repos and securities lending. In particular, Eucharia has many years’ experience acting on repackagings and other structured credit products.

Felix Zimmermann

Felix is a partner in the firm’s Insurance and Construction group and is based in London, with 3 main strands to his insurance market practice. First, he has 20 years’ experience of advising on defending claims made against professionals (including solicitors, brokers, financial advisers and construction professionals) and directors and officers, usually with the support of their professional indemnity/FI/commercial D&O policies and insurers. Secondly, Felix regularly advises on coverage issue and disputes arising out of PI policies (e.g. on post-Grenfell claims) and on management liability/D&O policies, FI/Bankers Blanket Bond, Warranty & Indemnity Policies, Tax Liability, Political Risk and Trade Credit, cyber policies and aviation policies. Having acted for one of the defendant insurers in the FCA Business Interruption Test Case, Felix also has extensive experience of property and Business Interruption insurance. Finally, Felix is increasingly called upon to advise insurers on the drafting of insurance policies in these classes of business.

Frances Doherty

Frances is a corporate lawyer specialising in venture and private equity funding, and transactional M&A, in the UK and internationally. She has worked in the growth company ecosystem for more than 20 years and acts as a trusted legal adviser to a large number of technology companies and investors. Frances is co-lead of the Buy, Build and Invest group which is a key pillar of Simmons Emerging Tech offering.

Frederick Nicolle

Fred is a UK and European qualified patent attorney (CPA, EPA) with over 15 years experience specialising in patent prosecution and contentious matters for the life sciences sector. He has particular expertise in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, consumer health products, cosmetics, foods and health supplements. He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Master of Natural Sciences degree with a final year research project in synthetic organic chemistry. Fred has extensive experience of contentious patent proceedings in opposition at the European Patent Office and in national litigation, having defended patents for numerous commercially important products. Notable examples include the defence of patents for Noctiva™ (desmopressin acetate nasal spray), Bendeka® (bendamustine HCl injection), Revlimid® (lenalidomide), Xeplion®/Invega Sustenna® (paliperidone palmitate), wound dressings, and contact lenses. Fred is a registered representative before the Unified Patent Court (UPC), which became operational on 1 June 2023.

Gary Barnett

Gary is a senior professional support lawyer in the corporate tax group at Simmons & Simmons. He has written widely on UK and international tax developments, with a particular emphasis on VAT. Gary started his career at another major international law firm where he qualified as a transactional lawyer, advising on a wide range of corporate tax and VAT matters, with a particular emphasis on M&A transactions. Before joining Simmons & Simmons, Gary also worked at LexisNexis Butterworths where he was responsible for rewriting and updating the VAT commentary in De Voil Indirect Tax Service. As a professional support lawyer at Simmons & Simmons, Gary has been responsible for developing the knowledge management strategy for the London corporate tax group, whilst providing support to the international tax teams across Simmons & Simmons. He has also been instrumental in developing means to use tax know how in a marketing context and is responsible for the content of the group’s knowledge products. Since joining Simmons & Simmons, Gary has continued to write widely, particularly on the subject of VAT. He is a regular contributor of articles to leading UK tax publications such as Tax Journal and has also written VAT content for LexisPSL on Abuse of Rights, Composite Supplies and the VAT Treatment of Funds.

George Morris

George is a leading authority on disruptive technologies, primarily in the fields of crypto assets and blockchain. He also specialises in general commercial contracts for the IT and telecommunications sector. George is a partner in our Digital Business group in London. He’s also an expert on crypto assets and the technologies and regulations surrounding blockchain technology. So much so that he’s the board-appointed lawyer for CryptoUK – the UK’s leading crypto assets trade association. George thrives on developing innovative legal solutions for this rapidly evolving industry, informed by his first-hand knowledge of the sector and its commercial challenges. He knows disruptive technologies inside out, which means George’s legal advice is as forward-thinking as the industry itself. As well as being the firm’s go-to expert on crypto and blockchain, George advises on all types of commercial contracts in the IT and telecoms sectors. He’s well-versed in data protection, cyber security, software licensing, procurement and regulatory matters. Since joining Simmons & Simmons in 2007, George has completed secondments at Virgin Media and Telefónica O2, as well as a global financial institution. He became a partner in 2018. George is a member of the firm's Accelerate Digital group, focused on guiding clients through digital transformation. George Morris’s legal expertise and guidance has been invaluable to the creation and design of the product CryptoReviewer.

Gideon Sharp

Gideon is a senior London based Corporate partner and co-head of the firm's international private equity practice. He advises on a wide range of Corporate matters, with a particular focus on M&A, joint ventures, consortium arrangements and auctions - on a domestic and cross-border basis. He has led many of the firm's most high profile instructions. A regular speaker at client events, Gideon also speaks at seminars and external events such as the European SuperReturn Conference and the BVCA Summit. Gideon has significant experience in a number of sectors, including financial services, asset management, infrastructure and real estate. He advises a number of the world’s leading private equity, infrastructure, sovereign wealth and pension funds, as well as financial institutions, on complex high value transactions (including multiple transactions in the £1bn to £15bn range).

Heather Rowlands

Heather, a solicitor and Chartered Tax Adviser, is a partner in our Contentious Tax team. She has extensive experience of conducting domestic and international tax litigation across all areas of taxation and public law. She is noted for her deep expertise in complex offshore litigation, indirect taxes, environmental taxes and judicial review. Having trained and qualified with the firm in 2009, Heather returned to Simmons in December 2014 after gaining experience in the tax litigation practice of a Big 4 accountancy firm. Heather holds a degree in law from the University of Oxford. She is a regular contributor of articles to Tax Journal.

Helen Hagan

Helen is the head of the UK Banking group at Simmons & Simmons. A partner specialising in real estate finance, Helen advises both lenders and borrowers on UK and European real estate investment and development financings across the spectrum of senior, mezzanine and equity structures. Helen’s understanding of clients' perspectives is drawn from her secondments to investment banks and funds, including with the largest global real estate private equity firm and with a leading global investment bank. Her key sector experience includes offices, private rented sector, hotels, logistics and student accommodation.

Hinal Patel

Hinal is a digital, technology, outsourcing, telecoms and commercial transactions lawyer. His clients are predominantly in the financial services, technology and fintech industries where he guides them through their complex, multi-jurisdictional, transactions. His focus on just a few sectors means he has deep knowledge and insight into the issues organisations face in those sectors. He takes this knowledge and applies it to every interaction, so his clients can be confident that they are receiving the most up to date and informed advice. Hinal is a partner in our Digital Business group. Having practised for over 20 years, in and outside the UK, Hinal’s clients value his experience combined with his calm, can-do and effective manner.

Iain Duncan

Iain is the head of our Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Group in the UK. He acts for Investment Funds and Corporates and is a leading practitioner in relation to mining & metals and power transactions. He advises on M&A, projects, joint ventures and finance matters (including prepays, streams and royalties). Clients note ‘he has excellent communication skills and a high level of legal expertise and provides invaluable support through very complex transactions’ (Chambers 2023) and ‘is a very diligent, experienced and responsive lawyer who gets up to speed very quickly’ (Chambers 2022). Iain spent six months on secondment at an Energy/Resources major. He regularly speaks at international conferences in the Energy and Natural Resources sectors and sits on the Council of the London based society for the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. Experience includes advising: British Lithium on its joint venture with Imerys to develop the UK’s largest lithium deposit (which will result in the UK’s first integrated producer of battery-grade lithium, with production targets to supply 500,000 electric cars per year); Orion Resource Partners on its joint venture with Fusion Capital, on the acquisition and financing of the SASA lead and zinc mine in Macedonia and its subsequent sale (by way of reverse takeover) to Central Asia Metals; Mantoverde on its $847m financing package, including $520m of senior debt and $275m equity funding and offtake with Mitsubishi Materials, for its copper and gold project in Chile; and Mainstream Renewable Power on its pan-African and Chilean joint ventures with funds including IFC, Rockefeller Brothers and Actis, and the sale of its interests in those JVs.

Ian Hammond

Ian is the firm’s General Counsel. He was previously a partner in the firm’s dispute resolution practice, where he led the team acting for Sushovan Hussain, the former CFO of Autonomy Corporation in the defence of claims brought against him and the former CEO Dr Mike Lynch by Hewlett Packard This is the largest fraud claim ever brought against individual defendants in the English courts. He also led the team acting for Grant Thornton UK LLP in the successful defence of the claims brought against it by Vincent and Robert Tchenguiz, for which the team won both Legal Business Commercial Litigation Team of the Year and The Lawyer Litigation Team of the Year. In addition to his commercial disputes practice, Ian advises a number of professional services firms on liability, risk and associated regulatory issues.

Imran Iqbal-Mian

Imran is a finance lawyer in the Banking group of the London office. He works on a wide range of finance transactions, including advising lenders and borrowers on general corporate lending, acquisition financings and funds finance. Since joining Simmons & Simmons in 2015, Imran has completed 3 secondments to 3 separate financial institutions including one of Europe's largest asset managers where he worked within their Legal department. Most recently, Imran was seconded to a British universal bank where he worked within their Transaction Management team.

Isabella Roberts

Isabella is a partner in the corporate group in London. She has experience in a wide range of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions and public and private fundraisings, including in particular advising in connection with listed funds on infrastructure investments particularly in the renewables sector.

James Pollock

James is Head of the firm’s international Insurance and Construction group. He is a renowned litigator, specialising in professional liability, coverage, reinsurance and construction disputes. With over 30 years of experience, James has acted for insurers and their insureds, including solicitors, accountants, brokers, architects, engineers, surveyors and other construction professionals in High Court litigation, arbitration, adjudication and mediation. His practice often includes an international element, with cases spanning the UK, US, Japan and the Middle East, as well as Northern Ireland where he is also qualified.

James Wallace

James is a debt finance expert with a focus on real estate finance (senior / mezz / acquisition / refinancing / distribution / restructuring), but also with experience across multiple product lines and sectors including asset-backed finance, leverage and acquisition finance, general corporate lending and financial restructuring. He has significant experience advising both lenders and borrowers.

James Bresslaw

James specialises in loan and capital markets products. He acts across a broad range of products including transactions involving UK domestic and international secured and unsecured loans and debt securities, securitisations and other asset backed transactions and convertible, exchangeable and other debt capital markets instruments and amendments and restructurings of such transactions. James is a partner in the Firm’s Financial Markets group in London team. He tends now to act primarily for trustees, agents, security agents, cash managers and other service providers but he has many years of experience acting for arrangers, bank, fund and other lenders and/or investors, borrowers, issuers and other market counterparties. He has many years of experience of working with derivative and fund products, different assets classes and transaction structures and the principles of trust law as they apply to financing transactions. This together with his detailed knowledge of loan and capital markets products means that he is able to advise clients on the most complex structures involving multiple types and varieties of debt funding and help them navigate their way through the peculiarities of different products and different markets. It also means he is expertly placed to support clients working out what to do if and when things do not go according to plan, and/or when parties need to amend or restructure deals, and/or when they start to go wrong and the issues which need to be considered when entering into assignments, transfers or participations of interests in loans.

James Cotter

James specialises in complex commercial contracts (including partnering and outsourcing arrangements), digital and supply chain transformation projects and associated regulatory matters. James is a partner in our Digital Business Group in London. He advises clients in a variety of industries (most often financial services, technology and telecoms) either as customers or suppliers of technology enabled solutions. He also advises on related regulatory requirements and compliance (for instance in respect of privacy and information security, telecoms regulation or financial services outsourcing rules). James’ transactional experience includes advising as part of an award winning team on telecoms infrastructure sale and leaseback arrangements, advising on multi-billion pound contracts for the provision of smart metering communications infrastructure and advising on large scale cross border outsourcings. When advising on transformation projects in particular, his advice has a strong focus on creating workable solutions and utilising technology to deliver comprehensive and efficient support to client objectives.

James Dean

James has over 15 years’ experience in city and national firms advising on all pensions-related matters including pension scheme investments, corporate restructurings/M&A and public sector pensions. His clients include sponsoring employers, trustees and providers and public sector bodies.

James Taylor

Jason Juden

Jason has a wealth of experience advising property companies, institutional owners, occupiers, developers, retailers, banks and financial institutions on the whole range of traditional property litigation issues including: rent review, dilapidations, rights of light and other easements, forfeiture, alienation, covenant/contractual interpretation and enforcement, debt/rent and service charge recovery and property related insolvency.

Jason Daniel

Jason is a senior partner in our Corporate & Commercial group. He has wide experience of advising on private and public M&A, joint ventures, strategic alliances, investment transactions, reorganisations and general corporate and commercial matters. Jason has a particular focus on cross-border transactions and matters and has led the teams on many of the firm’s highest-profile mandates. He has significant experience in a number of sectors, including financial services, asset management, real estate and technology. For a number of years he led the firm’s Corporate practice in Asia. He is a Japanese speaker and acts as advisor to a number of leading Japanese groups on their activities internationally.

Jayne Bentham

Jayne is a partner in the Disputes & Investigations team and heads up the TMT disputes group. Jayne has extensive experience of complex, high-value disputes, in international arbitration, litigation and mediation. She is focussed on the fields of technology and telecoms and has been awarded an Executive Certificate in Computer Science for Lawyers, from Harvard Law School. Jayne is an active member of the firm’s International Arbitration Group, and is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and the Young LCIA and ICC groups.

Jen Yee Chan

Jen Yee specialises in funds finance, real estate finance, emerging markets finance, general lending and advisory work. She acts for both fund managers and banks. She has led transactions involving fund level/Holdco leverage and net asset value (NAV) facilities as well as bridging, portfolio acquisition and investor call facilities. She has also advised on general partner, manager and co-investment facilities and limited partner debt facilities. Her experience covers a wide range of funds, including infrastructure, renewable energy, real estate, large buyout and mid-market funds, venture funds, fund of funds and emerging market funds. The work she does is both domestic and international with structures based in jurisdictions like Luxembourg, Ireland, Germany, France, Delaware, the Cayman Islands, Jersey, Guernsey and Mauritius. Her dedicated team works closely with our global offices and overseas counsel with expertise in funds finance to provide seamless advice across these jurisdictions.

Jeremy Hoyland

Jeremy is the managing partner of Simmons & Simmons. He is responsible for developing and driving the firm’s vision and business plan. Working closely with the international leadership team, Jeremy spends much of his time leading initiatives that will help the firm achieve its strategic goals. Since becoming managing partner in 2011 he has grown the firm substantially. He has been the driving force behind office openings in Beijing, Bristol, Singapore, Shenzhen, Munich, Luxembourg, Dublin, Cambridge and San Francisco. Jeremy is the managing partner of Simmons & Simmons. He is responsible for developing and driving the firm’s vision and business plan. Working closely with the international leadership team, Jeremy spends much of his time leading initiatives that will help the firm achieve its strategic goals. Since becoming managing partner in 2011 he has grown the firm substantially. He has been the driving force behind office openings in Beijing, Bristol, Singapore, Shenzhen, Munich, Luxembourg, Dublin, Cambridge and San Francisco. Over his tenure, Jeremy has also introduced progressive people strategies to make Simmons a great place to work and develop a career. Enhanced flexible working, for example, was introduced in his early years. Followed by Adaptive, the firm’s flexible resourcing model, in 2014. Before being appointed managing partner, Jeremy held various leadership roles across the finance, capital markets and financial services groups. He has lived and worked in both London and Hong Kong.

Jo Crookshank

Jo is a partner at Simmons & Simmons, leading the indirect tax team. She advises clients on a wide range of complex VAT issues and other indirect taxes. Having previously worked for a Big Four firm, Jo's experience includes a wide range of matters concerning VAT legislation, case law and the practical implementation of VAT changes both within the UK and overseas. She also advises clients on identifying VAT efficiencies, seeking rulings and resolving disputes with tax authorities and she has represented clients on VAT legislation changes, at both the European Commission and HM Treasury.

Joanne Elson

Joanne is Of Counsel in the Energy, Natural Resources & Infrastructure group in London. She has extensive experience in the development, structuring and financing of energy and infrastructure projects worldwide, many of which are ‘first of a kind’ projects. Joanne advises clients from all around the world on the development and financing of projects across all types of energy, resources and infrastructure, working with commercial banks, multilateral institutions, corporate sponsors and governments. Joanne has deep experience in a wide range of sectors, geographies and situations which allow her to provide clients with solutions-based and commercially robust advice which is suitable for the jurisdictions involved. Joanne advises clients on their most complex and challenging projects, in a wide range of countries. Joanne’s recent experience includes green and conventional power, having worked on power projects including hydroelectric, wind, solar, biomass and gas, as well as infrastructure and new technologies such as hydrogen. Joanne specialises in project finance work in emerging markets and has led teams advising on deals across Africa, as well as in central Asia, the middle east and Eastern Europe. Although based in London, Joanne regularly advises international clients including commercial banks, development finance institutions and multilaterals such as the World Bank Group. Joanne is regularly appointed to advise governments on first-in-country deals where structuring and risk allocation are crucial. Joanne is a key member of our team, providing top quality service to clients. Our sector specialists deliver expert support on some of the most complex energy transition and decarbonisation projects (including CCUS), renewables and power projects, world-class mining projects, large-scale oil and gas projects and first-of-a-kind infrastructure projects.

Joel Smith

Partner

John Sayers

John advises on a broad range of bilateral, syndicated and structured lending in both developed and developing markets with a particular focus on commodities, trade & export finance, private and retail funds and renewable energy. John has acted for a variety of financial institutions, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank and The Royal Bank of Scotland.

John Kelsey

John specialises in real estate and has wide ranging experience of advising on investment and development transactions in relation to both the commercial and large-scale residential markets. John has a wealth of experience in relation to the structured acquisitions and disposals of investment properties, joint ventures, sales and leaseback arrangements, and the more general aspects of landlord and tenant law. John has particular experience in dealing with real estate finance transactions, working closely with our finance team. John also specialises in dealing with real estate transactions within the hotel and leisure, student accommodation and the build-to-rent/private rented sectors. John represents a broad spectrum of fund and financial institution clients which include major investors, banks, property funds and private capital and he acts for a range of developers, landlords and tenants.

Jonathan Spencer

Jonathan is a partner in the firm's Insurance and Construction group. His practice primarily focuses on resolving claims against construction professionals/contractors, and also regularly advises London market insurers on complex professional indemnity coverage disputes. Jonathan's experience spans a wide variety of construction disputes involving: iconic buildings; sports grounds; schools/universities; hospitals; large residential schemes; listed buildings; commercial/retail; and renewable energy facilities -in the UK and internationally. His caseload regularly involves mediations, arbitrations, adjudications and High Court litigation. Jonathan also advises construction professionals and their insurers on environmental/ESG risks, as the move to greener construction gathers pace (including modular construction). Jonathan has undertaken a year-long client secondment at a major international insurer, and he has also created the Policy Wording Toolkit -- an online product that outlines key policy coverage issues across several jurisdictions to help insurers manage risk.

Jonathan Schuman

Jonathan is a Managing Associate in the firm’s Disputes & Investigations team in London. His practice focuses on acting for clients on high-stakes civil disputes and regulatory investigations, often spanning multiple jurisdictions. Jonathan has experience advising clients on complex technology disputes and regulatory investigations. He has advised on contentious issues concerning software licences, telecoms equipment, IT services, outsourcing arrangements, digital assets (including cryptocurrency and utility tokens), and artificial intelligence (AI). Jonathan is one of the firm’s AI specialists, and has advised some of the world’s largest companies on the legal and ethical issues relating to AI, including compliance with the EU AI Act, AI governance, and responsible AI. Jonathan has considerable experience in both commercial and investor-state arbitration, as well as related proceedings in the English courts. He has acted in and advised on arbitrations under a range of procedural rules including ICC, LCIA, and UNCITRAL, and has acted for both investors and states in relation to the enforcement of ICSID awards. Jonathan also regularly advises on public international law issues. He is a qualified Solicitor Advocate, and has appeared in both commercial and investment arbitration hearings. He is listed as a 'Leading Associate' for International Arbitration by Legal 500 (2024). Jonathan also has experience in English High Court litigation. Two of his cases have been featured in The Lawyer’s Top 20 cases, both of which resulted in successful outcomes for his clients at trial.

Jonathan Hammond

Jonathan is our Asia Regional Head based in our Hong Kong office. Jonathan is a partner in our Financial Markets group specialising in structured products and derivatives. He has advised sell and buy side clients on a variety of asset backed structures and synthetic transactions. In 2018 Jonathan completed a secondment to a major investment bank and in 2019 he worked in our Frankfurt office. Jonathan is a qualified solicitor in England and Wales and Hong Kong.

Jonathan Spencer

Jonathon Wilkes

Jonathon is a partner in our real estate team and has wide ranging experience in investment transactions, development projects and complex asset management. He has a particular specialism working with corporate-wrapped structures with a focus on development management and joint ventures. Jonathon represents a broad spectrum of clients including institutions, large property companies, private equity houses and private wealth clients. Jonathon is particularly experienced in transactions involving logistics, retail, offices and hospitality and leisure.

Julian Taylor

Julian is the Senior Partner at Simmons & Simmons. He leads Simmons on its journey to becoming a next generation law firm, delivering outstanding service for our clients and creating a place for our people to thrive. That often means challenging the status quo. Attracting different talent, nurturing diversity and embracing the opportunities offered by AI and technology - having recently studied computer science and coding. With a reputation as a "consummate business lawyer" Julian continues to advise leading institutions on a wide range of people-related employment law issues. He has wide ranging experience in litigation (a Barrister before joining Simmons) and investigations. Julian is a co-founder and trustee of Pennies; a prominent charity that aims to increase micro-donations by using technology for good. Since 2010, it has raised almost £40m. He also serves on the board of directors of Brampton Manor Academy Trust, which runs two state schools in Newham, London. Remaining connected with day-to-day issues gives Julian a real grasp of how to evolve our ways of working to better serve clients, colleagues and communities. As a champion of flexible working (doing so himself) and creating a positive workplace culture, he knows that when people are empowered to do their best work, everyone benefits.

Juliet Reingold

Juliet is a partner in the Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure team and leads our UK Government Group. She is a leading advisor to the UK Government on energy and infrastructure projects and major commercial, strategic and nationally significant transactions at the public/private interface in defence and security/intelligence, nuclear, transport/logistics, utilities, tech and infrastructure. As an industry leading infrastructure specialist, Juliet has taken innovative approaches to designing new commercial structures and legal frameworks for privatisations, PPPs, restructurings, nationalisations, asset sales, special situations, business transformations, commercialisation of assets and procurements (combined value circa £200bn). She is expert at managing multiple stakeholders and the interface of legal, policy, politics and regulation. She is a strategic and tactical advisor at Investment Approval and Board level, and at Ministerial, CEO and Permanent Secretary level and advises on governance and crisis management. Her clients also include foreign governments, sponsors and infrastructure funds.

Kamal Arulvel

Kamal is a partner and a debt finance expert in our international banking team, bringing a specialist offering in real estate finance and loan on loan finance transactions in the real estate finance market. Kamal acts for both lenders and borrowers. His experience includes investment and development financings involving a wide range of real estate classes (including office, retail, hotel, logistics, healthcare, PRS, services office and student accommodation). Kamal has particular expertise in advising on senior and mezzanine financings and cross-border financings (having worked on financings where assets have been located in Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, Portugal, France, Spain and Italy). Kamal also has experience of restructurings and enforcements.

Kathryn James

Kathryn is a partner in the London capital markets group and member of the asset-backed finance and securitisation team. Kathryn has extensive experience advising on all forms of structured finance and securitisation transactions with a particular focus on residential mortgage-backed securitisations (RMBS), credit card securitisations (Cards), commercial mortgage-backed securitisations (CMBS), new origination and asset sale transactions and warehousing arrangements. She also advises on secured corporate bonds and whole business securitisations (WBS) (including those backed by infrastructure and utility assets).

Katie Oliver

Katie is a solicitor and supervising associate in our Contentious Tax team. She works on the full range of contentious issues relating to both direct and indirect taxes, with a particular interest in tax-related judicial review claims and VAT issues. In addition to her focus on tax disputes and investigations, her experience extends to VAT advisory and accounting issues including complex partial exemption disputes.

Kevin Cordina

Kevin is a patent attorney specialising in commercially-focused patent prosecution advice, and contentious proceedings at the European Patent Office. Kevin is a European Patent Attorney and Head of the Patent Prosecution group of Simmons & Simmons. He specialises in the electronics, telecommunications, and medical device technical areas, with a particular emphasis on helping clients obtain, defend, and enforce commercially valuable patent portfolios. Kevin advises clients from small start-ups to multinationals on all aspects of the patent process. He has particular expertise in cellular technologies and has considerable experience in protecting and exploiting essential patents for such technologies. Kevin is an expert in contentious matters, with an enviable success rate in oppositions at the European Patent Office. He helps clients manage international patent portfolios, including procedures to ensure the most valuable protection is obtained in each jurisdiction. Kevin advises clients in complex patent litigation matters, working as an integrated part of the IP group with specialist litigators. He has experience of litigation in the UK Courts, and in a number of international jurisdictions. Kevin is a registered representative before the Unified Patent Court (UPC), which became operational on 1 June 2023.

Kevin Mooney

Kevin specialises in contentious and non-contentious intellectual property matters, focusing specifically on patent litigation, especially in the pharmaceuticals industry. Kevin has been part of an international team of lawyers working towards the creation of a new European patent court for several years and is currently the Chairman of the Committee tasked with drafting the Rules and Procedure of the Unified Patent Court (UPC). Kevin is the only UK lawyer who is a member of the Expert Group advising on the implementation of the UPC project. Kevin has organised and participated at the fore every year in Venice, for European patent judges and is advising the European Patent Office on judicial training. He is also a member of the Intellectual Property Solicitors Association and a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

Kim Farrar

Kim Farrar is a senior associate in the UK Corporate team and has extensive experience advising on domestic and cross-border M&A transactions. Kim regularly advises clients, particularly asset managers and investment funds, on their acquisitions, disposals and investments. She also advises on corporate joint ventures arrangements, from the structuring to the asset acquisition stage, and with a particular focus on the real estate sector.

Kirsty Barnes

Kirsty is a banking and finance partner with over 20 years of experience across the financial services sector focussing on corporate lending and leveraged finance. She is a partner in our Financial Markets group in London. She has a great track record of advising a broad range of clients including financial institutions and debt funds and also corporate borrowers including multi-nationals and private equity houses. Given her wide ranging experience, Kirsty is uniquely placed to deliver pragmatic and solutions-driven advice whilst navigating high-stress situations and achieving goals on time. She has a specific sector expertise in the Financial Services and the TMT sectors, in particular relating to Data Centres and heads the Simmons global data centre team.

Laura Friedman

Laura is a managing associate in our pensions practice in London. Laura advises both pension scheme trustees and employers on a range of pensions law matters. Laura has particular experience of working on pensions de-risking initiatives (such as buy-ins and pension increase exchange exercises) and on pension benefit redesigns and consultation exercises. Laura also advises on pension scheme member disputes and queries and the pensions aspects of corporate acquisitions.

Lawrence Brown

Lawrence is a partner in our UK Digital Business group. He advises clients on complex (and frequently regulated) technology transactions and on cross-border data protection matters. Highlighted in the Legal 500 2018 for his “methodical approach”, he has a deep understanding of the laws and regulations that apply to technology and financial services sector clients and is therefore able to provide them with sector-specialised advice. He has particular experience in advising on large-scale cloud services and other technology transactions. Regularly acting both for customers and suppliers, he helps the parties get to the point quickly in negotiations. As co-lead of our Data Protection Cross-Border Group, Lawrence is responsible for driving forward collaboration in this area. He has a particular focus on issue-spotting and developing user-friendly processes and products to help clients to tackle complex data-related matters. Lawrence joined us in 2003 and has spent time on secondment with a global financial institution, RBS and SEI Investments. Lawrence is a member of the firm's Accelerate Digital group, focused on guiding clients through digital transformation. Lawrence Brown’s legal expertise and guidance has been invaluable to the creation and design of the product CtrlTransfer.

Lawrence Brown

Lawrence is a partner in our UK Digital Business group. He advises clients on complex (and frequently regulated) technology transactions and on cross-border data protection matters. He has particular experience in advising on large-scale cloud services and other technology transactions. Regularly acting both for customers and suppliers, he helps the parties get to the point quickly in negotiations. As co-lead of our Data Protection Cross-Border Group, Lawrence is responsible for driving forward collaboration in this area. He has a particular focus on issue-spotting and developing user-friendly processes and products to help clients to tackle complex data-related matters.

Lydia Torne

Lydia specialises in intellectual property transactions, including licensing, collaboration agreements, joint ventures, consortium agreements, commercialisation arrangements, monetisations and intellectual property aspects of corporate transactions and financings. Lydia is experienced in advising in a wide range of sectors, but has a particular focus on healthcare and life sciences and digital health. Lydia also specialises in life sciences regulatory compliance, advising on a wide range of issues including product classification, interactions with healthcare professionals, clinical trials (including data protection issues), market access, supply chain requirements, marketing and pharmacovigilance.

Mandy Perry

Mandy is a highly experienced advisor on all aspects of employment law. She is a trusted advisor to businesses across diverse sectors and is a pragmatic and commercial problem solver. Mandy has developed particular expertise in the tech, media and telecoms (TMT) sector and has worked with hundreds of companies, from those doing their first round of investments through to highly developed, household names. She works for some of the world’s largest media and entertainment companies, as well as health and life sciences businesses. As well as advising on all aspects of the employment relationship including disputes and handling high profile litigation in the tribunal and High Court, she has worked with businesses on culture and strategy in the context of rapid growth and change management.

Marc Fèvre

Marc is a recognised market leader and adviser on energy and infrastructure projects internationally. He has specific expertise in clean energy and sustainable infrastructure, and helping clients investing in new technologies and in new markets. Marc has a particular focus on working with clients on the opportunities and challenges arising from energy transition, decarbonisation and the drive for sustainability, all of which he is passionate about. He advises clients from all industry sectors on sourcing of clean energy, and meeting their sustainability objectives across the supply chain: this includes greenfield project development and finance, implementation of emerging technologies (such as hydrogen and CCUS), and secondary market transactions. Marc has a deep background in "first-in-kind" power, transport and other infrastructure projects throughout their lifecycle, from structuring to development, project financing and secondary market transactions. He provides expertise on all of the commercial and financing contracts required, provides strategic advice and works with clients with a view to the long-term success of an infrastructure project. Marc works with a wide range of clients, including infrastructure funds, corporates, project developers, lenders and government authorities, enabling him to assist clients with all sides of the project equation. He has lived in Europe, Asia and the Middle East and regularly advises clients on projects in all of these markets as well as other regions such as Africa. He is bilingual in English and French and also speaks Spanish well and conversational Japanese.

Marcin Perzanowski

Marcin Perzanowski is a Partner in the Structured Finance & Derivatives practice of the London office of Simmons & Simmons. Marcin focuses on derivatives and structured product transactions across all asset classes. Marcin has extensive experience in advising on OTC and structured derivatives for banks, corporates, funds, pension schemes and insurance companies. He also frequently assists his clients with respect to different types of collateral and segregation structures, as well as various aspects of securities finance arrangements. Marcin's expertise covers a wide range of products, including funding trades (structured as total return swaps, repurchase agreement or margin loans), equity derivatives (including index and equity linked products), credit derivatives (including credit linked notes and credit linked deposit agreements), commodities and commodity derivatives, as well as various types of FX and interest rates derivatives. He regularly advises on structured notes programmes (including repacks), and investment products referencing proprietary indices, managed accounts and similar structures. Marcin has considerable expertise in advising on the regulatory aspects of derivatives, in particular in respect of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation and its various implementing measures, as well as any related documentation. Marcin has written a submission to the European Parliament and the FCA on behalf of the Association of Pension Lawyers in respect of the new derivatives rules. Marcin's publications include three chapters in an "Equity Derivatives" textbook, and two chapters on credit derivatives in "Sovereign Debt and Debt Restructuring". He has also co-edited the "Commodity Derivatives" textbook. He has completed secondments to The Royal Bank of Scotland plc and HSBC Bank plc, where he advised on various aspects of derivative transactions, including corporate equity derivatives and various investment access products.

Marisa Broughton

Marisa is a Chartered Trade Mark Attorney specialising in brand protection and enforcement. She has significant experience in the strategic management of trade mark and design portfolios working with clients in a range of sectors including healthcare, hospitality, technology and fashion. Marisa advises on complex contentious matters including trade mark opposition and cancellation proceedings, infringement, IP contract disputes, bad faith and multi-jurisdictional issues. She appears regularly before the UK Intellectual Property Office and was ranked 10th in the league table of Trade Mark Attorney appearances before the UK IPO for the period 2016 - 2020. She works to develop longstanding, trusted relationships with clients, delivering commercial advice and practical solutions in fast paced sectors.

Mark Curtis

Mark primarily advises financial institutions, funds and corporates on public and private mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings and related work. He has a particular expertise in shareholder activism and has advised on a number of high profile public campaigns. Mark was seconded for two years as secretary to the UK Panel on Takeovers and mergers and has subsequently acted as secretary to the Hearings Committee of the Panel and the Takeover Appeal Board.

Mark Waghorn

Mark leads the UK Real Estate Finance practice. He acts for all market participants: banking lenders, borrowers, senior, junior and mezzanine debt players providing investment, development and structured finance, including commercial mortgage-backed securitisations. Mark also specialises in real estate restructuring and insolvency work, working with lenders and borrowers and with Insolvency Practitioners and Property Receivers. His key sector experience includes residential, hotels and leisure, healthcare, logistics and retail.

Martin Shah

Martin’s broad-based practice encompasses financial markets, corporate, real estate (including structured real estate) and commercial work, with an emphasis on clients in the asset management and investment funds and financial institutions sectors. His focus includes advising on funds and other investment products, together with structural tax issues for banking, asset management and insurance clients. Martin also has a wide ranging experience in structuring outsourcing arrangements in the financial sector. Martin leads the financial services tax practice. He is a member of the core team dedicated to advising our alternative manager client base, including emerging and more established managers. The team is behind Simmons & Simmons LaunchPlus: US to UK - the firm’s online resource for US-based fund managers launching in the UK. In 2015, Martin spent five months on secondment with British Land covering the Head of Tax role and providing transactional and advisory support across their business.

Matthew Monahan

Matt is a senior capital markets partner with over 20 years’ experience advising on derivatives and structured finance transactions. Matt is one of the leading practitioners in the risk sharing and synthetic securitisation market and advises a wide range of investors and arranger/originators on transactions in multiple jurisdictions and structures. Matt also advises several dealers on the multi-dealer SPIRE repackaging platform and on their proprietary repackaging and structured products programmes and bespoke SPV-based transactions. Matt also has extensive experience working with leading financial institutions on innovative OTC derivatives and repo financing transactions.

Matthew Hooton

Matthew has over two decades of experience in all facets of legal and commercial work in the real estate sector. He acts for buyers and sellers on investment deals, advising on complex tax matters, corporate structures and joint venture arrangements. Matthew has expertise in structuring and executing Corporate Real Estate deals, including dealing with W&I brokers and insurance products. He acts for landlords and tenants on portfolios and trophy buildings. Matthew advises developers in connection with site assemblies, options, pre-emptions, pre lets, forward fundings and forward purchases. He acts for the major banks, as well as funds, on real estate backed finance matters, including loan portfolios. Matthew also represents developers and investors on real estate transactions incorporating railway and infrastructure.

Matthew Pitman

Matthew is an investment funds specialist focusing on all classes of private funds. His practice covers a wide range of transactional and investment work, including fund formation (for both liquid and illiquid assets), indirect investments, advising on investment management issues, joint ventures and managed accounts. He has advised on the establishment of a number of investment vehicles and assisted institutional investors around the world (including sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and family offices) with more than US$30bn of investments.

Michael Gavey

Michael specialises in all types of transactions involving intellectual property. In addition to negotiating agreements, Michael often advises on contractual interpretation and disputes. This includes consortium agreements, joint ventures, licensing, commercialization agreements and financings, as well as share and asset deals. He has particular expertise in multi-party collaborations and funds involving industry, academia, technology transfer offices and governments. He has considerable experience in a wide range of industry sectors, including life sciences, technology, energy, financial institutions and consumer goods. Michael also specialises in regulatory compliance, advising on matters such as interactions with healthcare professionals, clinical trials, marketing authorization, manufacturing, distribution, promotion and pharmacovigilance, as well as data privacy and regulatory data exclusivity. Michael is head of our firm’s UK life sciences practice.

Michael Lorraine

Michael is the Head of the firm’s UK Structured Finance and Derivatives Group and co-head of the firm’s cross-border Asset-Backed Finance and Securitisation team. He has extensive experience advising on a wide range of asset-backed structures including public and private securitisation, covered bonds, warehouse facilities, asset-backed lending and specialty finance, receivables financing and portfolio acquisitions. Michael has a particular focus on innovative asset-backed structures and asset classes and regularly acts for originators, funders (including banks and direct lenders), sponsors, arrangers and lead managers.

Michael Burdon

Michael is a widely acknowledged expert in the field of Intellectual Property, especially in relation to complex, high-value, multi-country patent disputes. He also works closely with our patent attorney team to help clients develop their patent strategies. Michael advises a diverse range of businesses on maximising the protection, enforcement and extraction of value from their intellectual property rights. His principal area of expertise is patents especially multijurisdictional disputes. Michael has represented clients in numerous reported cases, in a diverse range of technologies from pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical devices through to electronics, software and communications. He has particular experience in relation to medical devices and Standard Essential Patents and FRAND licensing disputes. Clients also rely on Michael’s considerable experience for advice on risk analysis and freedom to operate opinions and on due diligence for investment, acquisition and licensing transactions. He has extensive experience of assisting clients with their IP strategy and budgets and establishing best practice for the management of their IP portfolio and IP risk. Michael is a registered representative before the Unified Patent Court (UPC), which became operational on 1 June 2023.

Minesh Tanna

Minesh is a Partner in the firm’s Disputes & Investigations team and is also the firm’s Global AI Lead. Minesh’s practice focuses on contentious commercial and regulatory issues, principally in the telecoms, media and technology (TMT) sector. He has represented numerous TMT clients on litigation, arbitration and investigation matters (including tech regulatory and data privacy investigations). Minesh has acted on complex disputes relating to technology equipment, telecoms equipment, IT services / outsourcing, software development, licensing and maintenance, cloud services, AI and media rights. As a Solicitor-Advocate (Higher Courts Civil), Minesh appears as counsel in litigation and arbitration proceedings. He has experience of arbitration under the LCIA, ICC, HKIAC, SIAC, DIAC, ADCCAC and UNCITRAL rules, as well as expert determination. Minesh is an accredited mediator with the Society of Mediators and regularly advises clients on alternative dispute resolution. Minesh is an industry-recognised leader in AI law. He is Chair of the Society for Computers and Law (SCL) AI Group, he has contributed chapters in Artificial Intelligence: Law and Regulation and is currently writing chapters for another forthcoming book on AI law, and he is regularly invited to speak at events on AI law (he has previously spoken on behalf of the United Nations). Minesh increasingly advises clients across all sectors on legal, regulatory and ethical issues relating to AI (including data privacy issues, contractual AI issues, responsible AI and AI disputes). Minesh’s expertise in AI law has been recognised through various awards, including ‘Rising Star: Private Practice’ at the British Legal Awards 2022. His work on AI explainability – including advising on the world’s first AI Explainability Statement to receive input from a regulator – was shortlisted at the Legal Innovation Awards 2022 and the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards Europe 2022. Minesh has a first class degree in Law from the University of Oxford. He has previously worked in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Paris, and has also spent time working in-house in the regulatory investigations team of a ‘big tech’ company.

Nick Benwell

Nick is a partner in the firm’s Disputes & Investigations team. He advises on a wide range of corporate crime, corruption and fraud-related matters. He is experienced at dealing with large scale and sensitive investigations involving the handling of issues in multiple jurisdictions, and regularly advises on reporting to and communications with enforcement authorities including the Serious Fraud Office and National Crime Agency. Nick is also experienced at advising companies under public scrutiny, including the giving of evidence to parliamentary select committees.

Nick Cronkshaw

Nick has a broad experience of corporate tax with a particular emphasis on transactional work including sales and purchases of companies, mergers, demergers, reconstructions, business sales and purchases, joint ventures, and VAT. Nick also advises on structured finance products, securitisations, business process outsourcing arrangements and real estate transactions.

Oliver s’Jacob

Oliver is a partner in our Corporate group in London, and leads the firm’s private equity real estate offering. With over 20 years of experience, Oliver has worked on a wide variety of transactions in the real estate and infrastructure space, including joint ventures, club deals, major developments, strategic M&A (both public and private) and restructurings. He has guided clients through structuring and executing their real estate investments in most European jurisdictions. Oliver’s expertise spans most real asset classes, having assisted clients acquire or operate not just traditional property types such as offices, shopping centres, logistics warehouses and residential assets (including student housing), but also real estate-intensive businesses and/or infrastructure assets, such as hotels, hospitals, data centres, schools, science parks and football clubs. In addition to working on “downstream” real estate and infrastructure investments, Oliver has helped clients with fund formation, establishing new management platforms and “PropTech” investments. Oliver represents a wide range of clients, including some of the world’s largest private equity real estate firms and other institutional investors, asset managers and property developers.

Oliver West

Oliver joined the firm in 2017 and advises mostly financial institutions and corporate clients on derivatives, repos, and related matters. Oliver focusses in particular on rates, FX and commodities hedging and helping clients manage lifecycle and distress events, such as defaults and close-outs. Oliver also specialises in quantitative investment strategies (QIS) and proprietary index / benchmark matters.

Patrick Boylan

atrick is Head of the UK Dispute Resolution Group. A partner and solicitor advocate (All Higher Courts), Patrick is a commercial dispute resolution specialist with a particular focus on contentious competition matters, cross-border disputes, civil fraud cases and arbitration. Patrick specialises in advising clients in regulated industries including energy, life sciences, TMT and financial institutions.

Patrick Wallace

Patrick is an energy and infrastructure partner with thirty years of power, oil and gas and infrastructure experience. He regularly advises investment funds, developers, energy companies, governments and lenders. He acts on a wide range of transactions, covering project development and financing, joint ventures, private M&A, privatisations, commercial contracts and trading and regulatory work. He has a broad-ranging practice in the UK, Western Europe and in emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa and he speaks fluent English, French and German. Alongside a busy transactional practice, Patrick teaches electricity, oil and gas law as a Visiting Professor of law at King’s College London. Patrick’s power sector expertise includes thermal, nuclear, renewables and hydro generation, and also covers transmission, supply, distribution, emissions trading, battery storage and corporate PPAs. He was heavily involved in establishing the UK power market at privatisation and in its subsequent reform; and he has worked on many major power projects and acquisitions in the UK, mainland Europe, Africa and Asia since the early 1990s. These include Dabhol in India, Uch in Pakistan, Paiton 2 in Indonesia, Trakya in Turkey, Kribi in Cameroon and many major UK power deals including TXU, Midland Electricity, Teesside and Cottam DC. Patrick's oil and gas experience includes many major pipelines, such as the Nabucco gas pipeline and the Kenyan crude oil pipeline projects; LNG transactions, refineries, supply contracts, and oil and gas acquisitions. Patrick has also been involved in many large projects in the infrastructure, transport, public services, defence and other sectors, both internationally and under the UK’s private finance initiative and public private partnership programmes. He has also worked on a number of mining and water sector transactions.

Paul Browne

Paul is a partner in the capital markets group that is part of the financial markets department. Paul's experience is principally on advising major investment banks, in Europe and in Asia, on a wide variety of debt capital markets transactions, complex and innovative structured debt products, and all aspects of derivatives transactions (and in particular, credit and equity derivatives).

Peter Lockwood

Peter is a managing associate in the Employment group and is involved in both contentious and non-contentious employment law issues. Peter has worked on Employment Tribunal claims covering claims of unfair dismissal, whistleblowing, sex discrimination, sexual-orientation discrimination, race discrimination and TUPE on behalf of a number of large organisations. He also provides day to day employment law advice encompassing grievance and disciplinary investigations, regulatory queries and multijurisdictional employment projects.

Piers Summerfield

Piers is a debt capital markets specialist. He has particular expertise in equity-linked bonds, commercial paper and EMTN programmes. Piers is a partner in our Debt Capital Markets team in London. He advises banks, significant corporates and institutional investors on a wide range of international capital markets transactions. Piers thrives on advising on complex transactions, and he led the Simmons team that was awarded IFLR Europe’s Debt and Equity-Linked Deal of the Year Award for their work on Swiss Re’s innovative convertible bond. He is closely involved in regulatory developments and provides regular training to clients on developments such as the new EU Prospectus Regulation.

Raghav Ghai

Raghav is a Partner in the UK Corporate team. He has a broad practice covering private and public M&A with a particular focus on private markets transactions by a range of clients - listed and other large corporates (including financial institutions), a range of private funds and trading houses (including PE) and management. Raghav has advised on M&A in a variety of sectors, with particular interest in the technology, infrastructure and energy and financial sectors but also including real estate, telecoms, manufacturing and IP-reliant businesses. A core part of his practice involves providing counsel on the sale and acquisition (including carve-outs) of multi-jurisdictional businesses, cross-border joint ventures, regulated transactions and private fundraises. He also advises regularly on public company matters and related rules (such as the code and listing rules), with a focus on shareholder activism and governance issues.

Richard Dyton

Richard is a long-standing partner in our International Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure team and specialises in PPP/PFI concessions and non-contentious construction law in the UK and internationally, with a particular focus on the energy and infrastructure sectors. He has recently led the Simmons team on a major refinancing of Iona Capital's asset portfolio. He has been acting for the new wave of Energy from Waste transactions and continues to maintain his role for the Ministry of Defence on a number of projects including the most recent training packages for UKMFTS and advice on Cranfield University and the Defence Sixth Form College. He is also the firm’s Pro Bono Partner with responsibility for our pro bono work across all of our international offices and has been instrumental in establishing as a charity the organisation "Lawyers Against Poverty".

Richard Harvey

Richard is a supervising associate and solicitor advocate in our contentious tax team. He advises clients on a wide range of complex domestic and international tax disputes and investigations, including commercial claims with tax elements and public law claims such as judicial review. Richard achieves good outcomes for clients under enquiry from the tax authorities and in mediation. He also has extensive experience of cases before the Tax Tribunals and Higher Courts (including the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court). Richard works closely with his clients and Counsel teams to develop the right case strategy and then focuses hard on delivering a successful result.

Richard Hopkinson-Woolley

Hoppo has more than 20 years’ experience advising clients in relation to their involvement in real estate – whether it be investment (direct and indirect), development, funding, leasing etc across all sub-sectors of the market, including joint ventures. Hoppo is a partner in our Real Estate Group in London. His work often includes multi-disciplinary teams, given the financing, tax and structuring requirements of clients. He has advised on some of the largest pre-lets of offices in the City of London. Key clients include Oxford Properties, Tishman Speyer and funds advised by PGIM Real Estate. Hoppo also has over 10 years' experience of putting together complex transactions involving commercial ground leases, including ground-up development using ground lease investment as part of the capital stack.

Robert Turner

Robert is a contentious financial markets litigation specialist of over 25 years' experience and is recognised as one of the leading practitioners in the field. Over recent years Robert has become perhaps the most prominent and experienced contentious asset management specialist in the City. Robert’s practice includes: asset management disputes and regulatory investigations structured products and derivatives disputes contentious regulatory and investigations exchange based product and commodities disputes

Robert Allen

Robert is a partner in the Disputes & Investigations team He specialises in retail and consumer finance litigation, including investigations, general banking disputes and contentious regulatory matters. He has advised on a range of disputes and industry wide issues including consumer credit, mis-selling litigation and unfair terms. He has also acted in complex investment bank litigation and on major international regulatory investigations for retail and investment banks. In addition, Robert regularly advises clients on contentious data protection and privacy matters, and during the past year has been advising financial institutions, asset managers and telecoms clients in particular on data protection litigation, contentious subject access requests, the right to be forgotten, cyber-attack and data breach response and notification. He is a member of the firm’s Data Protection and Privacy group.

Rory Renshaw

Rory specialises in debt capital markets transactions. He advises on the full range of debt and equity-linked products and works with a broad range of clients in numerous jurisdictions. Rory’s clients include corporates, investment banks, funds, sovereigns and supranationals. He has extensive experience in MTN programmes, standalone bond issues, commercial paper, regulatory capital, private placements, liability management exercises and secured, convertible and corporate hybrid offerings. He also regularly advises corporate treasury teams in relation to their balance sheet management activities and disclosure obligations. He takes pride in delivering pragmatic and innovative solutions focused on the commercial objectives of the client.

Scott Parker

Scott specialises in contentious and non-contentious intellectual property generally, with a strong emphasis on patent litigation in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. He has considerable experience of defending the patents of research based pharmaceutical companies against attack by their generic competitors and coordinating with the legal teams in other jurisdictions. He has also advised on patent disputes in other industry sectors and in proceedings for design right infringement and misuse of confidential information. Scott is regularly instructed to give patent validity and infringement opinions and also advises clients on licensing and other commercial agreements.

Sean Bulmer

Sean is a partner in the capital markets group. He advises on securitised and OTC derivatives transactions as well as SPV structured finance transactions. He advises on a range of on and off balance sheet securitised derivatives including notes, warrants and certificates, as well as repackaging transactions and fiduciary note structures. The underlying references for which include equity, fund, and commodity derivatives and indices as well as physical assets as well as bonds and loans. He has established numerous issuance programmes (both consolidated and non-consolidated programmes). He advises on the retail offering of structured products across Europe, including asset backed securities and leads the firm’s international Retail Structured Products Group. He is also the co-chair of the firm’s China Growth Markets Group.

Simon Gardiner

Simon has considerable experience in all aspects of commercial real estate. This includes mixed use, residential, student accommodation, office and retail led development and mainstream investment work. The nature of his practice means that he regularly leads large multi-disciplinary transactions, often involving complex joint venture structures, forward funding arrangements, significant pre-lets and high value sales and purchases. He is an expert in housing led development, having worked for the leading stakeholders in this Sector throughout his career.

Simon Kenolty

Simon is a London based project development and finance lawyer who advises lenders, sponsors, financial investors, procuring authorities and contractors on a wide range of projects in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, covering the energy, water, infrastructure, oil and gas, and mining sectors. Within these sectors he advises in relation to project development, project financing, PPPs, project / concession agreements, production sharing agreements, power / water purchase agreements, other offtake agreements, EPC contracts and operations and maintenance contracts.

Sophie Sheldon

Sophie is a Partner in the Digital Business Group. Her clients are predominantly in the technology, telecoms, financial services and fintech industries and she advises them on a range of complex commercial and regulatory topics, including in relation to regulated outsourcings and data protection. She has spent time on secondment with a number of major financial institutions and works very closely with a number of significant financial technology providers. Sophie regularly acts both on the customer-side as well as on the service provider-side. The deep knowledge this gives her of how clients in the technology, telecoms, financial services and fintech industries operate enables her to provide current, practical and effective advice. As well as providing guidance on regulatory requirements in the outsourcing and operational resilience space, Sophie advises on crypto and blockchain issues, data issues and all types of commercial contracts in the IT and telecoms sectors. Sophie is the AI lead for the Financial Institutions Sector and also co-lead of the Buy, Build and Invest group which is a key pillar of Simmons Emerging Tech offering.

Stephanie Featherstone

Steph is a partner in the UK Corporate/M&A group. She provides corporate advice to companies and financial institutions on a wide range of issues including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate fundraisings and corporate reorganisations. She has significant experience in complex cross border M&A and joint ventures. Steph is a member of the firm's Accelerate Digital group, focused on guiding clients through digital transformation.

Steven Kaye

Steve is a Partner in the firm's dispute resolution department and specialises in complex construction disputes. Steve handles complex construction and engineering matters. He represents developers, contractors, engineers and architects in public and private projects, particularly in the infrastructure, power and commercial development sectors. Steve's practice has spanned across Europe and Asia for many years, and he is well versed in infrastructure disputes in Asia. Steve specialises in International Arbitration conducted under all major institutional rules and seats. He is also experienced in litigation in common and civil law jurisdictions, and adjudication. Steve is a member of the Society of Construction Law. He is regularly invited to speak at industry wide conferences.

Stuart Dutson

Stuart is the Global co-head of our international arbitration practice. Stuart has drafted complex choice of law clauses and multi-tier and multi-party arbitration and jurisdiction agreements for many transactions, including multi-million dollar M&A deals and international oil and gas projects in the Middle East, Nigeria, India and South America. Stuart has conducted arbitrations under both common law and civil law in England, mainland Europe (including Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic), the Middle East, Africa and Australia. He has acted for and against parties from the UK, mainland Europe, Central Europe, Asia, North and South America, Australia and Africa.

Tair Hussain

Tair specialises in employee incentives and has extensive experience of advising quoted and unquoted companies on a range of employee incentives issues including advising on tax, company law, corporate governance, and employment and regulatory issues as well as the employee incentives aspects of M&A transactions. Tair also has experience in devising and delivering schemes to ensure effective reward and retention by, for example, setting up or changing terms of share schemes including share option schemes, long-term incentive plans, bonus plans, and other bespoke tailored arrangements. Tair is a member of the firm's Accelerate Digital group, focused on guiding clients through digital transformation.

Tom Bowen

Tom is a managing associate in our Disputes & Investigations practice in London. He is a member of our Band 1 Criminal Law team and specialises in complex enforcement, regulatory and internal investigations into allegations of bribery & corruption, fraud, money laundering, financial and trade sanctions, export control and related matters. Tom regularly supports clients' in relation to the application of financial crime legislation and has particular expertise advising on the application of the UK sanctions regime. He has extensive experience advising in relation to investigations run by the UK Serious Fraud Office, the Police, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Financial Reporting Council, HMRC and the Insolvency Service. He also has broad experience of licencing processes with the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation, the Export Control Joint Unit and various international sanctions regulators. Tom has worked at Simmons & Simmons since 2015. During that time he has been seconded to Shell and to the High Court. He has an MBA in Legal Services.

Trevor Cosgrove

Trevor focuses his construction practice on the real estate and infrastructure sectors both in the United Kingdom and internationally. Trevor has extensive experience in all aspects of development and infrastructure projects including advising developers, corporate occupiers, including banks, other financial institutions, and multinational companies in relation to their headquarters requirements, as well as in relation to real estate and development financings. Trevor provides advice to clients in all sectors of the real estate market including residential (Build to rent), student accommodation (PBSA), office, out of town retail development, data centres and logistics and distribution centres. Trevor’s clients include developers, joint ventures, purchasers, tenants, landlords, and funders of office, residential, university, and retail space. He also represents private equity funds, fund managers, investors, and developers of residential and office portfolios. Trevor has advised on all major forms of construction procurement including traditional procurement, design and build, construction management and prime contracting using both standard and bespoke forms of building and EPC Contracts. Trevor also has significant experience in drafting and negotiating EPC, O&M and Long-Term Services Agreements in relation to the infrastructure, rail and government accommodation sectors. Trevor works closely with colleagues in each of the 4 main sectors of the firm providing non-contentious construction advice where required in relation to development agreements, agreements for lease, forward funding and facility agreements.

William Dunning

William is a supervising associate in the firm’s Disputes & Investigations group in London. He routinely advises major corporations on disputes across a range of sectors and on global AI regulatory compliance affairs. William is an expert in AI law and regulation and is ranked by Legal 500 as a Leading Associate for Artificial Intelligence, as well as being listed as a key lawyer for Commercial Litigation: Premium. William has written extensively on legal issues relating to AI, including contributing chapters to leading AI law books. He also speaks regularly on AI law at industry events and educational institutions. William is also a member of the firm’s Cross-Border Arbitration Group and has experience advising and representing clients in arbitration under the LCIA, ICC, HKIAC and UNCITRAL rules, as well as in various arbitration-related court applications. He is a member of the LCIA and a qualified Solicitor Advocate (Higher Rights Civil).

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