Simons Muirhead Burton

Simons Muirhead Burton

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Abdul Varachhia
Consultant Senior Lawyer focusing solely on Charity and Not for Profit Organisations. Wide breadth of experience in the Third Sector including a number of years in house for a large international charity as sole in house counsel and Company Secretary gaining considerable knowledge and experience of running a global charitable organisation and the many challenges faced by the sector. Advises charities at every level from large global organisations, local charities, community organisations and private family charitable trusts. Has also undertaken advocacy work for the sector before Government and regulatory bodies at both domestic and international level. With his mix of legal and operational experience in the sector, he is able to effectively advise on a broad range of issues and acts for many clients as their trusted advisor being called upon as a sounding board for Trustees, CEOs and Senior Executives. Committed and passionate about the work of his clients, he takes an interest in their work aiming to striking a careful balance between mitigating risk and facilitating their work to fulfil their mission in the advice he gives.
Andrew Farrugia
Andrew Farrugia
Senior Associate in the Dispute Resolution team. Andrew advises clients on commercial disputes, property disputes and regulatory issues. He acts for clients in a wide range of sectors including property, leisure, insurance, shipping and sports. His clients include insurance companies, property developers, hoteliers, ship owners, sporting talent and their agents.
Anthony Burton CBE
Anthony Burton CBE
Anthony Burton CBE is a partner and co-head of the Crime and Regulatory department.
Blaise Gaymer
Blaise Gaymer
Senior Associate in the Media and Corporate and Commercial departments at Simons Muirhead & Burton LLP. Blaise advises clients on a broad range of commercial issues in the media and entertainment sector, primarily surrounding the development, production, distribution and exploitation of all forms of content, including feature films and television programmes in traditional media and on digital media networks. Her clients include production companies, publishers, artists, talent agents and photographers. She has particular experience in advising on the sale and acquisition of companies in the media space and investment arrangements for new companies.
James Greenslade
James Greenslade
Senior Associate. Advising on all production, finance and distribution arrangements within the film and TV industries.
James WR Davies
James WR Davies
Partner.  With more than 25 years’ experience James specialises in all aspects of employment law.  He works closely with HR Directors and Managers as well as in house Counsel.  James also represents Executives and their interests.
Jane McDonagh
Jane McDonagh
Head of family law. Jane McDonagh has twenty five years’ experience in the field. She established the family department at Simons Muirhead & Burton in 2011 and has grown the group rapidly in size and reputation since then. Jane helps clients resolve many of the problems to occur after a relationship breakdown, whether arising from divorce or separation, involving financial arrangements or the issues over children. She also advises on and prepares pre-and post-nuptial agreements, and parenting agreements to include all forms of same-sex parenting arrangements. A large proportion of Jane’s cases have an international element and she has a great deal of experience acting for clients in multi-jurisdictional cases. Habitually she deals with cases of a complex and multi-faceted nature; cases involving intricate financial structures including trust corporations and assets held offshore. Jane’s client base is diverse. She acts for TV and media personalities, city workers, and other high net worth individuals. Jane is a family mediator and collaborative lawyer, and this training informs her approach to cases generally.
Lara WulWik
Lara WulWik
Lara is a highly experienced family lawyer and mediator. She joined Simons Muirhead & Burton as the youngest partner in the firm and has been an integral part of the success and growth of the family team. Lara specialises in all areas of family law, specifically complex high net worth divorces with international elements. She also has a wide range of experience dealing with private law children cases, including applications for child arrangement orders, leave to remove from the jurisdiction and specific issue orders. She is well known for her robust approach and ability to take hold of cases which have been ongoing for some time and turn them around to achieve successful outcomes for her clients. She has an excellent manner with clients. One client recently said the following about her: 'In what feels like an inhuman process, Lara is a rare human. Calm, reassuring, and consummately professional.' She is an experienced family mediator and is in the process of working towards her accreditation. She has been praised by clients for her 'thoroughness and empathy'. Lara was named a Rising Star in Spears Family Law Index 2015 and has been nominated for the last three years as Family Lawyer of the Year by CityWealth.
Louis Charalambous
Louis Charalambous
Partner and Head of Media Litigation. Recent major libel and privacy actions include Danny Simpson v MGN, PJS v Newsgroup Newspapers Limited and Andrew Mitchell MP v News Group Newspapers (’Plebgate’). He is a recognised specialist in crime related media work including libel, privacy, contempt and production orders. He also acts in political party and trade union election disputes. Other high profile clients include The Sun/Sun on Sunday, The Times/Sunday Times, Mirror/Sunday Mirror, Vice Media, Channel 4, BBC and other broadcasters. He also acts for online channels, production companies and high profile individuals.
Makbool Javaid
Makbool Javaid
Head of employment, team of 15 fee earners. Acts on behalf of a number of significant public and private sector organisations. He has particular expertise in the area of discrimination and in addition to considerable experience of defending complex and sensitive cases, he provides in-house training and coaching to senior managers/directors. He is an accredited CEDR Mediator, UN approved investigator/trainer and is on the Lexis Nexis Butterworths expert panel. Makbool also heads up the consulting arm of the firm which provides business strategy and human resources solutions.
Maninder Gill
Maninder Gill is the head of the firm’s Intellectual Property and Retail, Fashion & Franchising groups and his focus is on commercial, retail, media and intellectual property issues including franchising, branding and reputation management. He previously sat on the Board of Northern & Shell plc/Express Newspapers, the international publishing and broadcasting group and has extensive experience in developing strategies to deal with the media. He then joined the Board of international luxury fashion department store group Harvey Nichols, before joining the firm in 2010. He has been involved in numerous high profile cases including Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michael Douglas and OK! v Hello! Magazine and Associated Newspapers v Express Newspapers. Maninder represents many well-known brands in international franchising and licensing, developing international trade mark strategies, enforcing their IP rights and in protecting their reputations and brands. He has also advised clients and achieved successful outcomes in numerous disputes in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and on domain name disputes. With his unusual mix of legal, human resources and business experience he is able to effectively advise on a broad range of issues and acts for many clients as their trusted advisor.
Marc Sobol
Marc Sobol
Marc’s broadcasting and content distribution work encompasses media rights holders and distribution platforms. Deals include licencing agreements with Sky, BT Sports, BBC, Channel 4, AMC Networks and movie studios. He has recently advised a new television platform in Africa, completing over 40 channel agreements. Marc’s sports media practice draws on the rights sales and licencing advice he has provided to federations including the EFL, Premiership Rugby, European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR), the WBC and Major League Soccer. Recent work includes running an auction for EPCR’s media rights, and negotiating agreements with winning bidders BT Sport, Channel 4 and TV3. He has also advised talkSPORT, Guardian Media Group and new media platforms on the acquisition and exploitation of sports rights.
Martin Smith
Specialising in all aspects of landlord and tenant ,commercial and residential property law and transactions for plcs, corporate, charity, trust, estate and private clients, especially in the media, arts and leisure sectors. Large transactions last year included the purchase of a multi-million pound Docklands Site.
Natalie Wright
Partner specialising in M&A, corporate finance and restructurings, joint ventures, shareholder arrangements, LLP’s, share options and general commercial work.  Working with a diverse range of SME clients, Natalie has specialist industry knowledge in the retail and beauty sectors and music and fashion industries.
Peter Weiss
Peter Weiss
Partner and head of the corporate and commercial department. Advises start-ups, lenders and institutional clients, as well as family offices, owner operated businesses and those in the media and entertainment, fashion and retail industries; provides specialist strategic corporate and property finance advice, M&A and joint ventures and has specialist experience on advising on complex partnership issues (in particular LLPs). Chairs the firm’s Social Responsibility Group and works with a number of national and international charities. Acts as non-executive director for several Sport England subsidiaries including the National Sports Trust Council responsible for implementing the media campaign, This Girl Can. Peter is also a trustee of the International Centre for Social Franchising.
Phil Smith
Partner with over 25 years’ experience in high stakes criminal cases, often requiring sensitive handling and a strategic approach to crisis manage the potential reputational impact.
Razwana Akram
Razwana Akram
Partner - specialist in Finance and media, particularly film, TV and IP, some deals: advised Fred Berger (the producer of LA LA Land) on his latest film entitled “Teen Spirit.” She is one of Coutts’ external lawyers advising on finance matters. 
Richard Baskind
Richard Baskind
Partner and head of Music. Specialising in all aspects of music and related businesses including established artists and songwriters, independent record labels, publishing companies and key industry executives, also experienced in handling music and related rights catalogue deals both from a commercial and corporate perspective. Key clients include major record companies and some of the most prominent independent publishing companies in the UK as well as many of the key executives within the industry.
Simon Goldberg
Simon Goldberg
Partner and head of the commercial media practice, combining traditional film and television production and finance work, and general commercial work for media and publishing companies. Film and tv clients include Blumhouse, Fred Berger, Zig Zag Productions, Edge Investment, 42 M and P, Fresh Start Media and Acorn Productions which manages the Agatha Christie Literary Estate. Publishing clients include Dennis Publishing, LadBible, and Time Out Magazine. Recent work includes working on the film “Teen Spirit” for La La Land producer Fred Berger, various film and tv projects for 42 and acting for Fresh Start Media on various aspects of their deal with Sky.
Stephen Shotnes
Stephen Shotnes
Stephen is a leading practitioner in media and commercial litigation, and in sports litigation/regulatory matters. He is also recognised for his expertise in forensic and investigative work. Before entering the law, he gained a broad experience base as a journalist, a parliamentary researcher, and an editor. His previous experience equips him with a wider perspective on the role of legal issues within the larger context of commerce and public opinion. In the Legal 500 Stephen has been hailed as ‘one of the best forensic solicitors, with a great nose for a case’. He has also been noted for his tenacity and for being ‘sharp as a whip’. He has acted for a wide range of clients, including TV channels/ production companies, a Premier League football club, film finance companies/film makers, celebrities/celebrity management companies, US labor unions, national and local newspapers, book publishers and the government of a South Pacific state.
Tamara Ludlow
Tamara Ludlow
Partner. Employment law and related HR issues, primarily acting for employers; specialist in advising on business change including redundancies, restructuring, TUPE, implementing changes in terms and conditions and collective consultation and all employment law aspects of corporate transactions; undertakes litigation in the High Court, county court and Employment Tribunals on all employment type claims including bonus claims, post termination restriction injunctive applications and complex multi-strand discrimination claims and dismissals. Also advises board level executives, brokering remuneration and equity packages and in the strategic handling of exits and team moves in particular in mitigating restrictive covenants.
Tessa Bray
Tessa Bray
Tessa joined Simons Muirhead & Burton as a Senior Associate in September 2017 from Farrer & Co. Tessa advises on all issues arising from relationship and marital breakdown. She has been involved in a number of high profile cases and acts for a broad range of clients, many of whom work in the entertainment industry and others in the financial sector, medicine and farming. Tessa acts for a number of international clients and has a particular interest in Franco-Anglo cases. Tessa has worked on a great deal of Schedule 1 Children Act cases in the last year, acting for both domestic and international clients. Tessa also advises on private law children disputes, and has considerable experience in applications for leave to remove a child from the jurisdiction. Tessa regularly drafts complex pre- and post-nuptial agreements and cohabitation agreements. Tessa is a Resolution trained family mediator and a member of Resolution. She is an experienced mediator and is always keen to explore non-court options with her clients. Tessa’s clients praise her empathetic style and technical legal ability.

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