Wedlake Bell LLP

Adam specialises in a wide range of property litigation including claims for breach of covenant and forfeiture, dilapidations, lease renewals, rent reviews and service charge disputes. He has a particular expertise in leasehold enfranchisement matters. He regularly undertakes possession claims, disputes relating to protected tenancies, boundary disputes, adverse possession litigation and claims relating to rights of way and other easements. Adam also deals with ToLATA disputes, nuisance claims and litigation relating to public houses.

Adam Grant

Adam partners with companies and senior leadership teams to ensure the effective day-to-day and strategic management of staff. This means understanding the business – delivering clear, concise and practical solutions and working to achieve commercial aims. His practice covers the full range of employment law including advising on complex disciplinary, performance and discrimination issues; project managing restructures, redundancies, contractual variations and boardroom matters; transactional support in particular TUPE and outsourcing; and dispute resolution starting from managing grievances all the way through to defending claims in the Employment Tribunal and High Court. Adam has considerable expertise in commercial projects, hospitality, trade associations, recruitment, later living and the arts. Adam also acts for senior executives and high net worth individuals. His focus is on helping them enter and exit the employment relationship in the most efficient and financially beneficial manner, including protecting bonuses and advising on the impact of post-employment restrictions.

Adam Lynch

Adam is a partner and head of our corporate practice. He has a broad range of experience and expertise advising on all aspects of corporate law, with a focus on domestic and cross-border M&A and corporate finance (including venture capital and private equity deals). Adam advises a variety of clients, including public companies listed on the London Stock Exchange’s main and AIM markets, private companies, partnerships, and entrepreneurs. His practice spans a number of industry sectors including hospitality and leisure, technology, corporate real estate, healthcare and financial services.

Andrew O'Keeffe

Andrew advises on a wide range of contentious trust and probate matters with particular expertise in disputes concerning the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, where he has acted for spouses, partners, both adult and minor children as well as dependants. He has also acted for and advised executors in relation to such claims. Andrew is regularly asked to advise on issues regarding the validity of Wills including issues relating to testamentary capacity, lack of knowledge and approval, undue influence, fraud as well as lack of due execution and revocation. He also has considerable experience in disputes relating to the administration of both trusts and estates where he has advised trustees, executors and beneficiaries on matters such as allegations of breach of trust, actions for an account and disclosure of trust documents. He has also acted in claims relating to the removal of personal representatives or trustees. Andrew also undertakes Court of Protection work and has a particular interest in the professional negligence side of contentious trust and probate matters.

Ann Stanyer

Ann is a partner in the Private Client team and an acknowledged expert in the field of financial abuse of older people. The second edition of Ann’s book on the subject has just been published. Her practice also covers a wide range of trust, probate and private wealth management work for both large, complex estates and settlements. She advises trustees on tax and estate management issues and provides advice on UK and foreign succession issues. She also regularly advises on Property and Affairs and Personal Welfare Lasting Powers of Attorney, the registration of Enduring Powers of Attorney, applications to the Office of Public Guardian and Court of Protection including tax planning and statutory will applications. Ann holds appointments for clients as attorney, and executor and trustee. She has also been appointed as Deputy by the Court of Protection and as an Independent Executor and Administrator by the Courts.

Anna Lewis

Anna specialises in the sale and purchase of all types of residential property, predominately within London. She also works on the granting and taking of leases and tenancy agreements. Anna is a member of the Leasehold Enfranchisement Group advising landlords and tenants on statutory lease extensions and collective enfranchisement. She has recently dealt with a number of “de-envelopments” following changes to inheritance tax and ATED legislation. This involves overseas companies that own high value properties being liquidated. On liquidation, the property is transferred to its beneficial owner(s).

Antoaneta Proctor

Antoaneta advises on international tax and evaluation of tax risk, cross-border succession, structuring for wealth preservation and family governance. She acts for (ultra) high-net worth individuals and their families (both UK and non-UK domiciled), entrepreneurs, family offices and trustees, typically with complex and multi-jurisdictional legal needs. Her practice is truly international, with clients coming from backgrounds as diverse as Europe, the US, Middle East, South Africa and Israel. She advises on onshore and offshore trust structuring, Family Investment Companies and the institutionalisation of family offices. A significant area of expertise for her is the preservation and nurturing of family wealth, through consultative assessments of the pressure lines and the creation of Family Constitutions. Antoaneta is the co-author of the UK best-selling book Generational Wealth: Why 90% of Families Fail to Establish a Lasting Legacy. Antoaneta is a skilled technician, focusing on tax advisory and tax regularisation work. She is frequently asked to carry out risk reviews of existing structures from a combined tax and asset protection perspective and assist with remedial work in relation to legacy issues. Antoaneta is also ideally placed to support trustees in developing checklists and protocols for managing institutional risk in connection with UK-related structures. Clients value Antoaneta’s sophisticated understanding of their needs and aspirations, and the ability to maintain both empathy and professionalism throughout.

Ben Dunbar

Ben deals with a broad mix of real estate work but with a focus on landlord and tenant matters for a variety of commercial clients including investors and business occupiers. He specialises in acting for corporate occupiers on acquisitions of new premises and disposals of former premises. He is particularly experienced in acting for companies in the insurance and finance industries in their office premises requirements in the City and throughout the country.

Brad Fearn

Brad has 20 years’ experience advising on construction and infrastructure projects in the UK and abroad. Brad has acted for Developers, Funders, Landlords, Tenants, Contractors and Consultants providing advice on contractual and project advisory issues across a number of sectors including commercial property, offices, mixed use developments, student accommodation, logistics, rail and healthcare. Brad has also provided specialist construction advice in respect of property, corporate and finance transactions and restructuring.

Camilla Wallace

Partner specialising in advising high-net-worth individuals, both UK and non-UK domiciliaries, on estate planning to mitigate the incidence of IHT and control the devolution of estates using lifetime gifts, trusts and tax-efficient wills. She also provides advice to clients on capital gains tax and income tax mitigation strategies. Camilla has experience of both offshore and onshore trust restructuring and of advising trustees on the day-to-day management of trusts. She also advises executors and beneficiaries on the administration of estates and trusts. Recent projects include advising Channel Islands trustees on an employee benefit trust following the introduction of the UK��s disguised remuneration rules; advising Greek and Russian domiciled individuals on pre-arrival tax mitigation strategies; advising executors on the administration of a £20m estate comprising both UK and non UK situated assets; advising Isle of Man trustees on the winding up of an offshore trust and UK taxation on distribution to UK resident and non-UK resident beneficiaries and advising a UK named couple on their inheritance and capital gains tax liabilities as regards an extensive property portfolio comprising a country estate, London real estate, furnished holiday accommodation and property in Spain. Camilla is a member of Wedlake Bell’s offshore group India team, and is named one of the country’s ‘Top 35 Under 35’ in ‘Private Client Practitioner’ magazine for three consecutive years (2009-11). She has been named as a ‘prominent figure’ in the Citywealth Leaders List every year since 2012. She was also named as a Rising Star in Tax Law by Reuters in 2013 & 2014.

Caroline Miller

Caroline leads the Private Client team which includes the On-shore, Off-shore and Disputes teams as well as a dedicated Arts & Luxury practice. Her contentious work includes dealing with disputes arising from either a Will or Trust as well as claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (“1975 Act claims”), Variation of Trust Applications, and the removal of personal representative applications. Caroline advises Executors, Trustees, beneficiaries and professionals on their duties, obligations and rights with regards to Wills and Trusts. In addition to this, Caroline also advises on a wide range of non-contentious private client matters, including wealth protection, estate planning, trust and estate administration, and the preparation of Lasting Powers of Attorney, as well as applications to the Court of Protection. Caroline acts as both trustee for her trust clients and executor for her deceased clients.

Charles Robinson

Charles is widely known for gas and electricity supply dispute resolution and advisory work and oversees a specialist team of experienced solicitors. He has over 20 years’ experience acting for suppliers including a majority of the Big Five. With deep industry knowledge Charles advises on late billing, shipperless supplies, multi-tenanted sites, split supplies, off-site metering, vacant and squatter sites, erroneous transfers, supplies to insolvent entities, mis-selling and broker disputes, fraudulent COTs, datalogger / SMART meter failures, late meter installations, meter accuracy disputes, disputed disconnections, multiplier errors, mis-estimation and industry charge challenges. He acts on disputed warrant applications and has obtained multi million pound recoveries for commodity theft. Charles’ team is experienced in working with suppliers in countering fraud including phoenixism, ‘creditor avoidance’ and commodity theft.

Charles Hicks

Partner specialising in trusts, probate, wills, capital taxation and wealth management for high-net-worth individuals for the past 40 years. He has assisted numerous families to resolve family disputes relating to trust, probate and inheritance matters, usually managing to engineer a satisfactory conclusion by agreement without expensive and protracted litigation. In the 90s he focused on the problems of Lloyd’s membership, particularly at the individual level, advising in excess of 1,000 clients over time and at action group level. He is now the firm’s COLP and COFA and focuses primarily on compliance and risk management matters.

Charley Lowe

Charley deals with all elements of residential conveyancing, including the acquisition, disposal and refinancing of both freehold and leasehold properties, together with non-contentious Landlord and Tenant matters, voluntary lease extensions and licenses. She acts on a wide variety of high value properties (with a particular focus on the Prime and Super Prime market) both in and out of London for a range of clients, including national and international corporate and individual clients, owner-occupiers, developers and investors as well as first time buyers. Charley also advises borrowers and lenders on property finance transactions and has experience working with leading high street lenders and private banks.

Choy Lau

Choy advises businesses and individuals on all aspects of employment law. Her clients cover a range of sectors including Legal Services, TMT, Health Services, Marketing, Manufacturing and Hospitality. She is valued by her clients for being a strategic thinker and creative problem solver, with the ability to distil complex legal concepts into plain English and offer clear achievable strategies. Her practice is a mix of contentious and non-contentious work, representing both Claimants and Respondents in the Employment Tribunal. She advises on a full range of employment law matters including, unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing, grievances and disciplinaries, redundancy, restructuring and recruitment, TUPE and works on employment aspects of corporate transactions.

Christopher Tite

Christopher represents corporate, entrepreneurial and UHNW clients from around the world. He helps them to create, grow and protect their business and private wealth. His work covers the full legal spectrum and is both advisory and transactional. It frequently involves the provision of general counsel and family office-style services. Christopher has a long-standing involvement with the ports sector in the UK and internationally. He is a non-executive director of The Bristol Port Company and a founder member of UK Port Advisers. He is the Consulting Editor to Halsbury’s Laws of England on Ports & Harbours and he was a member of the British Government’s former UKTI Ports Advisory Group. He has particular experience of corporate governance, gained from external board appointments and his trusteeships of several significant charitable and private trusts. He is a member of the Greenwich Hospital Advisory Board (a Crown foundation and the Royal Navy’s oldest charity) and was previously a trustee of the Fleet Air Arm Museum and the Tall Ships Youth Trust. Christopher is a Freeman of the City of London.

Claire Nelson

Claire regularly deals with the acquisition, disposal, funding and management of real estate assets within the UK often through complex and tax-driven multi-jurisdictional property structures, financing and tax mitigation arrangements. She specialises in investment, acting for a number of landlords with large portfolios on all their management needs. Conversely, on the corporate occupier side, she has built up a following of private equity companies and investment managers in dealing with their office moves. This allows her to see both sides of landlord and tenant transactions and enables her to cut through unnecessary arguments, saving time and money for clients. Claire has a reputation for ‘getting the deal done’ and tenaciously leads teams through transactions, advising in many sectors including offices and retail. She has a wide range of clients including high profile individuals, family offices, private and public companies and banks. She is also the Company Solicitor for the Carpenters’ Company, a City of London Livery Company.

Clive Weber

Clive advises on all aspects of UK pensions law drawing on over 45 years’ experience as a pensions’ lawyer. His expertise include acting for employers, trustees and members, including on restructuring of schemes, contingent asset arrangements (including for PPF purposes), dealing with the Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund, and with member complaints at scheme and Pensions Ombudsman levels, as well as advising on pension aspects of corporate transactions and on overseas transfers. In conjunction with our Private Client team, he also advises on pension death benefits and inter-generational wealth transfers.

Daniel Moore

Daniel is experienced in all types of property transactions. He specializes in commercial property, acting for landlords and tenants, lenders, insolvency practitioners, and developers. He is equally enthusiastic whether the matter is a multi-million-pound transaction or a more modest affair. Daniel can also advise on company and commercial law and has dealt with a wide variety of such matters, for example, company/business sales and purchases, restructuring and refinancing, shareholder/joint venture agreements and many more. Daniel always seeks to understand the business objectives of his clients and works closely with them to achieve this.

David De Maupeou

David acts for developers, landlords, tenants, and investors (be they listed property companies, high profile developers, business occupiers, entrepreneurs, overseas investors or corporates), who wish to acquire, develop, sell or manage commercial property. His particular expertise is in central London office space and acting on mixed use development schemes.

David Johnston

David has wide experience of acting for and managing client teams for funds, major property companies and developers including sales, purchases, lettings, refinancing, development and asset management advisory services. He has also been very active for foreign investors in the UK and charity sector asset management, development and regeneration portfolios. He also advises on the impact of the changing climate, both physical and political, on private and public sustainable initiatives. In particular, he has been advising on green development and leasing and the effects of the changing regulatory climate on the institutional real estate sector.

David Earl

David’s practice includes all areas of commercial property acting for investment funds and traditional property companies with an emphasis on development encompassing site assembly, pre-letting, pre-sale, financing, forward funding and disposal.

Edward Saunders

Edward practices in a wide variety of commercial disciplines including commercial litigation, insolvency, probate litigation, property litigation, anti-social behaviour and disrepair claims and proceeds of crime. His non-litigious expertise includes intellectual property, information technology, general contract drafting and business sales and acquisitions.

Edward Craft

Edward leads on the most complex and innovative transactions delivered at Wedlake Bell and provides technical leadership to both the team and the profession. Edward has sat on the Company Law Committee of The Law Society since 2013 and served as chair 2019-2022. In that role, Edward was responsible for the guidance to solicitors in conducting verification under the new register of overseas entities. The 2021 practice note and Q&A on electronic signatures in the context of COVID has proven a very valuable resource to practitioners. Edward has a long-established practice focussed on governance and transparency, including PSC, ROE and TRS. Edward has twice been the author of the Corporate Governance Code issued by The Quoted Companies Alliance, which is used by the vast majority of companies on AIM.

Edward Starling

Ed conducts a variety of contentious and non-contentious insolvency and restructuring matters, and wider business critical litigation. He acts on behalf of lenders, liquidators, administrators, LPA receivers, trustees in bankruptcy, companies, purchasers of distressed assets, creditors and other stakeholders, shareholders, members of limited liability partnerships (LLPs) and directors. He specialises in bringing and defending claims brought by office holders including transactions at an under value, voidable preferences, wrongful and fraudulent trading, and breach of duty (including allegations of fraud and international asset tracing). He also has significant experience in civil fraud, dishonesty and misrepresentation proceedings and investigations, including the use of freezing and other targeted injunctions. Business critical litigation includes shareholder disputes, minority shareholder petitions, guarantee claims, professional negligence claims (valuers, solicitors, accountants, tax advisers), earnout / deferred consideration disputes, and contract/tortious disputes. Ed also acts as an independent Supervising Solicitor overseeing search (and seizure) orders obtained in civil proceedings.

Eleanor Metcalf

Eleanor advises on estate and tax-planning for UK and non-UK domiciled individuals, trusts and trustees and landed estates. She also advises charities and charity trustees on all aspects of charity law and trust law, including taxation, tax efficient charitable giving and trading. Eleanor advises on tax efficient methods of holding and passing down wealth to the next generations through the drafting of Wills and family trusts, advising on and involved in the day-to-day administration of varied types of assets and holding structures, restructuring as and where necessary to ensure wealth protection and the mitigation of taxation.

Emilia Petrossian

Emilia is a UK Chartered Trade Mark and Design Attorney with expertise in trade mark and design portfolio management including clearance searches, advising on worldwide filing strategies and the prosecution of UK, European Union and International trade mark applications through to registration, including opposition and cancellation proceedings. Emilia has a proactive approach and likes to ‘think outside the box’, resulting in a ‘can do’ attitude that clients appreciate. Emilia acts on behalf of clients in a broad range of industries including cosmetic, beauty, entertainment, finance, insurance, accounting and telecommunications.

Emma Loveday

Emma’s practice involves all elements of private client work. She advises both UK and non-UK domiciled clients on tax matters generally and has extensive experience in advising trustees and beneficiaries on all trust matters, both UK and offshore, and related issues. Emma deals with Wills, succession, trust formation and tax planning associated with probate and will trusts. She also advises in relation to UK tax planning and mitigation for individuals and trustees. Emma has considerable experience of coordinating international tax planning and structuring inward investment for individuals and trustees. She also advises US individuals and beneficiaries on their UK tax affairs, dealing with UK wills and setting up trusts, working in co-ordination with US advisers. She also advises on charity law.

Frances Coulson

Frances undertakes most areas of personal and corporate insolvency, specialising in contentious insolvency especially cases involving fraud, as well as provisional liquidations and injunctive work generally. She is a long serving member of the London Solicitors’ Litigation Association Panel of Supervising Solicitors with extensive experience of executing and supervising search orders and bankruptcy warrants. She was Head of Insolvency and Litigation at Moon Beever where she ran a substantial team of insolvency and litigation specialists and was a member of the disciplinary and admissions committees, then Chairman of the Appeal Committee at ACCA for ten years with good regulatory experience during and since that service. She is a member of Insol Europe (Council Member) and of Insol International, and the IBA. Frances is a regular speaker in the UK and abroad on insolvency, litigation and anti-fraud issues, and practice management. Frances was recently made an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management. Frances has also managed significant debt contracts for the public and private sectors over the last 3 decades.

Glenn Chidgey

Glenn specialises in commercial litigation and Insolvency. He is regularly involved in litigation ranging from breach of contract claims, shareholder disputes and professional negligence claims. His practice covers general commercial litigation in both the High Court and County Court. Glenn also conducts a variety of contentious and non-contentious insolvency matters. He acts on behalf of lenders, liquidators, administrators, LPA receivers, trustees in bankruptcy, companies, creditors and other stakeholders. He specialises in bringing and defending claims brought by office holders including transactions at an under value, voidable preferences, wrongful and fraudulent trading.

Grainne McCourt

Grainne’s practice covers all areas of commercial property including acting for retail tenants, property development and financing, acting for institutional, corporate and private investors dealing with the acquisition and disposal of both single properties and portfolios. Grainne also has experience of property aspects of corporate transactions.

Hilary Platt

Hilary is head of the finance team and specialises in asset and acquisition finance. She has acted for financial institutions and corporate borrowers on a wide range of syndicated and bilateral financings often involving cross-border elements. The primary focus of her practice since joining Wedlake Bell has been on property financing (for both investment and development purposes and acquisition financing). She also has considerable experience of borrowing base facilities, having acted for various oil and gas exploration companies on numerous financings.

Ivan Fitzherbert

Since 1986 Ivan was Head of Property at Stitt & Co prior to the merger with Wedlake Bell. His expertise is in Property development transactions (acquisitions and disposals). Ivan has advised on the acquisitions (including strategy and advice given throughout the development stages) of residential, mixed use and commercial properties, often conditional upon planning and with overage provisions. Ivan also deals with option agreements, joint ventures and disposals of affordable housing.

James Newcome

James advises on all aspects of pensions law advice for a range of trustee and employer clients. James advises both trustees and employers of defined benefit and defined contribution schemes on a range of issues including closure to future accrual, automatic enrolment, benefit redesign, scheme mergers, as well as liability management and restructuring of pension arrangements (buy-ins, buy-outs and bulk transfers to master trusts). James also has experience in drafting all forms of scheme documentation.

James Latham

James practices in the Insolvency & Business Recovery and Commercial Litigation Departments. He also undertakes property litigation, which is often insolvency related. He is a member of the Insolvency Lawyers Association and a full Member of R3.

Jemma Pugh

Jemma advises on a wide range of employment law and HR issues, acting for both companies and individuals. She is experienced in contentious matters and regularly deals with all types of claims brought in both the Employment Tribunal and the civil courts. She also regularly assists with dispute resolution within the workplace to manage issues before they become claims. Jemma provides advice on a variety of non-contentious matters, from general day-to-day workplace issues – such as sickness absence, performance management, disciplinary issues and grievances – to large-scale redundancies and restructures. Jemma often drafts employment contracts, service agreements, consultancy agreements and staff handbooks. She manages the employment aspects of corporate and property transactions and is very experienced in negotiating exit packages and settlement agreements, both from an employer and employee perspective. Jemma regularly writes for various HR publications, commenting on changes in the employment law world or providing practical guidance on how to deal with issues that may arise in the workplace.

Jennifer Ball

Jennifer advises on a broad range of family law matters, including divorce and subsequent financial remedy proceedings, with a particular focus on private law children matters. Jennifer has experience of dealing with cases with an international element and jurisdictional issues, involving high net worth individuals.

Jenny Cutts

Jenny is a specialist Private Client lawyer providing advice on wealth protection strategies during lifetime and on death through Will drafting, the creation of trusts and advising on lifetime giving. Jenny works for a wide range of clients from families with inherited wealth to entrepreneurs. She also advises those in their twilight years on managing money down the family line and on issues concerning mental capacity including the preparation of Lasting Powers of Attorney and Court of Protection work. Jenny acts as an executor for her deceased clients and as a trustee for family trusts.

Jonathan Hibberts

Jonathan has a wide range of experience in dealing with litigation: alongside general commercial disputes, he specialises in property litigation, development and professional negligence disputes. He also provides strategic advice on transactions and developments, and is known for providing innovative solutions. He has acted for both landlords, tenants, and developers, including dealing with lease renewals, disrepair, and termination disputes. Jonathan has also acted in a variety of general commercial disputes, including acting against financial institutions. His professional negligence experience includes negligent surveys and legal advice, including environmental contamination. Jonathan also has a significant amount of experience in working with charities and religious organisations.

Jonathan Paul Cornthwaite

Jonathan specialises in intellectual property law including copyright, trade marks, databases, designs, domain names and confidential information; information technology law, including the licensing of software; commercial law including e-commerce law; data protection law and UK and EU competition law, including in particular anti-competitive agreements and abuses of dominance.

Julia Jackson

Julia is an expert in UK Immigration and Nationality Law having practised in this field for more than two decades. She has a particular expertise in the Points Based Immigration System including Investors, Entrepreneurs and Sponsored Workers and has assisted multinational corporations, executives and private individuals to successfully secure and manage UK immigration status.

Julian Mathews

Julian's practice covers corporate, M&A, private equity, venture capital and related financings. Julian also brings significant international deal experience, having spent time in a couple of DLA Piper’s European offices. Julian would describe his practice as being focused on hospitality and leisure and upon private equity, especially in the Technology and FinTech sectors. In the hospitality and leisure sector, he has a strong focus on hotel and restaurant transactions, Julian has acted for a range of hotel owners and operators, from five-star prominent London brand hotels to budget operators.

Justin McGilloway

Justin advises a wide range of clients – employers (UK and international), trustees (including offshore), pension product providers and individuals – on all aspects of pensions law including the intricacies of pension scheme documentation, corporate transactions, Pension Regulator clearance, reorganising schemes and Pension Protection Fund negotiations, funding matters, closing schemes to future accrual and winding-up schemes. He also deals with pension scheme disputes with a particular interest in Pension Ombudsman complaints. Justin also specialises in employee benefits work and regularly provides advice on the structuring, implementation, maintenance and vesting of management and employee incentive arrangements to both UK and overseas companies. For the last decade or so he has been involved in unwinding historic Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) arrangements and negotiating settlements with HMRC.

Justin Lewis-Vivas

Justin acts for landlords, tenants and investors including acquiring, developing and selling commercial properties and development portfolios. His particular expertise is in the airline sector and central London office space.

Kamalprit Lally

Kam’s practice focuses on advising issuers, nomads and brokers on initial and secondary fundraisings, private placings and capital markets work as well as domestic and international M&A, private equity, joint venture and corporate finance transactions.

Kate Johnson

Kate advises domestic and international clients on personal tax, trust, estate planning and succession issues. Her clients include individuals, trustees and charities often with multi-jurisdictional assets owned via complex offshore trust and corporate structures. Kate works closely with her clients and their advisors to mitigate tax and plan for the future. Kate advises clients on the use of lifetime gifts, tax-efficient Wills, trusts and charitable foundations. Kate has particular experience advising on exiting family businesses, charity formation, onshore and offshore tax planning and trust structuring, and planning for moving to or returning to the UK. Kate frequently advises clients with charitable interests or valuable art collections.

Laurence Rogers

Laurence predominantly focuses on real estate finance and additionally cover acquisition and leveraged finance. He acts for lenders and borrowers (both on traditional financing and Islamic financing) covering all aspects of the capital stack (senior, mezzanine, preferred equity) and all asset classes including office, residential, logistics, student accommodation, hotels and self-storage. His practice is UK and overseas including the more complex multi-jurisdictional cross-border deals. Clients will often come to him to help source potential buyers or lenders for deals or for introductions to particular players in the market.

Leah Freeman

Leah is a Partner in the property team. She advises on all aspects of commercial property but has particular expertise in institutional investment, mixed use development and retail. Leah acts for property developers involving acquisitions, advice in connection with planning and other statutory agreements, negotiating agreements for lease and forward sale agreements and financing. She also acts for institutional investors on acquisitions and sales (single sites and portfolios), development work and the associated management work and retail occupiers on sales and advising on any associated fit out requirements.

Louise Gowman

Louise’s emphasis is on the consenting, development and financing of infrastructure projects. A real estate lawyer by background, she has particularly focused on the ports industry for over 20 years, and during that time has advised ports on projects, financings, development control, marine licensing, statutory orders and public inquiries, harbour regulation, commercial agreements and the management of port estates. Her infrastructure focus also includes renewables projects, from wind farm developments to energy from waste facilities. Her clients typically come from the entrepreneurial/family business sector and look to Louise for advice across a wide range of issues facing them. Louise is a founder member of UK Port Advisers, specialist port consultants and advisers focused on the port industry in the UK and worldwide and comprising operations, business, finance, environmental, public affairs and legal specialists, which delivers a wide range of services to ports and their investors, as well as government and port users.

Malcolm Macfarlane

Malcolm is a consultant and has worked as a solicitor in the City of London for over 30 years and has extensive experience in a broad range of commercial property work including the acquisition, development and management of office blocks, shopping centres, industrial estates, residential developments and pubs and hotels, acting for office retail industrial and pub occupiers, funding agreements, rent sharing agreements and joint venture agreements, VAT and capital allowances and lease advisory including lease renewals, rent review repair and service charge disputes. He has particular expertise in handling development projects, large investment sales and the acquisition and disposal of pubs and hotels and the businesses run therein. Malcolm has acted for a wide range of clients from institutional investors and public property companies to private investors and developers and business occupiers. Recent experience includes:Acting for a central London developer in relation to the acquisition of a new development site in the City of London, the subsequent letting of the new building and sale to a foreign investor for £140m.Acting for a PLC brewer in relation to the acquisition of various portfolios of pubs and hotels ranging from £10m to £82m. Acting for a private investor in relation to a joint venture with a housebuilder regarding a mixed use development of a large site in outer London with a total investment value in excess of £200m. Acting for a Danish wealth fund in relation to the acquisition, development and letting of two large office blocks in central London value in excess of £100m. Acting for a global toymaker on their flagship store in the West End of London.

Marc Leyshon

Marc has experience in a wide range of real estate matters including advising on landlord and tenant work, sales and acquisitions and property elements of finance transactions acting for both borrowers and lenders. He has a good knowledge of distressed property work, in particular acting for lenders and receivers on the sales of both commercial and residential properties. Marc’s clients include institutional landlords, family offices, major lenders and corporates. He also acts for developers with a focus on acquiring sites for development using conditional contracts or options and often involving overage provisions and staged completions. Marc has the experience to add value for his clients in liaising with our construction and planning teams to manage long term projects successfully.

Mark Tasker

Mark is a partner in our corporate practice. He has more than 30 years’ experience of advising clients on corporate transactional work in a variety of sectors including manufacturing, technology, financial services and the impact economy. His focus is advising on both cross-border and domestic private company transactions including M&A, venture capital and private equity deals. He also works extensively on corporate fundraising including equity capital markets work, in particular on AIM. Mark’s experience also includes handling joint ventures, shareholder agreements and group reorganisations and issues relating to shareholder disputes and share rights held by senior executives. Mark is valued by clients for being commercial and pragmatic, avoiding the usual “shades of grey” advice and for making firm recommendations.

Martin Arnold

Partner specialising in all aspects of corporate insolvency, both contentious and non-contentious. He acts for liquidators, administrators and receivers, banks and asset-based lenders, as well as advising companies on appropriate insolvency processes. Recent projects have involved advising on claims against directors and shadow directors and defending claims brought against directors, including Company Directors Disqualification Act proceedings; making claims in relation to all types of antecedent transactions; dealing with appointments of administrators, administrative receivers and liquidators in relation to a variety of insolvent organisations; and acting on the sale of businesses by insolvency practitioners. Martin has extensive experience of multi-jurisdictional contentious insolvency proceedings, including freezing and recovering assets in various jurisdictions, including the US, Europe and Africa. Other recent work has seen Martin advising on the structuring of corporate voluntary arrangements; disputing and challenging CVAs; and advising a number of organisations, including a foreign governmental agency, on ROT issues relating to the transfer of goods subject to ROT through several jurisdictions.

Martin Ackland

Martin’s experience covers offices, shops and industrial buildings, the retail and leisure sectors, hotels and catering, care homes and pharmaceutical buildings. He deals with a wide variety of transactional and management work, development projects, the property aspects of corporate acquisitions and fund raising. His clients include institutions with a traditional attitude to business and entrepreneurs who are uninhibited by convention. Martin represents investors, managers, traders, developers and occupiers and a number of overseas investors and professional clients. His current focus is with the development of care homes and institutional investors in the real estate market.

Matthew Mainstone

Matthew is a partner in our commercial property group, specialising in planning law. He advises developers, landowners and investors on a wide range of planning and highways law matters, predominantly on mixed use, retail and residential development schemes, and property transactions. Matthew’s work includes negotiating planning agreements (including some complex affordable housing and viability provisions), highways agreements and licences, advising on planning applications and environmental impact assessment, planning appeals and judicial review. He also advises on all aspects of compulsory purchase law.

Matthew Braithwaite

Matt advises a wide range of UK and international clients, from individuals, families, trustees, beneficiaries and family offices on a wide range of private client issues, including UK tax, estate and succession planning. Matt acts for high net worth individuals and families including business owners, professional executives and entrepreneurs. Matt advises on the establishment and use of trusts and other wealth holding structures, and also on the succession of family trusts and businesses and governance issues. He also advises on Wills and wider estate and succession planning issues.

Michael Gardner

Michael advises clients in relation to disputes involving commercial, contractual, reputation management, IT and in particular, intellectual property matters. This includes trade marks, passing off, copyright, databases, designs, patents, confidential information and disputes involving all forms of business and IT contracts. In the reputation management space, he advises on defamation and privacy issues. Michael is experienced in all forms of IP dispute resolution including litigation in the High Court and IPEC including the obtaining of urgent injunctive relief. His practice includes anti-counterfeiting work (including in the online space) and advising on parallel imports. He also advises on brand protection and reputation management generally and conducts trade mark prosecution work and domain name dispute resolution.

Michael Ridsdale

Michael advises on all aspects of UK and international taxation affecting businesses situated both in the UK and overseas. He is frequently asked to advise on the structuring of real estate transactions and has extensive experience advising both buyers and sellers on M&A and real estate-related transactions, ranging from FTSE 30 companies to family-owned companies. He also advises owners of all types of property interests be that UK and non-UK resident individuals, companies or partnerships, as wells as offshore and UK trustees on their underlying interests in land be that investment or trading, such as landed estates. Michael has a particular expertise in indirect tax and regularly advises on the VAT and SDLT implications of a range of transactions. In addition to his advisory practice, Michael is very experienced at handling enquiries and investigations made by, and appeals against, HM Revenue & Customs.

Natalie Pilagos

Natalie specialises in advising on disputes in relation to a wide range of construction projects including energy, manufacturing, retail, offices, hotels, infrastructure, student accommodation, stadia and commercial/private residential development. She is experienced in all forms of dispute resolution including adjudication, mediation, arbitration and litigation in the Technology and Construction Court. Clients she has advised include end users, developers, contractors, consultants, local authorities, SPVs, private clients and investment companies/funders. She proactively works closely with her transactional colleagues and clients to anticipate issues before they arise and prevent disputes from escalating. In addition to her contentious experience, Natalie also has previously gained many years of valuable non-contentious construction experience. She has previously been involved in reviewing, drafting and negotiating a wide range of construction documents including development agreements, project agreements, building contracts, operation and maintenance agreements, parent company guarantees, bonds, consultant appointments, interface agreements and collateral warranties. This experience bolsters her skills as a contentious construction lawyer by providing her with in depth working knowledge of a wide range of documentation related to construction projects.

Natasha Kurth

Natasha advises on a variety of family law matters with a focus on resolving the financial issues arising on divorce. Natasha has extensive experience in dealing with cases involving jurisdictional issues, complex corporate structures, inherited wealth and assets held in trust and/or outside the jurisdiction. She also has experience advising on pre-nuptial agreements and in relation to Schedule 1 proceedings. Whilst Natasha advises clients in respect of contested proceedings, she is also involved with many cases which are dealt with more consensually and which may merit alternative forms of dispute resolution.

Nick Stone

Nick is a partner in the Residential Property team and over recent years he has developed a reputation as being one of the leading lawyers in prime central London within his field of expertise. Nick has a large portfolio of clients and business introducers based not only in the UK but worldwide. Notably this includes travelling to Singapore with a particular focus on creating long term opportunities and business relationships.

Oliver Embley

Oliver specialises in tax planning for high net worth UK domiciled and resident individuals with particular expertise in planning with residential property. He advises on Inheritance Tax, Capital Gains Tax, preparing Wills and administering high value and complex estates. Oliver’s practice also covers contentious trusts and probate work including bringing and defending claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (”the ’75 Act”), mental capacity claims, and claims for and against trustees. Oliver is listed in the Citywealth Future Leaders List and was named Citywealth’s Lawyer of the Year, Senior/Managing Associate in 2020. In 2021 Oliver was named a ‘next generation Partner’ by the Legal 500 and he won Partner of the Year at the Citywealth Future Leaders Awards (Silver).

Paul Ashcroft

Paul is an associate specialising in all aspects of pensions and employee benefits legal advice for trustee, employer and private clients. Paul advises a wide range of pension scheme trustee boards and sponsoring employers on all aspects of UK defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes including auto-enrolment, closure to accrual, equalisation, GMPs, member communications, pension sharing, scheme transfers, scheme wind-ups, TUPE and all other pensions matters. Paul is recognised as the ‘go to’ member of the team for drafting all forms of pension scheme documentation from amendment deeds and resolutions to appointment and removal deeds. Paul also specialises in employee benefits work with a particular focus on drafting scheme documentation for employee incentive arrangements to both UK and offshore arrangements.

Petra Warrington

Petra has considerable litigation and transactional experience in the art, cultural property and luxury markets, acting on behalf of a wide range of private clients, businesses and institutions. Petra’s non-contentious practice involves advising clients on buying, selling and lending art and luxury assets, drafting commercial agreements and terms and conditions of business. Her dispute resolution work often involves complex issues of title, history, provenance, attribution, authenticity and value of works of art and cultural property in an international context. Petra has practical experience of the art market, having held research, collection management and business roles at museums, galleries and auction houses in the United States and London before training as a lawyer. Petra has guest lectured at Christie’s Education, the London School of Economics and Political Science, Queen Mary’s Centre for Commercial Law Studies and the Institute of Art and Law. She has contributed to journals and publications, including Art Antiquity and Law, the IBA’s Art law: restrictions on the export of cultural property and artwork and The Art Law Review and regularly comments in the trade press on current art law issues.

Philip Matthews

Philip advises on all areas of commercial property work including acquisitions, disposals, lettings and development work. He also advises in relation to the financing of commercial property transactions in respect of both senior and mezzanine debt and forward funding. For many years he has taken fixed charge receivership appointments in respect of distressed property assets having been a founder member of NARA. In addition, he drafts joint venture documentation for property projects and asset management agreements.

Rachel Fitzgerald

Rachel specialises in a wide range of property disputes with an emphasis on commercial landlord and tenant disputes and real property disputes. She advises on a broad range of contentious commercial matters, acting for both landlords and tenants in respect of claims for dilapidations, forfeiture and breach of lease covenants. She is also experienced in providing strategic advice to her clients on business tenancy lease renewal matters, the exercise of break clauses, consents to assign or underlet, rent reviews, obtaining vacant possession and tenancy insolvency issues. Rachel has a particular interest in easement and restrictive covenant disputes.

Ravinder Mahal

Ravinder is an English qualified solicitor with over 20 years’ experience in UK and International employment law. He has specialised in international labour law for more than 15 years, and has a wealth of experience in managing labour law advice in over 50 jurisdictions worldwide, including more than 300 multi-jurisdictional projects from contract harmonisation through to advice on major M&A transactions. He is recognised for his employment law expertise by Chambers and Partners, Legal 500 and the Legal Experts directory.

Richard Saunders

Having practiced at the Bar, Richard joined Moon Beever in 2003 and worked in the Insolvency & Business Recovery Department. He has spent many years in dealing with contentious insolvency acting for clients from all the major firms and has built a reputation as a strong and tenacious litigator. He has particular experience and expertise in acting in large, complex multi-jurisdictional fraud matters not only in this country but also in numerous offshore jurisdictions. He frequently obtains freezing injunctions and search orders for clients and is a seasoned trial lawyer. He joined Wedlake Bell in July 2021 when the firms merged.

Rudy Capildeo

Rudy joined Wedlake Bell together with Tim Maxwell as joint Head of the Art & Luxury group. He advises a broad range of international clients ranging from private collectors, artists and galleries/dealers to museums, financial institutions and off-shore trustees on a variety of complex, commercial matters. He also has a strong client base who operate in the classic car, fine violin and fine wine worlds. His practice is predominantly non-contentious, and involves the purchase and sale of artworks and other high value collectibles, luxury asset financing, the protection of artists’ rights and the import and export of artworks, classic cars and other luxury assets. He also advises on the purchase and sale of yachts.

Sanjvee Shah

Sanjvee advises ultra high net worth / high net worth individuals and families on their global estate, succession and tax planning affairs. From a geographic perspective, Sanjvee’s practice is very diverse as it includes UK resident clients who may or may not be domiciled in the UK and international families originating from the Middle East, Europe, Africa or Asia, who are likely to have family members living and/or assets located in a number of countries. Many of Sanjvee’s clients also have US tax connections. Given the truly international nature of Sanjvee’s practice, she is regularly advising on and handling complex cross-border tax, succession and estate planning matters. This often includes obtaining and co-ordinating all of the cross-border aspects for clients, including the implementation of optimal cross-border solutions. Sanjvee has substantial expertise on wealth protection matters more generally and guides clients on how to protect the dilution of family wealth from non-tax risks such as sibling rivalry, family disputes, and divorce. Advice in this context often extends to succession planning including the creation of bespoke asset holding structures which provide secure and robust mechanisms to transfer family wealth from one generation to the next. Sanjvee advises professional trustees on a wide range of trust and wealth preservation aspects, UK tax, governance and succession planning issues. Sanjvee can also assist families who wish to create family offices or private investment offices in the UK. Sanjvee’s clients value her technical strength, sound judgement, ability to deal with delicate matters with empathy and a pragmatic and commercial approach.

Sarah Infante

Sarah is a trusted advisor to her clients and is experienced in all aspects of family law, including: divorce and separation, cohabitation disputes, financial claims, pre/post-nuptial agreements, Schedule 1 proceedings and private law children matters. She has particular expertise advising on high value financial claims. She regularly works on cases with trusts, corporate structures, inherited wealth and jurisdictional intricacies. Sarah’s extensive experience in private law children matters includes: disputes about childcare arrangements, schooling, the child’s name; internal and external relocations; Court of Protection proceedings; and international surrogacy. Sarah is well versed in ADR and typically seeks this route for her clients in the first instance.

Sarah Blunn

Sarah has been a real estate lawyer in the City of London for over 20 years and acts for investors and developers, landlords and tenants across the full property life cycle – acquiring, developing, selling and occupying commercial and development properties. She has particular expertise handling significant investment transactions and advising professional service firms, corporates, charities and retail occupiers on their property strategies.

Sarah Elliott

Sarah advises on a wide range of construction projects from inception to completion. Projects include new build and refurbishment of high end residential, office, retail, hotel, hospital and mixed use developments. She also advises on the construction elements of complex property transactions acting for landlords, tenants, purchasers or sellers. Sarah acts principally for developers, funders, property investors, consultants and specialist contractors. She has also advised employers, contractors, sub-contractors and consultants involved in adjudication, proceedings in the Technology and Construction Court and various forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), including mediation. Sarah provides commentary and articles for Lexis PSL in her capacity as Editorial Board member.

Stephen Callender

Stephen is a partner in our corporate practice and has extensive experience acting for clients in the technology sector, the construction materials sector, and the natural resources industry. Stephen’s main practice areas include UK capital markets (advising issuers, nomads, brokers and financial advisers on private placings, IPOs, secondary fundraises and dual listings) and M&A (acting for both public and private companies). Stephen also has considerable experience advising on equity investments, rights issues, joint ventures and corporate reorganisations.

Suzanne Reeves

Suzanne headed up the Construction team at Wedlake Bell until 2020 and has been instrumental in its growth to a current team of 10 lawyers. The practice covers all issues relating to construction projects including contract drafting, advice throughout a project and resolving disputes with emphasis in doing so, where possible without recourse to formal proceedings. She has acted for most sectors of the industry and in recent years has acted principally for developers, private healthcare, care homes and later/senior living providers. Suzanne has over 25 years’ experience in the construction industry involving a wide range of projects large and small, such as hospitals and care homes, residential, office and retail development, manufacturing plant, sports stadiums and infrastructure.

Suzanne Gill

Suzanne specialises in advising commercial property occupiers and investors, particularly office, retail and telecommunications premises. Her expertise includes advice to high net worth individuals on investment in and disposal of properties in the UK, both residential and commercial. She represents business occupiers on new premises and the structuring of existing property portfolios, and acts for occupiers and investors in the acquisition, management and disposal of properties. Suzanne also advises developers on complex site acquisitions.

Tamara Wakeford

Tamara advises UK and international clients involved in art and luxury asset disputes and commercial dealings. Her clients include art collectors, dealers and advisors; artists; trusts and foundations; major galleries; and high net-worth individuals. She has a Diploma in Art Law from the Institute of Art & Law.

Tim Maxwell

Tim blends commercial litigation, private wealth experience with a market leading specialism in art law and cultural property law. He has been separately recognised for his expertise in relation to other luxury assets such as collector cars and wine whilst also advising on matters involving musical instruments, jewellery and yachts. Tim is instructed by a wide spectrum of clients ranging from artists to government institutions. Tim has been involved in notable cases involving artists’ rights, street art & brands, insurance, art finance, auction house conduct, attribution & authenticity, provenance & title, export & import, fraud, fakes & forgeries, guarantees, restitution & recovery.

Tom Allfree

Tom’s practice covers all aspects of residential conveyancing, acting for UK and overseas individuals, estates, companies, banks and funds advising on disposals and acquisitions of freehold and leasehold properties as well as general landlord and tenant issues.

Victoria Mahon de Palacios

Victoria’s practice includes all aspects of private client work. She has expertise in Court of Protection and elderly client work to include advising on applications to the Court regarding deputyship appointments, mental capacity issues, powers of attorney and protection of assets for vulnerable beneficiaries. She advises individuals on methods of mitigating inheritance tax and capital gains tax through lifetime gifts, trusts and tax-efficient wills, together with advising on the administering of estates and trusts. Victoria also advises on the establishment of new charitable structures, charity mergers / variations and matters relating to the administration of charities. Victoria is named in the Citywealth Top 100 Private Client Lawyers list 2021 (particularly due to her work in the philanthropy sector) and was awarded Silver in Citywealth’s Lawyer of the Year, Senior/Managing Associate in 2020. She was previously named one of the country’s “Top 35 Under 35” private client advisers in eprivateclient magazine for 3 years.

William Granger

William advises on all aspects of employment, executive and LLP law. He has a particular focus on advice at the executive level of organisations and is noted for handling the more sensitive, complex, high profile or newsworthy issues. His clients encompass organisations, leaders, senior executives, boards, committees, teams, shareholders and investors – both within the UK and internationally. William operates across a breadth of sectors, including financial services, media, marketing, leisure and private wealth. William’s expertise includes: leadership support, crisis communications, whistleblowing, discrimination, unfair prejudice, team moves, investigations, boardroom disputes, incentives, relationship and change management problem solving and every kind of dispute resolution. William is often referred for his understanding of reputation protection, values, teamwork and the people aspects of transactions and governance. He is a qualified leadership coach (graduate of the Meyler Campbell Mastered Programme). He is editor of the XpertHR guide to whistleblowing.

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