Tapestry Compliance

Bob has spent his career advising on the global aspects of employee incentive arrangements. His work has included plan rule drafting, communications materials, trust and hedging arrangements, nominee arrangements and all other legal aspects of incentive plans from initial design to post-vesting dealing arrangements. As a leading expert on global compliance for incentives, first at Linklaters, then in-house at Shell, he brings immense practical experience in dealing with the legal documents and global compliance issues from a business perspective. Since transitioning his shares in Tapestry to the Employee Ownership Trust, Bob continues to work closely with the team as a consultant (Partner equivalent) and remains widely-respected by the industry for his wealth of knowledge and commercial approach, particularly in unique markets that Tapestry operates in, such as Japan.

Chris is Legal Director (Partner equivalent) and is Tapestry’s “UK Counsel”, both internally and externally. Chris has over 20 years of experience working with top-ranked legal and incentives teams delivering UK and global plan design and implementation. Chris is widely-recognised for his substantial expertise in incentive matters for all types of businesses. He can draw upon a deep range of experience when providing practical and proactive, solution-driven advice on discretionary executive plans, corporate governance and remuneration disclosures, as well as advising on broader employment related tax issues. He also has significant expertise in dealing with Employee Benefit Trusts and private equity-owned businesses. Chris’s clients include London Stock Exchange Group, Entain and Sage, as well as Vertical Aerospace. Chris regularly presents at many industry events including those run by industry body ProShare sharing his expert knowledge with the market. He has also assisted ProShare with successfully lobbying HMRC and the government on various industry practical issues, including discussions around how the government’s recent tax changes will impact share plans affecting the wider workforce. Chris is a member of the Society of Visually Impaired Lawyers. Chris’s role as Tapestry Board Director for the Employee Ownership Trust gives him invaluable practical experience of structuring employee-focussed solutions, from within.

Emma is a Senior Associate who leads on a broad range of matters and has particular expertise in UK and global tax-advantaged plans. Emma advises some of Tapestry’s biggest clients on the establishment of employee share plans, plan rule drafting, and reviewing the legal and tax aspects of plan awards. Emma’s clients include Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Costa, Howdens and Hays Recruitment. As course lead, Emma heads up the development and management of Tapestry’s Certificate in Employee Share Plans Course and is responsible for all aspects of delivery, design and implementation of the course. The course is accredited by The Chartered Governance Institute (formerly the ICSA) and is the UK’s only professionally recognised qualification in the industry. Emma successfully took the course globally during the Covid pandemic. Emma repeated this format in 2022 and enjoyed the most successful course take-up ever.

Hannah is Legal Director (Partner equivalent) and advises many leading global companies on the implementation and operation of all forms of global executive and employee share and incentive plans, including the design and establishment of new plans, global compliance, managing grants and maturities under existing plans and on technical tax and legal matters. She also advises on the impact of corporate transactions that may affect a company's global incentive arrangements. In recent years Hannah has been instrumental in liaising with the UK’s tax authority (HMRC) regarding various important clearances which have enabled clients to deliver significant tax efficiencies. She is currently working with Rolls-Royce on a new application to HMRC. She leads on the work we do for clients such as The Coca Cola Company, Tesco, Rentokil and Schroders. Hannah has recently been appointed to the Practical Law Share Schemes & Incentives Consultation Board, which brings thought leadership to Practical Law's offering in this area. Hannah is closely involved in the Global Equity Organization (GEO). She holds fellowship status, which recognises her as an industry-leading professional, and serves on GEO's Board of Directors. Hannah is the Co-Chair of the Share Plan Lawyers’ Corporate and Regulatory Committee and leads a number of the Committee’s working groups, including leading the industry discussions with the FCA and HM Treasury on changes to the market abuse regulations in the UK, post-Brexit. Hannah sits on Tapestry’s Board of Directors under the Employee Ownership Trust structure.

Lorna is a Senior Associate with particular expertise in advising global companies and banks, and has experience in advising on all aspects of executive and employee incentive matters. This includes global and UK employee share plans and executive remuneration. Lorna has a broad corporate and commercial background and offers practical, commercial advice. Lorna leads on the work we do for a number of large global companies such as Rolls-Royce, Discovery, Dell, TripAdvisor, Volvo and Morgan Stanley, and is key to the clients in our US market in particular. Lorna regularly presents at many industry events and is a member of the ProShare Global Focus Group. She teaches annually on Tapestry’s Certificate in Employee Share Plans Course as well as managing the content for, and development of, Tapestry’s online leading global database OnTap, which contains legal and tax information in over 150 countries. Lorna also sits on the Board of Directors of Tapestry under the Employee Ownership Trust structure, using her wealth of experience for the benefit of the firm.

Matthew is a Managing Associate with broad experience in advising clients on all aspects of global incentive arrangements, with a particular focus on leading on our clients in the financial services sector. He advises a number of the world’s leading global banks, insurers and asset managers in relation to the structure of their incentive plans and their compliance with EU and global remuneration regulations, including Schroders, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, J O Hambro and Rothschild & Co. Matthew also advises multinational companies on their executive and all-employee incentive arrangements including new client Comcast, Experian and Weber. Matthew regularly presents at industry events in Europe and the US. His work in the financial services sector sees him regularly leading industry discussions in this area. Matthew also holds the roles of SPL Corporate and Regulatory Committee Co-Secretary and employee trustee director of the Employee Ownership Trust for Tapestry.

Paul is a Senior Associate and has a broad range of experience supporting listed and private businesses on their executive and all-employee incentive arrangements, both in the UK and internationally. He advises in relation to the design, implementation and operation of incentives taking into account tax, legal and governance requirements. He has in-depth experience of supporting fast growth tech companies in relation to their incentive arrangements, including as they prepare for a sale or IPO. He has also provided detailed and practical support to clients in their executive hiring / departure negotiations. Paul trained and qualified with international law firm Pinsent Masons before spending nearly 9 years working in the Reward practice of PwC. He was also on in-house secondment at a FTSE 100 company where he was involved in the roll-out, grant and vesting of share plan awards to a global employee population. Although a newer member of our team, he has already made his mark leading on clients such as Drax and working with other key clients including Credit Suisse and RELX.

Senior Associate

Sarah is a Senior Associate with 14 years of experience specialising in tax and share plans. Before joining Tapestry, she jointly headed the tax team at leading corporate firm Walker Morris. Sarah works with both UK and global clients on the implementation of UK and global incentive plans, and specialises in UK tax-advantaged share plans. She provides tax advice across a range of employment and corporate transactions and has particular experience in providing tax advice to management teams in the context of corporate transactions. Sarah’s clients include Future, Leisure Resorts, eToro and Curvalux. Sarah joined Tapestry with a wealth of tax experience, having been previously ranked in the regional Chambers guide. She has been expanding her expertise in global incentive plans, with an additional focus on the Japanese market.

Steve is a Managing Associate who advises companies on tax-qualified employee share plans as well as global executive plans, advising on global due diligence and securities filings, share plan design and drafting plan documents. He has particular expertise in dealing with UK tax-qualified plans and offshore trust arrangements as well as the technical, tax aspects of share plans. Steve concentrates much of his time developing the business in Japan and his key clients include Sega, Nissan, Toyota and Renesas. Steve has been instrumental in helping to expand the offering of a specific Japanese all-employee share purchase plan to employees outside of Japan. This is an important piece of work and we believe our client is the first Japanese company to offer this outside of Japan.

Suzannah is a Legal Director (Partner equivalent) at Tapestry. Suzannah has extensive experience advising UK and overseas companies on the introduction and ongoing operation of their share plans and other equity incentive arrangements, both at executive level and for the wider workforce. She supports companies in the design and implementation of plans to meet tax, legal and governance best practice requirements whilst maintaining focus on effective communication and alignment with commercial strategy. She works with companies to ensure compliant operation of plans both in a "business as usual" context as well as through any corporate actions. Suzannah’s clients include Morgan Stanley, Asda and Volvo. ITM Power is a new client for Tapestry, who followed Suzannah on her move to the firm. Suzannah has always been closely involved with Global Equity Organization (GEO), especially with their UK regional committees. She also continues to be actively involved with ProShare, contributing to their Focus Groups and recently assisting ProShare with lobbying the government on how tax-advantaged plans could be used during the current cost of living crisis. Suzannah was previously ranked in both Legal Directories before her move to EY, when client feedback described her as “simultaneously inquisitive, a deep thinker and pragmatic.”

Tom is an Associate who advises on the legal, regulatory and tax aspects of implementing and operating incentive plans for executives and employees around the world. This includes tax-advantaged arrangements, global plans, financial services remuneration regulations, corporate governance and reporting considerations. Tom works with a number of financial institutions and leads on the work we do for our flagship client Credit Suisse. Tom is fundamental to our global webinar programme, regularly presenting on technical and market updates, and teaches on Tapestry’s Certificate in Employee Share Plans Course.