Gateley Legal

Andrew heads up the Restructuring Advisory unit and specialises in advising upon corporate strategy and trading whilst under financial pressure, often during the twilight zone, and is predominantly based in the North West and London. This advice requires a solutions-driven approach with Andrew often accepting the lead advisor role to highlight transactional and corporate restructuring solutions. Andrew acts for private and public companies, financial institutions, funders and other stakeholders. He has recently represented our surety clients upon a number of very significant restructuring assignments. Andrew regularly advises Boards of Directors and other stakeholders upon directors' duties and trading issues. This experience can frequently lead to the formulation of transactional and other restructuring solutions, both solvent and insolvent. Andrew has worked with a range of household names and sectors in which he has experience include automotive, aerospace, retail, manufacturing, technology, care homes, real estate and professional services. Andrew often works closely with colleagues who specialise in providing solutions for pension deficits.

Andrew has a wealth of experience in the commercial real estate market, undertaking a full range of non-contentious real estate work. He advises on investment acquisitions and disposals, development, portfolio and asset management work and all aspects of commercial landlord and tenant work. Andrew acts for a variety of public and private companies nationally, acting principally in the last few years for investors/asset managers in the retail sector.

Andrew heads the national Planning team. He specialises in planning, highways, compulsory purchase & compensation and local government law and is an experienced public inquiry advocate. Andrew acts for an extensive range of clients including landowners, developers, housebuilders and retailers, as well as public sector bodies. He has experience of acting on all types of development, in and out of centre retail, employment, residential, roads, airports, stadia and tall buildings.

Andrew specialises in finance litigation, advising and representing financial institutions.  His expertise includes guarantee claims, security enforcement (including mortgage possession proceedings), injunctive relief, asset recovery, professional negligence claims, fraud claims and personal insolvency. He also acts for lenders in defending claims brought by customers. Andrew has significant advocacy and mediation experience.

Anjali is a professional support lawyer in the Commercial Dispute Resolution team. She is responsible for ensuring that our dispute resolution lawyers are kept up to date with legal developments and changes to civil procedure. Anjali delivers and coordinates the dispute resolution in-house training programme. She has experience in creating and delivering bespoke training courses and seminars.

Work for a variety of clients, primarily medium to large size companies. Provide a full range of employment work, both contentious and non contentious.

Becky advises trustees and employers of occupational pension schemes on all aspects of pensions law. She also works on numerous schemes to which Gateley's independent trustee company, Entrust Pension Limited, has been appointed as trustee.

Charles is Head of Gateley's Corporate Platform. He specialises in mergers & acquisitions in both the private and public company arenas. Charles has many years’ experience of a full range of corporate finance work. He has a master’s degree in law (from the College of William & Mary, Virginia, USA) and has been awarded the Corporate Finance Qualification by the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Chris became National Head of the Employment Unit in May 2019, having spent the previous two years as a member of our Operations Board. He has specialised in employment law since qualification in 1997. He advises on the full spectrum of employment issues and also has expertise in the regulatory framework applicable to employment agencies and businesses.  He has experience in sectors including recruitment, retail, leisure and travel, utilities and energy, financial services, health and the public sector.

Christopher has specialised in corporate work since qualification in 1983. He has wide experience of mergers & acquisitions, management buy-outs and buy-ins, reorganisations, shareholder disputes and providing wide ranging advice to boards of directors. He has extensive experience of work for property companies and for professional firms.

Christopher is a professional support lawyer and has specialised in employment law for over 20 years. He is responsible for ensuring that our employment lawyers are kept up to date with legal developments and changes to civil procedure. Christopher delivers and co-ordinates our employment in-house training programme and has experience in creating and delivering bespoke training courses and seminars. He writes legal updates and articles for external publications.

Chris acts on a full range of banking and corporate finance related matters including leverage and acquisition finance transactions, real estate finance, general corporate lending, asset-based lending and receivables financing.  Chris’ clients include private equity sponsors, corporate borrowers, banks and specialist debt funds.  He has acted and advised on a broad range of bilateral and syndicated financings for borrowers, lenders and other investors across a number of sectors, jurisdictions and asset classes.

Danielle is predominantly instructed by Insolvency Act officeholders but also advises UK local authorities, private equity houses, investors, foreign creditors and company directors on institutional civil financial fraud, asset stripping and tax avoidance including working alongside the criminal authorities where there is a civil/criminal overlap. She has solid cross-border experience and is heavily involved in the firm’s Russia and CIS litigation practice on claims where there is a route to bringing claims from those jurisdictions in the UK. She is now developing a crypto-asset recovery niche practice to assist both insolvency practitioners and victims of high value fraud aimed at investigating, tracing and recovering cryptocurrency and assets bought with fraudulently obtained crypto and she is a member of CAPAG.

Darren has experience in dealing with all aspects of commercial real estate work including real estate finance. He acts for a wide range of occupiers, developers, investors and banks on site acquisitions, disposals, day-to-day property management and real estate finance.

Emlyn is Gateley’s national head of the Construction & Surety unit. He deals with the full range of complex construction and surety work. This includes complex bond transactions, bond disputes and the security and recovery claims in addition to high value, complex disputes arising out of all the forms of major standard form construction and engineering contracts as well as professional negligence claims. Emlyn prosecutes litigation, arbitration and adjudication proceedings in conjunction with the strategic use of alternate dispute resolution (mediation, conciliation and expert determination).

Gareth has a wide range of experience in all aspects of commercial real estate work, and in particular development work. He acts for landowners, developers and local authorities in relation to large scale development and regeneration schemes.

Gary has over 30 years’ litigation experience in both real estate and commercial litigation. He deals with any real estate related disputes, in particular landlord and tenant disputes, and provides advice to clients on real estate transactions.  Gary has litigation experience at all levels of court up to and including the House of Lords. He also has expertise in alternative methods of dispute resolution and extra-judicial tribunals such as the First-tier Tribunal.

Gavin is a specialist restructuring lawyer. Consistent exposure to a wide range of projects, together with a secondment at a firm of accountants, has allowed Gavin to develop an informed but commercial approach to law and a greater understanding of clients’ needs. Gavin has significant experience advising insolvency practitioners and financial institutions on all legal matters arising from corporate and individual insolvencies.

Hannah advises insolvency practitioners, banks, turnaround professionals, directors, companies and creditors on all legal aspects of restructuring and insolvency including formal insolvency appointments, restructuring, security issues and disposals and acquisitions of businesses and assets out of administration. She has assisted on a number of high profile administrations including most recently, Patisserie Valerie and Jamie Oliver Restaurants.

Hayley specialises in non-contentious construction and surety matters. She acts for all development stakeholders from sureties, funders, developers, housebuilders, contractors, sub-contractors and consultants.  Hayley acts for various developers on a wide range of schemes including student accommodation, leisure and retail, healthcare and industrial facilities. She also acts for numerous funders and has a wealth of experience in carrying out large volume construction due diligence in short timescales. She has developed a particular niche in relation to sports stadia and training facility development and refurbishment having acted for several Premiership football clubs.

Heather provides advice and support to a number of clients working in wide ranging industries including insurance, retail, construction, professional services, recruitment and manufacturing.  Delivering support on issues which cover the full range of employment law, Heather is part of her client’s wider HR team advising on day-to-day workplace issues and larger restructure and litigious matters. Heather has significant experience in drafting, amending and negotiating contractual documentation and policies and in achieving results in the Employment Tribunal setting.

Holly specialises in contentious construction matters dealing most commonly with adjudications, High Court litigation and the mediation of construction, engineering and professional negligence disputes. She acts for and against employers, developers, contractors and sub-contractors in addition to construction professionals such as architects, surveyors or engineers. Holly also advises on bond wordings and disputes in relation to bonds, indemnities and guarantees. Holly enjoys Higher Rights of Audience before the Senior Courts of England and Wales. 

James commonly acts in complex breach of contract claims, shareholder disputes, contentious trust and probate matters, High Court employment actions, and professional negligence claims. James’ experience is based on work for public and private companies, professional associations, high net worth individuals, estate executors, and insolvency practitioners. He has significant experience of injunction applications and trial work, whilst his practice encompasses litigation in the County Court, High Court and the Court of Appeal, often with a cross-border element. He has successfully used mediation on many occasions as an alternative and cost-effective means of resolving disputes.

Janine advises businesses of varying sizes upon litigation and dispute resolution across a varied range of industry sectors and works with individuals, SMEs and listed companies but the emphasis is on owner managed businesses across the North West. Her main areas of experience are commercial contracts including: corporate litigation, breaches of trust/ fiduciary duty, professional negligence and contentious probate. Janine is an accredited mediator (both CEDR and ADR) and regularly mediates and resolves all types of commercial disputes.

Jo ensures that the banking lawyers are kept up to date with changes in law and market practice. She has experience in a wide variety of aspects of banking work including bilateral and syndicated facilities, security structures and intercreditor arrangements. She has worked for borrowers, institutional investors, private equity providers and social housing groups.Prior to working as a professional support lawyer, Jo gained extensive experience in coordinating and running acquisition and leveraged finance transactions and property and development finance transactions both within the UK and internationally. She is dual qualified in both England & Scotland and practices in England.

Jon specialises in high value urban regeneration projects, development schemes, investment transactions, complex site assembly and development funding for clients both in the public and private sectors including CPO anchored development schemes. He has particular experience in sports-led regeneration schemes, public sector funding and shopping centre developments.

Karen is a nationally recognised expert in surety law, specialising in advising on bond wordings and disputes in relation to performance bonds, indemnities and guarantees issued for construction projects. She advises on resolving construction disputes, commercial disputes and professional negligence cases. She also has particular expertise in advising on disputes arising in relation to nuclear decommissioning projects. She has worked internationally in cooperation with clients and lawyers overseas in relation to large bonded contracts, notably shipbuilding, factories and power plants.

Kate has a wealth of experience of private equity deals, such as management buy-out and development capital investments, as well as advising on mergers and acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and shareholder/member arrangements.

Katie has experience in dealing with all aspects of commercial property work including freehold and leasehold acquisitions and disposals and general landlord and tenant work.  Katie’s experience includes: drafting of leases; negotiation of leases; property acquisitions and disposals; lease renewal proceedings and general property portfolio management.  

Khurshid specialises in all aspects of corporate work advising private businesses, entrepreneurs and public companies on business sales, acquisitions, investments, takeovers, flotations, joint ventures, partnerships, funds and corporate governance. Sector experience includes manufacturing, telecommunications, IT, creative, digital & media, biotechnology, engineering, automotive, healthcare, retail, energy, financial services and real estate. Overseas transactional experience includes Europe, USA, India, China, Africa, Middle East and offshore tax havens.

Leigh advises on a range of corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital investments, joint ventures, corporate restructurings and general corporate governance matters. His experience includes advising listed companies, private companies, private equity houses, management teams and entrepreneurs.

Liz’s experience includes development work, investment acquisitions and disposals, particularly in the retail and industrial sectors, and all aspects of non-contentious landlord and tenant and estate management work. She has led teams of lawyers dealing with multiple property portfolio transactions. Recent successes include acting for Listerhills SSV Limited, the developer/joint venture company (owned by the Hayaat Group and Welbeck Land Limited), in connection with the £40m student accommodation village at Listerhills, Bradford, including all aspects of securing grant funding, led a team of lawyers acting for a Manchester-based investor on the acquisition of 77 former Kwik Save sites from Somerfield plc and dealing thereafter with the disposal of the portfolio, led a team of lawyers dealing with the property aspects of a proposed float for Focus Wickes Limited, and subsequently its financial restructuring and led a team dealing with all property aspects of the sale by Focus Wickes Limited of the Wickes group of companies to Travis Perkins.

Lorna specialises in all aspects of employment law. She acts for larger corporate clients, with sites and operations throughout the UK, in a range of sectors including utilities and energy, betting and gaming, health, retail and hospitality. She has an extensive litigation practice and acts in many complex, high value and multiday Employment Tribunal cases, in particular she has been involved in some high value whistleblowing and protective award disputes.

Louise specialises in the acquisition of immediate and strategic land for the UK’s foremost housebuilders. Her work focuses on site acquisition through land options, conditional contracts and promotion and collaboration agreements. Louise spent ten years post-qualification in private practice dealing with all areas of commercial property, advising a wide range of corporate retail, leisure, banking and investor clients on acquisitions and disposals and all aspects of landlord and tenant and estate management.

Mark specialises in all aspects of planning and compulsory purchase law and associated environmental and highways issues. His work involves complex statutory agreements, strategic planning advice, appeals, applications, development consent orders, scheme/site specific advice/opinions and High Court work.

Mary acts for property companies, developers and private individuals, undertaking a wide range of real estate work in the commercial real estate sector. She specialises in landlord and tenant transactions, acquisitions and disposals, estate management matters, secured lending and corporate support work.

Melanie is a specialist in employment law undertaking both contentious and non-contentious work for clients. Her caseload is largely respondent work and covers all types of claims including all areas of discrimination, transfers of undertakings and protected disclosures as well as injunction relief. She advises clients and negotiates in relation to the employment aspects of both share sales and business transfers and advises upon outsourcing contracts (both first generation and subsequent generation).

Michael is based in Manchester and works with the group to make sure clients get the best out of their people in the following areas:- People Management and Development- People and Business Change- Business Protection- Conflict ResolutionHe is a CEDR accredited mediator and has 30 years' experience of acting on behalf of mainly corporate clients in particular in the retail and leisure sector.

Nick has experience across a wide range of commercial matters for both corporate clients and high net worth individuals. Nick has acted for and advised clients in respect of contractual disputes, shareholder disputes, breach of warranty claims, commercial fraud matters, professional negligence claims and international litigation. Alongside a core commercial litigation caseload, Nick focuses on his niche specialisms: sports litigation and defamation / reputation management. Nick has acted for a wide range of sports clients including Premier League football clubs, a county championship cricket club, national sports governing bodies, world renowned players, managers and sports agents. Nick is the Independent Chairman of the United Kingdom Cheerleading Association as well as Honorary Legal Adviser to the North West Counties Squash League.

Nicola’s practice encompasses advising on a variety of commercial disputes for both corporate and individual clients. She has experience of all aspects of the litigation process from the pre-action stage through to trial, and has participated in a number of mediations and other forms of alternative dispute resolution.

Nigel specialises in all aspects of corporate work advising both public and private companies on acquisitions and disposals, corporate finance (including equity and debt issues) and corporate governance. With extensive experience of advising at a senior level in a variety of sectors, Nigel also has a broad experience of corporate and commercial transactions including shareholder arrangements, joint ventures and commercial contracts. His practice includes capital markets where he has advised many UK and international issuers on their flotations and primary and secondary fundraising, as well as acting for institutions including nominated advisers and brokers.

Patrick is a partner in the pensions team as well as a director and founder of Entrust, a leading professional pension trustee company. He has overseen Entrust develop into a global business helping inward investors in more than 20 countries worldwide manage legacy defined benefit scheme liability aspects of their UK operations. Patrick has helped to develop Entrust’s comprehensive services platform for businesses seeking to reduce the time and money spent looking after their defined benefit schemes. He has worked on sole trustee appointments and co-trustee cases, including as Chair of trustees. Patrick has succeeded in challenging negotiations, assisted employers to break free from outdated scheme structures and brought a leading industry wide scheme for over 200 employers to a successful conclusion.

Paul heads up the Gateley Private Equity group and has over 25 years of corporate transactional experience.  He leads a variety of M&A deals, specialising in private equity transactions, such as management buy-out/buy-in and development capital investments, as well as advising on mergers and acquisitions, disposals and joint ventures. Paul also advises on fund formation and constitution for a range of private and institutional investors and limited partners both in the UK and offshore, advising fund managers and limited partners in those structures.

Peter has vast experience acting for blue chip and public sector clients on commercial, IT and all service related matters, particularly in connection with supply contracts, logistics, outsourcing, systems procurement and regulatory issues including data protection and e-commerce.

Philip is a specialist in wills, trusts, tax law and estate planning and has been involved in planning against care fees for many years. He has lectured extensively on the subject and has appeared on television and in radio broadcasts, together with providing commentary in various publications. He has written and contributed to many books including: Tolleys Tax Planning for Post Death deeds of Variation, Tolleys Inheritance Tax, Tolleys Annual Tax Planning, and Tolleys Tax Havens.

Rachel provides a wide range of pensions legal advice to both employers and trustees of occupational pension schemes. She has worked on issues ranging from employers funding obligations under the Pensions Act 2004 to extensive drafting work consolidating schemes’ deeds and rules. Rachel is also a director of Entrust, a company which acts as trustee of ongoing and winding-up schemes.

Rachel acts for a wide range of developers, investors, occupiers and banks in respect of their acquisition, development and disposal of land, real estate finance and general real estate management issues. Her experience ranges from initial site diligence, drafting and negotiation of bespoke acquisition documents for schemes including large out of town retail parks and mixed use regeneration projects, site disposal, drafting and negotiating lease documentation (acting for both landlords and tenants).

Rebecca is a partner in the Corporate team with many years’ legal experience. She specialises in all corporate transactions such as mergers and acquisitions, disposals and joint ventures, and has particular expertise in private equity deals.  Rebecca acts for international and UK corporates, financial institutions, management teams and entrepreneurs.

Richard has a wealth of experience in tax matters and is a Chartered Tax Adviser. He advises on employee share incentive agreements, tax provisions in business and share sale agreements, venture capital investment reliefs, capital gains tax planning, reorganisations and real estate taxes including stamp duty land tax and VAT.

Rick has over 20 years of experience acting on banking and corporate finance related transactions. He has experience in a very broad range of work acting for financial institutions and for on shore and off shore borrowers of all sizes. Rick is regularly involved in complex structured finance, real estate development and investment finance, secured finance and restructuring related work. In addition, Rick also advises on bond and surety related financing.

Robert specialises in intellectual property law. His practice focuses primarily on handling IP and IT related disputes and their resolution. He has extensive experience of both conducting and defending actions involving the infringement of IP rights. He also has experience of handling claims for compensation and other remedies arising from the termination of commercial agency agreements.

Rod was appointed to the position of Chief Executive Officer on 1 May 2020.  He has been a key member of the Group’s Strategic Board since joining the business via our acquisition of the Manchester office of Halliwells LLP in 2010. Prior to his appointment as CEO, Rod was the Senior Office Partner of our Manchester office and led the Group’s national property services team. He has been involved in the successful integration of a number of the Group’s post IPO acquisitions. Rod has over 25 years experience as a real estate lawyer.  He has considerable experience in real estate investment acquisitions and disposals, estate management, development and landlord & tenant. Clients include off-shore investors, on-shore real estate companies and developers, real estate asset management companies, high net-worth individuals, retail and leisure operators and specialist providers of supported living accommodation.

Sarah specialises in commercial dispute resolution including contractual disputes; company, partnership and shareholder disputes and professional negligence. Sarah regularly acts for clients involved in disputes arising from mergers and acquisitions. She assists individual and corporate clients in a number of different business sectors, including developers, professional service providers, healthcare and sports - with a client base ranging from local and European owner-managed businesses to global corporations. Sarah is experienced in all methods of dispute resolution – litigation, arbitration, adjudication and alternative methods of conflict resolution such as mediation and in relation to cross-border litigation.

Sean is an expert in estate and succession planning.  He acts for high net worth individuals, ultra-high net worth individuals and not-for-profit organisations. He advises on complex, tax-efficient wills, the establishment and administration of high value trusts, estate administration and related matters. Sean acts as a professional Executor and Trustee. Sean advises business owners on succession planning, inheritance tax and wealth protection through wills, trusts and alternative structures. He has significant experience of administering high value trusts and estates.  Sean also acts for a number of charities and advises on the creation and administration of charities.

Sophie leads the team of professional support lawyers at Gateley Plc and also manages the firm's Information Resources team. As a Corporate PSL, it is Sophie's job to make sure that Gateley's lawyers and clients are kept up to date with new law and market practice in the dynamic world of corporate finance.Her role includes analysing new law and practice to advise how these could affect Gateley's clients and their transactions. She also identifies future developments, including innovations in legal technology, and designs novel processes to help Gateley deliver commercial legal services efficiently and effectively.  Sophie is an accomplished public speaker and effective trainer, regularly designing and delivering tailored sessions to Gateley Legal clients and contacts.

Stephen is a specialist employment lawyer, with an emphasis on contentious work such as unfair dismissal, redundancies, executive severance, employment relations issues, discrimination and employment tribunal litigation. Stephen also advises on industrial relations and trade union law. He is very experienced in employment tribunal litigation and undertakes advocacy for clients. He appears in all of the major tribunal centres throughout England and Wales, often for household name clients in high value cases. Stephen has also represented clients in the Employment Appeal Tribunal (in England and Scotland) and the Central Arbitration Committee.

Stephen advises trustees and employers of occupational pension schemes all aspects of pensions law as well as on their duties and responsibilities. His experience in this area includes advising on the interpretation of scheme documentation and overriding legislation. He also advises businesses on the pensions aspects arising from corporate transactions and restructurings. Stephen manages a number of occupational pension schemes to which Gateley’s independent trustee company acts as the corporate trustee. 

Stuart specialises in acting for debtors and for lending syndicates, banks, funds and other financial institutions in consensual and non-consensual restructurings, for investors in distressed acquisitions and for insolvency practitioners during pre-packaged and unplanned insolvency processes. He works predominantly in the North West and London. He advises on realising and maximising value in distressed situations, including consensual workouts and restructurings, whether these are delivered through distressed sales, enforcement, insolvency processes or distressed debt trading.

Stuart advises on a wide variety of pensions law issues. He works on numerous schemes to which Gateley’s independent trustee company, Entrust Pension Limited, has been appointed as trustee. His experience includes drafting pension scheme deeds and rules, advising employers and trustees of occupational pension schemes on the interpretation of scheme documentation and on the exercise of their duties, powers and discretions.

Tom specialises in commercial contracts, IT and intellectual property. His work covers a broad range of legal issues and types of agreement, but particular areas of focus include cloud-based / SaaS solutions, consumer contracts and regulatory issues such as data protection. Tom works with clients across a variety of sectors, from niche technology start-up firms to large multinationals and major national retail clients. He acts on high value and business critical commercial contracts and has also prepared many framework agreements and standard terms and conditions for clients, together with regularly advising on a whole range of “business as usual” legal issues and agreements.