Adam specialises in advising on a wide range of corporate deals, including acquisitions and disposals, reorganisations and joint ventures.He is also a member of the Private Equity team operating out of our Birmingham office and the corporate transactions he advises on often involve a private equity investor.
Alison specialises in acquisition, corporate and leveraged finance and acts for banks, funds and alternative lenders in their roles as senior (including unitranche), super senior RCF or mezzanine lender as well as private equity investors. Alison has particular expertise in acting both investor and lender side on sponsor-backed acquisitions, and advises on bilateral and syndicated finance transactions across a wide range of industries. Alison has spent some time in-house at Barclays Bank where she gained experience in project and infrastructure finance as well as general corporate lending, and was heavily involved in a bank-wide project to improve the setting and measurement of financial covenants. Alison also has experience in real estate finance and ABL transactions.
Amanda is experienced in debt recovery and asset finance, providing advice to financial institutions on recoveries, title disputes, satisfactory quality claims, fraud, personal guarantor claims, third-party applications, enforcements of judgment and unenforceability claims.
Amira handles both contentious and non-contentious construction matters, advising on a wide range of building and engineering disputes relating to payment, claims for variations, extensions of time, loss and expense and professional negligence. Amira acts for housebuilders, developers, funders and end user occupiers as well as on behalf of main contractors, consultants and specialist sub-contractors.
Andrew was responsible for creating the banking & finance team at Gateley and has overseen the development of a national team. Having started life as a corporate lawyer in private equity transactions, Andrew’s focus is advising on corporate and banking transactions; he is regularly involved in complex structured finance and corporate lending deals, including leveraged buy-outs, project finance and restructuring. Andrew’s clients include many of the leading banks and financial institutions operating in the UK, as well as private equity investors and corporate borrowers. Andrew is responsible for managing many of Gateley’s national bank panel appointments. He also advises on ABL transactions, cross-border and syndicated lending.
Andrew has many years’ experience in advising on mergers and acquisitions. He regularly acts for owner managers, private equity and trade across a wide variety of sectors in relation to complex acquisitions, disposals, private equity investments, reorganisations and joint ventures. As national head of the firm’s Transaction Support Services group, Andrew utilises his wealth of experience in leading specialist teams undertaking large scale legal due diligence and transaction support exercises.
Belinda specialises in residential development and regeneration sites, regularly advising national developers on land acquisition including conditional contracts, funding agreements, development agreements and building leases. Belinda also advises housebuilders on disposals to registered providers and local authorities. Belinda’s expertise is in acting for national housebuilders and for institutional and agricultural landowners. She has significant experience in strategic land, advising on option agreements and promotion agreements. She also has expertise in landowner collaboration agreements for strategic sites, advising on equalisation and land pooling arrangements.
Benedict is a trusted advisor on employment law matters to a range of blue chip clients. His contentious practice encompasses everything from high court restrictive covenant disputes to multi-party tribunal claims. Benedict is also frequently asked to advise on transactional projects, with a particular focus on TUPE transfers and change management programmes.
Callum is a leader in the fields of residential development, urban regeneration and urban extensions. He is also a Director of Gateley Plc and a member of the Gateley Group Strategic Board. Callum has specialised in acting for housebuilders, land promoters and landowners on large scale residential developments, regeneration schemes, urban extensions and residential-led mixed use schemes nationwide for over 25 years.
Carol is a recognised expert with over 20 years of experience in all forms of corporate and real estate finance, with particular specialisms in asset-based lending and real estate finance. She advises banks, asset-based lenders, investors and borrowers in relation to these funding structures.
Catriona leads the national Private Wealth & Family team at Gateley. She is a trusted legal and tax advisor, working closely with individuals and families to provide solutions to their high value and complex wealth planning and protection objectives. Catriona advises a range of clients and acts for families across the generations in planning for and preserving their wealth.
Chris predominantly acts for Midlands-based commercial property developers in respect of the acquisition, funding, development and disposal of land. He also advises on general real estate management issues. His experience ranges from initial site diligence, drafting and negotiation of acquisition documents for investment acquisitions and bespoke acquisition documents for land assembly for development schemes including commercial/ mixed use residential schemes, retail parks and industrial/ distribution hubs, site disposals, drafting and negotiating lease documentation (mainly acting for landlords).
Chris specialises in advising corporate occupiers in all aspects of landlord and tenant work. His key client’s include Goodyear and Formula One Auto Centres as well as a major high street and a number of businesses in the retail sector. Chris spent a number of years earlier in his career working in the in-house property team of NatWest bank dealing with the bank’s “business as usual” real estate requirements.
Chris acts for lenders and borrowers on a broad range of financing transactions. He has extensive experience and is highly knowledgeable in corporate/leveraged finance, real estate finance, asset-based lending and structured finance. His clients have included major UK and international banks, challenger banks and other alternative lenders, debt investment funds and private equity houses, together with corporate borrower clients in a wide variety of sectors and industries. Chris has significant asset finance experience, principally involving aviation and rail, where clients have included the Department for Transport, transport specialist banks, and owner-lessors and operating lessees of planes and rolling stock. Chris also has a strong working knowledge of restructuring, enforcement and insolvency matters. Chris studied Law at the University of Oxford, graduating in 2003. He qualified as a Solicitor in 2007 and spent the first eight years of his career with the London office of a “Magic Circle” law firm. This period included client secondments to the securitisation transaction execution team of a major international bank and to the in-house legal team of a rolling stock owner-lessor. More recently, Chris was a Partner with an award-winning regional law firm before joining Gateley Legal in January 2020.
Christian specialises on transactional construction matters but also advises clients regarding dispute avoidance and resolution. His clients include funders, developers, contractors, purchasers, tenants, sub-contractors and consultants.
Daniel is an expert insolvency and business restructuring advisor to insolvency practitioners, institutional lenders and major corporates. She has many years’ experience in the corporate restructuring and recovery market, with a particular interest in real estate issues arising within an insolvency context. He has experience in advising in many sectors such as property, manufacturing, retail, leisure and professional services.
Della is a Senior Associate who specialises in contentious and non-contentious infrastructure and construction matters. She acts for a variety of private and public sector clients including developers, funders and contractors across a range of sectors. Della assists clients with the resolution of disputes and has experience in a broad range of dispute resolution methods, including adjudication, litigation and arbitration. She drafts, negotiates and advises on a variety of project documents, including standard and bespoke building contracts, professional appointments, collateral warranties and bonds.
Fiona undertakes all aspects of insolvency and corporate recovery work with particular specialism in contentious matters. She has extensive experience of acting in contentious insolvency proceedings including cases involving allegations of fraud and breach of duty as well as the full range of office holders claims based on antecedent transactions and wrongful trading. She has acted for both office holders and former directors in bringing and defending claims.
Gemma acts for a wide range of asset finance and leasing companies as well as consumer finance and short term lenders. This is in addition to her significant experience of acting for bank, private equity investors and corporate borrowers in a range of sectors. Her areas of expertise include equipment leasing and asset finance (both regulated and non-regulated), commercial and consumer lending alongside regulatory consumer credit work.
Hannah is a professional support lawyer in the restructuring team. She ensures that the restructuring lawyers are kept up to date with changes in law and market practice. Hannah has experience in a wide variety of aspects of restructuring work both contentious and non-contentious. She has worked for insolvency practitioners, directors, banks and companies facing claims from insolvency practitioners.
Hannah specialises in estate and personal tax planning including will preparation, trust preparation and administration and estate administration. She also prepares Lasting Powers of Attorney and manages Court of Protection Deputyships.
Harriet has been appointed as the dedicated professional support lawyer for the residential development team. Her role is to ensure that the team is kept up to date with changes in the law and the housebuilding sector, as well as overseeing training and compliance with client requirements.
Helen is a Senior Associate in the Restructuring team at Gateley, based in Birmingham. She specialises in non-contentious insolvency transactional and advisory work.Helen regularly advises financial institutions, investors, companies/directors, insolvency practitioners and creditors on all aspects of security and its enforcement, restructuring, distressed acquisitions and disposals and formal insolvency processes.She completed a secondment to a major clearing Bank.
Helen is a Partner in the real estate team and acts for landowners, developers, investors and occupiers carrying out a wide range of freehold and leasehold real estate work. Helen specialises in complex large scale industrial and retail development projects, acting primarily for Midlands based developers. Recent transactions over the last twelve months include acting for Roxhill Developments Limited in connection with the land assembly and funding of a major industrial development and infrastructure project capable of delivering in excess of 3 million square feet of industrial space, on-going letting, disposal and funding work in connection with three existing industrial sites, and the negotiation of options, promotion agreements and joint ventures. Helen also routinely acts for other developers in connection with the acquisition, funding and letting of new retail business parks and the negotiation of development management agreements, and last year concluded the sale of the Boleyn Ground Stadium on behalf of West Ham United Football Club Limited.
Helen specialises in commercial development work and has a wide range of experience acting in all aspects of that work for a variety of clients. Having spent over 10 years in private practice, Helen moved in-house to a major commercial development company, where she worked for eight years. Her previous varied experience enabled her to undertake all aspects of that company’s property work. On her subsequent return to private practice, she brings her commercial and client-led approach with her.
James specialises in all areas of corporate tax, real estate tax and share schemes. He has particular expertise on the taxation of real estate investment, real estate development and urban regeneration. James' clients include global banks, listed companies, private companies, entrepreneurs and individuals, charities and landowners. He is a consulting editor on VAT, stamp duties and stamp duty land tax for Lexis Nexis Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents. He is also a member of the VAT Practitioners Group and a member of Law Society Stamp Taxes Working Group.
James is an expert in investment transactions and landlord and tenant matters. He leads a team who act for London-based and regional funds and advises on acquisitions, disposals and asset management work over a wide range of UK assets. James has advised on over £100m of property acquisitions and disposals over the past year, including complex conditional purchases and time critical transactions where clients were able to secure a commercial advantage by contracts being exchanged within a few days of instruction.
James is an expert in landlord and tenant law. He leads a team of lawyers who specialise in advising businesses in relation leasing, managing and disposing of commercial property. He specialises in the retail sector, advising a number of national retailers on their store portfolios. James sits on the property committee of a national retailer, reporting monthly to the main board on property matters. James has substantial experience of dealing with office lettings, advising both landlords and tenants on new lease arrangements. His work has included advising on lettings of office space in the City of London as well as regional head office facilities for retailers, professional services firms and national housebuilders.
James advises on both contentious and non-contentious insolvency and restructuring matters. His particular specialism concerns litigation arising in the context of insolvency, civil fraud and professional liability. James acts for a wide variety of clients including directors, investors and insolvency practitioners. James is highly regarded for his detailed forensic ability on complex cases and is increasingly instructed concerning cross-border claims or litigation for offshore clients whose claims have a nexus to the UK. He has acted in relation to a number of notable successes including the reported decision in Angelmist Properties Limited [2015] EWHC 1858 (CH). Since qualification James has handled cases resulting in actual recoveries for clients exceeding £50m.
James is an expert in advising lenders in all aspects of banking and asset finance litigation, and has particular expertise in advising on matters such as fraud, international cross-border recoveries, title disputes, quality disputes, consumer credit litigation and collections consultancy. He regularly advises lenders on and obtains injunctive relief including freezing orders and mandatory delivery up orders and is known for his pragmatic commercial legal advice and strategy in often complex cases.
Jo is a member of the tax team advising on all areas of business tax. Jo has particular expertise in property taxes including VAT and SDLT. She regularly advises national housing developers in relation to their acquisitions of property for development including SDLT reliefs and the ability to defer SDLT. Jo also advises in relation to LTT (the Welsh equivalent to SDLT) and potential SDLT/LTT cross-border transactions. She has experience running an appeal to the first-tier of the Tax Tribunal on the availability of relief from the 15% rate of SDLT and has instructed and attended conferences with leading tax counsel including in relation to land pooling trusts. Jo has also advised non-statutory property investment funds on the tax consequences of their transactions, including reporting on the release of rights of light and property transfers between sub-funds and transfers of going concerns.
Jodie’s experience includes acting for companies, business owners and senior executives on a broad range of employment and HR issues. Jodie specialises in drafting and advising on employment contracts and company handbooks/policies; assisting with disciplinary and grievance issues; corporate support work; HR support and in-house training; redundancy and restructuring exercises; managing and implementing dismissals; post-termination disputes and settlement agreements; and Employment Tribunal litigation.
John specialises in advising banks, building societies and other financial institutions on a wide range of contentious matters including guarantee claims, security enforcement (including mortgage possession proceedings), asset recovery, fraud and professional negligence claims. He also assists clients with complaints to the Financial Services Ombudsman and defends claims brought against them in relation to allegations of mis-selling financial products and breaches of contract.
Jonathan acts predominantly for lenders as well as for pension funds, developers and borrowers on real estate transactions. He is experienced in investment and development funding along with landlord and tenant, development, and sale and purchase transactions as part of the firm’s wider commercial property offering.
Karen acts for major names in manufacturing, retail, energy, IT and telecoms negotiating, mediating and litigating complex and high value disputes from the pre-action stage through to trials in the High Court and appeals to the Court of Appeal. Karen’s focus is on achieving efficient and cost effective resolutions with as little impact as possible on her clients' businesses. Karen regularly acts for clients involved in contract disputes, post-acquisition warranty and indemnity claims arising out of SPAs, shareholder disputes/ unfair prejudice petitions and claims to enforce employee restrictive covenants. Karen has a teamwork-based approach to litigation and a successful track record in obtaining search orders, freezing injunction orders and other injunctions for her clients on an urgent basis. Since joining Gateley in 2002 Karen has gained an excellent reputation for fighting her clients’ corners hard and well and for obtaining good results including on difficult cases. Karen is known for her ‘can do’ attitude, her straight and open approach and is recognised for providing an exceptionally high level of service to clients.
Kate specialises in residential development, acting for developers and housebuilders on the sale and purchase of development sites. Kate’s experience includes conditional development/sale agreements involving planning obligations, serviced land acquisitions and site assembly and investigations as well as disposals to affordable and private rented housing providers and commercial and health sector occupiers.
Kate specialises in commercial disputes and regularly brings and defends claims in a variety of sectors. She focuses on actions relating to breach of restrictive covenants and breaches of confidentiality, business ownership and management disputes, disputes arising out of the sale and purchase of businesses, healthcare and public procurement disputes. She has acted on numerous cases involving both making and defending applications for urgent interim relief including Search Orders, Delivery Up Orders and prohibitive injunctions. She has experience in IP disputes and cross-border disputes.
Kate specialises in health & safety, environmental matters, white collar crime, Trading Standards, NCA, FCA and SOCA investigations. Kate is a highly regarded legal director at Gateley and has been with the team for seven years. Kate specialises in defending all types of health & safety cases, environmental investigations, general criminal defence work and financial crime. Kate regularly attends Coroners Courts and Criminal Courts representing businesses and individuals facing all manner of health & safety investigations and prosecutions. Kate is at home in the Criminal Court arena having been a Court Duty Solicitor and accredited Police Station Representative for many years. Kate is able to bring her wealth of experience of general criminal defence work to health & safety/ regulatory investigations, a skillset that is often lacking in regulatory lawyers. Kate is client-focused and proactive, often resolving complex health & safety and regulatory investigations with out of Court disposals securing minimum fuss and limited reputational damage for the client. Clients often comment on Kate’s no-nonsense, practical approach and her insight in being able to anticipate the way in which a regulator will proceed with an investigation and be two steps ahead of them. Kate is a focused lawyer and her ability to get into the detail of a case makes her unflappable, delivering excellent results every time. Kate regularly writes blogs, social media posts and articles for health & safety publications.
Kathryn specialises in contentious insolvency work and all advisory aspects before and after insolvency. Typically Kathryn advises insolvency practitioners, secured lenders, creditors and directors on insolvency issues. Her areas of expertise involve advising on setting aside antecedent transactions, investigation work, fraud, dishonesty, tax avoidance, recovery of monies from and to companies in financial difficulties on a funded or contingent basis. She also deals with all types of insolvency appointments and all issues arising pre and post insolvency appointments.
Katie is a member of Gateley Plc’s Operations board and provides administrative support to its Strategic board and the board of Gateley (Holdings) Plc. Her role encompasses a range of activities including risk and compliance, governance, IT, facilities and more. Prior to her current role, Katie was a partner in our Corporate team having many years’ experience working within corporate finance, advising on mergers and acquisitions for both public and private companies. She has also advised shareholders, officers and advisers on in connection with corporate law related matters, in particular mergers and acquisitions and stock exchange regulatory requirements.
After spending over a decade at Gateley specialising in the acquisition of sites for immediate and strategic residential development schemes, Lisa was appointed Head of Midlands Plot Sales and Plot Support. She manages the plot sales, infrastructure and setup teams in our Birmingham office. She also has experience assisting our litigation department with claims made by and against residential development clients
Mark is Head of Gateley’s Complex and International Recovery Work unit. He has over 25 years of experience in all aspects of corporate insolvency, turnaround and restructuring acting for banks, venture capitalists, insolvency practitioners and corporates. She specialises in contentious insolvency matters often involving offshore entities and allegations of fraud or breach of duty. He also has a niche practice in bringing claims against and defending insolvency practitioners.
Mark is an experienced dispute resolution lawyer. He acts for clients in various forms of dispute resolution, including formal court litigation, adjudication, mediation and negotiation. He specialises in contentious construction matters, acting for a wide range of clients including housebuilders, developers, contractors and sub-contractors. Mark provides strategic commercial and legal advice to clients on all types of construction disputes, relating to payment, defective design, materials or workmanship, variation claims, extensions of time/delays, loss and expense.
Martin is a specialist tax lawyer who advises on a broad range of tax issues across all types of transactions and restructurings. He specialises in company tax planning, corporate acquisitions and disposals, reconstructions, management buy-outs and management buy-ins. He is frequently involved in real estate transactions and advises on share-based employee incentivisation. As well as being a qualified solicitor, he is a chartered tax adviser and the education secretary of the regional committee of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.
Matthew specialises in planning, compulsory purchase, highways, judicial review and aspects of environmental law. He acts for many of the UK's major developers, housebuilders and land promoters and is experienced in dealing with planning and highways agreements for both commercial and residential development. He regularly carries out complex planning due diligence for commercial developers as well as advice relating to delivery of large scale developments.
Merran is a specialist employment lawyer advising on all aspects of the employment relationship. She provides straightforward, practical advice with an emphasis on finding solutions. Merran supports a range of clients from internationally-headquartered entities, financial institutions and household names to local charitable bodies and senior executives in their personal capacity. Merran manages the full range of employment tribunal claims and has extensive experience of multi-party litigation. She was instructed by the lead respondent in litigation described by The Guardian as “the largest ever legal claim over the national minimum wage” and regularly represents employers in a range of tribunal claims involving issues such as whistleblowing, constructive unfair dismissal, the adequacy of TUPE information and consultation exercises and discrimination issues. This includes representation before the Employment Appeal Tribunal. She also regularly supports clients with complex disciplinary and grievance issues and change management programmes and the drafting and enforcement of post-termination restrictions. Merran regularly advises on a variety of corporate transactions and insourcing/ outsourcing exercises which often involve the TUPE Regulations. Recent support included advising Gymshark on the employment-related aspects of the investment by General Atlantic which valued the Gymshark business at over £1bn.
Michael has over 30 years’ experience as a corporate lawyer, advising private and public companies and private investors. He acts for sellers, buyers and debt or equity providers on corporate transactions, restructurings and shareholder disputes. Michael is regularly involved in contract negotiations, deal origination and deal restructuring.
Michael advises employers and trustees of occupational pension schemes on all aspects of pensions law as well as dealing with pensions issues on corporate transactions. He also provides legal advice to executive pension providers and other pension professionals. He is well placed to advise on all pensions related issues, having advised clients ranging from owner managed businesses in relation to their executive pensions to the multi-billion pound pension funds of major international companies.
Neil is a commercial real estate partner with many years of experience in the Midlands and across the country. Neil’s background includes dealing with all manner of real estate transactions, including sales, purchases, leases and finance. Neil is also a specialist in transactions involving Catholic charities and insolvency practitioners.
Neil specialises in commercial dispute resolution, acting for a wide range of clients in a variety of business sectors. His particular areas of specialism include breach of contract and warranty claims, breach of confidentiality, shareholder and partnership disputes. He also has a wide range of experience in obtaining emergency relief such as search and seize orders and prohibitive injunctions. Neil is a trustee of Birmingham Citizens’ Advice Bureau.
Niall advises companies, investors and individuals on acquisitions, disposals and private equity investments. As well as acting for general corporate and private equity clients, Niall often advises on the corporate aspects of joint ventures in the construction and real estate sectors.
Pam specialises in residential development work and has over 20 years’ experience working exclusively in the housebuilding sector. She acts for our housebuilder clients on acquisition of development sites ranging from immediately available schemes to large scale regeneration projects and longer-term strategic land. Pam is experienced in advising on grant and funding schemes available to our clients, a large part of her practice is advising our housebuilder clients on schemes working collaboratively with Homes England, public sector bodies and affordable housing providers to bring forward mixed tenure developments across the country.
Paul acts for major housebuilders, land promoters and independent property developers on site acquisitions, land options, conditional contracts and promotion and collaboration agreements.
Paul specialises in mergers & acquisitions in the private and public company arena, capital markets work and public company advisory work.He has many years’ experience of working at the very highest levels of industry and commerce and always offers down-to-earth, pragmatic advice no matter how complex the transaction. Paul is a member of the Legal Experts Group of the Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) and heads the firm’s capital markets group.
Paul provides both pension scheme trustees and employers with day-to-day advice in relation to the management and operation of their pension schemes, as well as assisting with the pension aspects of corporate transactions.
Peter is an experienced dispute resolution lawyer in the firm’s Construction unit and a member of the Strategic and Operations Boards. He has considerable experience in construction disputes, acting for developers, contractors, sub-contractors and construction professionals. He is familiar with all standard industry documentation and has considerable experience of all types of dispute resolution.
Philip has extensive experience across a broad spectrum of finance matters. He has particular expertise in equipment leasing and asset finance together with consumer credit work. He regularly provides advice on regulatory issues, drafting standard and bespoke finance documents, advice on the structuring of projects and handling one-off transactions. He has assisted various clients gain FCA authorisation and frequently advises on authorisation issues.
Ray’s expertise lies in the area of commercial real estate development and he specialises in acting for developers on major industrial, retail, office and leisure projects.
Rebecca Sherwin is head of the real estate team. She is an expert in real estate finance. She advises banks, borrowers and funders on the real estate aspects of commercial and residential investment and development.
Rebecca has experience in advising a range of clients on a variety of litigious commercial matters. She is experienced in advising on all aspects of the litigation process, from pre-action stage through to trial, and regularly acts for clients (both claimant and defendant) involved in breach of contract claims, warranty and indemnity claims, fraud and unjust enrichment, enforceability of restrictive covenants, breach of confidentiality and shareholder and partnership disputes. She also has experience in obtaining emergency relief such as search orders, delivery-up orders and prohibitive injunctions. She also has a particular specialism in reputation management work, often acting immediately to protect and restore business and personal reputations. Areas of expertise include cases in libel, slander, defamation, malicious falsehood, harassment, breach of confidence and often deal with any and all social media take-down requests.
Richard advises high street and institutional lenders and investors on all forms of real estate finance including large scale investment portfolios and bespoke development finance. He has spent time on a legal secondment with HSBC UK Bank Plc working alongside the Bank’s Corporate Banking Real Estate team.
Richard is an expert in real estate development, funding and investment, having acted for a variety of institutional and private clients on mixed use, logistics, retail & leisure, and office schemes. Having recently worked in the commercial development sector, Richard is able to combine this direct experience with a wealth of knowledge from many years as a commercial real estate lawyer acting upon complicated and significant transactions.
Rob is a seasoned specialist in residential development whose expertise includes immediate land acquisition, strategic land options and funding for major schemes. He has comprehensive experience of assisting Britain’s largest housebuilders in all aspects of real estate and planning, regularly project-managing sites from their acquisition through planning consent, assembly and site set-up to construction and plot sales.
Ruth is the Head of the Regulatory and Business Defence Unit at Gateley. Ruth is a recognised leader in the regulatory field, advising on all regulatory disciplines ranging from fatal accidents to fraud and pollution to bribery. She has over 25 years’ experience of regulatory and white collar defence work for businesses and senior office holders. Ruth sits on the IOSH Environmental & Waste Management Group national committee and working party of the National Safety & Health Conference. She delivers strategic guidance and thought leadership to industry through her business defence work.
Ryan specialises in residential development, including land acquisition and strategic land options. He acts for most of the top 10 housebuilders in the UK, and for smaller developers/land promoters acquiring interests in land for residential development. He also has experience of commercial lettings and funding arrangements.
Safeea advises all types of clients on all areas of commercial litigation. She is an effective litigator, dedicated to supporting clients and achieving great results. Safeea specialises in IT and telecom disputes, shareholder disputes, breach of contract claims, employee restrictive covenant breaches and breach of warranty and indemnity claims. Safeea’s experience also includes disputes involving: partnership claims, sale of goods/ supply of services, franchises, defamation, agency agreements, registration and enforcement of foreign judgment and costs litigation. Safeea handles litigation in the High Court and Court of Appeal and at all stages of the litigation process (from pre-action to trial, enforcement and appeals). She successfully uses alternative methods of dispute resolution to achieve commercial and practical outcomes for her clients. She is experienced in dealing with claims involving misrepresentation, negligence, breach of fiduciary duties and civil fraud and has conducted her own advocacy.
Sally is a professional support lawyer in the Real Estate team. She ensures that the Real Estate lawyers are kept up-to-date with changes in the law and market practice. Her professional support work also includes writing insight for clients, drafting and updating standard documents and delivering training. Before becoming a professional support lawyer, Sally worked on a wide variety of real estate transactions for 15 years, including residential and commercial site acquisitions and disposals, housing association developments, secured lending on public houses and acting for both landlords and tenants on leases.
Sarb specialises in residential development including promotion agreements, strategic options land acquisitions and sales of affordable housing to registered providers. Sarb has experience acting for both promoters and developers.
Shazan has experience in a broad range of commercial property work, from acquisitions and disposals to property finance and landlord & tenant matters. He has acted on a number of high-value disposals of mixed use developments and portfolio sales. He regularly acts for developers and investors and has particular expertise on student accommodation projects with complex planning and overage provisions. He also has considerable experience in acting for insolvency practitioners and has dealt with numerous disposals in this area. He acts for a number of household names in the retail sector as well as many of the largest institutional lenders.
Patent Attorney & Trade Mark Attorney, Managing Director
Simon heads up Gateley’s Business Services group and is also head of the Commerce, Technology & Media practice. He is a commercial lawyer in every sense, advising clients across a range of sectors. Simon advises on: Commercial ventures Outsourcing (of IT, logistics, facilities management and other business processes) Procurement of goods and services Licensing of rights Supply chain management Franchising Sport Hotels Bribery Act compliance
Simon specialises in corporate acquisitions and disposals, re-organisations and corporate finance transactions. He is a member of the private equity team and regularly acts for institutions and management teams on leveraged transactions requiring an equity investment. As a senior lawyer with many years’ corporate experience, Simon is ideally placed to advise on the full range of issues arising from corporate acquisitions, disposals and mergers. He has a detailed understanding of business realities that comes from working with large retail and trading brands.
onia specialises in insolvency litigation. She mainly acts for insolvency practitioners but has also represented other key parties in the restructuring and insolvency market. Sonia has experience in dealing with claims under the Insolvency Act 1986 and the Companies Act 2006 and issues arising in contentious and non-contentious insolvency matters.
Steve is a partner and an expert in dealing with commercial disputes. He is a specialist in acting for businesses that need to enforce restrictive covenants, as well as professional negligence cases and disputes arising out of business sales. He also advises clients on contractual claims, and how clients should terminate particular contracts or respond to termination by other contracting parties. Steve has spent over 20 years dealing with commercial disputes He has acted for PLCs, private companies and individuals.
Susan specialises in planning law and is involved in the Planning team’s full offering – from drafting and negotiating section 106 agreements, advising on strategy and the planning regime generally (including planning enforcement), town and village green issues, through to providing highway advice. She has extensive experience in a range of property types, including in the residential, retail, hotel, and manufacturing and distribution sectors. Her planning expertise is therefore wide-ranging and encompasses many high value cases. Susan also regularly works for a number of well-known companies and national brands.
Thea specialises in business sale and purchase disputes and pensions litigation. She has acted for a wide range of clients from Plcs to individuals in a wide range of matters, obtaining urgent remedies such as search orders and other prohibitive injunctions.
Tim has acted for all of the country’s largest national housebuilders, including regeneration specialists.In addition to acting for housebuilders, a good deal of Tim's practice nowadays involves acting for three of the country’s largest residential land promoters. Since 1987, Tim has specialised exclusively in the housebuilding sector and as a consequence has an enviable wealth of experience in dealing with all aspects of the acquisition and disposal of consented and unconsented land whether through conditional contracts, strategic options or land promotion agreements. He has also prepared consortium and partnering agreements between other builders, Registered Providers and local authorities.
Head of Corporate Birmingham, Tom specialises in public company transactions, private equity investments and mergers and acquisitions. He acts for corporates, financial institutions and entrepreneurs. His key clients include Gymshark, Virgin Wines UK Plc, Connection Capital, Hammonds Furniture, Grosvenor Health and Social Care and Stuart Turner.
Victoria is an expert advisor on both contentious and non-contentious insolvency matters. She predominantly advises insolvency practitioners (including successor practitioners) and secured lenders on potential and actual claims, although she has experience in all insolvency practice areas. Victoria is a confident and professional lawyer with a “can do” attitude. She is well regarded by her clients for providing clear and commercial advice delivered through top quality service. She is an experienced litigator, and she gives creative solutions and strategic advice as well as advising on the legal position. Victoria has wide-ranging experience, and she has had numerous successes in relation to claims arising from tax fraud and tax avoidance, wrongdoing by former insolvency practitioners and former directors, against third parties to recover money, property or assets belonging to insolvent estates both in the context of bringing and defending such actions. She also recently co-authored two articles in Corporate Rescue and Insolvency: “Insolvent estates of deceased persons: life lessons” (2021) 5 CRI 156 and “Unauthorised collective investment schemes” reform needed (2021) 6 CRI 199.