Burges Salmon LLP

Robert Forman

Robert is a partner with the firm, heading up the delivery of Scottish Real Estate legal services to a variety of developers, funders, retailers, investors and private individuals on commercial property acquisitions, disposals, leasing, development and secured lending (including cross border/international deals with a Scottish element).

Danny Lee

Danny is a partner in the firm’s corporate finance team, having joined Burges Salmon’s new Scottish office in 2019. Danny specialises in corporate finance and company law, including M&A, joint ventures, private equity and restructurings. Danny covers a range of sectors, but with a particular focus on the energy sector (notably renewables), food and drink, technology and life sciences/pharma sectors. Recent experience includes: advising Panoramic Growth Equity on its investment in Big Drop Brewing Company; advising Fern Fibre Limited and Octopus Investments on the acquisition of internet service provider M12 Solutions and the Giganet brand together with a £250m funding package; advising Riverstone on the sale of Forsa Energy’s distributed flexible power generation platform to Tiger Infrastructure Partners; advising Calcivis on its equity investment by SIB and Archangels; advising Genus plc on its strategic investment in genetics improvement consultancy, Xelect.

Stuart McMillan

Stuart is a finance lawyer, based in the firm's Edinburgh office. He is dual qualified in Scotland and in England and Wales and has extensive experience working for funders, sponsors and public authorities on project and development finance deals in the UK and overseas. Stuart has acted on the introduction of some of the most innovative financing models in the UK market including the 'aggregator' and 'bank/bond hybrid' models. Stuart also has extensive experience in real estate finance and asset-based lending matters.

Katie Russell

Katie is an experienced advisor in UK employment law, with over 15 years’ specialist experience. Acting primarily for employers, Katie advises on all areas of employment law, including discrimination, whistleblowing, restructuring and redundancy, corporate transactions, TUPE, and Employment Tribunal and High Court/Court of Session litigation. Katie has particular experience of advising businesses in the financial sector and experience in acting as an independent appeals officer. Accredited Specialist in Employment Law (Law Society of Scotland). Publications Frequent contributor to various HR and employment law publications including Scottish Business Insider and HR Director magazine. Sits on the Employment Law Policy Committee of the Law Society of Scotland. Speaker on family friendly rights training module for Employment Lawyers Association introductory course for Newly Qualified employment lawyers.

AJ Venter

AJ is a partner in the Corporate and M&A team. His practice covers a broad range of UK and cross-border corporate transactions, including private M&A, public takeovers, IPOs, equity fundraisings, joint ventures, complex corporate reorganisations and restructurings and general corporate advisory matters. He acts for a number of quoted and private companies, financial intermediaries and other clients and advises clients across several sectors with a particular focus on financial services.

Nigel Watson

Nigel heads the firm’s Share Plans and Incentives practice. With over 20 years’ experience, he specialises in employee share plans and incentives, advising both listed and unlisted companies on the design, operation and implementation of reward structures and tax efficient remuneration. He also advises companies and management teams on the share plan aspects of M&A transactions. Nigel is a member of the Share Plan Lawyers Group.

Claire Withers

Claire is a senior associate specialising in equity incentive arrangements, reward structures and corporate tax. She advises on employee and management incentive arrangements, including design, implementation and any transaction-related implications. She also advises on a broad range of transactional and advisory tax matters, with particular emphasis on real estate, mergers and acquisitions and employment related tax. Claire is a chartered tax adviser and a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, Association of Tax Technicians and Share Plan Lawyers Group. She sits on the committee of the Edinburgh branch of Women in Tax.

Helen Woodford

Helen joined the Burges Salmon's Pensions and Lifetime Savings team in 2023, advising clients across the UK from the firm’s Edinburgh office and her Northumberland home base. She has specialised in pensions law since qualification over two decades ago. Helen recognises pensions issues are complex and constantly evolving, she strives to advise her clients with clarity, in a manner tailored to their specific situation and requirements. Clients with whom Helen has built longstanding relationships range from employers and pension trustee boards of global corporations with large ongoing defined benefit pension schemes to smaller entities with open or closed defined benefit arrangements and defined contribution occupational schemes or insurer provided pension plans. Helen’s client base has straddled many sectors including energy, manufacturing, retail and transport. She has also acted for many pension trustee boards and employers operating within the charity and not-for-profit sector. She is a full member of the Association of Pensions Lawyers and a member of the Pensions Ombudsman’s Legal Forum.