Burges Salmon LLP

Partner specialising in employment law and head of the employment law team. Advises on all areas of employment law, both contentious and non-contentious, including executive severance, restructuring, trade union and collective issues, TUPE, complex discrimination cases and Employment Tribunal and High Court litigation (including conducting tribunal advocacy). Has particular experience of advising on the employment and TUPE aspects of major procurements and outsourcing projects in both the public and private sector.

Alastair Morrison

Partner responsible for non-contentious rural property; sale, purchase, lease and mortgage of farms and estates is the mainstay of the unit, which comprises ten specialist agricultural property lawyers. Advises on law relating to ownership and occupation of land, e.g. secured lending, tenancies, contracting agreements, development clawback, sporting rights and rural grants and subsidies.

Alice Honeywill

Specialises in pensions law and advises trustees and employers on all aspects of pension scheme operation and governance, as well as drafting pension scheme documents. Advises on bulk annuity purchases, liability management exercises and regulatory matters, as well as technical issues and pensions tax. Advises on SIPP and SSAS matters. Clients include Western Power Distribution and the Trustees of the QinetiQ, University of Oxford, and Inchcape Motors pension schemes.

Alison Hawes

Consultant in Family law, all financial issues with particular niche in complex assets and businesses including farms, landed estates and corporate valuations. Experienced in asset protection for families and family businesses – pre and post marital agreements.

Andrew Mills

Partner in Corporate Finance team, specialising in private equity transactions, corporate mergers and acquisitions and company law. Experience includes private equity, infrastructure and general corporate transactions, including competitive auction sales, GP-led portfolio sales and investments into GPs, co-investments, joint ventures and equity fundraising.

Andrew Eaton

Andrew heads the Corporate Restructuring and Insolvency team at Burges Salmon. He has extensive experience in advising on distressed situations including corporate restructurings, turnaround and formal insolvency in the private and public sector. He has advised numerous investors, companies, management teams, insolvency practitioners and pensions trustees in relation to debt and equity restructurings, contingency planning and formal insolvency. His work covers both domestic and cross border matters. Recent highlights include advising on a number of energy, retail and leisure situations including Wasps Holdings Limited, Birmingham Bio Power, Cote Restaurants, Bakers + Baristas and Patisserie Valerie.

Andrew Burnette

Dispute resolution partner specialising in complex fraud and professional negligence, shareholder/unfair prejudice disputes, contractual/warranty claims and product liability. Particular expertise acting for both traditional and specialist lenders to recover distressed loans secured against commercial property.

Andrew Dunlop

Leads Burges Salmon’s Outsourcing Group and also head of the firm’s GDPR practice. Has significant experience in joint ventures, system builds and cyber security. International director of the National Outsourcing Association 1998-2012. Currently a member of the Executive Council of The Global Sourcing Association. Clients include corporates, financial institutions and larger techcos.

Ann Metherall

Head of the firm's Dispute Resolution unit. Specialises in strategic health and safety and risk management, liability claims and commercial disputes. At the heart of Ann’s work is support to clients in infrastructure businesses; in particular the transport, construction, energy and industrial sectors.

Beatrice Puoti

Beatrice is the head of Burges Salmon’s Private Wealth sector and a Partner in the firm’s Private Client department. Beatrice’s primary focus is on international tax, trusts and estate planning for UK and non-UK resident and domiciled clients. She has significantly contributed to the development of the firm’s European tax and trust practice with a particular expertise on Italian issues. Beatrice also has significant experience in advising financial institutions and trustees on international trust and tax matters and on the ownership, structuring and acquisition of UK and non-UK real estate. Beatrice also specialises in cross-boarder estate planning issues with a particular focus on all issues arising from Roman Law and Common Law application. Beatrice is also ranked as one of the UK legal community’s best lawyers, having received the following accolades: 2021 Who’s Who Legal: Private Client 2020 eprivateclient 50 Most Influential Citywealth Powerwomen Awards 2019: Woman of the Year - Leadership The Spear’s Indices Top Recommended Tax & Trust Lawyers 2018 Citywealth Powerwomen Awards 2017: Inspirational Women of the Year

Brioney Thomas

Brioney is a partner and Head of the firm's Transport sector. She has extensive experience advising on franchise bidding and operations, UK and EU regulatory issues and major projects including fleet procurements and rail infrastructure. Her specialist rail expertise include advising government departments, UK and international transport owner groups and their operating companies as well as major international stock manufactures.

Briony Barber

Briony is a senior associate within Burges Salmon's Corporate Finance team.

Camilla Usher-Clark

Camilla’s practice covers M&A, joint ventures, private equity, restructurings and general corporate law. She also has a specialism in co-operative and community benefit society law and community interest companies. Camilla leads the firm’s award-winning corporate Energy team and her work has a strong focus in this area (particularly clean energy), giving her a much deeper understanding of the issues facing businesses operating in the sector.

Ceri Barrett

Senior Associate

Chris Jackson

Chris is the firm's Head of Infrastructure and a Partner in the Transport team. He is recognised as a leading lawyer with a track record of success in complex commercial and regulatory projects and disputes. He has national recognition in three areas - the transport industry, public procurement (including complex procurement challenges for both authorities and bidders) - and health and safety. He has been closely involved in policy, strategic and operational work (and in developing the firm's strong specialist practices) in each of these areas. He also oversees a number of projects relating to intelligent transport systems, transport technology and Connected and Autonomous Mobility.

Chris Seaton

The firm's Senior Partner and also a partner in the Employment team dealing with the full range of contentious and non-contentious employment work; experienced tribunal advocate and adviser to a number of multinational companies based in the USA and Europe. He was formerly chair of the firm’s international committee and a member of the strategic Board. Now as Senior Partner he chair’s the firm’s Board.

Chris Godfrey

Corporate and funds partner; head of the firm's Corporate and Financial Institutions department, handling a full range of public and private company transactional work together with investment funds and partnership law. Has handled more than 30 IPOs and has a diverse client base including Virgin Management, the University of Oxford, Renishaw and Premier Miton Group.

Chris Worrall

Chris Worrall is a partner and head of the competition team at Burges Salmon. Chris has worked on numerous high profile antitrust matters and specialises in all aspects of UK and EU competition law, including antitrust investigations, cartels, abuse of market power, and merger control. Chris has extensive experience across a range of sectors, including financial services, media, transport, healthcare and retail.

Chris Preston

Partner specialising in Real Estate Litigation and Risk Management. Advises clients across all sectors on contentious real estate issues with a focus on development projects, transport, retail and telecoms. Clients include St Modwen, The John Lewis Partnership, Severn Trent Water, Pennon Group, The Crown Estate, Greater London Authority, YTL and Transport for London.

Chris Simms

Chris is a partner in the firm’s rail team. He has substantial experience in complex rail projects, including franchise bidding and operations. Chris also works extensively in asset finance projects in the rail sector, having acted for operators, rolling stock owners and government authorities on rolling stock procurement and other privately-financed rail projects.

Clive Pugh

Advises trustees and employers on all aspects of pensions law and is recognised as a leading expert nationally on regulatory matters including scheme funding, clearance and governance and major Moral Hazard investigations. He draws on experience at and with the Pensions Regulator and has advised on a number of complex restructurings for schemes and employers, bringing regulatory insights. Also regarded as an expert in ongoing pensions advisory work and negotiations, including on benefit redesign, closures and corporate developments. Advised on the key regulatory cases of Silentnight, Bernard Matthews and also appointed for the reply on McDonalds

Colin Ligman

Specialist in real estate aspects of investment, development and rail infrastructure funding projects. Acts for Transports for Wales and Abellio group companies on property related matters involving rail infrastructure projects. Acts for senior debt lenders on development finance and investment finance for commercial real estate. Also acts for lenders, fixed charge receivers and administrators on distressed situations as head of the Burges Salmon Real Estate Insolvency Team. Many years’ experience both in structuring and securing loan facilities, and also acting on fixed charge receiverships and administrations involving the sale of significant commercial property assets, such as investment properties, partially completed development sites and nursing homes.

David Hall

Head of Burges Salmon’s Disputes, Planning & Construction Department. Over a 30 year career David has represented numerous major public and private institutions on a wide range of disputes, investigations and inquiries. Currently Lead Solicitor on Burges Salmon’s appointment to provide all legal services to the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry chaired by Baroness Hallett. David is also playing a similar role in other confidential Public Inquiries to which Burges Salmon is appointed.

Dominic Davis

Dominic is a partner in the firm's Corporate Finance team. His practice covers all areas of corporate finance work but he specialises in complex M&A transactions and joint ventures. He regularly advises both quoted companies and their financial advisers on a full range of equity transactions including IPOs and secondary fundraisings. His practice also includes advising on company law and corporate governance issues. He works for a range of private and public companies on both UK and cross-border deals and regularly advises overseas investors investing, or acquiring assets, in the UK. Dominic is a member of the firm’s US committee. Recent transactions include (i) advising the shareholders of FlightScope on the sale of the software company to IMG, (ii) advising the founder shareholders on the sale of specialist education provider LexAble to Norwegian company Lingit AS, (iii) advising WH Ireland on the AIM flotation of Northcoders Group plc and (iv) advising the founder shareholder of Keep IT Simple on the sale of the company to The Panoply Group PLC.

Elizabeth Dunn

Advises on all aspects of planning law including major infrastructure, highways and compulsory purchase. Particular expertise in energy and infrastructure, and large scale re-development projects. Has led and advised on a number of nationally significant infrastructure projects. Regularly advises on judicial review and statutory challenges and appears as an inquiry advocate.

Emily Roberts

Dispute resolution partner at Burges Salmon LLP specialising in Intellectual Property. Advises on disputes relating to trade marks, passing off, copyright, designs, breach of confidence, domain name and company name disputes, social media and internet issues, licence disputes and advertising standards complaints. Main clients include Starbucks and Virgin.

Emily Scaife

Emily is a finance lawyer with a particular focus on complex corporate restructuring and insolvency matters in the private and public sectors. She acts for key stakeholders including investors, companies, management teams, insolvency practitioners, regulators and pension trustees on both domestic and cross border matters.

Emma Folkes

Partner working within the firm's Food and Farming team and specialising in non-contentious agricultural property matters. Acts on a wide variety of transactional matters including sales and purchases and the grant of tenancies, and advises on a wide range of issues arising from the ongoing management of farms and estates. Client base is UK-wide and includes landowners, farmers, national institutions and charities. Recent examples of work: acting on the sale, in parts, of a significant estate comprising let farms, in-hand woodland and cottages. Acting on the sale of a portfolio of rural cottages. Documenting the division of a family farm following the settlement of a complex farming partnership dispute. Working with an institutional landowner on the restructure of agricultural tenancy arrangements. Acting on the acquisition of strategic land subject to complex overage obligations relating to future development.

Euan Bremner

Member of the firm’s Strategic Board. A real estate lawyer by trade qualified in all three UK jurisdictions (England/Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) acting for developers, investors and funders of UK energy and infrastructure projects (including onshore and offshore wind, wave/tidal, solar/PV, hydro, anaerobic digestion, energy from waste, deep geothermal, battery storage, sustainable aviation fuel, green lithium, EV charging and hydrogen projects).

Gary Soloman

Partner and head of Burges Salmon's planning and compulsory purchase team. Recent/current matters: acting for Isle of Anglesey County Council in relation to the proposed new nuclear power station at Wylfa, including promoting a CPO for significant highway improvements. Advising on a number of town and city centre regeneration schemes and acting for the Canal and River Trust and the Environment Agency in promoting CPOs to deliver European funded environmental works along the River Severn. Gary also recently assisted Redrow Homes secure permission for a 7,000 home garden village at Plasdwr, North-West Cardiff.

Graham Soar

Partner in the Banking and Finance group. Advises clients including financial institutions, corporates and funds in relation to a broad range of finance transactions. Specialises in energy and infrastructure finance, corporate banking, real estate banking and derivatives.

Guy Bastable

Financial Crime; POCA Work & Asset Forfeiture; Health & Safety; Administrative & Public Law; Environment. Regulatory investigations; corporate crime; financial crime; Coroner’s inquests; public inquiries. Corporate manslaughter; health and safety; fire safety; food safety; environmental protection; consumer protection and trading standards. Serious fraud; tax fraud; money laundering; bribery and corruption; insider dealing and market abuse. AML/ABC compliance; recovery of the proceeds of crime (restraint; confiscation; cash seizure; unexplained wealth; civil recovery); judicial review of the actions of investigators. Crisis management; corporate and director liability; corporate internal investigations; corporate engagement with regulators; responding to complex investigations and prosecutions.

Helen Scott-Lawler

Partner and head of Commercial Group, specialising in intellectual property and commercial contracts. Work includes: agency & distribution, commercial, joint ventures technology transfer; R&D arrangements; IP licensing and merchandising; IP audits and strategy; brand and design protection; procurements and bespoke development of technology; media rights exploitation.

Ian Truman

Ian is a Partner in the Nuclear Team at Burges Salmon. Following his time as Deputy General Counsel for EDF Energy’s nuclear new build business in the UK between 2010 - 2015 working on the Hinkley Point C, Sizewell C and Bradwell B new nuclear projects, he is one of the few private practice lawyers in the UK with experience in developing a new nuclear power station under the current UK regulatory regime. Since returning to private practice he has worked on a number of high profile nuclear new build and other nuclear projects both in the UK and internationally including a number of international SMR projects. Ian advises sponsors, developers, technology vendors, operators, regulators, nuclear insurers, government departments, funders and contractors on all aspects of UK, European and international nuclear law. Ian's expertise includes advising on: - Nuclear regulatory frameworks in the UK and emerging nuclear countries, including providing nuclear law training and drafting nuclear legislation; - The legal aspects of Safety, Security, Safeguards and Liability - including nuclear third party liability insurance; - The licensing of nuclear installations - including the licensing of nuclear fusion and small modular reactors in the UK and abroad; - Nuclear fuel supply; - Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel management and disposal; - The transport of nuclear and radioactive materials; - Export controls; - The requirements of the Euratom Treaty and its associated Directives and Regulations; - Project arrangements for the deployment of small and advanced modular reactors; and - Nuclear Co-operation Agreements between states Ian is also a joint editor of the Third Edition of Burges Salmon's Text Book on Nuclear Law (please e-mail for a free copy).

Ian Tucker

A specialist in rail and wider transport law and regulation and a dispute resolution lawyer with extensive experience in commercial litigation, public procurement and alternative dispute resolution. A solicitor advocate with oral advocacy experience in arbitrations, adjudication, regulatory appeal hearings and court. Working regularly for corporates in the transport and energy sectors particularly on regulatory compliance, issues in contractual delivery and litigation. Admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales.

Ian Salter

Partner, head of Nuclear Law unit; advises on all aspects of nuclear energy projects with particular expertise in nuclear law. Head of Projects Department.

Ian Carnochan

Ian Carnochan is a partner in the tax team and leads the Corporate Tax practice at Burges Salmon. He advises on all areas of corporate, real estate and commercial tax, with clients including corporate groups, financial institutions and investors, pension funds and public sector bodies. He has considerable experience advising on mergers and acquisitions and investment transactions, as well as on real estate development transactions, financing arrangements and funds. Ian is a member of the Law Society's Corporation Tax Sub Committee and Stamp Taxes Working Group. He is also a member of the Stamp Taxes Practitioners Group.

James Phillips

Head of the Energy & Utilities Sector at Burges Salmon. Leading dual-qualified energy law expert. Provides regulatory and commercial legal advice to developers, funders, licensees and regulators across the energy sector. Very active in the renewable energy, energy storage and balancing services markets.

James Sutherland

Head of Burges Salmon’s Real Estate Disputes team Main Areas of Practice: All areas of landlord/tenant disputes, with a particular focus on lease break, vacant possession and terminal dilapidations. Commercial Rent Review. Property related insolvency disputes.

Jeremy Dickerson

Partner in dispute resolution department and head of the firm's IP group. Main clients include Victoria's Secret, Harrods, Virgin, Starbucks, BBC and Discovery Channel. Guest lecturer in passing off on the Oxford University IP Diploma.

Jeremy Bell

Head of the Private Equity Funds practice at Burges Salmon LLP. We focus on the structuring, formation and winding up of alternative asset funds, including carried interest arrangements and establishing manager vehicles. Clients include Braavos Capital, DeaconCapital, Hamilton Hotel Investors, Nippon Life, Praesidium, True Altitude and Wales Pension Partnerhip. We also advise a number of pension funds on their substantial investments into private equity, debt or real estate funds.

Jim Aveline

Partner and head of the firm's Private Client Services department. Specialises in tax and estate planning for both UK and offshore clients. This includes advising landed estates and diversified farm businesses on their various tax, trust and agricultural issues. He also has a particular focus on succession planning and structuring for family business owners and heads up Burges Salmon’s Family Business team. His international work includes advising resident and non-resident clients on their global trust and wealth structuring and advising on structures to pass their wealth on to the next generation. Recent examples of work include: advising an international family with £300m+ assets on their offshore structures, innovative partnership and trust structuring to claim CGT relief on a record breaking agricultural land sale; advising the trustees of a significant landed estate following the death of its main heir; drafting and advising on a Family Charter to set out the principles of how control and ownership will pass in a large diversified family business to give certainty to the next generation. Winner of STEP President’s prize for best thesis on international issues.

Joanne Attwood

Heads up Burges Salmon's Licensing practice. Advises clients on all issues arising under the Licensing Act 2003 and Gambling Act 2005 as well as a number of other licensing regimes including applications, variations, reviews, contractual drafting and general regulatory compliance issues. Also advises clients on the commercial aspects of event organisation. Clients come from a variety of industry sectors including leisure and tourism, charities, education, transport, retail and real estate development as well as smaller independent operators and private individuals. Work highlights include advising on licensing issues for a globally recognised event, advising on the management of a multi-million pound licensed property portfolio and advising on licensing issues connected with a major group company restructure.

John Barnett

Head of Private Client Services department. Provides a full range of tax advice to individual and corporate clients. Including advice to private banks, trust companies, financial institutions, entrepreneurs and owner managers on personal and business tax. Work also encompasses tax advice on corporate and business structures; advice on offshore structures and advice on offshore and onshore trusts. Experience also includes: tax litigation/investigations; advocacy before Tax Tribunal; EIS work; non-domiciliaries and UK land; international corporate work including advice to a number of clients on international holding company structures, coupled with personal advice on trust and tax planning; corporate restructuring advice on a number of significant transactions; and the taxation of development land, including general advice to landowners.

John Houlden

Advises on procurement, subsidy control/state aid, projects, competition and regulatory issues on a number of major projects. Clients include the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Eurostar, FirstGroup, the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Ofcom, Affinity Water, Department for Education, Environment Agency, United Kingdom Research and Innovation, Babcock, Ministry of Justice, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and UK Atomic Energy Authority.

Jonathan Eves

Partner in the corporate finance team with a particular focus on corporate finance transactions in the energy and healthcare sectors. Details of significant deals: acting for various developers, funders and institutional investors on investment in, and the acquisition and disposal of, renewable energy projects and portfolios across a range of technologies; advising Bluefield Solar on the acquisition of and financing of a portfolio of 15 operational solar PV plants with an aggregate capacity of 64.2MWp; advising GCP Infrastructure Investments (Gravis) in relation to the acquisition of a 70MWp portfolio of five operating wind farms from funds managed by Platina Energy Partners; advising Statkraft UK Ltd on its acquisition of UK onshore wind developer Airvolution Clean Energy Ltd.

Julian Boswall

Advises on planning, highways and compulsory purchase. Particular experience in transport, regeneration, energy and waste. Market leading NSIP experience, advising on numerous projects throughout the process, into construction and operation.

Justin Briggs

Specialist in Pension and Private Trusts Disputes and Head of the Pensions Disputes team.

Katie Allen

Partner in the Banking and Finance group and head of hotel finance. Katie acts for a range of clients including banks, funds and corporates on finance transactions within the real estate and hotels sectors. Clients include Lloyds Bank, HSBC, ICG, DRC Capital, MetLife and Coutts.

Keith Beattie

Partner specialising in projects and commercial contracts. Having previously worked in private practice in Hong Kong and Singapore, and as an in-house legal adviser , Keith has wide-ranging experience of projects, project finance and commercial contracts in the UK and overseas, primarily in the defence, transport, infrastructure and energy sectors. Key clients include the Ministry of Defence and Ascent Flight Training.

Kevin Kennedy

Partner advising on private client/trust and agricultural disputes. Recent cases include Sofer v Swiss Independent Trustees (breach of trust claim), James v James (proprietary estoppel, will capacity), Owen v Harris (nature of tenancy), McDonald v Rose (proprietary estoppel and family company share allotment), Earl of Plymouth v Rees (agricultural tenancy interpretation and injunction) and Abberley v Abberley (binding nature of a settlement agreement), Other cases involve partnerships, trusts and agricultural property. Joint head of the firm’s Contentious Trusts and Probate Practice.

Lloyd James

Lloyd is a partner in the construction and engineering unit. He joined Burges Salmon in 2008 and acts for developers, funders and contractors specialising in the following areas: Construction and Engineering; Energy and Renewables; Waste Management; Water and Utilities; Transport Infrastructure; and PPP Projects. Lloyd deals with a range of contracts used in the industry and his focussed sectors (including, among others FIDIC, NEC, IChemE, MF/1 and LOGIC). Recent examples of Lloyd’s work include: advising ITER/Fusion for Energy on its multi-billion pound international nuclear fusion project in Cadarache, France; advising Highways England in connection with M25 associated works relating to the expansion of Heathrow airport; advising the Cayman Islands Government on the delivery and procurement of a new and innovative waste-to-energy scheme; advising MeyGen in connection with the construction packages for the world’s largest commercial tidal array in Pentland Firth; advising a developer in connection with a significant new nuclear build project in the UK; advising a contractor/JV on the delivery of a £1 billion+ highways project in South Wales; advising Costain as EPC Contractor on the Greater Manchester Waste PFI project. Europe’s largest waste management scheme; advising in connection with significant defence construction projects in Saudi Arabia utilising FIDIC forms of contract with bespoke amendments for the local market; advising ThyssenKrupp in connection with a number of mining projects worldwide; advising public sector authorities (including Devon, Gwynedd and Isle of Wight councils) in connection with a series of energy related PFIs/PPPs.

Luke Bowery

Partner in the Employment unit. Advises employers and employees in both the public and private sectors on the full range of contentious and non-contentious employment law related matters including executive appointment and severance, equality and discrimination, TUPE, redundancy and restructuring and employment tribunal claims. Recent work includes advising on a number of large scale restructuring projects across multiple sites and/or jurisdictions, defending complex race and disability discrimination employment tribunal claims and providing strategic advice on Board level employment issues including responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. Regular speaker at external seminars and events across the UK.

Marcus Harling

Partner – Construction, Engineering, Procurement and Development. Provides strategic advice on all aspects of the construction of infrastructure and real estate development; including procurement and delivery of projects, and the resolution of disputes. Advises government and the private sector on the procurement and delivery of capital projects through all asset and infrastructure sectors. A particular focus on Modern Methods of Construction and new delivery structures. Marcus is a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery

Mark Paterson

Partner specialising in infrastructure projects and general commercial law. Mark acts for both the public sector and private sector. He is lead adviser for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in relation to the £31bn Dreadnought Programme and the £2bn AWACs aircraft procurement. He acted for MoD on the £10bn Astute Programme and the £4.5bn Skynet 5 satellite system. Mark acted for the Department for Transport and MoD in connection with its £6bn Search and Rescue Helicopter programme. Mark also acted for the UAE Armed Forces on its procurement of a multibillion-dollar military satellite system as well as multi-billion dollar infrastructure projects in the KSA for a European based defence company. Mark also led the team advising the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority on their multi-billion pound Dounreay and Magnox civil nuclear reactor decommissioning programmes.

Mark Shepherd

Heads the firm’s Private Equity team. Advises institutions, management teams and investee companies on UK and cross-border buy-outs, buy-ins, growth capital transactions, re-financings and exits. Also advises on mergers and acquisitions, fundraisings and joint ventures as well as general corporate advice.

Matthew Ramus

Partner specialising in public sector outsourcing, alternative delivery models and infrastructure projects for both the public and private sectors. In particular, Matthew has led on a number of major projects in the defence, central government, local government, emergency services and education sectors.

Matthew Sims

Heads the firm’s retail team and specialises in UK real estate investment, development and portfolio management work including acquisitions and disposals, development projects and landlord and tenant work. Matt has a strong track record in acting for clients in the retail, office, hotels and industrial markets.

Matthew Walker

Partner – Financial Services, Regulatory Investigations, Corporate and Commercial Disputes, InsuranceRecent experience includes conducting internal investigations for large organisations in relation to compliance if FCA regulatory requirements. Advising leading accountancy firms on FRC Investigations under the AEP and Accountancy Scheme. Advising corporates on disputed insurance claims in the financial services, healthcare and construction sectors. Advising corporates on a range of contractual and financial disputes.

Michael Barlow

Advises both public and private sector clients on all aspects of UK and EU environmental law. Michael has particular experience in issues relating to water law and leads the firm’s cross-departmental Water sector team. He has significant experience of contentious work (both criminal and civil) and regulatory compliance. He also chairs the cross-firm ESG client services team.

Michael Hayles

Pensions partner advising trustees and employers in respect of all aspects of defined benefit, defined contribution and hybrid schemes, heading up the team’s bulk annuity work (including through the streamlined buy-in proposition with Willis Towers Watson). Michael also leads on the firm’s public sector pensions work including acting for Local Government Pension Scheme funds and employers, central government clients, Transport for Wales and other rail sector clients. Recent projects Michael has led on include consolidating £1bn+ liabilities within the Local Government Pension Scheme, acting for an employer on a large transfer into The Pensions Trust, and a large number of buy-in transactions.

Nick Churchward

Partner in Projects Department. Nick has 20 years’ experience advising on energy and resource management matters. His expertise includes energy trading, route to market agreements, corporate PPAs, private wire/on-site generation, district heating, energy regulation, waste to fuels/chemicals, waste to energy, renewables, waste regulation. Admitted as a solicitor in England & Wales and Scotland.

Nick Graves

Partner and Head of Corporate Finance, specialising in UK corporate finance and company law. Experience includes advising companies on mergers and acquisitions, including takeovers and private acquisitions of shares and businesses; flotations; secondary issues; corporate reorganisations and restructurings; joint ventures and general corporate work.

Patrick Robinson

A partner in the firm's planning unit. Solicitor advocate in the civil courts specialising in all planning issues including negotiation on planning and other infrastructure agreements and appearing as an advocate at planning inquiries; recent projects have included advising Isle of Anglesey on the Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station application and has appeared as advocate in a number of planning inquiries for energy developments. Lectures regularly on planning and compulsory purchase topics to planning professionals.

Patrick Parkin

Partner

Paul Browne

Having been involved in the Firm's management for 18 years, Paul now heads the Nuclear and Fusion real Estate Team, as well as the Real Estate Finance Team. In Nuclear and Fusion he acts for clients such as UKAEA, EDF and a variety of SMR Developers. In the Finance world, he acts on behalf of a wide range of funding institutions and insolvency practitioners, including HSBC, Puma, Bank Leumi, Metlife, Zorin and RBS and on funding, restructuring, enforcement and insolvency issues.

Paul Haggett

Partner and former head of Disputes, Environment and Planning department. Practice focused on acting for large corporates and financial institutions. He is a solicitor advocate and qualified mediator. Since January 2018, Paul has been acting as the firm’s General Counsel, COLP, MLRO and DPO.

Philip Beer

Philip has over 20 years of experience in advising public and private sector clients on large scale, high profile real estate development and regeneration projects and the real estate aspects of major projects and infrastructure deals. Philip led the team that won the award of Energy and Infrastucture Team of the Year at the British Legal Awards 2020 - which recognised Philip and his team’s work on the transfer from Network Rail to Transport for Wales of 87 miles of track, signals, land, people and all other operational railway assets. A project of the scale to transfer of the operational railways around Cardiff (known as the Core Valley Lines) had never been attempted before. The project was a genuine first of a kind deal which was successfully concluded on-time. Other infrastructure experience includes advising clients on projects in the rail, energy, defence, civil nuclear and water sectors. Philip’s work on regeneration includes advising on high profile developments around the UK, including King’s Cross Central, the Royal Albert Dock regeneration, Limmo Peninsula, Brabazon Bristol and Weavers Cross in Belfast. Given his specialist rail sector experience, Philip has particular expertise in dealing with regeneration sites that interface with transport hubs and transport infrastructure/assets.

Rachael Ruane

Partner in the Banking and Finance group. Rachael advises financial institutions, funds, corporates and cooperatives. Rachael has expertise in corporate banking, leveraged finance, real estate finance and asset backed finance. Clients include Lloyds Banking Group, FirstGroup, KfW-IPEX Bank, HSBC, ICG Longbow, Kreos Capital, Folk2Folk, Beechbrook Capital and Santander.

Richard Spink

Heads the firm’s Corporate and Financial Institutions Department. Has continued to advise on a variety of UK and cross-border deals this year, acting for a range of corporates, institutions and individuals. Richard continues to be a member of the firm's international committee.

Richard Read

Rick is ranked as a leading individual in London for corporate occupier representation. He acts for international and UK clients on their UK real estate requirements. He has extensive experience in acting for global corporates, international investment and sovereign wealth funds, investment companies and ultra-high net worth individuals. His expertise covers a number of asset classes from City offices to portfolio management and hotel and leisure investment, financing and development. Rick heads of the firm’s Hotels and Leisure practice group and sits on the firms Executive and International Committees.

Richard Knight

Head of the firm's Pensions practice and provides a full range of advice across the discipline. Advises the trustees and sponsors of pension schemes, draft pensions documentation and handles the pensions aspects of corporate transactions. Key clients include Western Power Distribution with pensions arrangements worth well in excess of £5bn and schemes sponsored by AT&T, Honda, Chanel and Leonardo.

Richard Leeming

Partner; acting for lenders on real estate finance transactions and fundings. Clients include DRC, HSBC, ICG, NatWest and Puma. Head of Financial Services Sector Group.

Richard Pettit

Richard advises companies and pension scheme trustees on issues including moral hazard investigations, corporate restructuring, Pension Protection Fund work, funding negotiations, scheme documentation, closures and mergers. Richard's work has included advising scheme trustees on a high-profile moral hazard investigation by the Pensions Regulator involving a financial support direction being sought against a UK and overseas listed plc; advising a manufacturing company with a pension scheme with a £60 million deficit on the entry of the scheme into the Pension Protection Fund; and providing legal advice on the detailed mitigation for a pension scheme in the context of a £4bn restructuring of the supporting employer group.

Richard Owen

Richard joined Burges Salmon in 1998. He specialises in real estate development, real estate investment, minerals and escheat. In relation to development matters, Richard acts exclusively for landowners. Typically this involves the disposal of development land by way of option, promotion agreement, conditional contract or competitive tender. Many of his transactions involve acting for consortia of landowners in their dealings with one or more developers. Richard is also the lead partner advising The Crown Estate in relation to the management of its Traditional Portfolio, in addition to handling various acquisitions and disposals. He also manages the administration of land reverting to The Crown of common law, under the doctrine of Escheat.

Richard Adams

Construction & engineering Partner; a specialist construction troubleshooting and disputes lawyer with a sector focus covering Transport, Energy & Utilities and Real Estate infrastructure. Recent matters include providing strategic troubleshooting advice and acting in adjudications and arbitrations for a main contractor on a complex road infrastructure project; advising an international client on disputes relating to the construction and fit out of headquarters in central London; advising an international client involved in the nuclear industry on disputes with a specialist contractor valued in the region of €300m; advising Birmingham City Council in relation to capital projects associated with the 2022 Commonwealth Games; advising a local authority on cladding and fire safety issues in relation to two residential blocks.

Richard Clark

Head of Burges Salmon's cross-departmental Real Estate Sector Group, having led the firm's Real Estate department for five years between 2009 and 2014. Richard advises investors, developers and occupiers with a particular focus on the office, industrial and logistics, and retail sectors, leading teams undertaking portfolio asset management work and acting on major transactional property investment acquisitions and disposals. Richard also specialises in major mixed use and residential led development and regeneration projects.

Richard Binns

Richard is a Dispute Resolution Partner specialising in complex commercial disputes and public procurement litigation across various sectors with a particular focus on Healthcare.

Roger Bull

Managing Partner since May 2018. Previously partner and head of the employment unit advising on all aspects of employment law, both contentious and non-contentious, including executive severance, industrial relations, discrimination, TUPE, employment tribunal claims (including conduct of advocacy) and restructuring projects.

Ross Simpson

Partner in Real Estate specialising in strategic land and rural property. Undertakes complex strategic land work advising on options, promotion agreements and conditional contracts associated with major projects regularly acting for consortia of landowners. Also works within the firm’s Food and Farming team advising on the purchase and sale of estates, farms, country houses, commercial forestry, island properties, sporting rights and salmon fishings. Expertise extends to advising landowners and investors on natural capital opportunities including rural land acquisition and management for Biodiversity Net Gain, carbon and other environmental outcomes. Clients include traditional land and estate owners, family trusts, farm partnerships and institutional investors. Dual qualified to practise in Scotland and England and Wales.

Ross Fairley

Specialist in renewable, Net Zero and environmental projects. Covers areas such as wind, solar, hydrogen, wave and tidal, low carbon transport, biomass, energy storage and biofuels. On environment, covers all aspects of regulation particularly contaminated land and environmental enforcement.

Ross Polkinghorne

Partner specialising in Real Estate Development. Advises both the private and public sector on town and city centre mixed use regeneration projects and new communities. Particular experience in residential, industrial and office led regeneration projects developed in joint venture and/or procured via a competitive dialogue.

Rupert Weston

Specialises in corporate finance and company law. Experience includes advising on mergers and acquisitions; flotations; secondary issues; joint ventures; restructurings and general corporate law, with particular expertise in the transport and hotel sectors. Recent experience includes advising ITM Power in relation to a £172m fundraise, advising Darwin Alternatives on its acquisition of Memoria and Low Cost Funerals, advising on the c$50m acquisition of Blue Venn by Upland Software and numerous transactions within the hotel and leisure sector.

Sally Jupp

Sally advises clients across the real estate sector on real estate finance, insolvency, development and property investment work as well as corporate real estate transactions. During her time at Burges Salmon she has completed secondments at Nationwide Building Society and Lloyds Bank plc. Her clients include HSBC UK Bank plc, ICG, DRC Savills Investment Management, abrdn and Metlife.

Sarah Hoskinson

Financial settlements on divorce, dealing with complex asset cases and international family law issues. Also advises on pre and post marital agreements, including those involving multiple jurisdictions and other asset protection issues. Specialist in pensions on divorce.

Sian Edmunds

Sian is a specialist advisor to food and drink, consumer product and agricultural businesses. She heads our Food and Drink team and acts for business across the supply chain; from agri-businesses and primary producers to manufacturers, processors, food service operatives and retailers. Sian provides regulatory advice on labelling and packaging, food safety and product safety issues. She acts for clients facing trading standards and environmental health enforcement proceedings and provides a full range of dispute resolution services to her clients; including claims arising from product liability issues, product recalls and withdrawals and contractual disputes. Sian advises on partnership disputes and on disputes and arbitrations concerning agricultural tenancies and land ownership, including succession applications, notices to quit, proprietary estoppel claims and contentious trust and probate issues.

Simon Tilling

Advises on UK environment, chemicals and product standards law including operational compliance, risk management in transactions, regulatory investigations, enforcement and criminal defence, regulatory appeals, tribunal hearings, judicial review and environmental civil claims. Expertise in waste management; environmental permitting; air quality; contamination and remediation; and nuisance claims. Particular specialism in chemicals and product compliance regimes such as REACH, BPR, WEEE and RoHS. Dual-qualified enabling him to practice throughout England and Wales and Scotland.

Simon Coppen

Simon has advised rail industry members on the full range of legal issues concerning the strategy, operation and development of the industry since privatisation in 1994. He is a leading rail industry adviser with recognised expertise in policy, structural, regulatory and operational matters including access, licensing, European and UK regulation and franchising. He regularly advises on commercial contracts, procurement, rail disputes and competition issues.

Steven James

Partner in and Head of the Construction and Engineering group, and dual-qualified (chartered quantity surveyor). A broad practice encompassing energy, defence and transport infrastructure, real estate, outsourcing, and dispute resolution. Clients include Affinity Water, Abellio Group, Babcock Group, RBS, HSBC, The YTL Group and The National Trust. Notable projects include advising on the development of a new nuclear power plant, nuclear fuel dry store, legacy nuclear waste treatment facility, new rail depot, framework arrangements for water network and rail infrastructure, the development of a new luxury hotel and spa and associated developments for nuclear powered submarines.

Suzanna Harvey

Head of the Private Wealth Sector and partner in international tax and trust unit of Private Client Services department. Specialises in international tax and estate planning for UK and non-UK clients. Advises non-UK domiciliaries on the income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax implications of UK residence, and about international estate planning. Provides UK tax advice to financial institutions, for example advising on the UK tax implications of their products. In addition, provides trust advice to numerous international trust companies and individuals, including drafting trust documentation, advising on general trust law issues and advising on policy documentation.

Suzanne Padmore

A specialist in pensions and financial services litigation. Pensions expertise covers a wide range of work including Part 8 rectification and construction claims, funding disputes and trustee applications to court for directions. Suzanne has acted in significant pensions professional negligence claims in recent years, acting for pension scheme employers and trustees. Suzanne also has a growing practice advising firms in the personal pensions market, addressing legal and regulatory issues.

Tim Williams

Director

Tom Hewitt

Head of Burges Salmon's Estates and Land team. Advises on tax and estate planning for individuals, business structures, including partnership; tenure issues; complex variation of trust actions; complex probates and trust matters. Particular focus on clients who own land. Frequently lectures on capital tax issues and particularly inheritance tax reliefs for farmers and landowners. Started career a a Chartered Surveyor/land agent before switching to law

Victoria Allsopp

Victoria is a Partner in the Banking and Finance team, specialising in project finance with a particular focus on energy (renewables, including wind, solar, gas and waste) and infrastructure projects. Victoria’s clients are drawn from across the full spectrum of the energy and infrastructure sector and include sponsors, borrowers and lenders, including many of the leading banks and financial institutions in the market. In addition to her core specialism, Victoria has considerable experience in acquisition finance, asset finance, general corporate finance and insurance finance.

Will Woodall

Will is a partner in Burges Salmon’s award-winning Infrastructure team, and has specialised since 2005 in the Energy sector. He has particular expertise in advising on the numerous real estate issues which are faced by clients developing, investing in and funding Energy assets. Recent experience includes: Extensive, market-leading experience of advising on all real estate aspects of solar, onshore wind, anaerobic digestion, biomass, reserve power, battery storage, hydro-electric and energy from waste projects. Advising investment funds and renewable energy companies (including Bluefield, Greencoat, Downing and Octopus Energy Investments) on the acquisition, financing and disposal of renewable energy assets and on the legal asset management of their portfolios. Advising numerous developers of renewable energy projects (including Anesco, Renewable Connections and Conrad) across all technologies on the property arrangements for their developments. Leading teams working on the development of major infrastructure projects including advising on offshore and onshore property arrangements for offshore windfarms and Carbon Capture and Storage pipelines. These often involve long cable or pipeline routes, requiring significant numbers of agreements and the efficient legal management of multiple contracts. Working on innovative structuring arrangements assisting the deployment of rooftop solar installations and on-site energy centres. Real Estate Partner specialising in energy and infrastructure projects and healthcare. Advises: developers, investors and funders of energy projects across the whole range of technologies, infrastructure projects and healthcare property. Recent highlights include advising Bluefield on the acquisition and financing of £110m portfolio of 15 operational solar parks, Anesco on its solar and battery developments and Vattenfall throughout the development of England and Wales' largest wind farm (Pen Y Cymoedd). Advising on investment into and refinancing of numerous on-farm anaerobic digestion plants, ground mounted solar parks and rooftop solar installations. Market leading experience in battery storage and reserve power plants. Advising a major healthcare company on its property portfolio.

William Gard

Will is a chartered civil engineer as well as a solicitor, practising arbitrator and adjudicator and has over 30 years' infrastructure projects experience. Will specialises in engineering and infrastructure projects procurement and dispute resolution. He has particular expertise in the design, construction and operation of energy, water, utilities, transport and other infrastructure projects. Will’s practice includes advising on the merits of potential claims to troubleshooting on complex projects and ultimately formal proceedings if necessary. A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Will is also a specialist in arbitration and adjudication and leads the firm's Arbitration and Adjudication practice area. He has been appointed as adjudicator/arbitrator on over 100 occasions over the last 20 years. Will is the immediate post Chairman of the Technology and Construction Solicitors' Association and sits on the Committee.

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