Collyer Bristow LLP

Alex O'Connor

Partner – specialising in developments, secured financing, energy centre leases, joint ventures, profit sharing and overage arrangements and the acquisition, disposal and financing of investment property.

Charles Braithwaite

Partner: Charles' main areas of expertise are corporate and commercial, intellectual property and sport. He has previously worked in-house at a major multinational, and has particular expertise in commercial contracts and general commercial matters. Charles' clients range from global brands to start-ups and include manufacturers, service providers, technology companies, agencies, entrepreneurs and sportsmen.

Charles Avens

Charles is Head of Immigration, specialising in Personal and Corporate immigration to the U.K. Charles provides advice and support to high-net-worth individuals and their families (and family offices) wishing to relocate; to international entrepreneurs and investors; and to both UK companies wishing to employ foreign nationals (recruiting from abroad or transferring employees to the UK from an overseas office) and to foreign businesses wishing to start a business in the UK.

Charlie Fowler

Charlie is a Partner in our Trusts, tax and estate planning team, specialising in advising resident non-domiciliaries, UK and international trustees and domestic clients on matters spanning pre-immigration planning, residency and domicile rules, international tax planning and UK wills and estate planning. Charlie also advises on a full range of immigration matters. On the personal immigration side, he specialises in advising private clients and their families throughout their immigration journey, from initial visa applications through to applications for indefinite leave to remain and naturalisation. He also advises entrepreneurs about setting up businesses in the UK under the Innovator or Start-Up immigration routes, and advises younger clients on Student visas and the Graduate visa. With businesses, Charlie advises corporate clients on recruiting and retaining top talent from the global market. This includes advising on applications for sponsor licences (both Skilled Worker licences and/or licences under the Global Business Mobility routes), advising proposed employees on subsequent work visa applications (including Skilled Workers, Senior or Specialist Workers, and Expansion Workers), as well as advising generally on ongoing compliance with the Immigration Rules affecting UK employers. “Visas and immigration rules are challenging but [Charlie’s] expert knowledge and guidance makes it much more manageable” – Client feedback “It didn’t matter what difficulties I encountered, as soon as I brought the matter to Charlie’s attention, he was quick to respond (even when on holiday), with a knowledgeable, sensible and practical approach.  This transformed stressful situations into calm, manageable ones with the added bonus that we always achieved the desired outcome” – Client feedback

Daniel Simon

Senior Partner of Collyer Bristow and a partner in the Tax and estate planning team. Areas of practice include overseas and domestic trusts, wills and estates together with related tax planning, particularly complex, cross-border planning. He regularly advises Swiss based institutions and their clients and helped establish the firm's Geneva office. Daniel leads the advisory service for US clients. He advises beneficiaries, executors and trustees on contested wills and trusts. Also advises charities, from small family trusts to national institutions.  

James Austen

James is a Partner specialising in Trusts, tax and estate planning, specifically acting for high net worth individuals, entrepreneurs and business owners. James has particular experience in advising business owners and the owners of rural estates about succession and/or exit planning and the applicable tax reliefs. Much of his time is spent advising in the context of contentious and semi-contentious situations, including tax and domicile enquiries and trust disputes.

John Saner

Partner in the Trusts, Tax & Estate Planning team specifically acting for individuals, trustees and executors. John is a trustee of many trusts and an executor of several estates.

Michael Drake

Partner and Senior family & divorce lawyer. He handles all areas of matrimonial and family law, particularly where there is a commercial, complex financial or international element.

Michael Grace

Head of Real estate

Patrick Wheeler

Partner and Head of Intellectual Property, specialising in contentious and non-contentious IP matters. He has had several recent cases in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, High Court and Court of Appeal, and has also negotiated and drafted a wide range of IP licence and business transfer documents. Patrick also heads the Data Privacy team, advising on GDPR audits and compliance. He is a regular speaker at conferences on Litigation reforms, and IP licensing, strategy and management issues and also contributes regular articles to the NLJ and SJ, amongst other publications.

Paul Sillis

Partner: Paul is a member of our Corporate and Commercial team. He offers practical company commercial advice based on more than 30 years of practice and experience of companies, LLPs, partnerships, charities and other legal bodies. He works in many different industries including professional services, financial services, IT, sport, media and advertising, travel, education, medical, retail and property. Paul is often involved in the establishment of new companies, businesses or joint ventures with the associated articles of association, shareholder, investment, joint venture, partnership option or other agreements. He also advises on loan and security and other capital funding arrangements. Paul has been involved in the sale and purchase or disposal of many companies and businesses with values ranging from hundreds of thousands to 100 million pounds. He has taken many clients through this process which can be an extremely stressful, once in a lifetime event.

Peter Daniel

Partner: Peter's work covers a broad range of tax and estate planning work for high net worth individuals. He has expertise in wills, personal tax, offshore structuring, cross-jurisdictional estate planning, pre-immigration planning, UK resident non-domiciliaries, contentious trusts and probate and mental incapacity. Much of his work has a cross-jurisdictional element to it, whether it is making wills for individuals with assets in numerous countries or complex offshore structuring. Peter has particular experience of advising on the UK affairs of American and Italian individuals. He aims to find practical, tax-efficient solutions for his clients.

Philippa Dolan

Philippa Dolan is a partner in the family law department. She is a mediator and collaborative lawyer. Philippa is a fellow of the IAML reflecting the significant international element of her caseload, particularly in relation to high-value financial claims.

Ragavan Arunachalam

Ragavan is a Partner in our Corporate and Commercial team with over a decade’s experience of Company Law matters and commercial contract law. He trained at Farrer & Co, and has been with Collyer Bristow since 2007.  He acts for private and public companies, banks, individual directors and shareholders, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and insolvency practices. He advises on a variety of matters including mergers and acquisitions, private equity, insolvency turnaround and shareholders’ agreements and disputes.  His clients range across a number of sectors including media, fashion, commercial property, fintech, and renewable energy.   Deal Examples Advising Ibrahim Ibrahim, the former owner of Portland Design Associates Limited, with regards to the sale of the company to Perkins+Will, a global architectural and design firm which employs 1,800 professionals worldwide.   Portland Design was founded in 1987, and has offices in London, Dubai and Istanbul. It is an award-winning design consultancy with a client portfolio including St Pancras International, Diageo, British Land, Nestle, TfL, Heathrow, CNN and TDIC. Ibrahim Ibrahim (Managing Director) commented:  “Having worked hard to grow the business of Portland Design Associates over a number of years, I was delighted with the support that Ragavan and the team at Collyer Bristow provided in guiding me through the sale process. Their very meticulous step by step approach helped me understand the key issues, this was very valuable as I had not been through this type of process before.   “It was particularly useful to have advisors who had experience dealing with the expectations and demands of a US buyer, and its legal representatives. It was a testament to the team’s ability to make things run smoothly that we were able to complete this deal within the demanding two week timetable that had been set.”  

Robin Henry

Partner: Robin's main areas of expertise are financial services, financial disputes and insolvency and corporate recovery. He has wide experience of both contentious and non-contentious banking and insolvency matters, with an emphasis on financial markets work and distressed debt. He has acted for many clients in relation to the misselling of forex, and other derivatives, and interest rate swaps. Robin gained experience of distressed debt trading from being seconded to Morgan Stanley and has since advised clients in this area, including on Lehman and MF Global claims. He has worked for administrators, administrative receivers and fixed charge receivers appointed in respect of numerous companies, involving both business and property sales. With regard to contentious insolvency, Robin’s experience includes actions for mortgage fraud and other claims and investigations brought by Insolvency Practitioners against companies and directors. He has also defended directors against claims brought by IPs and negotiated on behalf of companies in debt restructuring negotiations.

Tania Goodman

Partner, Head of Employment Law & Dispute Resolution

Tanya Roberts

Tanya has significant experience acting for both international and UK clients on family law matters and all financial aspects of relationship breakdown, including divorce, cohabitation, pre and post nuptial agreements and same sex relationships. Tanya also advises on a wide range of legal issues relating to children (including child arrangements, cases where there is a complex religious issue, internal relocation, change of school issues and cases where there is substance abuse, alcohol abuse or mental health issues concerning one of the parents). She has also built up a particular reputation for complex cross border jurisdictional matters including international relocation and child abduction. Tanya is co-author of: "Privacy and Disclosure for Family Lawyers. A Resolution Guide" Published 2011 "Living Together. Is Marriage The Better Buy?" Lawpack Publishing Ltd. Published 2004 "International Child Abduction" Sweet and Maxwell. Published 1993

Toby Yerburgh

Partner and Head of the Family team. Toby specialises in family and matrimonial matters with emphasis on Financial and Private Children Act work, particularly with international elements. An acknowledged expert on Prenuptial contracts.

Tulin Hamit

Tulin is a partner in our Tax and estate planning team, specialising primarily in international matters and with a focus on supporting wealthy Turkish and Middle Eastern clients. Her work includes advising individuals and families on cross-jurisdictional tax and planning considerations, trust structuring, succession planning, tax planning and complex international probate matters. Tulin also advises privately owned non-UK resident businesses on their corporate restructuring in England and in Turkey, advising on appropriate structures for holding UK property and on the availability of sovereign immunity from tax. She has a particular interest in taxation of international transactions and provides services to Turkish corporate clients wishing to extend their trading activities into English markets.

William Hancock

William is a partner in the Tax and Estate Planning team. He advises on contentious and non-contentious private client matters. Areas of practice include domestic and overseas trusts, residence and domicile, wills and succession, cross-border set ups, heritage property, charity and philanthropy, tax and compliance. William also leads an advisory service in art matters, including the collection, preservation, maintenance and disposition of things.