Dentons

Adrian is Head of Dentons' Competition practice in the UK. He has over 30 years’ experience of advising on a wide range of UK and EU competition law issues, including UK and EU merger control, cartel investigations, market investigations, abuse of dominance, commercial agreements and conduct, competition-related litigation and disputes, compliance training and counselling, state aid and public procurement. Adrian's experience includes six months' secondment to the Financial Conduct Authority, working with the Competition Division and other senior officials.

Adrian Giles

Adrian is a counsel in the Commercial Litigation practice in London. He focuses on corporate and financial disputes involving M&A, warranties and indemnities, shareholder agreements and joint ventures. He advises major corporates, banks and other financial institutions as well as individual directors and shareholders. There is often an international element to his matters in that he regularly works in multi-jurisdictional matters involving our various offices throughout the world. His areas of focus also include professional negligence, fraud and insurance. He is experienced in all aspects of litigation, including urgent remedies such as injunctions and has acted as the court-appointed supervising solicitor for the purpose of search and seizure injunctions. His recent work in the Commercial Court includes a number of applications enforcing and challenging international arbitration awards. He is also experienced in other methods of dispute resolution such as arbitration and mediation.

Akin specialises in the resolution of engineering and construction disputes, as well as facilities management and PFI-related disputes. His expertise includes all forms of dispute resolution from dispute avoidance and alternative dispute resolution (conciliation, mediation and adjudication) to arbitration (domestic and international) and litigation on issues relating to defective design/workmanship, build quality issues, delay and disruption claims, loss and expense claims, professional negligence, final accounts, service level performance obligations and interpretation of contractual terms. Akin is also experienced in acting as a "project counsel" on live construction and engineering projects in relation to delay or cost overruns, assisting clients or contractors in managing claims, negotiating settlement and avoiding disputes.

Alex is a Partner in the Real Estate practice and is based in our London office. He has a broad range of commercial property experience including investment property and portfolio acquisitions and disposals. Alex has acted on development acquisitions and disposals including turnkey development and funding agreements. He is active in asset management for institutional investors and also deals with all aspects of commercial lettings, having had experience acting for high profile occupiers/operators. Alex has experience of dealing with property aspects relating to insolvency, corporate recovery work and other corporate and restructuring transactions and also with investment and development finance transactions relating to real estate.

Alex is the head of Dentons' legacy Tax practice in the UK. He advises on a broad spectrum of corporate, commercial and real estate tax issues for a wide variety of clients across all key industry sectors (Energy, Transport, Infrastructure, Financial Institutions, Real Estate, Retail, Technology, Media, Entertainment and Sports). Alex works on mergers and acquisitions, reorganisations and restructurings, joint ventures, venture capital, fund transactions and real estate transactions (with particular emphasis on SDLT planning). Alex provides international tax planning advice to clients doing business overseas, particularly in jurisdictions where we have overseas offices.

Amanda Lewis is a consultant in the Firm's Technology, Media and Telecoms practice. She is a commercially and strategically minded lawyer with 15 years of experience as a partner in major City firms. Amanda is a renowned expert on outsourcing, with nearly 30 years of experience advising diversified and complex businesses on more than 220 strategic projects, covering IT, telecommunications, service integration, cloud computing, disaster recovery, printing, mailing, training, call center services, customer services, customer experience, human resources, payroll, pensions administration, finance and accounting, audits, fleet management, vehicle supply and vehicle servicing, revenues and benefits, insurance claims processing, credit card processing, lease payments processing, sweeping and pooling services, home remittance services, custody, fund administration, derivative processing, transfer agency, underwriting support, claims management, cash pool, trade finance processing, engineering consultancy, logistics and fulfillment, research, catering, cleaning and various other facilities management services. She also advises on the regulatory implications of outsourcing. She is trusted by household names to advise them on major strategic projects. She has a strong record of delivering pragmatic analysis on risk and governance to boards and senior executive teams. Amanda has also advised on numerous disputes relating to outsourcing/ collaboration or technology projects. She has resolved all disputes without litigation, usually by coming up with innovative solutions to resolve the dispute speedily. She has substantial experience of working with different cultures across the US, Canada, Europe, India, China, Japan, Singapore, the Middle East and Africa.

Andrew Henderson

Andrew provides a full service real estate, corporate real estate and real estate finance function for clients engaged in the real estate, corporate, finance, restructuring, and energy and infrastructure sectors. He has extensive experience in acquisitions and disposals, with joint ventures and with structured investments.

Andy Lucas

Andy Lucas is a partner in Dentons' Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) practice for the UK, Ireland and Middle East. He specialises in all aspects of non-contentious technology law and large scale public sector outsourcings. Andy has an outstanding track record of advising on some of the largest public sector commercial matters including the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme, UK Search and Rescue Helicopters, the Police National Database and ID Cards. Andy has a first-rate client list of major government departments including the Home Office, DfT, the Cabinet Office, and the NPIA, to name a few. Andy also advises cutting edge private sector companies on their technology projects in emerging areas, including advising UiPath, the leading global Robotic Process Automation company, on various corporate, commercial and compliance matters globally.

Anna Copeman

Anna is a partner in and Co-head of Dentons' Intellectual Property practice for the UK, Ireland and Middle East. Anna specializes in all aspects of intellectual property law, both contentious and non-contentious. She advises clients on the strategic protection and exploitation of their valuable intellectual property portfolios, managing global brand enforcement programmes for many clients in a wide range of different industries and sectors. Anna acts for clients on a wide range of commercial projects monetising their brands and products such as global franchising, distribution and manufacturing arrangements and also the acquisition and disposal of high value IP portfolios. Anna advises on cutting edge matters involving the deployment of next generation technologies such as digital assets, including NFTs and metaverse issues. On the contentious side, Anna has litigated at all levels of the English courts, often in parallel with litigations conducted by our other global offices. She also regularly works with clients to resolve matters through strategic settlements at an early stage. This year she protected Colin the Caterpillar for M&S in the “cake wars” litigation, and is also defending American Eagle Outfitters in a complex litigation arising out of a trade mark coexistence agreement. Anna heads up our Trade Mark Prosecution team, who work side by side with our litigators and commercial lawyers to give the very best protection for brands across the board.

Candice Chapman

Candice Chapman, who joined the firm as a trainee solicitor in 1998, is a partner in the Corporate practice of the firm's London office. Candice specialises in public and private mergers and acquisitions, joint venture and capital raising transactions (with particular experience of transactions involving multiple jurisdictions). Candice focuses her practice on four of the Firm's key sectors, Financial Institutions and Funds; Insurance; Technology, Media and Telecommunications and Energy. Candice plays an active role in many of the London office's pro bono activities including advising at a legal clinic in the London borough of Tower Hamlets and representing a variety of charitable organizations on corporate and commercial matters.

Catherine Astruc

Catherine is a partner in the Banking and Finance practice and has very broad finance experience. Her practice area covers acquisition and leveraged finance, general corporate lending, workouts and restructuring acting for a mix of financial institutions, sponsors and other corporate borrowers.

Catherine Bingham

Catherine Bingham, partner, has specialized in advising on major technology, infrastructure and outsourcing and technology projects for over 25 years and co-leads our UK government practice. Typically Catherine's role includes advising on strategy, leading on drafting and negotiating the project contracts and advising on the procurement, tendering and evaluation processes. UK government clients she has worked with include UK Ministry of Defence, (multi-£bn projects for ICT infrastructure and for ships and submarines and naval base support), Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (International Science & Innovation), UK Space Agency, HM Treasury, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Northern Ireland Civil Service and Department for Transport. On the private sector side, she has acted for technology suppliers and for customers in a wide range of industry sectors, including energy, transport and infrastructure, financial services, and retail. She is consistently rated as a leader in the technology and outsourcing fields. She is seen as an "excellent IT lawyer" and as "a calm and pragmatic operator" and wins plaudits for "deliverying professional advice and responding to challenges and deadlines". Catherine is also an intellectual property specialist with over 30 years' experience advising on IP, IT, data, information and security issues for public and private sector clients. She has negotiated a wide range of commercial agreements for technology, retail, energy transport and infrastructure, healthcare and media clients including research and development agreements, franchise agreements, licenses, distribution and supply and joint venture agreements. She also advises on issues arising in relation to the exploitation of intellectual property rights covering patent, know-how, trade marks, design and copyright and data protection.

Catherine Gilfedder

Catherine Gilfedder

Catherine Gilfedder is a Senior Associate and Solicitor Advocate specialising in international arbitration and public international law. She has experience as counsel for state and corporate clients in commercial and investment treaty disputes under all of the major institutional rules. Catherine has particular expertise in business and human rights issues, and regularly advises clients on risk management through investment structuring and ESG-related measures. She also acts for a number of international NGOs and their clients in claims before a range of courts, and is a duty scheme advocate at the Asylum Support Appeals Tribunal.

Catriona ’Kitty’ Lloyd

Catriona ’Kitty’ Lloyd

Partner

Celia is a banking partner in Dentons' London office. She focuses on debt restructuring and advises on both domestic and cross-border restructuring and insolvency transactions, typically acting for facility agents, security trustees, lender groups or borrowers in financially stressed or distressed situations. Celia also acts for boards and sponsors of distressed companies, insolvency practitioners and other turnaround professionals in business restructurings. Her work covers a wide range of sectors, most recently including telecoms, construction, retail, leisure, mining, energy and infrastructure both at home and abroad.

Charles is a consultant in the Energy, Transport and Infrastructure department of Dentons' London office. He specializes in the development, financing, and acquisition and disposal of energy and infrastructure assets and businesses. As well as in London, Charles has practised in Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Paris.

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Charles specializes in LNG and gas projects and sales, downstream gas and electricity market reform and regulation, and energy and natural resources projects. He is a partner in the Firm's Energy, Transport and Infrastructure practice. His clients include: for market reform and regulation – governments, energy regulators, gas and electricity utilities, and energy trading companies (in the UK and overseas); for LNG and other energy projects – international and national oil companies (IOCs and NOCs), LNG terminal operators, project sponsors, and governments, in the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Christopher Colclough

Chris heads the Corporate and Banking team in Milton Keynes. He leads our team offering a wide range of expertise and experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and financing, with particular strengths in owner-managed businesses, venture technology and emerging growth companies, private equity, automotive retail, insurance, manufacturing, acquisition finance and real estate finance. The team has considerable experience in both domestic and cross-border corporate and finance transactions. The team also includes our Company Secretarial unit which services more than 400 companies, many for household name groups. Chris is a corporate and finance specialist. His own practice includes international mergers and acquisitions, fundraising for venture technology and emerging growth companies, advising on complex corporate governance matters including shareholder rights and finance work for both lender and borrower, with a particular focus on UK real estate finance. Chris has previously worked in Dentons' Budapest office as well as being seconded to The Royal Bank of Scotland plc.

Christopher McGee-Osborne

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Christopher has 33 years' experience at Dentons, works right across the government, energy, transport and infrastructure sectors, and is co-chair of the Firm's global energy and global government practices. He specializes in public law, the drafting and negotiation of commercial contracts for governments and regulated companies, and in project development, regulation and privatization. He has advised private sector and government clients on the development/procurement of approximately 40 major projects in electricity, nuclear, oil and gas, railways, water and defense industries, in approximately 25 countries, many of which have been project financed and which have an aggregate value in excess of £90 billion. He has particular expertise in relation to carbon capture & storage and related project development. Christopher has advised on UK and international privatizations, regulation and market reform, including forming regulators, writing numerous laws, licenses and industry codes, in seven countries, and making representations and appearing at regulatory hearings. Christopher regularly advises the UK government, including BEIS, the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the Ministry of Defence and Low Carbon Contracts Company in relation to diverse matters such as procurement law, very large programs of maritime naval contracts, large-scale energy infrastructure, the UK’s participation in European Research Infrastructure Consortia, the UK government's strategic suppliers and electricity contracts for difference. His work for private sector clients often sees him working opposite government or regulators for household name clients, e.g. in relation to carbon capture & storage project development, bids for approximately 30 passenger rail franchises, several NDA nuclear decommissioning contracts, numerous other government procurement programs and in relation to regulatory actions and price reviews. He has often worked directly with government ministers.

Craig is a partner and solicitor-advocate in the Litigation and Arbitration practice in Dentons' London office. In addition to his general commercial disputes practice, Craig focuses on financial services litigation and regulation, with his work including High Court litigation, FCA investigations and enforcement proceedings, and advising clients on regulatory developments that impact upon their businesses. He has a particular interest in FinTech and payments law and sits on the advisory panel of the Association of Foreign Exchange and Payment Companies. Craig also has an interest in disputes involving technology more widely, and has acted extensively in litigation involving cyberattacks and data privacy issues, many of which have involved coordinating action across multiple jurisdictions.

Dan Burge

Dan is a leader in the Technology and Telecoms (TMT) practice, based in London and advising on a broad spectrum of IT and telecoms projects. He has wide experience of leading large-scale strategic technology procurement, business process re-engineering and outsourcing projects, and of supporting IT separation programs to make divested companies self-sufficient of their former group in an accelerated timeframe. Dan is a trusted advisor to his clients and his deep experience of transactions in the energy, technology, transport, retail and FMCG fields ensures that he is uniquely placed to help them realize the full value of their technology investments, even on the most complex and challenging projects. Dan offers strong analytical and commercial skills with wide experience of working with all of the major suppliers working in the marketplace. He has delivered significant projects for ERP implementations, system integration, software development and build/operate/transfer (BOT) arrangements, software and system maintenance and support, AI, cloud migration, integration and management (both as part of wider services and on a standalone basis), software audits, cybersecurity, network procurement and deployment, and a variety of XaaS deals – including PaaS, IaaS, SaaS and DaaS.

Dan Bodle

Dan specialises in international arbitration for clients in both the energy and construction sectors and technology, media and telecoms sectors. He has wide experience of commercial disputes in these sectors, often relating to issues arising in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. He also advises clients on major projects prior to the commencement of formal proceedings in a strategic risk management role and regularly advises on non-contentious matters on the dispute resolution and liability provisions of a contract.

David is a consultant in the Dentons' Energy and legacy Project Finance practices. He specialises in oil & gas and has wide experience of upstream, midstream and downstream matters. He has worked in the UK, the Middle East, the CIS and throughout Africa, acting for a mixture of host governments and NOCs, IOCs and independent oil & gas companies and industry regulators.

David Cohen is a partner in Dentons' Capital Markets practice. His practice covers a wide range of product areas, including public, listed eurobonds, private placements, EMTN programmes, CP programmes, high-yield bonds, loan participation notes, project bonds and structured products. He acts for a various market participants, including issuers (corporates, financial institutions and sovereigns), underwriters and trustees.

Dominic is a consultant (formerly a partner for 20 years) whose experience primarily lies in PPP and concession-based project finance (with a specific focus on infrastructure and energy). He has advised clients, including banks, sponsors/borrowers, investors and the public sector, on all aspects of project financing, on both project-related documentation and finance documents (debt and capital market solutions). In recent years he has advised on a large number of international PFI/PPP sector projects, including the airport sector. He also spent nine months on secondment to the in-house legal department of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, advising the bank on its debt and equity investments in Eastern Europe. He also focuses on developing the Firm's project finance in Africa and has been working on African infrastructure projects in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Nigeria. He has also advised on two projects in the Caribbean – in Antigua and Jamaica.

Dominic is an arbitration specialist with particular experience of acting in disputes involving Russian and CIS parties, in London and other European seats. Dominic is English-qualified but has lived and worked in Paris and Moscow, and is a fluent French and Russian speaker. He acts both as counsel and arbitrator. His work normally focuses on high value disputes under English law-governed contracts, such as shareholder agreements, construction contracts, loans and other financing documentation. These disputes have a strong international element and often require consideration of different systems of law and conflicts of laws. Dominic is an experienced advocate and cross-examiner and has conducted more than twenty hearings as first chair. His clients come from a variety of industry sectors, including banking and finance, construction, oil and gas, and telecommunications. He has experience in particular of LCIA, ICC and SCC arbitrations, as well as of ad hoc arbitration under UNCITRAL rules. Although his primary focus is on commercial arbitration he has also acted in investment treaty disputes, both as counsel and arbitrator.

Edward Hickman is a leading structured finance partner, with expertise in all types of securitisation (ABS, CMBS, CDOs and WBS), loan portfolio sales, project bonds, structured utility bonds, covered bonds, commercial real estate, multi-source intercreditor arrangements, derivatives and regulatory capital. Edward has worked on European, US, GCC and Asian transactions, acting for arrangers, originators, investors and rating agencies. Several of his transactions are pathfinder deals, being the first in a particular jurisdiction or the first for a particular asset class. During the financial crisis, Edward has advised on a number of divestments by banks as they deleverage, either on the sell side or the buy side. He has also been the lead partner on successful new debt issuances and refinancings, both in the capital markets and in the bank market, helping banks and corporate borrowers access new funding solutions. He has also advised corporates on how to use structured finance principles to help reduce their pension scheme deficits.

Elmer Doonan is a partner and head of pensions group with over 25 years experience in pensions matters. He has dealt with some of the most complex restructuring and insolvency related pensions issues over the years on behalf of employers, insolvency practitioners and pension trustees. He has acted in numerous court applications on pensions matters and on behalf of both trustees and employers and in matters involving the exercise of the Pension Regulator's moral hazard powers, most notably the recent Lehman FSD case where he acted for 28 Lehman companies.

Faye is a partner at Dentons' Milton Keynes office. She is a member of the Corporate practice. Faye has experience of advising all types of businesses on a wide range of corporate transactions, including acquisitions and disposals, restructurings and reorganizations, corporate governance and joint ventures. She also regularly works on cross-border transactions and has particular experience in the W&I insurance sector. Faye is also very experienced advising both lenders and borrowers on a variety of finance matters, including leveraged, acquisition and real estate financing transactions. She also works closely with the Dentons Automotive team in relation to credit facilities made available to leading UK motor dealers.

Felicity is the co-head of Dentons UK Core Disputes practice which includes financial and commercial litigation. Alongside litigation expertise, the group offers strategic risk management advice and investigations skills. The group is particularly known for its strength in the financial services sector, having represented clients on a number of leading cases in the period since the last financial crisis. The focus of Felicity's own practice is complex, strategic or high-value disputes, often for financial services clients and involving regulatory issues, but also across other sectors including energy, transport and infrastructure. She has represented clients in capital markets, PFI, and derivatives litigation; on mis-selling claims; group claims; and in M&A disputes. Clients value the strategic insight Felicity provides and her role regularly involves advising clients at executive level, including pre-litigation and on litigation risk arising in transactions. Felicity has spent time on secondment to the litigation and regulatory teams of major banking clients, including at partner level. She is experienced in proceedings in the High Court and the Court of Appeal and has significant mediation expertise.

Francesca Bettermann

Francesca is a corporate lawyer and Counsel in the Milton Keynes Corporate team. She has the benefit of two years' working in industry as well as her time in private practice in London, Dubai and Milton Keynes. Her practice area covers establishing and reorganizing businesses, acquisitions and disposals, mergers and joint ventures. She has considerable experience in both domestic and cross-border corporate transactions. Francesca specializes in the retail automotive sector and has more than 20 years' experience of advising automotive retailers on the sale and purchase of dealership businesses and other corporate matters. Francesca also manages our Company Secretarial team which services more than 500 companies, many for household name groups.

Gilla has experience covering all aspects of commercial litigation and specialises in employment and regulatory issues. She has extensive High Court, Court of Appeal and House of Lords experience in addition to tribunal experience. Gilla has also been involved in a number of pan-European and worldwide restructurings.

Greg Thwaites is a consultant in Dentons’ London office. He is a member of the Real Estate group, which is one of the largest cross-border real estate teams among top international law firms. With over 500 real estate lawyers committed to an integrated approach, our team gives you the comfort of a global presence with a deep understanding of the local real estate terrain. Greg is an expert in UK real estate matters including, real estate finance, investment, M&A, landlord and tenant, restructuring and insolvency and development. His sector experience includes healthcare, retail (including motor retail), industrial, office, leisure and ultra-high value residential. He acts for institutional clients, including banks, large owner occupiers and capital providers.The Legal 500 states that Greg shows “tenacity, responsiveness and reliability”.

Greg Rigby

Greg is a legal project manager in the Real Estate department. His practice area covers freehold and leasehold property acquisitions and disposals, advising on land law issues, property management work and acting for landlords and tenants of both established and newly built shopping centres.

Helen Bowdren

Helen is a partner in the market-leading Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) team at Dentons. She advises clients on all aspects of environmental, climate change, societal and human rights issues, across a wide range of sectors including energy, manufacturing, industrial and chemicals. Her practice is varied and includes transactional work as well as advisory and litigation, including Environment Agency and HSE investigations and prosecutions, judicial reviews and statutory appeals. She advises on environmental permitting, pollution liability, waste law, climate change, health and safety law, and product liability. Helen has an international practice, having worked in Dubai and South Africa, and regularly advises on environmental risk in cross-border transactions.

Henrietta Baker

Henrietta Baker

Henrietta is a partner in and Head of Dentons' Technology Media and Telecoms (TMT) practice for the UK, Ireland and Middle East. Henrietta leads one of the strongest and largest specialist TMT practices with 70+ dedicated partners and fee earners based in England and Wales, Scotland, the Republic of Ireland and the United Arab Emirates. The team provides strategic counsel to some of the largest global businesses, advising on high-value projects and matters, many of which are critical to ongoing business operations and future strategic growth. Henrietta specializes in advising on technology and telecoms transactions, strategic sourcing and commercial contracts, with particular strengths in the energy, technology, aviation, manufacturing and financial services sectors. Drawing on a strong background of cutting-edge deals, Henrietta brings a wealth of experience to advising clients on legal strategy, policy and negotiation, supporting companies at all levels of the technology ecosystem, as well as non-technology companies procuring solutions. In particular, she has extensive experience in advising on communications procurement, ERP implementation, system integration, software development, cloud services (including SaaS, PaaS and IaaS), cybersecurity, AI, IoT, e-commerce, application development and maintenance, and networks projects. In addition, she regularly advises on a large number of diverse commercial arrangements, including global distribution arrangements, transitional services arrangements, business process outsourcing, manufacturing contracts, arrangements for payment technologies and concession agreements.

Humphrey Douglas

Humphrey is an energy partner in Dentons' London office with over 20 years' experience throughout the energy value chain. He previously acted as General Counsel for a Middle Eastern state energy company. Humphrey specializes in international acquisitions and disposals (both asset and corporate deals) and in oil, gas, conventional power and renewables. He also advises on energy joint ventures, restructuring, commercial contracts and regulation.

Ian is a partner in the Restructuring and Insolvency practice, focusing on all areas of contentious insolvency and asset recovery work (including major commercial litigation). He also has significant experience in restructuring and non-contentious insolvency work, and has advised insolvency practitioners, lenders, governments, corporates and directors in relation to insolvency issues in sectors including infrastructure, construction, energy, real estate, retail and sport. Ian has a particular interest in cross-border and international insolvencies and in April 2018 he graduated as a Fellow of INSOL International. He is also closely involved with representative organizations in the UK insolvency market, as a member of the City of London Law Society Insolvency Law committee, and the R3 education and courses committee.

Ian Clements

Partner

James Fairbairn

James is a partner in the Milton Keynes office Commercial Dispute team. He represents clients in all forms of commercial dispute resolution. He has experience in contract disputes, product liability, company law and shareholder claims, trusts, banking, professional negligence and construction disputes. He acts for many blue-chip companies, banks, financial institutions and individuals. As well as one-off unique cases, James assists clients with portfolios of cases and has developed bespoke case management systems and solutions. He has a particular interest in cost issues and uses cost management systems to keep costs proportionate to case value, which is particularly important with lower-value claims. James has higher advocacy rights of audience and has made many appearances in the High Court as well as in other tribunals and when representing clients in arbitration cases. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and a member of the Professional Negligence Lawyers Association, the Technology and Construction Solicitors’ Association and the Society of Construction Law.

James is a multi-specialist corporate finance lawyer with emphasis on real estate finance (including hotels), restructuring, general banking and asset based lending. James now acts primarily for banks, other financial institutions and borrowers on a range of mainstream transactions and he has both transactional and general advisory experience.

James Langley

As a partner with Higher Rights of Audience, James focuses on international arbitration, including both commercial arbitration and investor-state arbitration, as well as commercial litigation and mediation. He has experience of arbitration and litigation predominantly within the energy and infrastructure, telecoms, financial services, shipping and sports sectors, including proceedings under the ICSID, ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL, LMAA, DIFC-LCIA and ADCCAC (Abu Dhabi) arbitration rules. Much of James' practice focuses on projects in the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia and Latin America. James has most recently worked for: a South Asian state defending a BIT claim by a UAE entity under the UNCITRAL Rules relating to a bauxite mining project; a multinational energy company in an arbitration under the ICC Rules relating to a dispute concerning completion under an SPA; and a South Asian state pursuing and defending claims in the English courts relating to challenges/appeals to arbitral awards worth several billion dollars. James has benefited from secondments to Moscow and Dubai during his time at the Firm.

Jason is a real estate specialist with extensive experience in investment, real estate finance, hotel disposals and acquisitions, corporate real estate, development work and landlord and tenant matters - he acts for high net worth individuals, banks, investors, developers, hotel operators, landlords and tenants. He also specialises in the real estate aspects of restructuring and insolvency work and has advised insolvency practitioners and banks on a number of high-profile transactions.

Katharine Harle

Katharine Harle

Katharine advises on all aspects of financial markets and regulatory work. She previously spent nearly five years as an FCA lawyer including working in its Enforcement division. Through her experience with the FCA, Katharine has a detailed understanding of regulatory processes and policy-making, enabling her to advise clients on a broad range of contentious and non-contentious regulatory and strategic issues, most recently the implementation of the Senior Managers & Certification Regime and regulatory references, the consequences of Brexit, disciplinary proceedings and conducting and reporting to the regulator on investigations into regulatory failings. Katharine's clients include both public organizations and a wide range of regulated firms including banks, investment firms, insurers, brokers, credit institutions and payments firms, as well as individuals. She regularly works with Dentons' overseas firms to provide cross-border advice. Her work is often confidential, focusing on achieving a successful outcome on complicated and sensitive matters.

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Liz is head of Dentons' International Arbitration practice in the UK. She has extensive experience in international commercial litigation and arbitration, especially in the energy sectors, and engineering and construction. She also has experience of rail, IT and disputes arising out of M&A transactions. Liz advises a number of major oil and gas companies on arbitration, litigation, expert determination and mediation on a range of matters, including the price of oil, gas and LNG, pre-emption, issues under production sharing contracts and concession agreements, cost sharing, JOA disputes, sales, transportation and trading agreements. She has experience of international arbitration around the globe and under the ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL Rules, as well as ICSCD.

Luci Mitchell-Fry

Luci Mitchell-Fry

Luci has extensive experience of managing complex and challenging domestic and international corporate insolvencies and restructurings, as well as major commercial disputes and investigations arising in the context of formal insolvencies. Her advisory practice spans the full spectrum from consensual restructuring to formal insolvency, including contingency planning (enforcement options, COMI shifts and managing counterparty risk), the use of restructuring tools (e.g. schemes of arrangement and CVAs), insolvency appointments, pre-packs and trading insolvencies, and strategic advice to stakeholders (with a particular focus on directors/officers of distressed corporates). During the COVID-19 pandemic, Luci has been engaged in providing complex, technical and bespoke advice to boards of directors of stressed and distressed companies across a wide range of sectors and has advised confidential high-profile clients on matters relating to their response to the ongoing pandemic, particularly in the retail, international aviation, energy and rail sectors. Recently, Luci advised Hurricane Energy Plc, the AIM-listed oil exploration and exploitation company, on its ground-breaking proposed restructuring plan with bondholders. Other notable matters include British Steel, where Luci led the cross-departmental team assisting Network Rail with contingency planning and providing strategic advice, and several confidential matters in the rail franchising arena where Luci provided complex technical and bespoke board level advice to distressed corporates, frequently in situations of strategic significance and/or with a political dimension.

Lucille De Silva

Lucille De Silva is a partner in Dentons' Energy, Transport and Infrastructure practice, based in London. She focuses on solar, and has over 24 years’ international energy, projects, regulation and privatization experience. Lucille has developed the Firm’s UK solar practice and has led and closed over 200 large-scale solar projects amounting to more than 1.5 GWp and worth in excess of £2 billion.

Madeleine Smallwood

Madeleine is a partner in the Real Estate practice with particular expertise in development work including projects relating to the Energy sector. She acts for utilities and statutory undertakers as well as major corporates and Middle Eastern investors. Her practice also includes expertise in hotel and leisure acquisitions, disposals and operators' agreements both in the UK and internationally.

Mark is a partner in the Energy and Finance team of the Firm's London office.He specializes in the acquisition, development and financing of energy and infrastructure assets, with a particular focus on thermal and renewable power generation assets, and in structured commodity trading arrangements.

Martin works in the Energy, Transport and Infrastructure practice. He specializes in the development and implementation of infrastructure projects, and related regulatory issues. He has negotiated and drafted numerous commercial contracts for participants in regulated industries, and advises in the rail, energy, and defense and sectors. He advises both bidders and government on infrastructure development and financing contracts, and regularly advises on regulatory and procurement issues.

Martin Fanning

Martin is a Technology & Data Partner, based in Dentons' London office. Martin also serves as Dentons' Clients and Markets Partner and sits on the UKIME region's Executive Leadership Team with a focus on client delivery, innovation and wider strategy. Martin has advised public bodies, financial institutions and other large corporates on a wide range of complex information technology, intellectual property and data protection matters for over 15 years. He advises regularly on business process and IT outsourcings and cross-border sourcing and procurement arrangements for major FTSE and Fortune businesses. He also has a significant advisory practice across a wide range of non-contentious areas, including IT, cloud and SaaS arrangements; digital content; IP licensing and development arrangements; and e-commerce and advertising compliance matters. Martin is also a member of Dentons' Global Data Privacy team and advises on a range of business-critical data protection matters from BAU compliance to complex international transfer, BCRs and data audit projects.

Matthew Hanslip-Ward

Matthew is a specialist in transport, and a recognised leader in the field. He has nearly 20 years experience in the sector and has been involved in a range of projects across the world. He has particular expertise in the rail industry, infrastructure project development and economic regulation. He is legacy co-Head of the London Energy, Infrastructure and Project Finance Department.

Matthew Sapte is a partner in the firm's Banking and Finance department and specialises in debt capital markets and derivatives.Matthew regularly advises bank and corporate clients on a wide range of matters, covering bond financings (including Eurobonds, sukuk issues, exchangeables and MTN programmes), asset backed securitisations, receivables financings (including power supply contract monetisations) and derivative transactions (whether OTC, credit linked or finance related).

Matthew Tinger is a partner in the Corporate department of the firm's London office, specialising in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and private equity transactions. Matthew has particular experience in corporate real estate transactions and heads up the firm's corporate real estate practice. He regularly advises clients on acquisitions and disposals of properties within corporate structures, property joint ventures and on sale and leaseback transactions.

Matthew Vinall

Having joined Dentons in 1994 as a trainee lawyer and qualified into its Dispute Resolution practice in September 1996, Matthew is now counsel specializing in energy disputes, including price reviews and major construction, infrastructure and engineering disputes. He has significant experience operating under all the major international arbitration rules and has been involved in hearings in several countries. Matthew often works closely with clients and independent technical experts in fields including economics, forensic accountancy, design and engineering, project planning and quantity surveying, and has developed a good working knowledge of each of these areas. As well as major arbitrations, Matthew has also worked on a wide range of commercial disputes in the High Court and before regulatory tribunals. He has been involved in several mediations and expert determinations. Matthew also has an active non-contentious practice, focusing on dry shipping, international trade and aviation-related advice.

Michele is a member of the Planning and Public Law team. She focuses on negotiating and drafting planning and highways agreements, town center regeneration and redevelopment schemes, urban extensions, compulsory purchase orders, road closure orders, highways issues, judicial review, public inquiry work and enforcement issues.

Michelle Lamb

Michelle is a partner in Dentons' tier one ranked People, Reward and Mobility practice in Milton Keynes, and is an experienced employment law specialist. She provides strategic and risk management advice to a wide variety of public and private sector clients, including a number of large household names. Michelle does a lot of work in the retail, manufacturing, energy and transport sectors, advising venture capital clients on the employment aspects of growth and development projects. She regularly supports Dentons' international client base with a variety of cross-jurisdictional projects. Michelle advises on contentious and non-contentious matters. She has a straightforward and commercial approach, and is highly experienced in the employment aspects of all forms of transactional work, change programs and litigation. Michelle is an expert in large domestic and international TUPE outsourcing exercises and retendering processes. She also focuses on whistleblowing, and complex and high-value litigation, including discrimination and TUPE complaints. Michelle guides employers through a variety of sensitive day-to-day issues with a focus on reputational aspects. She also supports businesses in overseeing significant investigations.

Miriam is a real estate partner specializing in property development, acting for both developers and occupiers, with a particular emphasis on the retail sector. She has extensive experience of leading the negotiation of agreements for lease and development, and forward funding agreements, especially of mixed-use schemes with a residential element. Miriam also works in the transport and logistics sectors, with particular experience of rail-connected facilities.

Natalia Fludra

Natalia is a partner in Dentons' London office, specialising in financial markets disputes. Natalia has broad experience of multi-jurisdictional finance, civil fraud and contentious insolvency claims. She has acted for a range of international clients, with a focus on financial institutions. In addition, Natalia has experience of regulatory, sanctions and anti-corruption investigations.

Hall of fameDentons

Neil co-heads the Dentons UK and Middle East Restructuring and Insolvency Group, and has focused in all aspects of insolvency for over 30 years, in particular contentious and litigious work, including major international fraud and asset tracing work. He is named as a Leading Individual in Restructuring in Who's Who Legal 2019 and is regularly ranked in the leading directories in which he has been described as "very astute" and "tough opposition".

Partner

Neill Pemberton

Neill is a senior associate in the Real Estate team. He specialises in property finance having acted for major lenders including Standard Chartered, UBS and Citibank. Neill has experience of acting for both borrowers and lenders on a wide variety of matters from complex developments to managing a team delivering commoditised products. He has helped banks to establish new financial products at inception through to successful implementation and continuous improvement. Neill is also an expert in Islamic financing of properties. He has acted for a number of Middle Eastern banks on murabaha, ijara and diminishing musharaka facilities.

Nichola has been in the Dentons' Real Estate team for over 30 years and her practice covers all aspects of commercial real estate work. Over the last 10 years, Nichola has mainly focussed on significant investment transactions for overseas investors, particularly from the Middle East. In that role, Nichola has represented many leading corporates/families and works very closely with Dentons' international tax team. These investor clients have either bought for their own account, in joint venture or as participants/promoters of funds which means Nichola has a good understanding and experience of all forms of investment. Nichola has also been involved in a number of high-profile developments acting for investors, developers or anchor tenants. For example, Nichola worked for Aviva and its co-investors on the award winning Paddington Central scheme in London (covering its acquisition, development, letting and ultimate sale after nearly 14 years from first instruction). She also represented Al Jazeera when it became one of the first office tenants in The Shard.

Nicholas is co-leader of Dentons' global private equity practice. He has more than 20 years' experience advising on both domestic and cross-border leveraged buyouts and has led over £10 billion of LBOs in the last five years. Nicholas has worked extensively for some of the leading private equity houses, including Apax, Blackstone, Centerbridge, CVC Capital Partners, Duke Street Capital, European Capital, Graphite Capital, Investcorp, Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners and ZQ Capital.

Nick is the Chair of Dentons' Global Aviation group. His main areas of practice are cross-border aircraft finance and leasing structures with tax-based elements, ECA-supported financings and aircraft operating leasing.He has been recognised as a Legal Expert for Aviation Finance and Asset Finance and Leasing by Legal Business, The Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners guides to the legal profession for over 20 years and is listed in the Who's Who Legal for Aviation. He has spent time working in France and, in particular, spent 18 months on secondment with Airbus working on manufacturer-supported financings in the early 1990s.Over the last 30 years, Nick has been involved in all manner of aircraft financings, leasing and purchase structures. In this time he has represented many of the major European, American and Japanese banks for aircraft deliveries to some of the world's leading airlines. More recently, Nick has worked with some of the most active European airlines in their fleet development programs and with a number of the leading aircraft leasing companies on portfolio acquisitions and sales.

Nick Graham

Nick is the founding partner of Dentons' Global Privacy and Cybersecurity Group. Recognized as a leading practitioner, he specializes in data privacy, cybersecurity and information governance, advising across all sectors, including retail, telecoms, energy, manufacturing, banking, insurance, transport, technology and digital media. Nick has more than 25 years’ experience in data protection and has been advising since the days of the Data Protection Act 1984/1998 and the early enforcement activities of the FTC. He advises on all aspects of data privacy including global compliance strategy and control frameworks, data privacy impact assessments, data breach and incident response, group litigation claims, international data transfers, customer data exploitation and data retention. Most recently, he has advised on AI and privacy compliance, consumer tracking, biometrics, data sovereignty, conflicts of data laws and transfers post-Schrems II/Brexit.

Nick is a partner in Dentons' Capital Markets practice. He focuses on a wide range of securities work, including advising underwriters and issuers in connection with issues of debt (listed eurobonds, private placements, medium-term note programs, loan participation notes), equity, equity-related and Islamic Finance securities in international markets. Nick has particular experience in the emerging markets, especially in Central and Eastern Europe and Africa, where he is forging a reputation for executing difficult deals to demanding timetables.

Nigel has been a partner in the Firm's London Corporate practice for over 15 years. In that time he has worked on a wide range of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, incorporated and unincorporated joint ventures, and reorganizations both in the UK and internationally. His work has covered a number of sectors but with particular focus on public and private transactions in the energy and natural resources sectors. His recent experience covers deals in upstream oil and gas as well as deals in the onshore and offshore renewables markets in the UK. His work internationally has covered the CIS, Africa and the Gulf. He has also done a lot of work in the real estate and services sectors in the UK, in which he supports clients on real estate and corporate-led transactions, as well as UK-based and international corporate group reorganisations. As well as working in London, Nigel has spent a number of years working in Hong Kong and regularly travels to work on matters internationally. He has also spent time on secondment with Shell working in their Chemicals and Gas and Power teams.

Nigel Barnett is legacy co-head of the Global Restructuring, Insolvency and Bankruptcy practice. He has extensive experience in all aspects of insolvency.Nigel became a partner in the Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice in 1991. Having started as a finance litigator Nigel became one the founding partners of the Restructuring, Insolvency and Bankruptcy practice. Whilst he now has a broad based insolvency practice he retains a keen interest in the litigation aspects of corporate insolvency.Nigel is a well known industry figure. He is a current council member of the Insolvency Lawyers' Association and a Deputy Bankruptcy Registrar of the High Court. Between 1999 and 2004 he served as the Lay Observer to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. He is also a CEDR accredited mediator. He is recognised as a leader in his field by The Legal 500, Chambers Legal Directory and the International Who's Who of Insolvency and Restructuring Lawyers. He is a regular lecturer at conferences on insolvency issues.Nigel regularly acts for Insolvency Office Holders, Financial Institutions, Distressed Companies and Directors on insolvency matters. Most recently Nigel acted for the Greek Telecom holding company, Hellas Telecommunications (Luxembourg) II S.C.A. on the largest ever "pre-pack" administration sale in English history.

Paul is a consultant in the Corporate practice of the firm's London office. He has over 30 years' experience in acting for public and private companies and concentrates on mergers and acquisitions, company and business disposals, takeovers, flotations, issues of securities and joint ventures. Paul has lectured on the AIM Market in both London and overseas.

Paul Holland is based in London but has spent many years working in the Middle East and much of his work continues to be linked with the area with which he maintains close ties.Paul is a partner in the Asset Finance department, where he principally deals with the financing of aircraft. He acts for a range of clients including export credit agencies, commercial banks, operating lessors and airlines. He has wide experience of the various structures used commonly to finance aircraft, including both US Exim and European ECA supported transactions.Due to the time Paul spent in the Middle East, he also has great interest and experience in Islamic finance and used to be head of the firm's Islamic Finance practice. Paul retains a great interest in Islamic finance and is a frequent speaker at conferences and other events.

Hall of fameDentons

Peter is a leading securitization and structured finance practitioner and partner in the firm's Banking and Finance practice. He co-heads the firm's securitization and structured finance practice.He advises originators, arrangers and other market participants, both within the UK and internationally, on a broad range of public and private securitization and warehousing transactions, covering many asset classes, including residential mortgages, consumer loans, auto loans, commercial mortgages, NPLs, trade receivables, corporate and leverage loans, equity release and home reversion plans, as well as on the acquisition, financing and disposal of portfolios of assets, both performing and non-performing, in the whole loan market. He also advises on supply chain financing and factoring programs, and on cash and synthetic structures of all kinds.Peter's experience includes advising on many RMBS, CMBS, ABS and CLO programs, and also on bank-sponsored conduit programs; he also has extensive experience of real estate finance transactions, including those financed by capital markets issues.He also has extensive experience of the establishment of, and issues under, covered bond programs, including for banks and other financial institutions in the UK, continental Europe and globally. He also advises on capital market programs, including secured and unsecured programs. He is a frequent speaker at conferences, and author of articles, on topics concerning developments in the securitization and covered bond markets, and a member of industry bodies, including AFME and ECBC.

Raj is a senior corporate/commercial lawyer at Dentons. His 30-year legal career has covered a wide range of transactions in various sectors including financial services, private equity, venture capital, media and technology, real estate, energy (including renewables, and oil and gas), transport (road and rail), utilities (water and waste) and other infrastructure. He has built a world-class network and practice, by being not just a legal advisor but also a connector who is approachable, commercial, enthusiastic, cheerful, humorous, open, practical and collaborative. He aims to add value to all clients and contacts with whom he engages. Raj was born, raised and educated in Malaysia until he came to the UK for his university and professional legal education (Warwick University and Inns of Court School of Law where he qualified as a Barrister at Gray’s Inn). He has spent the better part of the last 30 years advising on transactions in the UK, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. He works with Dentons teams and offices across the globe in originating and advising on transactions in numerous sectors and is an active member of Dentons' Global Africa Group. He is both passionate and optimistic about the future of the continent. He enjoys public speaking and interacting with people at all levels and is a frequent speaker on a variety of subjects in which he has an interest/experience, from energy and infrastructure to private equity and venture capital/angel investing. In his spare time, Raj is an active angel investor, advisor and mentor with a portfolio of more than 30 companies (in Europe, Africa and South East Asia), four VC funds and a tech accelerator (with 34 portfolio companies).

Richard is a partner in Dentons' London Corporate department. He has particular experience in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate governance and privatisations. He also advises regularly on establishing and reorganising companies and businesses (both solvent and insolvent), other commercial agreements and associated regulatory issues. Richard works across a number of sectors. In particular he advises on transactions in the transportation sector (rail, road and air including a three-year period working on the UK rail privatisation), and the financial sector (such as a bank's own M&A; and debt-equity restructurings of bank customers). He heads our sports practice, focusing on M&A, financings and commercial agreements. He also regularly advises public sector clients, including the UK Government. Most of the transactions in which he is involved are cross-border; and he has worked on deals involving 100+ jurisdictions. In particular, Richard has advised on numerous matters in Russia and the CIS, the Middle East and Africa. More recently he has worked on a number of transactions involving China, Japan and India. Chambers feedback acknowledges that "working with Richard is a pleasure"; he is described as "calm, extremely knowledgeable" and having "an ability to defuse the confrontation inevitable in negotiations". Legal 500 have recognised Richard as having "huge corporate law experience".

Richard Caird

Richard is a highly experienced partner in the Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice in London. He acts for a range of financial institutions and other commercial organisations. His recent experience includes a number of high-profile banking trials. Richard has considerable experience of public law work in the financial services arena, including a number of heavyweight judicial reviews. He is also experienced in conducting internal investigations and advising on regulatory matters generally.

Richard chairs the Dentons global Construction and Development group and co-chairs the UK Development and Regeneration practice, focusing on issues relevant to developers, landowners and funders active in delivering change to the built environment. Richard specializes in all aspects of real estate development through structures including joint venture corporate vehicles, contractual joint ventures, project agreements, development management agreements and funding documents, direct and indirect. He has extensive experience over a number of years in relation to large-scale development projects and the assembling and management of investment portfolios.

Rob Thompson

Rob is a partner in Dentons' Real Estate group. He specialises in investment and development work, complex corporate real estate and real estate finance transactions both in the UK and abroad, advising in the office, retail, high end residential, hotel, student housing and logistics sectors. Rob acts for a range of clients including UK and international property companies (listed and private), private equity houses, real estate funds, private family offices (both in the UK and overseas), banks and large corporates.

Robert Wyatt

Robert is the Milton Keynes Office Managing Partner and a member of our Real Estate department. Robert handles a wide range of commercial property transactions specializing in the acquisition and development of land and buildings. In addition to housebuilders and other investors, developers and public authorities, Robert also acts for lenders in both securing and recovering their funding of acquisitions and development.

Robyn is an intellectual property and information technology partner whose practice covers franchising and distribution, commercial contracts and concession agreements, information technology and communications law, e-commerce law, data protection/privacy and all forms of new technology and IP such as artificial intelligence, payment platforms and crypto currencies, augmented reality and virtual reality. Robyn has advised many companies behind the world's leading brands.Robyn has particular expertise in the hotel, leisure, retail, education and healthcare sectors. She is recognised as a leading expert in retail, education, hotel and leisure franchising. She is a member of the firm's franchise group, hotel sector group and the firm’s retail group. Robyn’s clients include multi-national corporations, financial institutions, start-ups such as games developers and public authorities. Robyn works with them on matters such as franchise agreements and master developer agreements (and their related contracts and disclosure documents), strategic outsourcing agreements, major commercial contracts and software licensing, outsourcing and development agreements.Robyn also has a specialty in international licensing, particularly in retail, hospitality and healthcare sectors, and advises on data protection law impacts in respect of international transfers and customer relationship management, and IP driven joint venture agreements. Her practice has included both contentious and non-contentious matters.

Roy is a partner in the Planning and Public Law team, bringing his experience of working on regeneration projects within local government and as a consultant to his legal practice. He advises on all aspects of contentious and non-contentious planning for complex housing, fracking and mixed-uses development, including environmental assessment, highways law and judicial review. He is also a Solicitor Advocate with higher rights of audience, and a specialist in Community Infrastructure Levy, EIA/ SEA, viability, Local Plans and related hearings and examinations.

Sam focuses on UK and EU environmental and safety law, and has been practicing in these fields for over 15 years. He is one of the few lawyers in the UK to be individually ranked in Chambers & Partners for both environmental and health and safety expertise. His practice area includes waste management, producer responsibility, product liability, pollution liability, environmental permitting, water and drainage, land contamination and health and safety. Sam assists clients with all areas of environmental and safety regulation, including in relation to regulatory investigations, prosecutions, compliance issues, liability concerns, and contractual drafting to cover environmental and safety issues. Sam is a member of the UK Environmental Law Association (UKELA) and is also a member of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM). He speaks regularly at industry events and writes a regular legal column on environmental law in the waste industry's main trade journal, CIWM. According to Chambers & Partners 2017, clients are "impressed with his ability to think ahead and analyse the business needs," and describe him as "exceptionally knowledgeable and helpful."

Sarah Dyke is a partner in the Banking and Finance department of the firm's London office specialising in asset finance. Sarah has broad domestic and cross-border asset finance experience and acts for UK and overseas financiers, banks, leasing companies, lessees, airlines, borrowers and high net worth individuals and family offices. Sarah specialises in: all types of leasing and financing involving assets in transport, infrastructure, energy, medical equipment, plant and machinery, equipment, media, IT and telecommunications; general asset finance work including receivables financing, invoice discounting, trade facilities and factoring; financing and leasing of commercial aircraft, corporate jets and helicopters as well as advising on defaulting borrowers and lessees, repossession of aircraft and restructuring of deals; construction and delivery financing and sale and purchase of super yachts involving a variety of jurisdictions; structured financing transactions involving films, computer games and intellectual property rights; financing and sale and purchase of assets such as aircraft, super yachts and property for high net worth individuals.

Sarah is a partner and head of the Firm's tier one ranked People, Reward and Mobility practice in Milton Keynes. A very experienced employment lawyer, she undertakes a full range of employment work for a wide variety of clients in the private and public sectors, including many leading companies and household names. Sarah's work includes advising on large-scale redundancy and restructuring exercises, TUPE transfers and complex outsourcing arrangements, as well as advising on the employment aspects of large corporate transactions, having worked on numerous multi-million pound transactions for an impressive portfolio of clients. She has particular experience of large-scale employee consultation processes, having advised extensively on collective consultation with unions and employee representatives on changes to terms and conditions, including pensions changes, and the application of collective agreements to terms and conditions. Sarah also advises on trade union recognition, negotiations and industrial relations issues. She acts as a “sounding board” on employment issues and strategy for HR teams, in-house counsel and boards, advising on executive terminations and employee competition issues. An accomplished advocate, Sarah has conducted numerous employment tribunal claims and employment appeals on the full range of employment issues. She regularly advises multi-national companies and manages global and European HR projects. Legal 500 stated: "The ‘outstanding’ Sarah Beeby leads Dentons’ practice, which is noted for its ‘excellent level of service’ and for its ability to advise a global client base on multi-jurisdictional matters." Sarah Beeby "'understands the pressures placed upon employers’ and ‘has an excellent grasp of the law and its application’." Chambers UK stated: "Sarah Beeby receives praise from clients, one of whom comments: 'I thoroughly enjoy working with Sarah, she is truly an extension of my team. She is patient and considered and always gives practical advice that works well in the context of our business.' She is recognised for her 'in-depth knowledge' and 'can-do attitude'."

Sarah Lima

Sarah is a TMT partner in Dentons' London office. She is an experienced technology and outsourcing lawyer, advising clients in both the public and private sectors, particularly within regulated sectors, and has significant experience working on large-scale, high-profile, public sector outsourcings. Sarah advises on all aspects of non-contentious technology and IP-related issues, including commercial contracts, software development, IT and business process outsourcing, FinTech, website development and IP licensing.

Scott Singer

Scott is the Head of Dentons' Corporate and Commercial division. He focuses on commercial contracts, IT and data privacy law and is directory-ranked in all of these areas. Scott is particularly well known for his work in the retail sector, where he advises a number of the UK's best known names on the high street. Scott is ranked in Chambers 2017 as a leading practitioner for commercial contracts, which recognizes he "has considerable experience across a range of commercial matters. He has a reputation for handling strategically significant large-scale agreements for market-leading and brand-name clients." Scott has acted for many household names on large-scale commercial deals involving supply of goods and services, joint ventures, distribution agreements, transportation, logistics, marketing agreements, design and manufacturing agreements and consultancy agreements. Scott is a member of Dentons' Band 1-ranked IT and Telecoms team, with an emphasis on IT, outsourcing, payments transactions, software law and the exploitation of databases. He was previously a computer programmer and draws on this background alongside 20 years' experience advising in this field to enable him to share with his clients not just technical knowledge but also insight into what is contractually achievable in the market. Scott focuses especially closely on deals involving payments, cloud services, Software as a Service (SaaS), agile development and deals with major technology vendors and has a keen understanding of current market positions. He is also very experienced in deals for major projects and IT outsourcings. Scott has particular capabilities in data privacy law and is one of the partners in Dentons' Band 1-ranked team. He has advised numerous data controllers and data subjects on all aspects of data privacy, including GDPR compliance, data breach, cyber risk, global data transfers, customer data and consents, data sharing, sale and purchase of databases, subject access rights, employee monitoring and data protection policies. Scott is recognized in directories "for his focus on practical solutions" (Legal 500 2017).

Serge Sergiou specialises in all areas of asset finance and leasing with a particular emphasis on aircraft transactions. He advises lenders, lessors, manufacturers and operators of aircraft, rolling stock and other assets in respect of all aspects of acquisition, sale, financing (including pre-delivery financing), tax-based leasing and operating leasing.

Shaun Tame

Shaun is a counsel in the construction and engineering law group and is based in our Milton Keynes Office. He specialises in non-contentious construction law. In this context he advises clients in connection with procurements, drafting and negotiating building contracts (such as JCT and NEC), professional appointments, sub-contracts, and ancillary documentation such as collateral warranties, bonds and guarantees. He advises on the construction aspects of related contract documentation such as development agreements/agreements for leases, licences for works and funding agreements. He acts for developers, funders and contractors as well as owners and end users. He is familiar with the range of procurement methods including design and build, traditional and construction management. He advises in connection with one-off contracts as well as framework and call-off contracts and partnering arrangements. He also advises clients with regard to the management of contentious or potentially contentious issues which arise during or after projects.

Simon Elliott

Simon is a partner in and Head of Dentons' Data Privacy and Cybersecurity practice for the UK, Ireland and Middle East. He has more than 15 years' experience advising clients on the full range of data privacy and information governance matters, including leading large-scale projects for clients in designing and implementing protocols and procedures for complying with GDPR and designing global data protection compliance, including global data transfer solutions, data processor engagement, marketing and CRM strategies and data incident responses. Simon also regularly assists major global multinationals and UK businesses with regulatory investigations and enforcement actions, major data breaches and media enquiries focusing on privacy practices. He has also led multiple Binding Corporate Rules applications – for both data controllers and data processors – and Privacy Shield applications. Simon regularly advises on innovative first-of-a-kind matters and projects in relation to emerging technologies and technological advancements, including artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous vehicles, blockchain and DLT, and adtech. Simon was identified as a "Next Generation Partner" by Legal 500 for data protection, privacy and cybersecurity. He previously sat on the Executive Committee of the Data Protection Forum and regularly speaks on data protection topics. According to Legal 500, clients say that "Simon's work is great" and describe him as "very flexible with his time and always available". They also reported that "the advice provided is incredibly commercial and operational" and that he is "always on hand to answer queries and provide practical and user-friendly advice". Simon also regularly advises clients on complex commercial and technology contracts, including vendor procurement, outsourcing and commercial partnership arrangements.

Partner

Partner

Simon is a litigation partner who is qualified in England and Scotland and has been practicing in London since 1990.Simon has handled a wide range of commercial disputes for clients, ranging from substantial financial institutions to private individuals, with a particular focus on areas such as insolvency, professional negligence and fraud. Simon has represented substantial manufacturing, construction, engineering and retail enterprises in a wide range of commercial disputes in the English High Court, as well as in arbitrations and mediations.Simon is a member of the London Litigation Solicitors Association, the Professional Negligence Lawyers Association and R3, the Association of Business Recovery Professionals and has been recognized as a notable practitioner by Chambers for dispute resolution and litigation in London. Client testimonials and accolades in Chambers include: "a highly client focused and commercially acute lawyer"; “very personable and professional”; and “skilled in contentious insolvency, professional negligence and fraud matters”. Simon is included in the worldwide Acritas database as a Star lawyer based on client nomination from in-house general counsel.

Stephen is a senior corporate partner and specialises in UK and international M&A and private equity transactions. He also advises on joint ventures and other corporate matters. Stephen has also led the legal input into a number of high-profile stressed and distressed M&A situations. Invariably these involve complex issues and many stakeholders with differing interests demanding rapid and creative solutions. He has advised many leading UK and overseas companies and private equity houses, including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, H.I.G. Capital, Montagu Private Equity, Peel Group and Landis+ Gyr. Stephen also advises entrepreneurially driven and other growth businesses.

Steven joined Dentons in 2016 and co-heads the Banking Litigation practice outside of London. Steven’s work covers disputes involving investment products, mis-selling, derivatives, fraud and asset recoveries, breach of mandate, breach of trust, misrepresentation, breach of contract, mortgages, guarantees and other security issues, insolvency, secured and unsecured recoveries, trade finance, consumer credit, leasing finance, FOS investigations, professional indemnity, compliance and regulatory reviews.

Tatiana is legacy head of the Intellectual Property and Technology and Communications practices and is now Of Counsel in the Firm's London office, having retired from the partnership. She has decades of experience advising on commercial contracts, in particular, involving technology and intellectual property. She has advised on all the main types of transactions involving software, outsourcing and the protection and exploitation of trade marks, copyright, database rights and other intellectual property. She also has particular expertise in data protection, including compliance and trouble-shooting. She leads the Dentons Privacy Community, a forum for privacy practitioners from Dentons and its clients, which meets periodically to exchange views on privacy issues in a safe and open way. She also organises bi-weekly update sessions for Dentons' privacy lawyers in the UK and Europe. Her clients are in the UK, US, EU, Russia and other countries around the world. They operate in the retail, financial services and media sectors.

Thomas Leyland

Thomas is a partner in our London Disputes practice. He has particular expertise in high-value, high-profile High Court disputes across a broad range of industries. Thomas has particular expertise acting for banks and other financial services institutions. Thomas also has significant experience of legal process outsourcing and has coordinated major, cross-border, document review exercises. As such, he also has a particular interest in electronic disclosure and the outsourcing of document review. He has spoken at national events on these topics. Thomas is a member of the highly regarded Commercial Litigation team that was commended for Commercial Litigation Team of the Year by Legal Business Awards 2018.

Tim is a geographic lead of the Commercial Dispute Resolution practice and is based in the Milton Keynes office. As a commercial litigator, Tim resolves complex commercial disputes by negotiation, mediation, arbitration or litigation. He focuses on disputes involving commercial contracts, franchising, professional indemnity, commercial fraud, sales of goods, product liability, corporate disputes and commercial agency related matters. He also has extensive experience in freezing injunctions and search and seizure orders. Most of his cases involve an international element. Tim is a CEDR accredited mediator and well-known mediation advocate, having advised in more than 100 mediations. He has written in the business press, including The Financial Times and InterContinental Finance & Law magazine, and regularly lectures in the UK and the Republic of Ireland on mediation, bribery and lender professional indemnity claims. Tim is qualified to practice in England, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.

Verity Buckingham

Verity is a senior member of the People, Reward and Mobility team and is experienced in all aspects of employment law and corporate immigration matters. She deals mostly with corporate clients advising on contentious and non-contentious employment matters. Verity's contentious practice includes defending claims in the Employment Tribunal and experience of Employment Appeal Tribunal litigation. She defends claims in relation to unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, discrimination, equal pay and whistleblowing. She also advises individuals at a senior level on negotiating exits. Verity's non-contentious work includes reviewing and drafting all forms of employment documentation, including employment contracts, executive service agreements and employee handbooks consisting of extensive policies and procedures. She also advises on employment matters, on share and business acquisitions, and disposals. Verity's immigration work extends to all aspects of global employee mobility for corporate clients. She advises on applications to join the Register of Sponsors, Leave to Remain and Leave to Enter and Entry Clearance applications, various settlement applications, British citizenship applications, and appeals to the First Tier Tribunal. Verity contributes employment and immigration insights to the People, Reward and Mobility blog found at ukemploymenthub.com.

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