Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP

Alistair is a partner in the real estate team specialising in acting for large corporate occupiers and retailers. He leads the firm’s retail property team and has extensive experience of advising many national retailers on the management of their trading portfolios, acquisition programmes and disposal strategies across all locations from high street, shopping centre to out of town retail park destinations.

Andrew is a partner and Head of the data privacy and e-commerce team. He advises on all aspects of data protection, privacy and freedom of information work including client audits, complex outsourcing, international data transfer arrangements and data licensing projects. Clients include major retailers, hospitality and leisure sector organisations and public sector bodies. He also specialises in information technology including IT procurement and e-commerce. He advises the Interactive Media in Retail Group (the industry body for the online retail industry) on data protection and ecommerce matters.

Andrew is a partner who specialises in commercial disputes.  He has expertise in managing disputes through a variety of forums including litigation, arbitration, expert determination and mediation. Andrew has an established practice in technology and data protection disputes. This includes advising on software licences, IT procurement disputes, data transfer/processing agreements, enforcement action by the ICO and managing security breaches.

Anthony is a partner specialising in commercial real estate, focussing on projects and transactions in the energy, marine, industrial and infrastructure sectors.  His clients include Babcock International Group, The Crown Estate and E.ON.

Carly is a Partner specialising in corporate finance, advising clients on a wide range of corporate work including M&A, group reorganisations for UK and international groups, shareholder and joint venture agreements and general corporate governance. She is a sector specialist having advised on a broad range of corporate matters for clients in the financial services sector.  Carly has also worked in-house for a multinational FTSE 250 company.

Charlotte advises on all aspects of employment law covering a wide range of both contentious and non-contentious matters with particular expertise in all aspects of acquisitions, disposals and outsourcing,  employment status and IR35/off-payroll.  She has a particular interest in advising on complex and strategic non-contentious employment issues. Charlotte has in-house experience working on secondment for a postal services provider, in particular she was required to advise in a highly unionised environment in relation to all aspects of employment law, including to day to day industrial relations, unlawful strikes (including seeking injunctive relief) and amendments to collective agreements as well as maintaining a flexible and dynamic workforce.  She was also responsible for advising the senior executive team on strategic and sensitive matters.

Christina is head of retail employment and specialises in employment law, both contentious and non-contentious, including employment tribunal advocacy. She advises on restructuring and managing change, discrimination issues, dismissals, executive terminations, contracts of employment and employment policies and employment aspects of business transfers. She is also an experienced employment law trainer. She has particular experience of the retail and education sectors. She is also a qualified Finnish lawyer and an Honorary Consul of Finland.

Gavin is a partner specialising in work for national retailers with particular specialism in all areas of trading standards, health and safety and other regulatory issues. He advises clients in relation to advertising and publicity law and also deals with heavy commercial disputes for retailers, including supplier disputes, security matters and actions against suppliers of professional services. Gavin was commissioned by the BRC to write ‘Age Restricted Sales, Due Diligence and Best Practice’, a guide for retailers and employees and ‘A Retailer’s Guide to Legal Compliance’ which provides clear, practical advice for store managers in areas including health and safety, Sunday trading, environmental issues and employment.

Graham is a partner specialising in banking. He has substantial experience in advising banks, financial institutions and borrowers on financial transactions specialising in project and asset finance as well as enjoying working pro-actively with clients to develop new financial products and structures. In the projects field Graham has extensive energy experience and has participated in industry forums including in relation to the viability of financing the Round 2 offshore wind farms and he has worked on the finance aspects of Zephyr II.

Ian is a corporate finance partner specialising in M&A, corporate reorganisations, shareholder and joint venture agreements. Ian has also had considerable experience in private equity transactions and has advised both private equity houses and management teams on their investments. Ian also worked in the Paris office of a leading international law firm where he gained considerable experience in advising UK and French companies on doing business in both France and the UK.

lan is a partner who advises in a broad range of high value and complex commercial disputes including those in connection with procurement, joint venture agreements, share purchase, IT and media disputes. He specialises in working for national retailers and energy companies, particularly in the downstream arena. Ian has a reputation for delivering results within commercial timescales and has become the dispute resolution lawyer of choice for a number of national retailers and one of the big six energy providers.

James specialises in professional risks work and acts for insurers and professional services firms in dealing with a wide variety of professional indemnity claims concerning solicitors, barristers, surveyors, accountants, financial advisers, insurance brokers, stockbrokers, IT specialists and other professionals. He also advises on policy coverage issues and has managed complex, multi claimant litigation involving a large volume of property related claims. James also has particular experience of professional regulatory work including complaints handling and advising a variety of professionals on disciplinary and regulatory investigations.

Jo,  a Partner,  works in real estate and is a sector specialist advising clients on large energy projects involving complex property agreements incorporating funding and development arrangements.  She has been involved in various clean energy technologies including solar and onshore wind developments. One of her clients is The Crown Estate and she has extensive experience in maritime estate management carrying out onshore, foreshore and offshore property related work. This has included drafting options, leases and licences for pipelines, cables,  outfalls and bridge crossings, marine aggregate extraction agreements including capital and commercial dredging agreements. Alongside this she works on more traditional property transactions advising local developers, national bodies, research councils and energy clients on land based transactions ranging from purchases, sales and leases through to redevelopment projects, joint ventures and logistics centres.

Jon is Head of the firm's employment team and also Head of the Southampton office. He specialises primarily in the transactional aspects of employment law and in particular has extensive experience of advising on the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006, both in relation to acquisitions and disposals and outsourcing agreements. He also advises on strategic employment law issues affecting his clients such as group reorganisations and board level restructuring.

Jon is a partner in the real estate team. He specialises in investment transactions and leads a number of our key investor client teams, including for Tristan Capital and Moorfield.  Jon acts on all core aspects of real estate direct investment transactions across the UK, including acquisitions, development and disposals and real estate support on property financing.  In recent years he has been particularly active in value add and core plus markets.  Jon also leads a busy and highly effective asset management team.

Julian is a highly skilled technology lawyer, having been involved with technology law since 1998. Julian’s main areas of practice are in information technology and e-commerce, including the development and licensing of software, outsourcing, online and cloud services. He also advises on data protection issues, usually relating to the use and transfer of customer data in IT implementations, and on intellectual property rights, particularly in the context of open source software and website/software development.

Mark is a partner and specialises in commercial property disputes including possession claims, lease renewals, rent reviews, dilapidations and restrictive covenants, as well as the wider range of property issues such as adverse possession and squatters, restrictive covenants and rights of way. He also acts in property related professional negligence claims, having considerable experience of such claims against solicitors and surveyors.  Mark conducts dispute resolutions through the County Court and High Court, The First Tier and Upper Tribunals and through arbitration. Mark also has an interest in riparian rights and issues around moorings, and in addition has acted for a number of landowners in connection with issues arising out of the Telecoms Code. He is qualified as a Higher Courts Advocate, and frequently uses mediation to resolve disputes. He is an experienced speaker on property issues.

Nick is a partner, head of the commercial team and UK Chair of Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP. He has over 20 years’ experience of advising on commercial projects of all types. He is often asked to provide strategic input into a variety of complex and business critical projects across a broad range of industrial, consumer goods and retail businesses. He is recognised for his commercial acumen and solution-driven approach. His main area of expertise is in relation to outsourcing, particularly logistics, supply chain management and third party services contracts. These have included a number of large contracts for the outsourcing of specialist services as well as the setting up and ongoing management of fulfilment and installation services managed by third parties. Nick is client partner for a number of well-known clients including national retailers, hospitality companies and other major FTSE or equivalent companies and is often asked to provide input into a variety of strategic and business critical projects. Work undertaken involves a wide spectrum of business support functions, including all aspects of outsourced operations including open and closed book distribution and warehousing agreements, business process outsourcing, collaborative partnering arrangements, development and implementation of new business models and business re-engineering of key business operations.

Nicki is a partner and the firm's General Counsel and together with her team they assist the firm's Board in defining the firm's risk strategy and in designing, monitoring, training and improving our service standards and procedures, risk reporting, regulatory compliance, internal audit services, client service complaints, ISO 9001 and 27001 accreditation and business continuity/ disaster recovery. Nicki also advises General Counsel and in-house legal teams on their own risk and regulatory compliance obligations.  Nicki's team advises on contractual terms with the firm's suppliers and clients. Nicki came to the firm from the City where she dealt with a number of international corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, privatisations, joint ventures and off shore funds.

Nikki acts for a range of business clients, institutions and public sector occupiers in relation to their property requirements including acquisitions, lease renewals and disposals relating to trading premises, warehouses, industrial units and other properties. She guides clients through strategic projects (including corporate acquisitions and divestments, insolvency processes, re-organisations and Head Office relocations. She specialises in managing large and diverse property portfolios. Her work is predominantly retail focused and she acts for a number of national and international retailers including: Ann Summers Footlocker New Look Specsavers Post Office Nikki works with retailers managing their store portfolios across outlet, shopping centre and high street locations as well as on out of town retail parks and franchises. Over the last few years, Nikki has also assisted many of our retail clients with aggressive property maximisation programmes including pulling together strategies for expansions, rationalisations and re-gears. Nikki also works with a number of international manufacturers assisting them with their UK property requirements including managing their existing premises and also acquiring critical additional manufacturing and distribution facilities.

Paula head's up the firm's UK commercial team (which incorporates five sub-teams: commercial contracts & supply chain, competition, data & privacy, intellectual property and technology).  She specialises in commercial contract law and has extensive experience of advising on and negotiating complex contractual arrangements for clients in various sectors.  Paula also has strong project management skills with extensive experience of leading large cross office, multidisciplinary teams in the delivery of major projects.

Sebastian is a partner specialising in mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganisations, financing and joint ventures. He has particular expertise in the energy sector. He has acted on transactions for the sale, purchase, financing or investment in more than 75 renewable energy projects with a combined capacity in excess of 5GW, including RWE Npower’s groundbreaking Zephyr transaction. His experience includes onshore and offshore wind, biomass, wave and tidal, waste to energy, geothermal, combined heat and power, solar and energy storage projects. In addition to his transactional experience, Sebastian advises corporate clients on governance and other risk and compliance related matters. He regularly presents seminars on these subjects.

Stephen is a partner and the head of the corporate team. He specialises in corporate finance work, in particular M&A, private equity, corporate reorganisations and joint ventures. He regularly advises public and private corporates as well as owner managed businesses and management teams. Recent experience includes a £23m share acquisition for a FTSE listed company, advising an unlisted plc on a disposal programme and an international group reorganisation for a client which is group headquartered in Paris. Key deals he is working on are a £24m acquisition and a £40m acquisition, both for an unlisted plc. Stephen has given talks on developments in the corporate market for a variety of audiences and regularly contributes to client briefings on current corporate and finance legal developments.

Tim is a partner in the real estate team and specialises in development. His expertise includes advising housebuilders, landowners, occupiers, local authorities and public sector bodies predominantly on residential (including build to rent and affordable housing) but also student accommodation, mixed use, office, retail and industrial/warehouse schemes.  Tim also has considerable experience in investment acquisitions and disposals, particularly portfolio transactions.

Tom is a partner and heads the Dispute Resolution Group. He has substantial experience in dealing with complex high-value matters related to energy (particularly upstream oil and gas), and IT/IP technology fields. In addition Tom deals with general corporate litigation work such as shareholder disputes and breach of warranty claims. He has wide experience of multi-jurisdictional disputes. Tom is also on the Board.

William is a partner and real estate specialist. He acts for investor clients (including the Church Commissioners for England, TR Property Investment Trust plc, F&C, First Alliance Properties and Rockspring) on direct investment acquisitions, disposals and portfolio management. He is also real estate partner for several key clients of the firm, including Associated British Ports, Historic England and Go Ape.