Osborne Clarke LLP‘s new offering is headed by the highly regarded Tom Lewis who is considered ’a great hire‘ for the firm. The team offers a blend of corporate, finance and tax expertise to clients who are undergoing international reorganisations. Sara Valentine is a core team member who is lauded as ’one of the best out there‘ for her corporate work and Akshay Agrawal is also a noted practitioner. The practice counts major UK and international corporates in its client roster – ranging from retail and communications sectors to industrial and automotive.
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘An excellent team of high quality lawyers who work collaboratively to get the best result for their clients. Where they link in specialist teams, the specialist is well briefed and thus able to advise quickly and with immediate relevance. Their processes for dealing with multiphase group reorganisations with lots of documents is easy to follow and efficient.’
‘Sara Valentine is an excellent lawyer - one of the best out there. On complex and fast moving transactions, she is responsive, pragmatic and firm. She is able to hold her own with top international lawyers from around Europe being extremely bright; she gets the point and can get to the point quickly. She balances this with an approachable "plain English" style that helps clients (and other professionals) understand the issues she's raising. One mutual client described her as the A team and you certainly feel you are in the A team with her on your side. She is works collaboratively with other professionals to get the best outcome for her clients and gives clear advice when it's needed to help them make decisions.’
‘Osborne Clarke have recently decided to have a specific focus on international business transformations in the last 18 months so I think they are fairly new entrant in this area but with a great opportunity to develop this practice in the coming years. Osborne Clarke are better known for their national client reach so it will be interesting to see how they develop an international reorganisations practice from their existing client base. I understand this is a new offering for them and given the high quality people and work of the firm in other areas, I am confident they will do well.’
‘I have worked with Thomas Lewis in previous firms and I think he was a great hire by Osborne Clarke to build out this team and practice as he has a Big 4 background and a good understanding of the technical, commercial, tax and other nuances of corporate reorganisations legal work and can leverage his experience.’
‘Expert guidance from senior lawyers; proactive approach to solving issues.’
‘Tom Lewis - highly responsive and provides an excellent balance between legal and commercial advice.'
‘Very open and transparent. Comms were always professional and detailed.’
‘Crucially Akshay's knowledge was always clearly encyclopaedic, which meant that there was never a time we didn't feel that we were in safe hands. That really matters when it comes to the aspects that we were dealing with.’
Key clients
- Starbucks
- Dstny
- Mü|ller
- Cornerstone OnDemand
- Clarivate
- Quick Think
- SEC Newgate
- Etex
- Xmos Limited
Work highlights
- Advising various Starbucks EMEA subsidiaries in connection with corporate reorganisation and company law tasks.
- Advising business communications platform provider Dstny on UK elements of a reorganisation of its European business.
- Advising Müller, one of the largest dairy groups in the world, on a pre-sale reorganisation in advance of the sale of its Milk & More business to Freshways.
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Tom Lewis