England - London • Corporate and commercial
Norton Rose Fulbright
The 'very diligent and hard working' team at Norton Rose Fulbright is increasingly focused on venture capital work as an offshoot of its corporate finance and private equity practices. Leveraging the firm's strong regulatory offering, the team has developed a particular niche advising on fintech-related matters, including as it relates to blockchain and crypto-currency. The 'very pragmatic and forward thinking' Victoria Birch has been central to the firm's success in the space, which has been built on repeat instructions for both investors and investees, as well as very effective use of legal technology to streamline the investor experience (including the firm's nascent strategic minority investment product, which has proved very popular among the venture arms of financial institutions and corporates). Sophie O’Connor also handles a significant volume of venture mandates, and alongside Birch was instrumental to the development of the aforementioned product.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'The very personable team has superb strength in depth in the team, and is very diligent and hard working.'
- 'Victoria Birch is very pragmatic and forward thinking. She goes above and beyond to help her clients achieve their objectives.'
- 'Nico Berry - one of the best, if not the best corporate lawyer I have worked with. Knowledgeable both in terms of legal knowledge and sector, commercial and manages a great and reliable team. I would work with him every time if I could (and recommend him to the right kind of clients when the opportunity arises).'
Key clients
- Bactobio Limited
- COWA
- Biolevel
- NEAR Inc
- Starling Bank
- Funding Xchange
- OCGI Climate Investments
- Telus Communications
- Paga Group Ltd
- Green Africa
- Revenio Capital
- Zego
- Stena Drilling Limited
Work highlights
- Preparing Bactobio Limited, a biotechnology company that creates a safer and greener world by harvesting valuable metabolites from biological dark matter, for its Series A Funding Round and advising on the consolidation of its corporate governance structures.
- Acting for COWA, a bitcoin mining company focussing on the use of sustainable energy in its processes, on its $100m Series A funding round and follow on debt and equity rounds.
- Advised NEAR Foundation - the foundation behind the NEAR Protocol, the carbon-neutral layer-1 blockchain network - on their early stage investment into Calimero Limited by way of advanced subscription agreement and token warrant arrangements.
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Victoria Birch, Sophie O’Connor