Speechly Bircham has announced six partner promotions this year, in one of its largest ever promotion rounds.
The promotions reinforce the firm’s business focus on the real estate, construction, financial services, technology and private wealth sectors. The six new partners are all located in the London office and are:
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Adam Crossley – Private Equity
Adam is a highly experienced private equity lawyer, advising both private equity houses and management teams as well as investee companies. He has particular expertise in buy-outs and buy-ins and recent experience includes advising Elysian Capital on the management buy-out of Wellbeing Software Group, a market leading healthcare IT group; and advising the management team backed by Risk Capital on the buy-in management buy-out of Neilson Active Holidays from the Thomas Cook Group.
Fiona Edmond – Construction
Fiona acts for commercial developers on a wide range of construction projects and property transactions. She acts for Derwent London PLC on many of their central London developments, including the refurbishment of a 1.4 acre site on Charlotte Street W1.
Fiona also acts for hotel developers on their asset maintenance and development and routinely acts for purchasers and tenants in relation to complex acquisitions and lettings. Other recent work includes acting on a major pre-let agreement at the Walkie Talkie building and acting for a luxury hotel chain on the refurbishment of their leading hotel in Central Europe.
David Hicks – Corporate
David advises institutional and independent clients on constitutional and governance arrangements, M&A and raising funds. He specialises in corporate advisory, corporate finance and transactional work, particularly within financial services and wealth management and for investment trusts.
His work for quoted companies includes leading the firm’s corporate compliance, annual reporting and general meeting work for listed clients, and he is actively involved with the Quoted Companies Alliance.
Sarah Morley – Real Estate
Sarah’s practice covers the broad spectrum of commercial real estate work, ranging from property investment acquisitions and disposals to landlord and tenant work, acting for both investors and occupiers.
Sarah’s clients range from small family property companies to large multi-national corporations and off-shore special purpose vehicles, investing in offices, retail, mixed-use and trophy buildings. Recent work includes acting for central London developer Derwent London on their pre-let of 40 Chancery Lane to Publicis Groupe and the national leisure business, the Stonegate Pub Company.
Alice Neilan – Private Client
Alice is an international private client lawyer, advising foreign domiciled individuals on their UK tax matters and personal estate planning. Alice also advises non-UK private banks and investment managers on how to structure bank accounts and tailor their investment offering from a UK tax perspective to attract UK resident, non-UK domiciled clients.
Alice has particular expertise in advising on tax planning and structuring in relation to UK real estate and in advising clients with links to Switzerland and the Nordic regions. She is also a co-author of one of the most widely read works on tax planning with an international element, ‘Clarke’s Offshore Tax Planning’, along with fellow partner Dominic Lawrance.
Louise Ward – Real Estate
Louise is a commercial property lawyer, acting for a mix of investors, developers and corporate occupiers across a number of real estate sectors, including private wealth, leisure and real estate finance.
Louise has developed particular expertise in advising new entrants to the UK real estate market, for both investment purposes and for their own occupational needs, and of project managing large portfolio acquisitions. Her clients include the US based REIT, BioMed Realty, along with a variety of corporate and overseas investors, family offices and financial institutions.
James Carter, managing partner at Speechly Bircham, said: "In a busy year we have continued to invest in our people as well as our international network, with new offices in Paris and Geneva. Fiona, Sarah, Alice, Louise, Adam and David are all outstanding practitioners in their respective fields, and their energy and expertise will strengthen our partnership. We are encouraged that two-thirds of our new partners are women. Congratulations to all our new partners on their achievement."
