Practical LawConferences

Alison Berridge is a competition law specialist barrister, representing clients in all aspects of competition regulation including merger reviews, antitrust investigations, sectoral regulation, judicial review and follow on and standalone damages claims. According to Who’s Who Legal (2017): “She is really, really good; an absolutely excellent practitioner.” She is co-author (with Alistair Lindsay) of The EU Merger Regulation: Substantive Issues (Sweet & Maxwell, 5th edition, 2017), a leading textbook on merger control issues.

Sean has over 25 years’ experience in IT development and joined Imprima in 1999 to set up the German operation in Frankfurt. Since then he has served the company in many roles from Group Operations Director to his current position as Group Business Development Director. Sean has been instrumental in many product launches, including Europe’s first VDR product back in 2001 and in 2018 Imprima’s first AI product, “Imprima AIR”.

Sean has a degree in linguists and business administration from Salford and Germersheim Universities and lives in Frankfurt am Main, Germany with his wife and 2 daughters.

Mike is head of the firm’s digital and innovation advisory practice. His practice encompasses advising on the legal, regulatory and compliance risks of the investment in, or deployment of, new disruptive digital technologies and innovation projects.

Mike has over 25 years’ experience of advising on the exploitation and use of new technologies and their usiness operating model. He is a recognised industry leader and has vast experience of advising on joint development arrangements, disruptive single and shared service models and new business platforms both in the private and public sector.

Mike also has a particular interest in outsourcing and large ticket infrastructure projects acting on both the vendor and customer side of transactions. His experience covers a wide range of sectors including professional services, telecoms, banking and insurance.

James is a partner in the sourcing and technology team at Norton Rose Fulbright.  James has extensive experience in large scale integration projects, onshore and offshore technology and business process outsourcing, DLT, smart contracts, systems procurement, as well as general commercial work.  James primarily advises on a wide range of non-contentious IT, e-commerce, fintech and outsourcing matters.

James is ranked in Chambers and Legal 500 and identified as a rising star of the outsourcing and fintech space.  Sources commend his “good attention to detail, thoughtfulness and nice client manner“; that he “brings a real practical approach to contracting and outsourcing“; and that “he is experienced working on complex and business-critical sourcings.”

Claire Wills is a senior corporate partner and global co-head of the firm’s Financial Institutions Group.

She regularly advises the world’s major financial institutions including insurance companies, banks and asset managers on complex restructurings, M&A, joint ventures and governance projects. Her clients include Barclays, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, the Prudential and Tesco.

Claire has worked on numerous significant transactions, including advising long-standing client Tesco on its £3.7bn merger with Booker, Aberdeen Asset Management on its £11bn all-share merger with Standard Life and HSBC on the recently announced US$17bn merger of Saudi British Bank with Alawwal Bank. Claire is also busy on Brexit planning with a number of global financial institutions.

Thomas F. Erichsen is a Senior Business Development Director at TMF Group.  His focus is within its Private Equity and Real Estate services. He has spent his entire career in banking and capital markets and majority of his focus has been within alternative investments, fund administration and prime brokerage. The aforementioned were undertaken at firms such as JPMorgan, Mercer and MUFG. Thomas earned a Bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and an MBA in global finance from Thunderbird School of Global Management and grew up in an international setting living in multiple countries; he speaks Norwegian, English and Japanese fluently.

Ed Barnett is a partner in the Corporate Department of Latham & Watkins’ London office, Co-Chair of the firm’s Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Mr. Barnett’s practice spans a variety of cross-border M&A and corporate finance transactions, including public takeovers, takeover defence, joint ventures, and private company and business acquisitions and divestments, with a particular focus in consumer, technology, pharmaceuticals, and entertainment, media, and sports sectors.  His practice also focuses on company representation work, including advising on a range of corporate governance matters.

Profile

• • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Public M&A
  • Public company representation
  • Equity capital markets

Recognition Highlights

“Edward Barnett handles transactional matters and joint venture work for clients in the consumer, technology and pharmaceutical sectors, among others. He also offers counsel on corporate governance issues.” Chambers UK 2018

“He concentrates on cross-border deals and has extensive experience in issues such as M&A, IPOs and refinancings.” Chambers UK 2017

Ed is described as a “very commercial” and “very innovative” rising star by clients Chambers UK 2015

Ed is described as being a “quality act” and is praised by clients for his highly practical advice. He has  expertise on cross-border transactions.” Chambers UK 2014

Ed was named one of The Lawyer’s Hot 100 who will shape the profession in 2014.

Rob is responsible for supporting Ferguson’s e-commerce businesses as well as the corporate venture capital group. Previously, Rob was Head of Legal at Ferguson plc based in the UK with responsibility for Ferguson’s international M&A, treasury, tax and other headquarter business groups, as well as General Counsel for Ferguson’s Central Europe businesses. Since qualifying in the corporate team at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London and then moving to Ferguson (previously known as Wolseley), Rob has a wide experience of working on and managing global M&A transactions.

Luke Bergstrom is Global Co-Chair of Latham’s Mergers & Acquisitions Practice and a partner in the Corporate Department of the firm’s Silicon Valley and San Francisco offices. Mr. Bergstrom practices primarily in the mergers and acquisitions area, where he regularly advises both private equity and corporate clients.

Mr. Bergstrom has represented public and private buyers and targets in a broad range of industries, including life sciences, medical devices, information technology – systems & solutions, semiconductors, internet & digital media, and consumer products. Mr. Bergstrom is a member of the American Bar Association as well as a member of the ABA’s Mergers & Acquisitions Committee, and the Committee’s M&A Market Trends Subcommittee.

Angelica Carr has extensive international experience in business development and management having lived and worked in Sweden, USA, France and the UK.  As a highly-qualified business coach she helps executive individuals and teams achieve their goals. She is a trained and certified global executive business coach by Rosinski and Co and the School of Coaching. She is also trained and certified in merger and acquisition integration by Pritchett, the world-leading experts in M&A integration. Angelica has a degree in Management Studies and French from Kings College, London and speaks Swedish, English and French.

She runs Aim Business Coaching, offering UK and global executive individual and team coaching, corporate seminars and talks around M&A integration, change and corporate/national cultural diversity. Aim also assists companies with their cultural due diligence process pre-M&A. Most of the offering is bespoke and for events Angelica collaborates with a hand-picked team of professionals.

She is also a major share-holder, non-executive director and strategist at Gale and Phillipson, an innovative investment management firm with offices in London and north-east England.

Her articles around M&A have featured in Forbes ME, Global Banking and Finance, Acquisition International, Khaleej Times, Arabian Business and other publications.

She currently offers talks on issues critical to M&A integration including Successful leading in M&A and M&A deal rescue for senior management and Turning your merger into an opportunity for employees and managers.

John is a senior partner of McMillan LLP (Toronto, Canada), where he focuses his practice on M&A transactions. He has extensive experience advising a diverse group of clients on domestic and cross-border acquisitions and divestitures and the legal requirements for establishing new businesses in Canada. He was the inaugural Chair of a working group of Canadian M&A deal lawyers that studied and developed reports for the ABA’s M&A Committee on trends in deal terms used in Canadian private company acquisitions, and was Chair of that working group for seven years..  Who’s Who Legal and other directories rank John as a leading M&A lawyer, and report that  John is “top notch by all accounts”, “very client focused” and “always delivers”.

John has held a number of leadership positions within McMillan.  Currently, John leads the firm’s Business Law/M&A Group and is co-Chair of McMillan’s Inclusion and Diversity Committee.   In 2017, John was named to the prestigious global list of OUTstanding Leading LGBT+ Executives, as presented by the Financial Times, in recognition of his business achievements and impact on LGBT inclusion within McMillan and externally. Previously he received a Lexpert Zenith Award and an Out On Bay Street “Leaders To Be Proud Of” Award in recognition of his efforts and many accomplishments to promote diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.

Harry has broad transactional experience, including in the areas of public and private M&A, equity capital markets and group reorganisations, and also advises listed clients on general company law and corporate governance matters.

Harry sits on the Legal Panel of the Investor Forum, having advised on its establishment. He is also coauthor of the United Kingdom chapter of “Mergers & Acquisitions”, part of the European Lawyer Reference series.

Recent clients include Xafinity plc, Regal Entertainment Group, Banijay Rights Limited, Tarsus Group plc, the Economist, the family trusts of Tom Singh, Revolution Bars Group plc, GAME Digital plc and Verizon Communications Inc.

Bob Copps is a corporate lawyer focusing on private investment transactions and mergers and acquisitions, both domestically and internationally. Bob represents private investment funds in all aspects of their operations, including fund formation, capital raising, portfolio investments, regulatory matters and exit transactions. Bob handles M&A transactions and general corporate matters for both publicly-traded and private corporate clients. These transactions include mergers, stock acquisitions  and dispositions, asset acquisitions and dispositions, acquisitions and dispositions of divisions, joint ventures and other similar transactions. He has worked with very prominent clients on significant transactions in a number of industries, including: timber, water and natural resources, manufacturing, energy, technology, telecommunications and financial services. Bob is co-head of the Diversified Industrials practice of Eversheds Sutherland (US). Bob is also the Chair of Eversheds Sutherland (US)’s New York Hiring Committee and serves on several other firm committees.

Mary is a former practicing attorney who heads AIG’s Global Mergers & Acquisitions Insurance Group, specializing in Warranties & Indemnities Insurance, Tax Insurance and other insurance solutions to facilitate mergers and acquisitions.  Mary joined AIG in 2011 after spending 15 years with Aon where she was Managing Director of Aon’s Private Equity & Transaction Solutions Group.  Prior to joining Aon, Mary was an associate at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius where she specialized in mergers and acquisitions, securities and general corporate law.  Mary earned her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and her B.A. from Juniata College.

Craig is head of BAT’s M&A Legal department. Prior to joining BAT in 2012, Craig spent eight years in the Corporate team at Allen & Overy in London during which time he seconded to GlaxoSmithKline and Petro-Canada. Over the last few years BAT has been very active in M&A and corporate transactions, culminating in its $54bn acquisition of Reynolds American Inc. last year. In addition to traditional tobacco deals across the world, Craig has undertaken a number of recent transactions in the electronic vapour products and retail space which has brought new challenges for the BAT Group to overcome. Craig was named as The Legal 500’s UK M&A In-house Individual of the Year in 2018. In addition to his work at BAT, Craig is a trustee and director for Parks for London, a charity supported by the London Boroughs which promotes public green spaces in London.

Ciaran is a partner in the Corporate and Commercial Department at Matheson.

Ciaran’s practice involves advising a wide range of leading international and Irish public and private corporations, private equity and venture capital funds and other institutions on all legal aspects of their corporate affairs.

Ciaran specialises in private M&A transactions and public takeovers and has extensive international, Irish and cross-border market experience. He also advises on equity capital markets transactions, securities laws, private equity deals, joint ventures, reorganisations, capital restructurings, general commercial contracts and corporate governance and advisory matters.

He previously spent a number of years in London practising at a Magic Circle firm.

David Jackson is Head of Group Corporate, Treasury and M&A Legal at Barclays.  The M&A side involves leading a team of lawyers who are responsible for buying and selling companies and businesses across the bank.  The team is also responsible for delivering the M&A execution aspects of structural reform, and also leads legal work on corporate joint ventures and principal investments.  The Corporate and Treasury Legal team is responsible for work on matters around reporting, corporate governance, listing rules, disclosure, debt issuance, capital and funding.

Having trained and worked for 10 years at Freshfields, David joined Barclays in 2007 and worked in the Principal M&A Legal team on a range of matters including the sale in 2009 of Barclays Global Investors to BlackRock, the acquisition of the US part of Lehmann in 2008 and acquisitions of banks in Russia and Indonesia.  In 2010, David moved to the Investment Bank where he was responsible for legal coverage of private equity, infrastructure funds and principal investments businesses.  Having worked on the disposal of the PE and funds businesses following the creation of Barclays Non-Core, David returned to lead the Principal M&A Legal team in 2015 and assumed additional responsibility for the Corporate and Treasury legal team in August 2018.

Abhijit Joshi, the Founding Partner of Veritas Legal has a noteworthy career spanning close to 25 years. Abhijit has been recognized in The “A-List: India’s top 100 lawyers” by India Business Law Journal, has been ranked in Band-1 for Corporate/M&A by the prestigious Chambers & Partners Asia Pacific Guide for a few years now. In addition to the above, Abhijit has received many accolades including “Highly Regarded” lawyer by IFLR1000. He has procured the Financial Times Innovation Award (Asia Pacific) for a complex merger transaction. Abhijit successfully leads the new venture, Veritas Legal, which has in a short span of 3 years been recognized by Chambers & Partners, IFLR1000 and has secured a position in the RSG Top 40-Indian Law Firms.

Graham Kirk is a corporate lawyer working in the Group M&A legal team at HSBC.  The Group M&A legal team coordinates the provision of advice to the bank’s Group Strategy & Planning function on all of HSBC’s own-account M&A transactions globally, including acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and complex reorganisations.

Graham has worked on transactions covering the whole spectrum of HSBC businesses including retail banking, private banking, asset management, global banking and markets, and insurance.  He advised on the sales of whole HSBC businesses in Kazakhstan and Lebanon and other completed deals involved parts of HSBC’s operations in Bermuda, Vietnam, Mexico, Malta, Saudi Arabia, Northern Cyprus and the UK.

Graham moved to HSBC five years ago from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.  Having trained at Freshfields, he went on to spend a total of 11 years at the firm, working on a broad range of corporate matters across various sectors including consumer products/retail, mining and financial services for clients including Tesco, Terra Firma, Danone and BHP Billiton.  His time at Freshfields included spending two years in the firm’s Tokyo office, where he worked on a number of inbound and outbound M&A deals for Japanese and overseas clients.

Erik D. Lazar is Director and Founder of Transatlantic Law International in London, United Kingdom, an innovative global legal firm which provides a broad range of business law solutions to multinationals and growing companies in more than 95 countries worldwide.

A U.S. lawyer by training with over 25 years of experience in international business law, Erik founded the group in 2001 after more than 15 years of international legal and management experience including in European General Counsel positions for Fortune 50 companies.

Erik specializes in global M&A where he has negotiated or completed more 80 deals worldwide  with more than $5 billion in deal value, restructuring, management of cross-border projects and transactions, international transactions, antitrust, and commercial agreements, as well a global labor and employment law.  He regularly counsels leading companies on M&A strategies, as well as structuring cross-border transactions and post-merger restructuring.

In the area of labor and employment law, he also counsels leading companies regularly on global, regional and local labor issues worldwide focusing particularly on global executive and management contracts and cross-border employment and expansion, as area covered worldwide by Transatlantic Law’s global labor and employment law service,  Labor Law Plus®.

Prior to moving to Europe in 1991, Erik worked as a corporate and litigation lawyer in major U.S. law firms in Boston and New York.

He has lectured extensively before bar associations and corporate groups in the United States and in Europe on topics including European M&A, corporate governance, expanding businesses internationally, improving the general counsel function from an outside and inside perspective, distribution and agency agreements, and key issues in cross border movement of executives as well as global non-competition agreements, among other matters.

Erik is an honors graduate of Yale University and of the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and a member of the bars of New York and Massachusetts. He speaks French and German and resides in London.

Nick is an Executive Director at Willis Towers Watson where he is responsible for M&A advice on W&I insurance placements. Nick joined Willis Towers Watson in January 2017 from Ambridge Europe where he was UK Underwriting Manager.

Nick also previously worked as an M&A underwriter for Pembroke and inhouse corporate counsel at EDF Energy. Nick is a solicitor admitted to practice law in England and Wales. He trained and qualified as a corporate M&A lawyer at Dentons London where he advised on numerous private and public cross border M&A deals, joint ventures and IPOs.

Nick left Dentons in 2012 as a Senior Associate having also spent time on international secondments in Rome, Paris and Dubai as well as client secondments to the London Stock Exchange plc and Total UK Limited.

Tarang is a Director of Corporate Development at Fujitsu focused on global M&A integration strategy and execution. Tarang also has end-to-end deal responsibility in the company’s EMEIA and Americas regions focused on emerging technologies. His corporate development experience has been developed in consulting and industry roles, formulating and executing mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, carve-outs, and strategic alliances for financial and strategic buyers and sellers. Tarang has end-to-end deal experience, supporting transactions ranging in value from $10.0 million to $3.5 billion, spanning a wide range of industries.

Prior to joining Fujitsu, Tarang was a member of PwC’s Delivering Deal Value practice, based out of their Boston, Chicago, and London offices. Prior to joining PwC, Tarang was a member of General Electric’s Financial Management Program supporting its former NBC Universal business. Tarang received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and earned his BSBA from Bryant University.

Colin Raftery is Director of Mergers at the Competition and Markets Authority, where he leads the CMA’s team on a variety of merger cases and policy initiatives.  Prior to joining the CMA, Colin advised on all aspects of EU and UK competition law at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London and, before that, at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in Brussels and Washington DC.  Colin holds an undergraduate degree in law from the University of Edinburgh and postgraduate degrees in law from the College of Europe, Bruges, and the University of Chicago.

Krishna Raman is Head of the Corporate and M&A legal team at Lloyds Banking Group.  Krishna provides legal advice on complex M&A transactions and corporate issues affecting the bank.  He has been involved in numerous disposals for the bank given the need to strengthen the bank’s balance sheet following the financial crisis.  Recent significant disposals include the sale of the bank’s stake in TSB.  Prior to joining Lloyds, Krishna worked in the corporate department at Allen & Overy, both in London and Singapore.

Brian Sheridan is a Partner in Private Equity Firm Archimed, a fund fully dedicated to the healthcare sector. Brian was formerly General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and Company Secretary at LivaNova PLC, listed on the LSE and NASDAQ, formed from the 2015 merger of Sorin S.p.A. and Cyberonics Inc. Brian led the Transaction Team for this deal, involving simultaneous and highly complex cross-border de-listings, merger and re-listings, and more recently the Transaction Team for the pan-jurisdictional carve-out divestiture of the Cardiac Rhythm Management Division to Chinese acquirors. Brian and his team have won numerous awards for their M&A activities, as well as litigation, and business ethics awards. Prior to joining Sorin S.p.A. Brian was a Partner in Oppenheimer. Wolff & Donnelly LLP.

Anka Taylor qualified as a solicitor before joining Hiscox Syndicates in Lloyds’ as an underwriter where she underwrote a wide range of risks for Syndicate 33 including professional indemnity, film and TV production risks and major sporting events such as the Olympic Games and Rugby World Cup. She then started  the Hiscox Enterprise Risk account and was at the forefront of early developments in the underwriting of both W&I and tax insurance, before joining Aon as a broker specialising in the same class of business. She has lead the placements of many of the largest W&I and tax risks placed by the Aon UK team and continues her interest in the further innovation and development of these products.

Steve is DPO EMEA and APAC for Thomson Reuters and an Associate Lecturer for both the GDPR and leadership Programmes at Henley Business School. He has over 20 years industry experience and has applied a risk-based approach to data security systems coupled with a deep data privacy knowledge. For the past five years, Steve has brought about a shift from old style privacy awareness into the 21^st Century.

Steve worked on the draft Data Protection Act 2018 providing suggested amendments to governmental policy makers.

Ross Woodham is General Counsel and Privacy Officer at Cogeco Peer 1, part of Cogeco Communications, Inc. (TSX:CCA) who are headquartered Montreal, Canada. His responsibilities include leadership of the global legal team as well as spearheading the company’s Business Assurance program covering Compliance, Information Security and Privacy.

Cogeco Peer 1 helps customers design, build, manage and optimise true hybrid IT solutions, allowing them to focus on what matters most: fuelling innovation, powering transformation and driving growth.

Ross has been working with hosting providers, top-tier technology companies and their clients for over 10 years and advocates the benefits of risk management to achieve better governance and strategic outcomes.

Mr Haibin Xue is the London based managing partner of Zhong Lun Law Firm, one of the 3 top tie Chinese law firms with over 1,000 lawyers practising from 15 offices both in China and overseas. As an English solicitor and Chinese lawyer, Mr Xue specialises in cross border M&A and related dispute resolutions. He has acted as the leading counsel for numerous Chinese and European companies in respect of their cross border corporate transactions and disputes, and is widely recognised for his solution driven approach, practical understanding of the legal, cultural and social environments both in China and the UK.

Mr Xue also acts as the Chinese General Counsel for Hexagon AB, a high tech company listed in Sweden and the global leader for provision of design, measurement and visualisation technologies, headquartered in Europe with substantial operations in China. In his role as the General Counsel, Mr Xue is particularly experienced in dealing with high tech related transactions such as technology transfer arrangements between the American, European and Asian Pacific regions.

Previously qualified as an engineer, Mr Xue has a bachelor degree in science, and then 2 master degrees in law awarded by leading universities both in China and the UK. He is also an adjunct professor teaching M&A at the Law School of Renmin University of China.