Press Releases

National law firm Shoosmiths has joined some of the biggest names in the global games community at a major conference in San Francisco. The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the world’s largest professional games industry event, attracting more than 26,000 delegates over five days ...

National law firm Shoosmiths has advised the UK’s development finance institution CDC Group on its $15 million investment into RFL Electronics Ltd, which will grow the Bangladeshi company’s manufacturing capacity. The funding will be used to acquire specialist equipment for RFL Electronics’ state-of-the-art facility, in Narsingdi, which produces consumer electronic goods for the local market ...

The Creative Industries team at leading national law firm, Shoosmiths in Manchester have been nominated for ‘Law Firm of the Year’ at the prestigious Music Week Awards. After a record-breaking year for entries, the six-strong Shoosmiths team led by partner Laura Harper and including associate, Carol Isherwood, is up against other leading London-based media and entertainment law firms and is the only shortlisted team based outside of the capital – a first for a national legal practice ...

Linklaters LLP and Shoosmiths LLP both acted for the UK arm of Nordic Investment Firm Brunswick Real Estate on its first acquisition in its Greater London focused strategy – a mixed use portfolio of properties in London and the South East (including PRS blocks, two business centres and a number of Retail/Leisure units) ...

National law firm Shoosmiths is an official partner of the new Ethical Reading social enterprise initiative, which has its formal launch on 24th January 2018. Ethical Reading is a not-for-profit business set up with the aim of making Reading a better place to live and work by encouraging organisations and those who work within them to become more ethical in their behaviour ...

A TEAM led by Manchester-based corporate partner Tim Jackson-Smith has advised on a major private equity investment deal at one of the UK’s leading automotive technology firms. Working against a tight deadline, the Shoosmiths team supported the shareholders of Xtrac, a world leader in the design and manufacturer of high performance transmissions for the motorsport and automotive industry, in the buyout deal with Inflexion Private Equity ...

National law firm Shoosmiths has advised leading software component provider ComponentSource Limited on its move to new premises in Reading. ComponentSource will take up a new 10 year lease from 1 January 2018 at the innovative office development, The White Building, Reading. Established in 1995, ComponentSource is the world’s largest B2B pure play distributor, reseller and marketer of developer tools and software components for application developers ...

National law firm Shoosmiths is celebrating after being named 'Asset Finance Legal Provider of the Year' at the European Leasing Life Awards last night. Representatives from Shoosmiths' asset finance team included partner and national head of asset finance, Melanie Chell and asset finance partners Stephen Dawson and Roger Potgieter who flew to Amsterdam, to attend the annual conference and to collect the accolade at the following awards ceremony, held at the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky ...

Shoosmiths transport and infrastructure corporate partner Martin Fleetwood analyses the details in today’s rail strategy announcement by Transport Secretary Chris Grayling. He says: “Arguably this strategic vision links all five foundations in the Industrial Strategy – ideas, people, infrastructure, business environment and place – and is a good starting point to ensure that there is a good transport network in place to support UK growth ...

Shoosmiths Leeds marked its 12 month anniversary on 1 December, with a full complement of disciplines in place, having opened its office back in 2016 with fewer than 10 people on board. Since launch, the office has pursued a carefully-planned growth strategy, attracting some of the region’s leading legal talent from a raft of competitor law firms ...

Real estate experts at national law firm Shoosmiths have advised Pharm Research Associates (UK) Limited (PRA) on real estate aspects relating to the acquisition of new sites in Russia and the Netherlands, and a lease regear at its UK HQ. Shoosmiths worked alongside leading Russian law firm and World Services Group (WSG) partner, Alrud to advise on all aspects of documentation relating to the £2 ...

The corporate team at Shoosmiths Manchester is on track for a record year, having advised on deals worth more than £300m in the last month alone. The team has completed on a number of high profile transactions across a range of sectors, including automotive engineering, real estate and telecoms, underlining its strength regionally and nationally ...

National law firm Shoosmiths has advised development client Frontier Estates Limited on the first of what could be a number of multi-million pound property deals to ensure the development of a number of much-needed care homes. Shoosmiths’ real estate team advised the developer on the initial acquisition of the sites in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire ...

Partners Karen Procter (Manchester) and James Foster (Leeds) advised the specialist SME investor on deal, worth £9m, with the fast-growing Manchester-based company which provides telephony, contact centre and unified communications infrastructure and software to business and public sector organisations. Founded in 2005, 4net has built a reputation for service excellence and innovation. It has offices at Trafford Park, Manchester, Burton on Trent, Reading and London ...

National law firm Shoosmiths has achieved top tier rankings in 31 practice areas in this year's The Legal 500 directory, with a further 66 practice areas recommended. A total of 27 lawyers are also named in the elite Leading Lawyers list, while The Legal 500 United Kingdom 2017 editorial features 227 Shoosmiths lawyers ...

National law firm Shoosmiths has advised coffee chain Bob & Berts on £2m funding from the BGF to venture into the Scottish market. Founded in Northern Ireland, Bob & Berts is a family business that has grown to encompass 16 outlets in the country with a further 30 stores planned to open over the next four years, 20 of which will be in Scotland. Its relaxed style and focus on fresh food has proved a winning combination with a wide and growing customer base ...

National law firm Shoosmiths has boosted its Birmingham-based corporate team with the hire of Paul Batchelor from PwC Legal where he established and grew its Midlands legal business. Paul specialises in merger and acquisitions, private equity investments, complex group reorganisations, management incentive arrangements and high net worth/family investment structures ...

National law firm Shoosmiths has advised NVM Private Equity (NVM) on its investment into Volo Commerce, a provider of multi-channel e-commerce technology to support online merchants and brands selling through market places such as Amazon and eBay. NVM led the latest investment round into the UK-based company, which raised £6.2m. The company - which already has an office in New York - will use the cash to expand into the US and other international sales channels ...

National law firm Shoosmiths has hired its first pensions partner in Birmingham to boost its national team. Lynette Lewis has joined the firm as a partner from Eversheds Sutherland, and brings nine years’ experience as a pensions lawyer and a further 10 as a corporate lawyer ...

Shoosmiths welcomes the new associates: Birmingham: Imogen Francis (Commercial); Edinburgh: Neil McNab (Private Client); Manchester: Lida Khanverdi (Real Estate); Northampton: Jodie Craven (Recoveries Services); Nottingham: Victoria Chan (Corporate); Thames Valley: Liz McAllister, Joanna Roberts and John Shea (Commercial). Shoosmiths’ chief executive Claire Rowe said: “The latest round of associate promotions demonstrates the truly national reach of legal expertise we have ...

The Thames Valley real estate team at national law firm Shoosmiths has expanded with the recruitment of two new lawyers. Charlotte Bowerman and Abigail Gisbourne have joined the Reading-based team, part of Shoosmiths’ national real estate practice, which was this year shortlisted for Real Estate Team of the Year in The Lawyer Awards ...

National law firm Shoosmiths has appointed leading family partner Caroline Watson to head up a new family team in their Milton Keynes office. Caroline joins from Slater & Gordon where she was regional head of their family practice and based in Milton Keynes. Recognised in both the Legal 500 and Chambers directories, Caroline provides high net worth individuals with advice on all aspects of family law. Caroline is a trained collaborative lawyer and a member of Resolution ...

Business leaders from across Scotland gathered at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Edinburgh on 5 September to attend the Growing Scotland Business Dinner, co-hosted by Shoosmiths, Santander and KPMG. Guest speaker Bob Keiller CBE presented various talking points in what was an interactive evening of dinner and thought provoking discussion between peers of top organisations in Scotland ...

National law firm Shoosmiths was a project partner in Bruntwood’s successful consortium bid for funding to launch a tech hub in Leeds, delivering a major boost to the city. Leeds City Council has awarded Bruntwood, the largest regional property developer and operator in the UK, £2m to open a tech hub at their new Platform development located at the city’s mainline rail station ...

National law firm Shoosmiths has appointed international litigation partner Susannah Wakefield to its insurance practice in London. Susie joins from Taylor Wessing in London where she was partner and head of the insurance practice. Having qualified at Cameron McKenna in 1997, Susie moved to LeBoeuf in London and spent seven years in their New York office handling complex high value (re)insurance litigation and arbitration ...