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The comprehensive guide to the world's leading tax firms

Deloitte's business taxes service in the UK advises international, inbound and UK-based multinational and FTSE250 clients on corporate tax, indirect tax, including stamp duty and VAT, transfer pricing and R&D. David Sproul is the head of the tax practice. ... [more]

Deloitte's business taxes service in the UK advises international, inbound and UK-based multinational and FTSE250 clients on corporate tax, indirect tax, including stamp duty and VAT, transfer pricing and R&D. David Sproul is the head of the tax practice. The new global trade & customs team within the indirect tax practice, specialises in export controls, customs and international trade. Fiona Walkinshaw joined the practice in September 2009 from the law firm of Reynolds Porter Chamberlain to set up a direct tax litigation practice. Seven directors became partners in July 2009. Andrew Martyn, formerly assistant director for financial services transfer pricing at HM Revenue & Customs, joined the practice as a director in March 2009. Edward Morris, another transfer pricing specialist, made the same move at the beginning of the year.

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Colin Hargreaves is the head of a Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer practice that has 12 partners and 37 other members of staff, including consultants, counsel, professional support lawyers and trainees. The practice has maintained its leading position ... [more]

Colin Hargreaves is the head of a Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer practice that has 12 partners and 37 other members of staff, including consultants, counsel, professional support lawyers and trainees. The practice has maintained its leading position among City of London tax teams this year. Corporate and private equity, funds, restructuring, VAT, tax disputes and investigations are just some of the areas where the team has come to the fore. Partners have worked on some of the key financial services tax work that has come out of the economic downturn, such as capital raisings for Barclays, Bradford & Bingley and Lloyds Banking Group, and Nomura's purchase of Lehman Brothers' European, Middle East and Asia business. Sarah Falk was one of four partners from the firm's offices around Europe that advised the Japanese bank on the implementation and integration of the acquisition. The practice advised the Bank of England in relation to Icelandic banks, and draft and enacted banking legislation. Richard Ballard and a partner in Paris advised Citi and Deutsche Bank as joint underwriters and Lazard as joint sponsor and sole financial adviser on Hammerson's £584.2 million ($964.1 million) rights issue. Corporate transactions included David Taylor as the partner providing the tax advice to Siemens when it sold its 50% share in the Fujitsu Siemens Computers joint venture to Fujitsu Ltd for about €450 million ($653 million). Tax finance clients include all the significant global investment banks, such as Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank. Murray Clayson, David Haworth, and Helen Buchanan are highly rated partners in this area.

The firm hired its first transfer pricing economist in London this year when Danny Beeton joined the firm's tax practice from Grant Thornton. The firm believes the attitude of HMRC to going to court and its approach in the DSG litigation, which this year was the first UK case to look at transfer pricing methodology, means there is a real opportunity for law firms to combine a legal and economic service for clients. If rumours are to be believed, other law firms in the City think the same way and want to recruit a transfer pricing economist or two.

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The firm that can offer a full-service tax practice that includes a successful contentious team is the one that is gaining favour with clients these days, and Linklaters is no exception to this. Tax directors at global multinationals head for the firm ... [more]

The firm that can offer a full-service tax practice that includes a successful contentious team is the one that is gaining favour with clients these days, and Linklaters is no exception to this. Tax directors at global multinationals head for the firm when they need advice on cross-border matters. Examples of its corporate and finance tax prowess include Ian Bowler, one of 10 partners, advising Lloyds TSB in its acquisition of HBOS; Guy Brannan acting for Royal Bank of Scotland Group during its £20 billion ($33 billion) recapitalisation by HM Treasury in October 2008; Michael Hardwick's advice to the Department of Transport on the agreements regulating the building of Crossrail, London's east-west rail link, including a public/private partnership to build a station in Canary Wharf. Mark Kingstone, the head of UK tax, and Lynne Walkington advised Deutsche Bank and Lloyds TSB, the majority investors, on the UK tax aspects of the acquisition by a largely debt-financed consortium of Porterbrook Leasing Company Limited, a train leasing company in the UK, from Abbey National.

The team also worked on the tax issues of Rio Tinto's defence against BHP Billiton's, ultimately unsuccessful, hostile takeover bid and acted on several of the well publicised corporate redomiciles. The contentious tax practice has its hands full representing multinationals, financial institutions and public limited companies. The tax authorities have identified structured finance as an area of alleged tax avoidance and the practice is acting for a number of its clients that are facing HMRC's scrutiny.

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The need to manage cash and the opportunity to submit VAT claims following the Fleming judgment, where the courts said taxpayers could claim a refund for overpaid tax, have brought companies to PricewaterhouseCoopers for tax advice. Barry Marshall is ... [more]

The need to manage cash and the opportunity to submit VAT claims following the Fleming judgment, where the courts said taxpayers could claim a refund for overpaid tax, have brought companies to PricewaterhouseCoopers for tax advice. Barry Marshall is the head of UK tax. Richard Collier-Keywood, the firm's global head of tax, also works from the London office. The demand for the team's advice, particularly in compliance, is still high. Mark Schofield become the leader of the firm's global sustainability and climate change and tax network in April 2009 and Simon Wilks took over from the retiring Tom Cawdron as head of investigations. Another well-known partner to bow out was John Whiting, who retired at the beginning of July to join the Chartered Institute of Taxation as part-time tax policy director.

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Taxpayers in the UK have looked at the feasibility of moving their tax domicile more closely than ever in recent years. Some have gone ahead and have called on Slaughter and May for advice in doing so. It is only one of the areas, that also includes ... [more]

Taxpayers in the UK have looked at the feasibility of moving their tax domicile more closely than ever in recent years. Some have gone ahead and have called on Slaughter and May for advice in doing so. It is only one of the areas, that also includes restructuring, tax disputes, corporate transactions and consultancy work, where demand for the 11 partners' expertise has been high this year. Shire, the pharmaceuticals company, was advised by Tony Beare, the head of the practice, on inserting a new holding company which is incorporated in Jersey but tax resident in Ireland. Charter, an engineering company, which went to Sara Luder and William Watson for advice, went for a similar structure and Luder and Steve Edge advised Regus, the business offices company, which chose a Jersey incorporated company resident in Luxembourg. Edge still commands a leading reputation for tax advice in the UK market. The practice represented HM Treasury throughout 2008 and 2009 in matters such as the public takeover of financial institutions Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, and the investment of preference share capital and the underwriting of ordinary share placings in other stricken UK banks. The work concerned tax issues arising out of the change in control of the relevant banks and tax issues relating to the various capital-raising exercises, the various disposals and acquisitions of shares and/or assets and the position of former shareholders and depositors. Richard Carson advised Taylor Wimpey on its corporate and financial restructuring, including the sale of its non-core construction business, an associated group reorganisation (involving interests held in both the UK and Ghana) required to facilitate this disposal and continuing efforts to raise additional equity and restructure the group's indebtedness. As the client wanted these transactions to be tax neutral because of its lack of funds, how the group's existing tax assets were managed and used was very important. The practice represented BHP Billiton, the miner, during its unsuccessful bid for Rio Tinto. The transaction would have meant one dual-listed group taking over another. The structuring had to allow Rio Tinto's UK resident shareholders to benefit from rollover relief as well as minimise Australian tax risks. When Abbey National sold Porterbrook, the rail leasing company, it called on the Slaughter and May UK tax practice for advice, for example, to deal with some specific anti-avoidance rules that potentially applied to the sale of leasing companies though this transaction was a commercial one. Luder and Michael Lane, who became a partner this year, were the advisers.

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The market turmoil and its effects on UK banks was a source of innovative and complex work for the tax team at Allen & Overy this year. The practice also acted for clients in, for example, international capital markets matters, funds work, M&A, real ... [more]

The market turmoil and its effects on UK banks was a source of innovative and complex work for the tax team at Allen & Overy this year. The practice also acted for clients in, for example, international capital markets matters, funds work, M&A, real estate and oil and gas. It won the UK tax firm of the year award at International Tax Review's European Tax Awards this year, a demonstration of the breadth of the group. Patrick Mears, who continues to be regarded highly by his peers, and an associate advised Nationwide Building Society on its part-acquisition of Dunfermline Building Society in March 2009. It was the first such transaction under the Banking Act 2009. Mears and a senior associate advised Britannia Building Society on its recommended merger with Co-operative Financial Services to create a new super-mutual as an ethical alternative to shareholder-owned banks. The transaction was the first of its kind in the UK. New legislation now allows mergers between different types of mutuals. Barclays, the UK bank, turned to David Hughes, for advice on the near-$17 billion takeover of British Energy by EDF, the French electricity company. Hughes advised on the tax issues around the structuring and issue of an innovative structured note linked to guaranteed contingent value rights instruments that was used as part of the purchase price for the target. The notes allow the former owners of British Energy to benefit from increasing energy prices or increased energy production. The merger of HBOS with Lloyds TSB Group in September 2008 was the most high-profile transaction in the UK banking sector in years. Brenda Coleman and an associate provided tax advice to HBOS in the deal, which was structured to a very tight timetable, It involved more than 2 million shareholders in 40 countries. Coleman also advised HBOS on a £4 billion ($5.8 billion) rights issue and a £11.5 billion placing and open offer with HM Treasury. Coleman left Allen & Overy in September 2009.

One of the high-profile restructuring matters the practice worked on was the unprecedented PPP (public-private partnership) administration of Metronet, the company responsible for maintaining and upgrading two-thirds of the London Underground network. WPP and UBM also retained the practice to advise on their redomiciliations. And Mark Brailsford, Hughes and Chris Harrison were to fore in international capital markets work for clients such as the Bank of Ireland, Barclays and RBS. Advice on issues such as tax reputation and policy, group reorganisations and group financing arrangements is also a strength.

Vimal Tilakapala and Harrison become joint heads of the practice in September 2009.

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Similarly to other City firms, Clifford Chance's UK tax practice is part of a global group that also covers the US, Western Europe and Eastern Europe. The group has more than 200 practitioners around the world. In London, the advisers work on corporate ... [more]

Similarly to other City firms, Clifford Chance's UK tax practice is part of a global group that also covers the US, Western Europe and Eastern Europe. The group has more than 200 practitioners around the world. In London, the advisers work on corporate tax issues, private equity and funds formation, real estate, structured finance, banking and capital markets, tax disputes and VAT to a very high level. Douglas French and David Harkness, the head of the practice, advised British Energy in its £12.5 billion ($20.7 billion) takeover by EDF. It was an innovative cross-border takeover with a complex contingent value right arrangement. Nick Mace advised Morgan Stanley on the international aspects of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, its 49:51 joint venture with Citi worth $14 billion. French, Harkness and Mark Persoff advising Barclays on their £7 billion capital raising from strategic investors (including Qatar Holding LLC and HH Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan) via warrants, convertible bonds and innovative capital instruments. The bank wanted to secure this funding to remain independent of central government, unlike other UK clearing banks, and the advice dealt with some complex issues in innovative ways to help them do this. And David Saleh worked on £1bn+ re-development of Chelsea Barracks for Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company and companies in its group, including the Islamic financing of the site. It was the largest such financing arrangement on a UK property and the firm structured the entire transaction including site acquisition, financing and bank syndication. Just as other tax practices are reporting, the aggressive attitude of HM Revenue & Customs has led to more work for the firm's tax disputes group. And the VAT team continues to shine.

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For Ernst & Young, international tax, where John Dixon is head of the practice, is still "very buoyant" despite the recession and a lack of M&A work. As clients look at cost savings, efficiencies and reorganisation, the tax-efficient supply chain management ... [more]

For Ernst & Young, international tax, where John Dixon is head of the practice, is still "very buoyant" despite the recession and a lack of M&A work. As clients look at cost savings, efficiencies and reorganisation, the tax-efficient supply chain management practice is doing well. Insolvency, administration, bank work-outs and debt obligations work, predictably, has seen a lot of demand. It believes its planning techniques can still bring value. Dixon took over from Paul Davies, who left the UK head of tax role to become a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in May 2009.

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The tax advisers at Herbert Smith have particular strengths in corporate, contentious, real estate and insurance.tax. It is no surprise that corporate recovery and restructuring work has increased this year. It won the European Court of Justice firm ... [more]

The tax advisers at Herbert Smith have particular strengths in corporate, contentious, real estate and insurance.tax. It is no surprise that corporate recovery and restructuring work has increased this year. It won the European Court of Justice firm of the year at International Tax Review's European Tax Awards this year. The practice worked on two of the few substantial M&A deals during the period: EDF/British Energy and Tata/Jaguar. Howard Murray advised EDF on its recommended £12.5 billion takeover of British Energy and its associated plans for New Nuclear Build. The tax team was involved in the groundbreaking transaction, which saw a structure of consideration offered to shareholders that was a choice between cash and a novel contingent value instrument (called Nuclear Power Notes) to be issued by Barclays Bank.

The team also advised the same French client on the £2.3 billion sale of a 20% interest in its British Energy business to Centrica and the formation – also with Centrica of a joint venture to construct, operate and decommission a new generation of nuclear power plants in the UK. Heather Gething was the lead partner in providing tax advice to Tata Motors on its $2.3 billion acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover, the UK motoring brand, from US carmaker Ford. The advice was focused primarily on warranty and indemnity protection, mechanisms for post-completion transfers of businesses and issues relating to intellectual property. Not only was it a share and assets deal, but the financing structure was complicated and further complexity arose from the fact that the businesses had to be extracted from Ford, which had incorporated each of them into its own businesses. Bradley Phillips and Isaac Zailer were on hand to guide British American Tobacco through the large and complicated tax issues to do with the company's €2.7 billion ($4 billion) acquisition of Skandinavisk Tobakskompagni's (ST), a Danish cigarette business. The acquirer was already a 32.35% shareholder in ST, so it proposed to divest this stake in ST, which brought the total cost to more than €2.7 billion. The European Commission insisted on BAT selling some of what it bought and the team has been advising on those disposals. The real estate practice advised on some of the biggest transactions of the year for companies such as Standard Life and Hammerson. Derek Hill, a partner, moved to Field Fisher Waterhouse in December 2008.

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Much of the work KPMG's tax practice has done this year in the UK has been in helping clients recover and retain cash, such as through VAT refunds as a result of the Fleming case. However, the practice has got closer to its clients' businesses in other ... [more]

Much of the work KPMG's tax practice has done this year in the UK has been in helping clients recover and retain cash, such as through VAT refunds as a result of the Fleming case. However, the practice has got closer to its clients' businesses in other ways too, such as advice on independent bank reviews, simplification of structures and supply chain issues. And Chris Morgan has led the firm's work on the tax competitiveness agenda. Tax governance is another area where the firm can be said to have led the thinking on the issue. The UK firm is part of KPMG Europe, which also consists of the Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Belgium member firms. Sue Bonney, is the head of tax. Other well-known advisers include Jane McCormick , a banking partner, who is working on one of the largest banking integrations in the UK; Anneli Collins in private equity and M&A and Rachel Anderson, who: play a key role for clients in legacy projects with HMRC where dispute resolution have reached stalemate and neither the taxpayer nor the government wants to go to litigation. John Neighbour retains a considerable reputation for transfer pricing advice.

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John Watson is the head of a six-partner team at Ashurst in London. The group has strengths in structured finance, private equity, transfer pricing and cross border planning, investment funds, real estate taxation and litigation. It is part of a global ... [more]

John Watson is the head of a six-partner team at Ashurst in London. The group has strengths in structured finance, private equity, transfer pricing and cross border planning, investment funds, real estate taxation and litigation. It is part of a global practice that also has practitioners in New York, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Frankfurt and Munich. Paul Miller and Alexander Cox provided the tax advice when the firm advised advised Host Europe Corporation Limited on the reorganisation of the Host Europe group of companies and the sale of the assets of the Vialtus division to Freedom4 Group. And Tom Cartwright advised Oranje-Nassau Groep, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wendel, on the €630 million ($919 million) sale of its oil and gas division to a consortium comprising ONH BV, Dyas UK Limited and Sumitomo Corporation.

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Strengths of Baker & McKenzie's tax practice in London include transfer pricing and economics, tax and reorganisation, cross-border transactional and M&A work, supply chain and business re-engineering and VAT advice. The practice consists of lawyers, ... [more]

Strengths of Baker & McKenzie's tax practice in London include transfer pricing and economics, tax and reorganisation, cross-border transactional and M&A work, supply chain and business re-engineering and VAT advice. The practice consists of lawyers, accountants, VAT specialists, economists and analysts, and can tap into a global network of more than 600 tax advisers. The group also has won a reputation for its climate change practice, which is headed by James macLachlan, a direct tax practioner, and Mark Delaney, an indirect tax adviser, who has been involved in numerous carbon market transactions. Advocacy is another area that the advisers have done much work in. John Fairley and macLachlan, for example, have advised the 100 Group of finance directors on tax reform issues. Advice on post-acquisition restructuring, IP migration, permanent establishment risk and thin capitalisation are features of the transfer pricing team. Mark Agnew joined the practice this year from PricewaterhouseCoopers as a senior VAT consultant. Two economists left and Stephane Pantelidaki, an assistant director in the transfer pricing practice, joined KPMG as an associate partner.

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Berwin Leighton Paisner has 14 partners, a director, a consultant and 22 associates in its corporate tax group. Three of the partners and the director are also part of a separate tax risk and resolution group, which has seven partners altogether. Michael ... [more]

Berwin Leighton Paisner has 14 partners, a director, a consultant and 22 associates in its corporate tax group. Three of the partners and the director are also part of a separate tax risk and resolution group, which has seven partners altogether. Michael Wistow is the head of tax and John Overs is the head of corporate tax. The firm has hired aggressively in recent years in a bid to reach the top table of tax practices in the UK. "Which City tax partner hasn't had a call from Michael Wistow?" asked a partner at another firm. Structured real estate transactions, corporate reorganisation, insolvency and restructuring, M&A, indirect taxes including VAT, and banking capital markets and securitisation are other strengths of the practice. Wistow and Neville Wright advised Canary Wharf Group, the property developer on a sale and building works contract with JPMorgan Chase for their European headquarters building in London. The sale was accompanied by a building works contract for the property firm to act as development managers constructing the building to the bank's specifications. Tesco, the UK retailer, is a significant client of the practice. Overs, Wright and Elizabeth Bradley, are advising the company on its continuing programme of releasing value from its UK property portfolio which has involved a series of off-balance-sheet joint ventures and sales and leasebacks, using some securitised debt. Liesl Fichardt, one of two solicitor advocates in the tax risk and resolution group, and an associate are advising Aegis Group and with six other large companies, including British Land, Hewlett Packard and the Football Association, in a multi-million pound dispute and claim against HMRC. The case is expected to raise important tax issues, and set a precedent in corporate tax planning. The contentious tax group advises clients at all levels of UK litigation, from the new tax tribunal upwards. It also has a team that negotiates confidential settlements on behalf of clients with the tax authorities. [hide]

Richard Croker is the head of corporate tax at CMS Cameron McKenna. The practice is six-strong and covers areas such as UK and international M&A, joint ventures and flotations; finance, including leasing, structured finance and products/derivatives, ... [more]

Richard Croker is the head of corporate tax at CMS Cameron McKenna. The practice is six-strong and covers areas such as UK and international M&A, joint ventures and flotations; finance, including leasing, structured finance and products/derivatives, property taxation including stamp duty planning, VAT and tax litigation and UK and cross-border tax consultancy.

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Grant Thornton's UK tax advice covers areas such as corporate and international tax advisory, transfer pricing compliance and advisory, UK corporate and global tax compliance, reorganisation, reconstruction and transactions tax, management of tax risk ... [more]

Grant Thornton's UK tax advice covers areas such as corporate and international tax advisory, transfer pricing compliance and advisory, UK corporate and global tax compliance, reorganisation, reconstruction and transactions tax, management of tax risk and indirect tax compliance and advisory. Danny Beeton moved to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in August 2009 as head of transfer pricing economics.

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The advisory and transactional strengths of Latham & Watkins in London can be seen in the clients the team has advised in the past 12 months. These have included the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Symantec and The Carlyle Group. Dan Friel, the vice-chairman ... [more]

The advisory and transactional strengths of Latham & Watkins in London can be seen in the clients the team has advised in the past 12 months. These have included the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Symantec and The Carlyle Group. Dan Friel, the vice-chairman of the global tax group, and Sean Finn advised QIA through its wholly owned subsidiary, Qatar Holding LLC, when it invested in the £7.3 billion capital raising by Barclays Plc, and its subsidiary Barclays Bank Ltd in November 2008. Finn and Stephen Brown worked for Symantec, the IT company in its acquisition of MessageLabs Group Limited. And Finn was part of the firm's team that advised on the UK and US tax structuring when The Carlyle Group, the private equity firm, bought Gardner Group Ltd, a supplier to the global aviation industry, from Rolls-Royce and Dunedin Enterprise Investment Trust. The European tax practice also has advisers in Paris, Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Madrid.

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Lovells' tax group has considerable depth to it. It is mentioned highly in various directories and has been nominated for several awards. The 20 advisers, including five partners, cover the whole range of corporate tax issues, including corporate finance, ... [more]

Lovells' tax group has considerable depth to it. It is mentioned highly in various directories and has been nominated for several awards. The 20 advisers, including five partners, cover the whole range of corporate tax issues, including corporate finance, M&A, private equity, finance, financial services, real estate, business restructuring, insolvency, project finance and tax disputes. The group acts for companies that are the leaders in their fields, such as SABMiller, Barclays and Barclays Global Investors, Prudential, M&G, Hermes, and Serco, Shaftesbury. It has a particular strength in tax disputes. Greg Sinfield and Robert Hartley advise Loyalty Management UK, the company that operates the Nectar card loyalty scheme, in a case that could affect the VAT analysis of all multiparty contracts and could cost the UK exchequer about £350 million ($579 million) over five years in repayments. In February 2009, the House of Lords referred some questions from the long-running litigation to the European Court of Justice after an appeal by HMRC. The issue in the case was who received a supply when a Nectar collector redeemed points for goods or services. HMRC take the view that the redeemer makes a supply to the collector whereas LMUK argues that the redeemer makes a supply of redemption services to it. Kevin Ashman, in London, advised SEGRO, property investment and development company, as part of a multi-jurisdictional Lovells team, on a £500 million rights issue. London was also part of a cross-border transaction where Lovells advised FCE Bank and its various European branches on the structuring of £3 billion ($4.16 billion)-worth of retail securitisations related to receivables connected to the financing of auto-vehicles sold to financial customers. Philip Harle was the partner involved in the London office.

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Ashley Greenbank is the head of corporate tax at Macfarlanes. Damian Crossley became a partner in May 2009. The practice is highly regarded for its expertise in private equity tax. The group acts for firms such as Phoenix Equity Partners and Goldman ... [more]

Ashley Greenbank is the head of corporate tax at Macfarlanes. Damian Crossley became a partner in May 2009. The practice is highly regarded for its expertise in private equity tax. The group acts for firms such as Phoenix Equity Partners and Goldman Sachs Investment Management. It advised Goldman Sachs and co-investors on the structuring of their €1.2 billion ($1.8 billion) acquisition of and investment in ABN AMRO's UK, Netherlands and Nordic private equity portfolio. The team worked on other matters for clients in the same industry, such as several debt buy-backs, special situation fund transactions and restructurings of investee companies. Alcoa, Mitsubishi Rayon and Pernod-Ricard have been three of the team's clients in corporate transactions recently.

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Louise Higginbottom, the head of Norton Rose's global tax practice, is based in London. The team covers areas such as asset finance, corporate finance, insurance, investment funds, litigation, real estate and securitisation. There are 10 partners in ... [more]

Louise Higginbottom, the head of Norton Rose's global tax practice, is based in London. The team covers areas such as asset finance, corporate finance, insurance, investment funds, litigation, real estate and securitisation. There are 10 partners in London. The lawyers worked with HM Treasury and HMRC to develop tax regulation so that Islamic finance-products are treated similarly to traditional finance products.

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Simmons & Simmons offers clients substantial breadth of tax expertise in areas such as equity and debt capital markets, M&A, VAT and funds. Nick Cronkshaw, the head of the group, Alison Dickie and Mark Watterson advised in a high-profile deal in the ... [more]

Simmons & Simmons offers clients substantial breadth of tax expertise in areas such as equity and debt capital markets, M&A, VAT and funds. Nick Cronkshaw, the head of the group, Alison Dickie and Mark Watterson advised in a high-profile deal in the insurance industry when Aon bought Benfield for £850 million ($1.4 billion), a public listed acquisition involving a Bermudian amalgamation. British Land turned to Martin Shah and Zoë Feller for advice on the establishment of a joint venture between it and LSPG Trust No 1, a joint venture between London and Stamford Property Limited and its joint venture partner, over the Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield and related assets. The lawyers advised on joint venture tax issues, partnership tax considerations, the approach of the UK REIT tax rules and securitisation tax, as well secured HM Revenue & Customs clearance on various aspects of the transaction. Cronkshaw and Dickie advised Aabar Petroleum Investments Company PJSC, a UAE company, on some complex cross-border issues when it sold its stake in Pearl Energy Limited, a Singapore-based independent oil and gas company with exploration and production activities focused in southeast Asia, and its intermediary holding company Aabar Investments Limited (also a Singaporean company) to a nominee company of Mubadala Development Company PJSC, based in the UAE, for an initial consideration of $833 million.

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Tim Sanders, the head of the European tax practice and James Anderson are Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom's two tax partners in London. They and the rest of the team cover corporate and banking taxation, including M&A, corporate and debt restructuring, ... [more]

Tim Sanders, the head of the European tax practice and James Anderson are Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom's two tax partners in London. They and the rest of the team cover corporate and banking taxation, including M&A, corporate and debt restructuring, structured finance, corporate reorganisations, international capital markets and derivatives. Anderson advised Och-Ziff, the hedge fund group, on the £200 million flotation of Max Property, a new European real estate investment group on London's Alternative Investment Market in May 2009. This was Och-Ziff's first major UK-listed property investment and one of the UK's first initial public offerings of the year and Europe's largest initial public offering of 2009 at that time.

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Alvarez & Marsal Taxand is the British member of Taxand, the global network of leading independent tax firms that has advisers in more than 40 countries around the world. The UK practice covers transfer pricing, international corporate tax, treasury ... [more]

Alvarez & Marsal Taxand is the British member of Taxand, the global network of leading independent tax firms that has advisers in more than 40 countries around the world. The UK practice covers transfer pricing, international corporate tax, treasury tax, disputes and investigations and reward and compensation. Its leading advisers include Andrew Watt and

David Pert, the head of the practice, in disputes and investigations. Shiv Mahalingham in transfer pricing, Kevin Hindley in corporate tax, Jonathan Hornby and Marcus Nicolaou were part of the team that dealt with a complex internal reorganisation for a large multinational supplier to the telecommunications industry. The advice was aimed at achieving post-acquisition integration and simplifying the group structure. A team for the UK, along with Taxand member firms in seven other jurisdictions worked on the tax aspects of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in the UK and Europe. The London team's advice covered more than 200 entities primarily, out of a group structure that has more than 3,000, in the UK, Luxembourg, Netherlands and the Cayman Islands. Issues dealt with have included the sale of banking assets; the tax-efficient unwinding of complex structured finance transactions; tax refund claim work and liaison with various revenue authorities on statutory filings; structuring for holding real estate in the chapter 11 group; elimination of entities and "clean up" of group structure and intercompany balances and minimising tax leakage on repatriation of funds to Lehmans to repay creditors. The whole group has more than 3,000 entities. Helping multinational corporations automate their processes effectively, particularly in indirect tax, is an area the tax team in London has developed recently. Stewart Nivison joined Alvarez from Sabrix, a tax technology company, to help with this work which involves combining tax and consulting teams with substantial technological expertise. Sarah Pickering, Richard Baxter and Ian Fleming joined the practice as partners during the year. They came from different big-four firms.

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Sheldon Alster returned to New York in April 2009, leaving Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton with only one tax partner in London, Nikhil Mehta, though the group is part of the firm's European practice that works closely together on many matters. The group ... [more]

Sheldon Alster returned to New York in April 2009, leaving Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton with only one tax partner in London, Nikhil Mehta, though the group is part of the firm's European practice that works closely together on many matters. The group in London advises on the UK, US and international tax aspects of cross-border acquisitions and joint ventures, complex international securities offerings, derivatives and new financial products, tax planning for financial services companies and other multinational businesses and contentious tax, including tax investigations. Examples of the clients the group has worked for this year are Bank of America, Arjo Wiggins Appleton Limited, AIG Financial Products and Goldman Sachs

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Peter Nias, the head of McDermott Will & Emery's London tax practice. The six-strong team advises on corporate, commercial and structured finance taxation. It counsels its own clients as well as those who use other parts of the firm. Stuart Sinclair ... [more]

Peter Nias, the head of McDermott Will & Emery's London tax practice. The six-strong team advises on corporate, commercial and structured finance taxation. It counsels its own clients as well as those who use other parts of the firm. Stuart Sinclair left the practice to set up Bingham McCutchen's UK tax practice.

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Iain Scoon is head of the London tax practice of Shearman & Sterling. Middle Eastern investors have been a good source of work for the group this year. Scoon and an associate advised Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Limited when it bought ... [more]

Iain Scoon is head of the London tax practice of Shearman & Sterling. Middle Eastern investors have been a good source of work for the group this year. Scoon and an associate advised Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Limited when it bought 90% of the ordinary shares of Manchester City Limited, the holding company of Manchester City Football Club. Scoon also worked for on the restructuring and refinancing of the Danoptra Gaming Group for certain financial entities within Credit Suisse. The restructuring involved the provision of new loan facilities and a debt-for-equity swap resulting in the acquisition of a controlling interest in Danoptra Limited, which will act as the new holding company of the group. And the team advised certain Abu Dhabi investors on their subscription for £3.25 billion mandatorily convertible notes, reserve capital instruments and warrants in Barclays plc in November 2008.

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Neil Woodgate and Peita Menon are the partners in White & Case's London tax practice. The practice advises clients on asset and structured finance transactions, corporate reorganisations, M&A, disposals and joint ventures, capital markets and financing ... [more]

Neil Woodgate and Peita Menon are the partners in White & Case's London tax practice. The practice advises clients on asset and structured finance transactions, corporate reorganisations, M&A, disposals and joint ventures, capital markets and financing transactions, real estate and banking.

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