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Berwin Leighton Paisner's tax practice has different partners leading different areas of the practice. Michael Wistow acts as head of tax while John Overs oversees the corporate tax practice. The firm is capable in a number of tax disciplines but has ... [more]

Berwin Leighton Paisner's tax practice has different partners leading different areas of the practice. Michael Wistow acts as head of tax while John Overs oversees the corporate tax practice. The firm is capable in a number of tax disciplines but has particular focus on capital markets, corporate financing, fund and investment structuring and real estate. The firm has this year built on the work done for Tesco last year and handled the company's £5 billion programme to release value from its real estate portfolio. This has involved a number of off balance sheet joint ventures and sale and leaseback arrangements, each of which has required close attention to the corporate structures involved. The financing expertise of the firm was evident in Allied London Properties' construction financing and re-financing of the Civil Justice Centre in Manchester. The refinancing involved a securitisation of assets in which tax issues were an important feature for the firm to consider. While the firm recruited heavily in previous years and is strong in several areas of tax, competitors have noted that the tax team has not been prominent in the UK tax market of late.