Announcing 14 new partners in the UK and Germany

Today we announce our annual promotions to partnership effective 1 May 2023.

The firm has promoted lawyers with expertise aligned with its strategic ambitions in its international priority sectors of Technology, Media and Communications, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Real Estate, Energy and Infrastructure, and Private Wealth.

Earlier in the year, three lawyers were promoted to the Taylor Wessing partnership in the Netherlands, bringing the total number of partners promoted in 2023 to 17. 

UK Managing Partner Shane Gleghorn said: "These promotions reflect the depth of talent we have in our firm and the exceptional commitment of these individuals to our clients and our culture. These new partners strengthen our key sector and practice areas and we are delighted to welcome them to the partnership." 

The new partners in the UK are: 

Ed Chapman, Corporate
Ed advises clients on strategic buy- and sell-side M&A transactions, joint ventures, and restructurings, particularly within the technology and life sciences sectors. Ed has extensive experience structuring, negotiating, and executing complex domestic and cross-border matters, regularly working across the UK, Europe and North America. Ed also advises on venture capital and growth equity financings.

Tom Foster, Patents 
Tom advises clients on their international strategies for business-critical patent and trade secret matters. Tom has a mathematics background and has technical expertise in 3G, 4G, 5G, broadband, HEVC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other technologies, and has represented clients in many of the leading cases involving SEP and FRAND matters. Tom also advises clients in the healthcare industry, including at the intersect of healthcare and digital technologies. 

Ben Lister, Private Client 
Ben specialises in advising ultra-high net worth individuals, families, trustees and family offices on tax, succession planning and wealth structuring. Ben has over a decade of experience in guiding clients through scenarios involving the interaction of complex and often sensitive tax, legal and family issues, both in the UK and internationally. He has extensive expertise advising on inter-generational planning, investment structuring and cross-border relocations. 

James Homan, Corporate
James specialises in advising on complex cross-border business transactions, including M&A, IPOs, joint ventures, structured equity investments, venture capital and growth capital financing rounds. James acts for clients all the way through the life cycle, including founders, growth companies, VC investors, institutions and listed companies (both LSE and Nasdaq), primarily in the technology and structured investment sectors. 

Paul Thorpe, Corporate
Paul advises strategic corporates, VC and PE funds, investors and founders on M&A processes in the technology and life sciences sectors. Paul has extensive experience providing commercial advice informed by over 10 years of M&A advisory experience. Paul's practice covers transactions in the fintech, gaming, pharma, retail and industrial sectors, as well as in relation to cross-sectoral disruptive technologies (including AI and blockchain).

Georgina Watt, Real Estate 
Georgina advises institutional investors, developers and major corporate occupier clients on a broad range of real estate matters including investment acquisitions and disposals, development and forward funding transactions and asset management matters. Georgina's clients operate across several sectors including office, retail and leisure, and logistics. Georgina has advised clients on a number of multi-million pound acquisitions of multi-let logistics and industrial assets transactions in the UK.

Michael Yates, Technology, IP and Information 
Michael is an information litigator acting for both claimants and defendants. He specialises in advising individuals and companies on reputation management, information, cyber and media law disputes. Michael covers the full spectrum of contentious matters, including defamation, privacy, data protection, breach of confidence, cyber, harassment, blackmail, right to be forgotten and subject access requests, malicious falsehood and copyright law, as well as regulatory media and data complaints, reporting restrictions, NDAs, injunction and Norwich pharmacal applications and coroners proceedings.

The new partners in Germany are: 

Dr Malek Barudi, Technology, Media & Telecoms
As a specialist in copyright and media law, Malek advises and represents leading national and international companies from the media, entertainment, science, telecommunications and IT sectors. Clients particularly value his expertise on issues of copyright, rights of expression and personality, telemedia law and the legal framework for internet service providers. As a litigator, he conducts trials in complex litigation often involving technology-related issues. 

Dr Markus Böhme, Environmental Planning & Regulatory
Markus advises on the national and international energy industry from the firm’s Düsseldorf office, with a focus on regulatory issues. His practice includes M&A transactions as well as the entire energy supply sector (gas, electricity, local and district heating and renewable energies). 

Mareike Gehrmann, Technology, Media & Telecoms
As a specialist lawyer for IT law, Mareike guides her clients through the changes of digitalisation and her expert advice is valued by both companies and public authorities. With proven expertise from numerous digitalisation projects, Mareike advises her clients on data protection, cybersecurity and IT contract law. Agile Programming, SaaS, IT sourcing, licence management and open source are part of her daily business. 

Dr Michael Kieffer, Commercial Agreements & Distribution
Michael advises in the areas of production, purchasing, sales, distribution (e-commerce, commercial agent, authorised dealer and franchise systems) as well as product liability and product law requirements. The focus of his practice is on drafting contracts and representing clients in contentious disputes and he also advises on corporate transactions. Michael’s clients include national and international companies in trade and industry. 

Karolina Lange-Kulmann, Environmental Planning & Regulatory
Karolina specialises in regulatory advice in the healthcare sector. Her clients include investors and companies in the healthcare sector; outpatient service providers such as medical healthcare centres; larger medical practices and networks of doctors; inpatient service providers such as hospitals, private clinics and inpatient rehabilitation and care facilities as well as their funding providers; health insurance funds and their contractual partners. 

Dr Joachim Mandl, Commercial Real Estate
Joachim is a lawyer in the field of commercial real estate and advises international and national companies as well as family offices and individuals on issues throughout the entire life cycle of a property. He is equally involved in advising on large-scale real estate transactions as well as traditional real estate law, including landlord and tenant law, the law relating to estate agents and construction and architectural law. 

Jan Vogel - Employment, Pensions & Mobility
Jan advises national and international companies as well as executives on employment and social law and also assists his clients in court proceedings. Jan-Patrick has particular expertise in the field of employment law/HR compliance and provides comprehensive advice to companies in this context on the establishment and implementation of an HR compliance organisation as well as on repressive defence in cases of internal criminal offences. 

Partners promoted in the Netherlands on 1 January 2023 are:

• Vera Jurgens, Disputes & Investigations.
• Fabian Stevens, Real Estate.
• Ilona van de Klundert, Restructuring & Insolvency.

The firm has also promoted 13 lawyers to senior counsel roles based in the UK and the US. They are:

• Emma Allen, Disputes & Investigations.
• Kate Buchanan, Private Client.
• Kelly Burke, Technology, IP & Information.
• Kathryn Clapp, Employment, Pensions & Mobility.
• Sarah Cole, Corporate.
• Richard Faichney, Corporate.
• Daniel Hirschfield, Financial Services Regulation.
• Simon Jupp, Technology, IP & Information.
• Katie Lewis, Tax & Incentives. 
• Elinor Picton, Corporate.
• James Watkins, Employment, Pensions & Mobility.
• Charlotte Whalley, Corporate.
• Xuyang Zhu, Technology, IP & Information.