To start the new decade we’re delighted to announce the arrival of ten high-profile lawyers across multiple practice areas further strengthening our offering of legal services.
The new appointments are:
Gerard Cukier – Defamation and Litigation
Gerard joins keystone from Kingsley Napley and advises high-profile individuals in the political, sports and media world, along with high-net-worth individuals. A trained litigator and experienced commercial lawyer, Gerard is extremely well placed to advise clients on a range of issues from defamation, blackmail and extortion to sponsorship agreements and music licensing deals.
Gerard also enjoys advising on high-profile international commercial disputes often leading to international arbitrations and enforcement of international judgments and awards.
Bruce Jones – Corporate and commercial
Joining from Marriott Harrison, corporate and commercial lawyer Bruce focuses on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and group reorganisations. His commercial experience includes advising on consultancy, distribution, agency and marketing agreements, and a variety of sports-related sponsorship, retail and events agreements.
Bruce is a solicitor and a barrister. His background in contentious matters means that he is also able to assist with shareholder disputes between joint venture parties and in relation to distressed sales and purchases.
Rob Eldridge – Employment
Former Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner Partner Rob specialises in employment law and his practice covers everything from employment disputes to the drafting of contracts and policies.
He has dealt with a number of disputes in the High Court and Employment Tribunal, including disputes in relation to discrimination, unfair dismissal, and restrictive covenants. He also advises on employment aspects of corporate and other transactions including mergers, take-overs and outsourcing and is highly experienced in advising on the application of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006.
Richard Johnson-Brown – Shipping disputes
Richard is an experienced litigator, specialising in shipping disputes, including shipbuilding, ship sale, charterparty and bill of lading disputes as well as collisions, groundings and general average disputes. He joins from Watson Farley & Williams and acts for shipowners, shipyards, charterers, P&I clubs, H&M underwriters and cargo interests. Richard has been based in Greece since 2010.
Fei Mao – Shipping and aviation disputes
Fei is a disputes lawyer who was previously at Ince where she specialised in shipping, commodities, aviation, and cross-border litigation and arbitration. Within the shipping industry she often advises on charterparties, bills of lading, international sales of goods, and shipbuilding contracts and disputes.
As an experienced litigator, Fei regularly handles litigation and arbitration in London and elsewhere, and has run many international arbitrations under the auspices of LMAA, FOSFA, GAFTA, HKIAC, LCIA, ICC, etc.
She also advises on non-contentious matters, such as drafting various transportation agreements, charterparty terms, sale and purchase agreements, shipbuilding contracts and the ancillary documents, share purchase agreements, and joint venture agreements.
Johnny Drysdale – HNW Residential property
Previously at Macfarlanes, Johnny is a specialist adviser to private individuals on the purchase, sale and mortgage of high-value residential property, particularly in London. He also has experience advising companies on investment acquisitions and disposals, lettings and portfolio management.
Sakhjit Randhawa – HNW Residential property
Sakhjit was at Charles Russell Speechlys for nearly 14 years and is a private property solicitor dealing with prime and super-prime London residential property transactions, in particular high-value residential property acquisitions, disposals and developments. Most of the transactions she advises on are within the prime and super-prime London postcodes.
Ian Cooke – HNW Residential property
Also joining from Charles Russell Speechlys, Ian is a Private Property solicitor with over 25 years’ experience handling prime and super-prime London residential property transactions. He has advised some of the world’s most powerful people investing in the London prime residential property sector on buying, selling and developing in London. As well as advising high-net-worth individuals, Ian advises major property companies. He has also assisted international banks with property finance deals.
Ruth Abrams – Family
Family lawyer Ruth joins from SA Law. She is a specialist adviser to individuals and couples going through a divorce, helping to resolve any disputes involving finances or children. In addition to assisting married couples, she also works with unmarried couples going through similar issues.
Ruth deals with complex family law matters, many of which have an international element, such as advising on forum disputes in divorce proceedings, international relocation of children, and obtaining and enforcing worldwide freezing orders in financial cases.
Richard McLaughlin (NI) – Licensing and commercial
Joining from Joseph Donnelly & Co Solicitors in Northern Ireland, Richard specialises in leisure, hospitality and licensed trade. He has advised numerous pubs, off-licences, nightclubs, hotels, conference centres, restaurants and Belfast’s only licensed dog racing track in all aspects of the businesses right from and including conception or acquisition to opening and well beyond.
Richard also advises in the wider leisure sector where he acts for adrenaline-fuelled indoor adventure centres and a local cinema chain, among others.
James Knight, Founder and CEO of Keystone Law, said:
“We’re delighted to welcome on board these ten exceptional lawyers . Experienced lawyers, such as those significantly contribute to the firm’s development and is further proof that the Keystone model continues to appeal to the highest-quality lawyers.”