It’s proving to be another strong year at Keystone, with the arrival of 20 new lawyers over the summer months. The latest recruits include a number of teams and talented individuals covering a broad range of practice areas.
The new appointments are:
Chris Goodwill – Employment
Clifford Chance lawyer Chris specialises in a wide range of employment matters including whistleblowing, dismissal and discrimination claims, restrictive covenants and the protection of confidential information. He acts for multinational corporations, international financial institutions, UK public and private companies, professional partnerships and senior individuals. Chris is ranked as Band 1 in Chambers UK 2019, and described as “an outstanding professional, who is credible and always available at short notice”.
Alistair French – Employment
Previously a Partner at BDBF, Alistair is recognised for his work with both senior executives and employers in The Legal 500 and Chambers UK 2019. Described as a “financial services specialist”, Alistair has a history of resolving disputes with banks, hedge funds, asset managers, private equity houses and insurers, for senior executives. He also works with businesses on the drafting of contracts and policies, and putting structures in place to avoid Tribunal.
Jane Wheeler – Employment
Former Travers Smith Employment solicitor Jane advises both businesses and senior executives and has been recognised in Chambers UK 2019 as “an excellent and sensible lawyer who is hard-working and diligent”. Jane helps businesses to implement redundancies and restructures, and advises on the removal of senior/board-level individuals. Senior executives from a range of industries such as fitness, advertising and charities often appoint Jane to assist with difficult situations in the workplace.
Alex Miller – Commercial Property
Alex joined Keystone from Pennington Manches and is an expert in commercial development transactions, and the acquisition and disposal of assets for domestic and overseas investors. She has advised a number of property developers and investors on acquisitions, development, lettings, leases and onward sales of sites.
David Thomson – Property/Corporate
Scottish-qualified lawyer David Thomson spent the last four years at Charles Russell Speechlys as a property and corporate solicitor. His clients include hotel and data centre investors, and promotors of private equity investment into property. He is well known for his expertise in Enterprise Zone syndicates, BPRA LLPs and capital allowance strips.
Sal Mamujee and Jonathan Erdman – Property
Sal and Jonathan join as a team from Cubism Law and between them have 28 years’ experience dealing with both commercial and residential property transactions. Sal primarily acts for property dealers, assisting with landlord and tenant matters, and secured lending work. He also advises on enfranchisement. Jonathan’s clients include property traders, developers and investors, and he has a particular specialism in sub-sales and development sales such as Help to Buy. He also advises commercial landlords on lettings and assists with residential lease extensions.
Anya Bloom, Bledi Albri, Ashley Booker and Hannah Morris – Dispute Resolution
Also joining Keystone from Cubism Law is litigator Anya Bloom and her team. Anya has over 20 years’ experience dealing with contractual disputes, particularly within the recruitment sector. Another specialisation of Anya’s is dealing with disputes against HMRC, both in the court and at tribunal.
Bledi advises on international arbitration and commercial litigation, and has assisted with many multi-jurisdictional or cross-border disputes. These disputes have involved jurisdictions such as the UK, EU, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, and the US. Bledi qualified at SCA Ontier where he worked for five years. His clients include companies, state entities and high-net-worth individuals.
Ashley is a highly experienced banking and insolvency litigator who has spent the last nine years at SCA Ontier and in the past has worked at Manches and Clifford Chance. The disputes he handles span across a number of commercial and business sectors, which are often multi-jurisdictional and cross-border. He has worked on a number of cases involving large banking firms.
Newly qualified lawyer Hannah Morris has also joined and assists the team with their cases.
James Lankshear – Dispute Resolution
Former Head of Litigation and Dispute Resolution at Streathers Solicitors, James Lankshear has litigated cases in a number of overseas countries including Russia, Switzerland, France, Ireland, BVI, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Isle of Man, Mauritius and Curacao. His practice covers multi-party and cross-jurisdictional disputes, Russian/CIS-related disputes, civil fraud, domestic and international debt recovery, and disputes involving financial spread betting/CFDs/FX and other derivative products.
Sean Fitzgerald – Dispute Resolution/Property Litigation
Sean is a highly experienced property litigator, having previously spent 21 years at Stephenson Harwood. He advises on property fraud, business lease renewals, landlord and tenant disputes, Party Wall Act matters, lease enfranchisement, and property-related insolvency. He has also advised on a number of commercial disputes within the banking and finance sectors. Sean is recommended in The Legal 500 2019 for Commercial Litigation, as well as Property Litigation.
David Heard – Corporate
David has been a corporate lawyer for 35 years practising at Ashford and Reed Smith with a keen focus on transactional and BAU issues. He is a regular adviser to the financial and insurance sectors on FCA and PRA regulatory issues, finance and leasing, banking and security, and derivatives. David is dual-qualified in New Zealand as a barrister and solicitor, and can also give advice in French.
Martin O’Neill – Tax
Tax litigation specialist and disputes practitioner David represents corporate clients on complex indirect tax and fraud cases. He is an expert in assisting with “means of knowledge” (also known as ‘Kittel’) cases where HMRC attempts to recover lost tax from others who were not involved in fraud but nevertheless could have known of its existence. He has a good relationship with HMRC, having previously worked in the law enforcement department.
Patrick Elliot – Restructuring & Insolvency
Patrick has more than 15 years’ experience advising on corporate recovery and insolvency matters. He regularly works with corporates, insolvency practitioners, distressed investors, bondholder creditors, and individuals faced with bankruptcy, as well as insolvent businesses and their boards. Patrick also acts for the creditors of failed institutional, financial and professional services businesses as well as retail and industrial businesses. Prior to joining Keystone, Patrick worked at Brown Rudnick, Addleshaw Goddard and Simmons & Simmons.
Jayanti Mitra-Valdes – Immigration
Having spent six years at CMS, immigration lawyer Jayanti is highly skilled in advising employers on Tier 2 Sponsorship applications, and has advised a number of industry-leading clients and SMEs. She also works with high-net-worth individuals such as high-profile artists, and has previously acted for an ex-prime minister. Jayanti works with employers to ensure they are up to date with the latest changes to immigration law.
Aaron Wood – Intellectual Property
Aaron is qualified Chartered Trade Mark Attorney who helps businesses with their brands, design and copyrights, as well as dealing with IP disputes before IPEC and the High Court. In the past he has worked in-house for Unilever and BBC Worldwide, giving him in-depth experience in the clothing, food and drink, and media/entertainment industries. He has also been instructed by a number of major UK firms to handle the most difficult IP disputes on their behalf on a “white label” basis.
David Bermingham (IOM) – Commercial
Isle of Man Advocate David has more than 20 years’ experience as a lawyer in the private and public sectors. For the past 14 years he has worked for the Isle of Man Government as a Legislative Drafter, giving him a specialist insight into the legislative process. As a commercial lawyer, David regularly advises on corporate and financial services legal and regulatory matters.
Alyona Antonenko – Commercial
Alyona joins the Hotels, Hospitality and Leisure team from Temple Bright where she was a Partner. She has spent much of her career working in-house for some of the biggest hotel operators such as Marriot Hotels International, Wyndham and InterContinental Hotels Group, making her a specialist in this area. Alyona assists hotels with development and operational issues, and has advised on numerous franchise and development agreements.
Mark Machray, Director of Growth and Development at Keystone Law, said:
“Over the summer months the level of interest in joining Keystone has been strong and we are thrilled to welcome this highly experienced, talented group of lawyers to the firm, further enhancing our offering and the services we are able to deliver to clients of all sizes.”