Lewis Silkin makes record number of partner promotions

LONDON – Law firm Lewis Silkin has announced the promotion of nine new partners.

These come from across the firm’s practice group offerings, including the Employment, Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property, Financial Services Regulatory and Corporate, Commercial, and Partnerships groups.

Nicholas Buckland has practiced within the Firm’s Dispute Resolution team for six years, specializing in Intellectual Property Disputes. In particular, Buckland specializes in protection, exploitation, and enforcement across the range of intellectual property rights, including trademarks, copyrights, patents, designs, and confidential information. Among the clients Buckland has acted for are household names such as Dyson and Trustpilot. Buckland is also proficient in Mandarin having spent time working in China, making him uniquely placed to advise Chinese clients on protecting their rights in the UK and EU as well as offering initial strategic advice for domestic clients who wish to expand into the Chinese market.

Benjamin Favaro is a full-service data protection lawyer in Lewis Silkin’s Data, Privacy & Cyber team, advising both domestic and international clients on UK and EU data privacy compliance. He leads data protection support for the firm’s M&A practice, providing timely and practical advice at all stages of a transaction’s lifecycle. Favaro is known for his expertise in workplace privacy having practiced internationally as an employment lawyer prior to joining the firm and has worked as privacy counsel at online food delivery company Deliveroo.

Kathy Granby is Head of Share Incentives at Lewis Silkin, specializing in private and listed company employee share incentive plans and employment taxation. She assists clients from all sectors with the structuring, launch, and operation of UK and international employee share plans, including management incentive plans and other long-term incentives, all-employee plans, and bespoke individual arrangements. She also advises on the impact of corporate transactions on share incentives, corporate governance considerations concerning executive remuneration, and broader employment taxation queries.

David Lorimer works with multinational and UK employers on all aspects of their employment and workplace privacy law needs. Lorimer advises across all sectors, but with a keen interest and core focus on technology (including health tech), media & entertainment, and games. Lorimer’s work involves supporting clients in relation to data protection, automatic transfer regulations, diversity, equity, and inclusiveness initiatives, as well as advising on senior exits and discrimination and whistleblowing matters. 

Carly Mather joined Lewis Silkin’s Manchester office in 2022. She specializes in supporting businesses going through corporate restructures, reorganization, and other change projects. She also has a particular focus on trade union and industrial relations issues, senior executive appointments, and exits. Mather works closely with clients in the Retail and Transport sectors and, as part of this, spent a period working in-house as a Senior Labour & Employment Lawyer at easyJet.

Sarah McWhinney has been part of Lewis Silkin’s EIR division since qualifying with the firm. Her practice focuses primarily on contentious matters and senior-level hires and exits in the financial and professional service sectors. She advises employers on a wide range of issues from boardroom disputes, contentious exits, and knotty disciplinary issues to post-termination restrictions, recruitment terms, and redundancy. McWhinney’s expertise is also brought out in complex Employment Tribunal litigation with a focus on high-value whistleblowing and maternity, sex, and race discrimination claims. Further to her practice focus, Sarah co-leads the Gender strand of the Firm’s diversity board.

Wendy Saunders is head of Financial Services Regulatory at Lewis Silkin. She specializes in financial services and markets law and regulation, both advisory and contentious. Saunders advises across many areas including SMCR, perimeter and authorizations, transaction regulatory support, and advertising and financial promotions, and also has a specialist focus on crypto. On investigations and enforcement, she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to contentious financial services regulatory matters, having spent four years in the Enforcement Division at the Financial Services Authority (now the Financial Conduct Authority).

Sadiq Tajbhai has been at the firm for nearly fourteen years and is a key member of the Corporate, Commercial, and Partnerships practice groups. He provides a wide range of corporate advice to both corporations and individuals with particular experience in the advertising & marketing, PR, and technology sectors. Recently, Tajbhai has been involved in corporate restructuring for a large independent media agency, a large corporate reorganization for a high-profile creative agency, and has acted for a global advertising network on its acquisitions in the UK and abroad. 

Abigail Wise is a Chartered Trade Mark Attorney and advises a variety of clients on all aspects of UK and international trademark law. With over 17 years of private practice and in-house experience, Wise provides strategic IP advice on the protection and enforcement of trademark portfolios worldwide, across a variety of sectors including automotive, retail and consumer goods, financial, advertising and marketing, media, and technology.

Jo Evans, Chair of Lewis Silkin commented: “Being able to promote a record number of members of our team to the partnership is a reflection of the bench strength of talent at the firm and our commitment to investing in our people for the long term. All our newly promoted partners have demonstrated deep practice knowledge and expertise, their dedication to brilliant client service, and a desire to continue nurturing our fabulous culture. I congratulate them all and look forward to welcoming them to our partnership.”

The promotions take effect as of April 1st and bring the total number of partners at Lewis Silkin to 91 across its offices in London, Manchester, Leeds, Oxford, Cardiff, Dublin, Belfast, and Hong Kong.

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