BLP Recruits Alan Sinyor to lead VAT practice

[private] Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has appointed Alan Sinyor, one of the UK’s leading VAT practitioners, as a tax partner and Head of VAT to add significant weight to an already well respected VAT practice. Alan, who was director of the International VAT Group at Freshfields, takes the number of partners in the team to 22.

BLP has the largest and broadest based tax practice in the City legal market and is the only large City law firm to offer the full range of tax services. The department has dedicated teams to provide contentious and advisory tax advice across corporate, finance, real estate, funds, VAT, personal tax, trusts and charities. Alan’s role will focus on contentious and non-contentious VAT and indirect tax work.

BLP’s tax team was recently named “Best Tax Team in a Law Firm” at the LexisNexis Taxation Awards and from a strong base has been growing in scale, breadth and profile since the hire of industry leader Michael Wistow as head of tax in 2007. Elizabeth Bradley and Julian Hickey have been recently promoted to partnership and the team has recruited heavily at the senior end including Liesl Fichardt, Jonathan Levy and Andrew Watters who form the highly regarded tax risk and resolution team and, more recently, corporate and finance tax specialists Michael McKenna and Kevin Cummings.

Michael Wistow, BLP’s head of tax, said: “More and more clients require cutting edge tax advice in these difficult times and unpredictable markets and our growing reputation is helping to attract leading mandates on contentious as well as non-contentious matters. Alan’s wide range of VAT expertise both domestically and internationally will further enhance our capabilities.”
Alan added: “I am impressed with what the team has achieved in such a short space of time and am excited at the prospect of further developing and enhancing BLP’s VAT capability. BLP’s flexible international strategy will provide opportunities through our offices in high-growth economies and our leading global panel of preferred law firms.”
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