BLP hires VAT Partner with in-house banking experience

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) announced today (8 February 2010) that [private]Linda Adelson will shortly be joining the firm as a tax partner.
Linda, who is currently Chair of the VAT Working Party at the British Bankers Association (BBA), has spent her whole career specialising in VAT and financial services both on the contentious and non-contentious side. She is a qualified solicitor with extensive in-house experience, having spent five years as Head of VAT at Lloyds Banking Group and two years prior to that at Abbey National.
Linda’s appointment builds on the recent hire of Alan Sinyor, who joined as head of VAT from Freshfields in July 2009, and the existing VAT experience of partners John Overs, Gary Richards, Cathryn Vanderspar and Neville Wright. Linda’s role at BLP will be to work with Alan and lead the development of the VAT team within the banking, insurance and financial services sectors.
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. The team, which won “Best Tax Team in a Law Firm 2009” at the LexisNexis Taxation Awards, has been growing rapidly in size, capability and profile since the hire of industry leader Michael Wistow as head of tax in 2007. More recently, private client expert and former Clifford Chance partner Murray North joined in November 2009.
Michael Wistow, BLP’s head of tax, said: “Linda will help reinforce our reputation as a leading tax team. Her varied background of private practice, in-house and industry roles means that she has a unique mix of technical and commercial skills to further enhance our tax capabilities. Tax, and more specifically VAT, is becoming business critical as clients come to terms with the increasing complexities both domestically and cross border.”
Linda added: “The rate at which the BLP tax team has grown has been unprecedented, not only in size but also in the number of instructions. I am excited about being in an environment where there is such ambition, drive and enthusiasm and am looking forwarding to working with Alan to build the VAT business in key sectors.”[/private]