Stephen Hoyle to lead DLA Piper’s UK tax practice

DLA Piper today announced that it has appointed Stephen Hoyle as a partner and Head of UK Tax. Stephen, a specialist in corporate tax and structured transactions, joined DLA Piper’s London office on 19 July from Ernst & Young, where he was a senior-ranking tax partner.

With a mandate to strengthen the UK Tax team and support the strategic growth of the Corporate, Real Estate and Finance practices in the UK and the US, Stephen will lead and expand a team that provides a full range of tax services, including advice on transactional matters, asset finance, structured finance, corporate reorganisations, capital markets and IPOs, VAT, property and Inland Revenue investigations.

Stephen is a highly-experienced tax lawyer who has worked on all aspects of corporate tax and structured transactions in the UK and US markets. Prior to joining DLA Piper, Stephen was a partner in the International Tax Services group at Ernst & Young. Before that he was a managing director in Deutsche Bank’s Structured Capital Markets group, following 18 years as a tax partner at Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringers. At Deutsche Bank AG’s London branch Stephen worked on front office origination of investment and financing transactions for the UK and US markets, and infrastructure. At Freshfield Stephen advised on all aspects of corporate taxation but specialised in structured transactions and insurance business.

In recent years DLA Piper has strengthened its tax capabilities around the world, recruiting international tax experts in New York, Los Angeles, France, Poland, Russia, Germany and Italy. Stephen’s arrival builds on that trend and will see DLA Piper expand its UK team and develop the range of tax services it provides to its clients.

“Stephen joins our tax practice at an exciting time as we are expanding our capabilities globally and his arrival will enable us to enhance the service we offer to our clients in the UK and internationally, said Roderik Bouwman, EMEA Head of Tax at DLA Piper. Roderik continued: “Our UK tax practice is an important part of our broader tax offering and with Stephen’s experience and leadership we will build our UK team in order to leverage the capabilities of our global platform.”

Andrew Darwin, EMEA Managing Director at DLA Piper, said: “We tried to hire Stephen two years ago and are therefore very pleased that he has now agreed to join us. Tax is a growing part of our practice, both in Europe and globally, and we believe Stephen will make a significant contribution to its future development, bringing a combination of expertise, experience and client relationships.”