Law Firms in UK

Listed below are law firms that operate within the tax space in the UK. Most are UK firms but we have also included US and European law firms that offer tax services in the UK and recruit tax lawyers in the UK.

If we have omitted your firm or you wish to make a correction, please email chris@taxgrotto.com

If you are doing research about your next tax job, please click on the links to find out more about which tax partners have joined (and left) the Firm you are interested in.

525 partners, 5,153 staff, 44 offices across 30 countries. Christopher Harrison and Vimal Tilakapala are Co-Heads of UK tax practice.. Gottfried Breuninger is Global Head of Tax, based from Munich.

68 partners, 800 staff, 12 offices with focus on offshore legal, fiduciary and administration services

Over 4,200 lawyers in 76 offices worldwide. Christian Brodersen is Head of Tax for EMEA.

Over 800 lawyers, 11 international offices. Michael Wistow is Head of Tax. John Overs is Head of Corporate Tax. Alan Sinyor is Head of VAT.

US Firm with 14 Offices across US, Europe and Asia. Stuart Sinclair is the London tax partner. Leadership is from the US.

BDB is a multi-disciplinary UK law firm advising private companies, public sector bodies, not-for-profit organisations and individuals since 1834. Helen Ratcliffe leads the Private Wealth department.

Over 1,100 lawyers in 26 offices across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Tax led by Pieter Camps from The Hague and Christian Luthman from Stockholm. UK tax partner is Mathew Oliver.

Over 700 fee earners, including 145 Partners in the UK. Head of Tax is Jeremy Smith. Head of Private Wealth is David Dale.

Tax led by Nigel Popplewell from Bristol office. Clients include UBS, FirstGroup plc, The Crown Estate. 6 Tax Partners. Private Client led by Catherine Hallam.

NY headquartered with 11 offices. Tax leader is William G Cavanagh in NY. Tax in London led by Gareth Kendall, although he is a general corporate & commercial partner. Paul White is the tax specialist.

Clarke Willmott LLP is a national law firm with 400 lawyers and support staff (including over 70 partners) working from offices in Birmingham, Bristol, London, Manchester, Southampton and Taunton. No corporate tax expertise, focus on trust, wills and estate planning for individuals.

US firm with 16 offices, over 1,200 lawyers. Tax in London led by Richard Sultman,

Over 3,000 professional staff in 58 offices. Richard Croker leads tax in London. Overall head of tax is Stephane Gelin in France (CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre)

The Firm operates from Beijing, San Francisco, Brussels, Seoul, London, Shanghai, New York, Silicon Valley, Washington and San Diego. Guy Dingley leads tax in the London office – at the time of writing (Feb 2015) he is Of Counsel, not a partner.

Operating from 10 offices worldwide, the Firm has a strong reputation for tax advice.

Landmark transactions that highlight their cross-border and international tax capabilities, include:

John Paton is the lead tax partner outside of the US. Since 1988 he has been resident in the firm’s European offices and has overseen the tax practice in Europe and Asia since 1993.

The firms has 4 offices in the UK. The tax partners are Simon Leney, Anne Lewis and Amanda Chapman. They all work from the Tunbridge Wells office with a focus on trusts, estate planning, wills and other private client related advice.

The firms has 650 lawyers working in eight offices across three continents. Burt Rosen is the Chair of the Tax Department and is based in New York.

Richard Ward is co-managing partner for the firm in London, and Chair of the firm’s UK Tax Practice. A broad-gauged UK corporate and transactional tax lawyer, Mr. Ward has advised an array of multinational clients on mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, financing transactions and private equity fund formation and operation.

Mark Stapleton advises on UK and international direct and indirect taxation issues. He has extensive experience in relation to advising offshore funds and the investment management sector. In addition he advises on acquisitions of public and private companies, real estate acquisitions, securitisations, structured finance and a variety of other banking, financial and corporate transactions.

Now called Bond Dickinson, post merger, the firm has offices in 7 UK locations.

Jeremy Smith heads the firm’s business tax practice and David Dale heads the wealth practice. Both are based from the Newcastle office.

DLA Piper is a global law firm with 4,200 lawyers in the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East, positioning us to help companies with their legal needs around the world.

Tax is lead by Roderik Bouwman in Amsterdam and David Colker in Silicon Valley. Key players in London are Thomas Dick (US Tax and FACTA) and Richard Woolich (Indirect Tax and Real Estate).

DWF has 12 offices across the UK and Ireland. Susan Sherry heads the Private Client team from the Liverpool office.

One of the largest law firms, the tax practice is lead by David Jervis, who sits in the Leeds office.

Farrers traces its foundation to 1701 through a practice started by an uncle and nephew, both called Tempest Slinger. The firm is London based and Robert Field leads the tax team. Mark Bridges is Chair of the Private Client team and Nick Dunnell leads the International Private Client team.

The firms has 400 lawyers, 77 of whom are ranked as leading individuals in Chambers UK 2015.

The tax & structuring team comprises 8 partners and 10 other specialist lawyers who advise on tax matters. Derek Hill is head of the corporate tax practice.

Fladgate LLP celebrated its 250^th anniversary in 2010. It is a London based firm.

Huw Witty and Hamilton Forrest lead the (corporate) tax practice. David Way is one of their big hitters on the private capital side.

The founding partners left their respective City practices in 1989 to found Fox Williams. The team advises UK and overseas clients including listed companies, mid-tier corporates, owner-managed businesses, partnerships and LLPs and individuals in a wide range of business sectors, in particular financial services, travel and leisure, publishing, technology and digital and fashion. Emma Bailey heads up the Tax and Incentives practice at Fox Williams.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has 20 tax lawyers. Coilin Hargreaves leads the corporate transactional tax practice in London. Murray Clayson leads the firm’s international transfer pricing practice.

The London office, founded more than 30 years ago, offers in-depth capabilities in all aspects of corporate work, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity, commercial real estate, real estate private equity, finance, business restructuring and reorganisation, project finance, capital markets and taxation, as well as dispute resolution and international arbitration, competition and labour and employment. Jeffrey M. Trinklein is a partner in the London and New York offices of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Co-Chair of Gibson Dunn’s Tax Practice Group. Mr. Trinklein has extensive experience in U.S. and international taxation, with special emphasis on advice to foreign clients with investments in the United States and advice to U.S. clients with foreign operations. He is based in London.

The commercial tax team focuses on providing effective tax planning strategies for businesses. Key areas of work include corporation tax, employment-related tax issues, property transactions, VAT and stamp duty and disputes and investigations with HM Revenue & Customs. The firm has four UK offices in Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and London.

Hogan Lovells became a top 10 global legal services provider on 1 May 2010 through an unprecedented combination of two firms with international credentials, U.S.-based firm Hogan & Hartson and European-based firm Lovells. Modern-day Hogan Lovells carries on the tradition of excellence established by our founders and further builds on their legacy. Karen Hughes is the global co-head of the tax practice. She advises on the corporate taxation implications of a wide range of commercial transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance transactions, joint ventures, demergers, group reconstructions and project finance transactions. Fabrizo Lolliri is the European Director of Transfer Pricing. The firm has 12 tax lawyers working in London.

Alex Barnes is the main tax partner at Irwin Mitchell. He advises on the tax implications of a wide range of real estate transactions and related structures including joint ventures, real estate funds and regeneration projects. He advises investors (UK and non-UK), occupiers and developers both in the private and public sector. He is based in the Birmingham & London offices.

Jones Day has more than 2,400 lawyers on five continents. Blaise Marin-Curtoud advises on all aspects of U.K. and international taxation, with particular emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, and real estate. Charlotte Sallabank advises on all aspects of United Kingdom corporate tax with particular emphasis on financial transactions, including structured and asset-based financing and cross-border transactions. She also advises on mergers and acquisitions, tax-efficient group structuring, and a variety of corporate joint venture arrangements, as well as environmental taxes. These two people are both partners of the firm. The global tax leader is called Ray Wiacek. For more information please watch the video below.

The London office, which practiced as Nicholson Graham & Jones in the heart of the City from 1858, combined with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart on January 1, 2005. The principal practice areas in London include corporate finance, real estate, finance, investment management, construction, tax, insurance coverage, intellectual property, technology, employment, competition and dispute resolution. London has two senior tax people; one is Paul Beasang, he is a partner of the firm. Alongside him is Emma Tuppen, a special counsel.

Gareth Amdor leads the UK M&A Tax practice group and also heads the firm’s Employee Incentives practice. He advises on domestic and cross-border M&A for public and private companies, private equity houses and management teams across all of the firm’s core sectors.

Heather Corben is Head of the London Tax Department and Co-Head of Tax (Europe and the Middle East). Heather specialises in the establishment of European property funds, UK real estate funds and debt funds and on the structuring of investments made by these funds.

Kirkland opened its London office in 1994 to enhance the Firm’s service to existing and prospective clients in Europe. The office was established with two partners who relocated to London from Kirkland’s U.S. offices. Today, the London office consists of more than 160 lawyers practicing English, U.S. and international law.

Ian Taplin is Head of European Tax and is based in the London office of Kirkland & Ellis International LLP. He has been a tax practitioner for more than 25 years and during that time he has gained experience of numerous industry sectors and in many of the major European tax jurisdictions. Ian’s particular strengths lie in UK and international transactional tax planning, M&A, restructuring and fund formation. He has acted for many of the largest private equity funds and undertaken projects for major US and UK corporate groups. As well as being an English solicitor, Ian is also a chartered accountant.

There are four tax partners in London; Stephen M Brown, Catherine Drinnan, Sean Finn and Karl Mah.

David Raab is a partner in the New York office of Latham & Watkins. Mr. Raab is the global Chair of the Tax Department and formerly served as global Co-chair of the Transactional Tax Practice and Chair of the New York Tax Department. His practice focuses on corporate and partnership taxation.

Matthew Rowbotham is a partner in the corporate team, in London, and advises on the tax issues affecting all kinds of businesses and entrepreneurs when they undertake a transaction, as well as providing bespoke tax advice to help clients achieve their ambitions in a tax-efficient way.

The Global Head of Tax, Yash Rupal, is based in London. He leads a team of around 160 lawyers advising on a broad spectrum of tax issues across a range of jurisdictions. Yash represents a wide range of UK and international clients and much of his work is cross-border. He advises on a broad range of transactions including mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganisations, capital markets transactions and tax planning. He has a particular interest in structured finance transactions and in the development of new financial products and structures. He also advises extensively on tax disputes and tax litigation.

Lupton Fawcett Lee & Priestley is a commercial law firm with offices in Leeds, Sheffield and York. Melanie List is a director and works in the Corporate Finance Department, specialising in corporate, property, and employment taxes. She advises businesses and their owners on a wide range of tax issues, whether arising out of their daily business activities or as a result of specific transactions they are considering.

The firm has around 350 lawyers. They have 83 partners and over 180 solicitors. Over half of the partners trained with the firm. Damien Crossley is head of the tax group at Macfarlanes. He advises on a broad range of tax and structuring issues but specialises in the formation of private equity, special situation, credit, hedge and similar funds and their remuneration structures, and on structuring these funds’ investment transactions.

Mayer Brown provides legal services in areas such as banking and finance; corporate and securities; litigation and dispute resolution; antitrust and competition; US Supreme Court and appellate matters; employment and benefits; environmental; financial services regulatory & enforcement; government and global trade; intellectual property; real estate; tax; restructuring, bankruptcy and insolvency; and wealth management.

Sandy Bhogal heads Mayer Brown’s Tax group in London. His experience ranges from general corporate tax advice to transactional advice on matters involving corporate finance, banking, capital markets, asset finance and property.

Memery Crystal’s Tax Team offers expertise in the broad range of UK corporate and transactional taxes including stamp duties and VAT; in areas of individual residence and domicile; double tax treaty issues; UK individuals with overseas income; non-UK residents with UK property and income, and the non-resident landlord’s scheme. Tim Crosley is Head of Tax and Employee Incentives at Memery Crystal. He has extensive experience in many areas of corporate and property tax work, including VAT and stamp duty/SDLT, advising companies and individuals on company and business acquisitions and sales, joint ventures, reorganisations, mergers and demergers.

Russell Jacobs is a partner in the London office of Milbank and leads the firm’s Tax Group there. Russell’s practice covers all areas of domestic and international corporate taxation. He has developed significant expertise in the corporate finance sector where he focuses on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and restructuring; and, in the financial services sector, on cross-border products and investment structures.

Mills & Reeve has six offices in Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, London, Manchester and Norwich The firm’s three main tax partners are; Matthew Hansell, Christopher Townsend and Kevin Lowe.

Andrew Goldstone is a Partner in Mishcon Private, based in London, and heads up the Tax group. He advises high net worth UK and international families and trustees on all aspects of tax, estate planning and trusts – both UK and offshore. The firm has offices in London and New York.

Rachel Brooks is head of the firm’s Succession and Tax team. Simon Court is a partner in the Corporate team and advises on the taxation of UK and international clients. Blake Morgan was originally two separate firms: Morgan Cole and Blake Lapthorn. The firm has six UK offices: Cardiff, London, Reading, Portsmouth, Southampton and Oxford.

Trevor James is a partner in the London office where he provides corporate and international tax advice. His clients include international banks, public and private companies, venture capital houses and high-net-worth individuals and he has sector-focused experience in advising technology, healthcare, media and communication companies.

Kevin Roberts, also a partner, specializes in regulatory compliance, corporate investigations and fraud. He advises corporations and individuals in money laundering compliance and investigations, regulatory compliance, tax investigations, fraud, including the investigations and enforcement actions by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. As part of his international practice, he also advises on mutual assistance requests and extradition.

Mourant Ozannes is an offshore law firm. They advise on the laws of the BVI, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Jersey. Jim Edmondson is the head of international trusts & private client.

Nabarro is an international law firm with offices in London, Brussels, Dubai, Manchester, Sheffield and Singapore. Graham Muir is the head Nabarro’s Tax team. He has a 20 year track record of specialism in employee incentive schemes and employment tax issues. He is the global head but is based in London.

Dominic Stuttaford is Head of Tax for Europe, Middle East and Asia and Brazil, and is based in London. He focuses on the tax aspects of corporate finance and other finance transactions and structures. Norton Rose Fulbright have offices in Europe, North America, Central Asia, Africa, Asia Pacific and in other countries.

Olswang have offices in Berlin, Brussels, London, Madrid, Munich, Paris, Singapore and the Thames Valley. There are currently five tax partners in London; Graham Chase, Stephen Hignett, Mark Joscelyne,

Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe have 26 offices across Asia, North America and Europe. Ed Denny is head of Orrick’s London tax department. Ed supports domestic and cross-border corporate and finance practices.

Osborne Clarke is a multinational law firm headquartered in London, with offices in the UK, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain, France, the Netherlands and the United States. Michael Bell is the head of the tax practice, focusing on corporate tax, advising clients on all kinds of transactional tax matters, and particularly on private equity, corporate and finance deals.

Penningtons Manches have UK offices in the City of London, Basingstoke, Cambridge, Guildford, Oxford and Reading. There are eight partners in the UK for tax and private client; Clare Archer, Julie Burton, Michael Cash, Laura Dadswell, Liz Garvey, Robert Macro, Neil Morris and Wynne Thomas.

RadcliffesLeBrasseur has three offices in the UK; London, Cardiff and Leeds. Tim Newsome is the senior partner for tax and private client.

Reed Smith has 25 offices across the USA, Europe & Middle East and Asia. Caspar Fox is the firm’s Head of European Tax and is based in the London office.

Adam Craggs heads RPC’s market-leading Tax Disputes team and is an accredited mediator. He advises on a wide range of contentious tax issues (direct and indirect taxes), including HMRC enquiries and litigation before the Tax Tribunals and the Higher Courts. RPC has offices in London, Bristol, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Richard Frimston is a Partner and Head of the Private Client Group at Russel-Cooke and advises clients in relation to their wills, probate and tax planning issues. There are eight offices, seven in London and one in Surrey.

Shoosmiths has 10 offices across the UK; London, Manchester, Birmingham, Thames Valley, Basingstoke, Northampton, Southampton, Nottingham, Milton Keynes and Edinburgh. Kate Featherstone is a tax lawyer and also head of tax in Birmingham. Kate’s clients include banks, private equity houses, FTSE 100 national brands and foreign companies, as well as major local businesses.

Drew Scott heads Sidley’s London Tax group. Sidley Austin has 19 offices world wide.

Nick Cronkshaw is head of the international corporate tax group. He has a broad experience of corporate tax with a particular emphasis on transactional work including sales and purchases of companies, mergers, demergers, reconstructions, business sales and purchases, joint ventures, and VAT. Simmons & Simmons has 25 offices across the world.

Head of Simpson Thacher’s Tax Department, John Hart advises on an array of tax matters—including formation of private investment funds; REITs and real estate transactions; asset manager M&A; publicly traded partnerships; and workouts, restructurings and foreclosures. The firm has 12 offices across the world.

Skadden has 23 offices across the world. James Anderson has practised tax law for over 20 years and currently leads the firm’s European tax practice. Mr. Anderson’s particular client focus is on alternative asset managers, financial institutions and various diverse pools of private capital.

Slaughter and May have 25 offices across the world. Sara Luder is Head of the Tax practice. Sara advises a wide range of clients on all aspects of corporate taxation and corporate transactions including mergers and acquisitions, demergers and corporate reconstructions, structured finance, securitisations and asset finance.

Charles Russell Speechlys is a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe and the Middle East. James Carter is the managing partner. His principal emphasis lies in four main areas: corporate tax, including company acquisitions and disposals, corporate reconstructions and private equity transactions; financial services and funds taxation; property tax, specifically inward investment; and employee benefits, including work on ESOPs, EMI schemes and approved/unapproved share incentive schemes.

Bernhard Gilbey leads the Tax Strategy & Benefits practice group and provides tax advice in relation to a wide range of both domestic and international corporate tax issues. This includes identifying planning opportunities for corporate and individual vendors as well as advising on the tax efficient methods of restructuring corporate groups. The Firm has 44 offices across 21 countries.

Stephenson Harwood LLP is an international law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has nine offices across Europe and Asia and around 700 staff, including 115 partners and 300 other lawyers. Hugo Jenny is a partner and head of the firm’s tax group. Hugo is ranked as a leading individual in the Chambers and Partners Guide to the Legal Profession and is a named individual in Legal 500 where he has been previously described as ‘Valued by clients for advice that consistently offers a way through especially on seemingly intractable disputes’.

Ron Creamer is the head of Sullivan & Cromwell’s Tax Group and also leads that group’s M&A practice. He splits his time between London and New York. Mr. Creamer regularly represents AB InBev, Amgen Inc., Barclays Bank PLC, BP PLC, Cablevision Systems Corporation, Diageo PLC, Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc., ING Group N.V., J.C. Flowers, Macquarie Group Ltd., R.R. Donnelley & Sons, UBS AG and Zurich Financial Services.

Michael McGowan is a UK tax partner based in London. e concentrates on U.K. corporate taxation, and has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring (domestic and cross-border), offshore mutual funds, real estate financings, structured finance, securitisations, project finance and derivatives. He also has significant experience advising on tax controversies and on employee share incentives.

Taylor Wessing LLP is an international law firm with 26 offices internationally. The Firm has around 400 partners and 1050 lawyers worldwide.

Mark Buzzoni is head of the firm’s Private Capital team (set up to integrate the firm’s Private Client and Corporate wealth groups). He specialises in trust and tax planning advice and has wide ranging experience of advising an international client base.

Peter Jackson heads up the Corporate Tax group. He specialises in all aspects of corporate and property tax (including VAT) and has wide experience of the taxation issues arising in connection with mergers, demergers and acquisitions, real estate acquisitions and disposals, inward and outward investment and intellectual property. Peter also advises on tax-efficient remuneration strategies.

Thomas Eggar has six offices in the UK; London, Chichester, Gatwick, Newbury, Worthing, Southampton and London New St. Richard Jordan, Mark Pearce and Conor Brindley are all tax partners.

TLT LLP is a UK law firm headquartered in Bristol. Nathan Williams is a corporate tax partner who advises on all aspects of business and real estate taxation. On the business/corporate side, he advises on the tax elements of mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, reorganisations, funds establishment and joint ventures.

Stephen Miller is a partner in the corporate tax practice, advising on a wide range of direct and indirect taxes including corporation tax, VAT, stamp duty land tax, land and buildings transaction tax, capital gains tax, capital allowances, charity tax and employee taxation. He works closely with our corporate and real estate teams to ensure that transactions are implemented in the most tax efficient manner for clients, including corporate acquisitions, disposals and restructuring, sales and purchases of real estate, and property development and financing.

Travers Smith LLP is a corporate law firm headquartered in London. It advises national and multinational companies in the UK and internationally across the full range of corporate and commercial matters. Kathleen Russ has been a partner in the Tax department since 2001 and is Head of Tax. She specialises in private equity transactions, regularly acting for both institutional investors and management teams.

Trowers & Hamlins is an international law firm with offices throughout the UK, Middle East and Far East. Andrew Sneddon is the corporate tax partner and based in the London office. He advises on vehicles for property acquisition including minimising stamp duty land tax as well as advising corporates on tax structures and charities on minimising their tax burden. He advises registered social landlords on large scale developments with construction projects including mixed, commercial and residential sites

Simon Goldring is a partner and head of the firm’s Private Wealth department, which he joined in 2013 from RadcliffesLeBrasseur.

Turcan Connell is a Scottish legal firm working exclusively with individuals, families and charities. It has offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London. Laura Brown is a senior tax manager and the head of the tax department, responsible for the management and development of the Tax Compliance team of 10, and ensures the efficient running of the department. She deals with all aspects of personal taxation for UK and non-UK resident individuals, trusts and estates taxation, and provides income tax and capital gains tax planning for high-net-worth clients. Ian McGowan and Anne Marie Renz both hold the title Director of Tax Services.

Ward Hadaway has offices in Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester. Paul Christian is the head of the tax department at Ward Hadaway and has extensive experience in the field of employee share incentives and other employee benefits, particularly in entrepreneurial and high-tech companies.

Waston Farley & Willams has 14 across the world, including London, Munich and Madrid. Richard Stephens runs the London tax practice. He joined Watson Farley & Williams in 2001, qualified as a solicitor in 2003, and became a partner in 2012. Richard advises UK and multi-national companies on all aspects of UK corporation tax.

Michael Ridsdale is Head of the Corporate Tax Team. Eleanor Metcalf is Head of the Private Client Group. The firm is based in London only.

Head of the London Tax Practice, Peita Menon, acts for multinational companies, financial institutions and funds across the full spectrum of tax matters. Peita is also noted for his particularly deep insight into stamp tax matters. He has advised leading domestic and international corporations, banks and funds in this area, and has also helped them to develop sophisticated, stamp tax-efficient structures. White & Case has 40 offices across the world.

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP is an American law firm with 14 offices across the United States, Europe and Asia. Paula Holland is the UK based tax partner.