Legal

Martin Finnegan is Chief Commercial Officer of Punter Southall Law. Martin has spent his entire career advising corporate clients – both publicly listed and private owner-managed, from start-up to FTSE 250 – and was formerly a partner with Nabarro LLP (now part of international law firm CMS) where he co-chaired the Equity Capital Markets Group and prior to that was Head of Capital Markets at McGrigors (now part of international law firm Pinsent Masons). Martin founded and ran a corporate boutique which he successfully led for 9 years.

Martin joined Punter Southall Law in 2020 in its first wave of recruitment of partners from leading City firms to its uniquely positioned platform, the only platform law firm to have the backing of a large financial service group, driving opportunities for its lawyers and clients.

Martin is also a non-executive director of Tower Trading Group (TTG), a City based proprietary trading group supporting over 200 professional traders across the globe, trading multiple derivatives markets. Martin has overseen TTG's legal function -in an outsourced general counsel capacity- since 2012 managing a range of complex legal issues and instructing law firms domestically and internationally in seeking to deliver the best legal outcomes for TTG.

Email: Martin.Finnegan@puntersouthall.law

Mobile: 07974 726875

Simon is the Managing Director of Punter Southall Law and has 40 years’ experience of dispute resolution in the UK, USA and numerous offshore financial centres (including Jersey, Guernsey, the Caymans, BVI and Hong Kong) from his time as a Partner in Fladgate LLP and laterly Kobre & Kim LLP. Simon has focused on litigation, arbitration and mediation in the fields of financial products and services, trusts and private wealth, joint ventures, shareholder and partnership disputes, matrimonial property and finance, commercial property investment, aviation finance and litigation funding.

Admitted as Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales 1981
Admitted as a Solicitor of The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (BVI) 2016

Email: Simon.cullingworth@puntersouthall.law

Mobile: 07879 974435

Michelle is a Partner at Punter Southall Law. She is a highly skilled and well-regarded employment lawyer and has an outstanding reputation with peers and clients alike and is ranked in Legal 500 for employment. Her expert views are regularly sought by the press and legal journals including The Times, Financial Times, Employment Law Journal, CIPD and The Lawyer. She has also featured on BBC Radio to speak on employment law issues including termination of employment, employment implications of COVID-19 and employer liability.

Michelle’s practice covers all aspects of employment law but she has developed a particular focus on advising on exits, employment status, recruitment regulations, whistle-blowing, discrimination, restrictive covenants and confidentiality provisions. Michelle works closely with clients to deliver practical solutions in both contentious and non-contentious matters.

Email: Michelle.Last@puntersouthall.law

Nick Holt is Director of Development at Punter Southall Law. Nick has more than 35 years' experience of the international legal services market. A corporate lawyer by background, Nick was a founding partner of the London office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a leading US law firm, and was then the Managing Partner of KLegal, the law firm associated with KPMG. Nick then built a second career as a highly respected headhunter specialising in lateral partner recruitment for some of the world's major law firms, before joining Punter Southall Law. Nick is also a Meyler Campbell trained business coach. Admitted as a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales (1982) and in Hong Kong (1984) (both non-practising).

Email: Nick.Holt@puntersouthall.law

Mobile: 07802 885363

Patti is the Finance Officer at Punter Southall Law and works with the wider Group’s finance team to ensure efficient and compliant operations.

Patti’s skills in this role have been well-served by her professional background and qualifications. Patti began her working life in marketing before obtaining a degree in Psychology from MMU and then moving to the education sector. However since 2009, Patti has worked in the legal sector.

Outside of her formal degree, Patti has obtained qualifications from the Charted Institute of Marketing, Counselling and British Sign Language.

Alice qualified as an Associate Solicitor at Punter Southall Law in October 2023. She completed her SQE and Qualifying Work Experience with the firm and to date, she has specialised in corporate work working alongside our corporate Partners on a full range of matters that have included mergers and acquisitions, IPOs and general corporate advice to a range of corporate clients. Alice hopes to incorporate environmental law into her future legal practice.

Verena is an experienced and highly regarded regulatory lawyer with particular expertise advising both regulated and unregulated UK and international funds. Verena has extensive and direct experience of working in the banking and funds industry as well as for regulators and in private practice.  This experience combined with her Masters in Business Administration ensures that she provides to her clients expert advice that never loses sight of their commercial objectives.   

Verena advises on the re-structuring of funds, overseas funds in the UK, global funds registrations as well as on the managing and chairing fund boards, AGMs and EGMs.    

In recent times, she has taken a keen interest in and developed specialist knowledge of ESG and is a well-known speaker on this issue at national and international conferences.

Email: verena.charvet@puntersouthall.law

Adam Fortune is an experienced, widely respected and highly effective commercial litigator.    His background as a barrister combined with his experience in top-tier solicitor litigation teams mean that his clients benefit from a depth and breadth of experience and an unrelenting focus on client-care and outcomes.     

Adam has specialist knowledge and experience in financial disputes – including those involving private equity, leveraged finance and derivatives, asset management and insolvency disputes.

Email: adam.fortune@puntersouthall.law 

Tony Grant is a partner at Punter Southall Law. Tony has specialised in advising on corporate transactions and company law for a number of years.  He primarily advises private companies on acquisitions, disposals, equity and debt fundraising (including acting for borrowers on bank finance transactions), investment and shareholder agreements and general corporate and commercial advisory work.

Prior to joining Punter Southall Law in 2023, Tony was previously a founding partner with Jonathan Dawe of specialist London-based corporate law firm Grant Dawe LLP. Prior to founding Grant Dawe LLP in 2006, Tony was a corporate partner at Denton Wilde Sapte (now Dentons). He joined Dentons having trained and qualified at Allen & Overy. He worked for Dentons from 1980 as a partner in Hong Kong becoming the senior partner of the firm’s Asian practice (with offices in addition to Hong Kong in Singapore, Beijing ,Bangkok and Tokyo and an affiliated office in Jakarta). On his return to Dentons London in 1992 he became successively the head of the corporate department and the technology, media and telecom departments.

Tony’s practice has a strong international emphasis. He acts for corporate groups, growth and start-up companies, business owners, high-net worth individuals and legal and finance professionals.  Tony works across a wide range of industries and business sectors, including sport, media, telecommunications, technology and retail services.

Email: Tony.Grant@puntersouthall.law
Mobile: +44 (0)7771 842844

Jonathan Dawe is a partner at Punter Southall Law.  Jonathan has specialised in advising on corporate transactions and company law for nearly 30 years.  He primarily advises private companies on acquisitions, disposals, equity and debt fundraising (including acting for borrowers on bank finance transactions), investment and shareholder agreements and general corporate advisory work.

Prior to joining Punter Southall Law in 2023, Jonathan was previously a founding partner with Tony Grant of specialist London-based corporate law firm Grant Dawe LLP.  Prior to founding Grant Dawe LLP in 2006, Jonathan was a corporate partner at Denton Wilde Sapte (now Dentons), where he trained and qualified in the corporate department of Denton Hall in 1993, became a partner in 2000 and headed the corporate team at Dentons’ office in Dubai, UAE between 2001-2004.

Jonathan’s clients are both UK-based and international and include corporate groups, growth and start-up companies, business owners high-net worth individuals and legal and finance professionals.  Jonathan works across a wide range of industries and business sectors, including sport, TV production, music publishing, entertainment, real estate investment and management, online retail and digital services.

Email: Jonathan.Dawe@puntersouthall.law
Mobile: +44 (0)7738 293840

Lilian specialises in Contentious Regulatory and Investigations for clients across the financial services sector. Her practice covers a broad range of contentious regulatory and advisory issues including internal and regulatory investigations, financial crime, competition, governance, conduct risk issues and supervisory processes including skilled person reviews, remediation programmes, regulatory notifications and perimeter advice.

Email: lilian.small@puntersouthall.law
Mobile: +44 7967 756 402

Sophie is a senior corporate paralegal highly experienced in assisting senior lawyers in commercial and corporate matters.

Sophie is close to completing her Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX) Level 6 Diploma in Law and Practice.  She will then qualify as a Chartered Legal Executive.     

Email: sophie.highton-dodge@puntersouthall.law 

Neil Aronson is the Head of Talent Acquisition at Punter Southall Law. Neil has 25 years’ experience of the legal market, both in terms of legal practice and recruitment. He started life as a corporate lawyer at Herbert Smith and then with Mcgrigors (formerly KLegal), before moving into legal recruitment. For the last 18 years Neil has specialised in placing partners and teams at many of the world’s leading international law firms. Neil joined Punter Southall Law in 2024 from a leading recruitment firm where he spent 10 successful years.

Neil was admitted as a Solicitor in England and Wales in 2000. 

Adam specialises in corporate matters.  Adam trained and worked in London at two major law firms for over thirty years, where his practice covered corporate work including M&A, private equity, private capital fundraisings and AIM market related matters.

Adam also spent some time working within industry as legal director at a number of private companies, most recently in the renewables sector, where was one of the founder shareholders that acquired and managed a large portfolio of wind turbines, where he oversaw the acquisition and financing activities, including managing external advisers.  He believes his time in industry has given him a better understanding of a clients’ perspective of transactions.

In private practice Adam combined his work as a solicitor with that of law firm management.

Adam advises companies that range from start-ups through to corporate groups; as well as corporate and individual investors on structuring investment.

Adam has held a number of non-executive director roles.

Email: adam.walker@puntersouthall.law
DDI: +44 (0)20 3327 5259

Jonathan Armstrong is an experienced lawyer concentrating on compliance and technology. His practice includes advising multinational companies on matters involving risk, compliance, and technology. He has handled legal matters in more than 60 countries involving data breach, bribery and corruption, corporate governance, ethics code implementation, reputation, internal investigations, marketing, branding and global privacy policies. He frequently works as specialist compliance co-counsel with firms in the US and Europe.

Jonathan is a frequent broadcaster, blogger and is a sought-after speaker worldwide.

In addition to being a lawyer, Jonathan is a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Marketing. He has spoken at conferences in the US, Canada, China, Brazil, Singapore, Vietnam, Dubai and across Europe.

He is a visiting lecturer at Fordham University.

Email: jonathan.armstrong@puntersouthall.law

After graduating with first-class honours in law from University College Dublin, Blake O’Donnell joined A&L Goodbody, a prestigious Irish firm. Over the course of 15 years, Blake’s career path led him through esteemed institutions and the establishment of his own legal practice, all focused on the intersection of law and finance.

Blake’s expertise lies in banking and blockchain, with a particular emphasis on real estate transactions and digital assets. With transactions exceeding £1.6 billion in value across various jurisdictions, including the UK, USA, France, Sweden, and Ireland, Blake has garnered a reputation as a leading authority in his field.

Blake brings a comprehensive understanding of both the legal and financial aspects of his practice areas. He approaches his work not only as a lawyer but also as a strategic advisor, providing invaluable insights into the financial implications of legal decisions. Blake’s involvement spans structuring complex financings, advising on regulatory compliance in the rapidly evolving crypto landscape, and providing strategic counsel to clients ranging from investment funds to high-net-worth individuals.

Blake is also the author of “Legal Aspects of Cryptocurrency in the UK” (Bloomsbury 2024). This authoritative work explores the legal complexities surrounding cryptocurrency, offering in-depth analysis of regulatory frameworks, compliance requirements, and taxation implications.

Blake O’Donnell’s expertise in banking and digital assets positions him as a trusted advisor and thought leader in these rapidly evolving fields.

Email: blake.odonnell@puntersouthall.law
Mobile: +44 (0)7703 594404

Peter is a Partner at Punter Southall Law. He is a highly-rated and experienced corporate lawyer and formerly a partner of +15 years with Stephenson Harwood and subsequently with Howse Williams Bowers in Hong Kong. Peter also has acted as in-house counsel with a large family office in Geneva and then with a European VC firm in London. His versatility as a lawyer is demonstrated by his history of helping businesses to achieve their objectives across many sectors and globally.

Peter has advised on raising finance (publicly and privately), sales and acquisitions, joint ventures and co-operation agreements. Most recently, Peter was chief adviser to a crypto-currency and blockchain-based FinTech company. His advice included advising on all aspects of regulatory compliance.

Email: peter.bradley@puntersouthall.law
Mobile: +44 (0)7495 285979