HOWARD KENNEDY - Key Persons


Aaliyah Freemantle

Job Titles:
  • Trainee Solicitor
  • Trainee Solicitor Employment and Immigration
  • Trainee Solicitor in the Employment Team
Aaliyah Freemantle is a trainee solicitor in the Employment Team. She supports clients with various employment law matters, addressing both contentious and non-contentious areas. Aaliyah provides guidance to both employers and employees throughout all stages of the employment relationship, from day-to-day HR matters, to discrimination, unfair dismissal, redundancy and termination issues. This encompasses guiding clients through the drafting and negotiation of employment contracts and settlement agreements, as well as the creation of staff handbooks and policies. Aaliyah has gained experience in both contentious and non-contentious matters through her previous seats in the Real Estate Disputes and Mergers and Acquisitions teams. Additionally, she has substantial experience in transactional work owing to her time as a senior paralegal in the firm's banking and finance team.

Alex Mizzi - Chief Legal Officer

Job Titles:
  • Legal Director
  • Solicitor
  • Legal Director Employment
Alex Mizzi has an encyclopedic knowledge of the law but can communicate complex matters in clear and concise terms. Alex Mizzi provides pragmatic, tailored advice to businesses and senior executives on all aspects of employment law, including business protection, employee relations, HR strategy and discrimination. Alex is a solicitor in the Employment team. She advises businesses of all sizes and senior executives on contentious and non-contentious employment matters. She is also co-lead of the Employment practice's ESG group, and leads the team's work on AI and technology in the workplace. She works closely with HR Directors and business owners to help them navigate through complex employee relations issues, often involving discrimination or whistleblowing allegations, to find a pragmatic solution. Her work for senior executives complements this, enabling her to see a dispute from all angles and anticipate tactics. She also advises HR professionals on strategic and governance issues such as gender pay gap reporting or implementing large-scale business changes. Alex also focuses particularly on business protection. She gives tailored advice to individuals and businesses on the legal and commercial issues surrounding employee competition, whether lawful or unlawful. She regularly acts in High Court disputes involving breaches of confidentiality, restrictive covenants, and team moves. She has a particular interest in issues of employee privacy and data protection. Alex has written for and been quoted in trade and national press and has appeared on BBC Radio and television news, discussing developments in employment law. She is a member of the Employment Lawyers' Association Training Committee. She is a regular speaker at client seminars and provides bespoke in-house training for HR teams and business owners.

Annie Long

Job Titles:
  • Solicitor
  • Solicitor Employment and Immigration
  • Solicitor in the Employment
Annie Long is a Solicitor in the Employment team. She assists clients with a range of employment law issues, both contentious and non-contentious, from recruitment through to termination of employment. In particular, Annie advises clients on matters involving: Disciplinary and grievance procedures Discrimination Whistleblowing Reputation management Drafting and negotiation of employment contracts Staff handbooks and policies TUPE Unfair dismissal Termination issues (including settlement agreements) Redundancies She is a member of the firm's Retail and Leisure sector group. Annie trained at Howard Kennedy and completed seats in Residential Conveyancing, Media Dispute Resolution and Employment. She also completed a secondment with whistleblowing charity, Protect.

Arish Bharucha

Job Titles:
  • Partner
  • Solicitor
  • Partner, Head of India Group International Arbitration
Arish is an excellent lawyer, he is very thoughtful with good judgment. Arish Bharucha is a leading Solicitor-Advocate who focuses on international arbitration, commercial litigation and civil fraud disputes. He chairs the firm's India group and has strong personal and professional links with the country. Arish advises international and domestic clients on a range of high value and complex contentious matters. He acts on a wide array of commercial disputes in English seated arbitrations (under the LCIA, ICC, SIAC and UNCITRAL rules) and in the English Courts, including cases involving civil fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, complex contractual claims, negligence claims, economic torts, shareholder, joint venture and partnership disputes, and jurisdictional battles (amongst others). Arish advises on cases across many industry sectors including commodities, technology, energy, banking and financial services, engineering and pharmaceuticals. Arish advises clients (both corporates and individuals) from all over the world and most of his cases have an international dimension. He has a particular interest in, and focus on, India-related disputes and spearheads the firm's India group. He visits India regularly to develop and maintain the firm's connections there. Arish is also dual qualified as a lawyer in Delhi. Prior to joining Howard Kennedy, Arish trained at, and was an Associate in the Litigation & Arbitration Division of, a large international firm and subsequently practised at a specialist dispute resolution firm. Arish read Law and History at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was awarded the Lizette Bentwich prize for law. Arish also has an LLM in Law from University College London, where he was awarded the Chief Justice Scholarship. Arish Bharucha is developing into the market leader for Indian disputes in London.

Ashley Reeback

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board
  • Partner
  • Partner, Head of Corporate
  • Partner, Head of Corporate Corporat
Ashley is extremely knowledgeable and I would recommend him and his team to anyone going through a complex transaction or IPO. Ashley Reeback acts on corporate transactions in both the public and private arenas, including M&A, IPOs, MBOs and MBIs. He is Head of the Corporate department at Howard Kennedy. Ashley assists clients on the full spectrum of corporate and capital markets transactions. He is a solicitor with a particular focus on mid-market M&A, as well as, public company transactions. He advises on both the purchase and sale of private companies including by way of Management Buy Outs and Management Buy-Ins. On the capital markets side of his practice, Ashley acts for clients on Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and has advised on over 40 AIM IPOs (some by way of reverse takeover), acting for both issuers and Nomad/brokers. Ashley also advises on public takeovers, as well as, early stage and pre-IPO funding rounds.

Charles Maxwell

Job Titles:
  • Head of Commercial Development
  • Partner, Head of Commercial Development Development
Charles Maxwell is Head of Commercial Development. He is a real estate solicitor specialising in residential development, commercial real estate and residential real estate transactions. He is fluent in Hebrew and is Head of the Israel Desk. Charles acts for real estate companies, public funds, high-net-worth individuals and international investors on a wide spectrum of non-contentious property matters, including sales, acquisitions, refinancing, management and bulk purchases of both residential and commercial properties. On residential development matters, Charles typically works with his clients through the entire property cycle from site acquisition to individual plot sales, and provides clients with a round-the-clock service to ensure transactions are completed efficiently and in a timely manner. He acts for a wide variety of Israeli real estate investors actively investing in the UK real estate market. Charles also has experience in the leisure sector advising restaurateurs, hoteliers, and nightclub and bar operators.

Charlotte Whitworth

Job Titles:
  • Co - Head
  • Solicitor
  • Partner, Co - Head of Corporate Real Estate
Charlotte Whitworth is a solicitor and co-head of corporate real estate team advising on a range of corporate matters with specialisms in corporate real estate and student accommodation. She is also co-lead of the student accommodation group. She acts on a wide variety of transactional and non-transactional corporate work including mergers and acquisitions, corporate real estate matters and general company law matters. She focuses on corporate real estate and has deep sector knowledge of the real estate market which is used to her clients' advantage when completing transactions. Much of her work has a strong international focus. Charlotte acts for developers, landowners and investors in documenting their joint venture arrangements (including shareholders, LLP, and contractual profit share arrangements). Charlotte also deals with all aspects of corporate wrapper acquisitions and disposals. She takes a commercial and pragmatic approach when assisting clients and delivers commercial and strategic advice to her clients. Charlotte is one (of three) of the firm's appointed representatives for the international network Meritas and is a member of the Meritas Young Lawyer Advisory Board. Charlotte has been appointed Chair-Elect of the Meritas Emerging Leaders Advisory Board. This is the first time Meritas has elected a chair from outside North America.

Craig Emden - CEO

Job Titles:
  • Managing Partner
  • Member of the Board
  • Member of the Management Committee
Craig Emden was re-elected as Managing Partner on 1 May 2021 for a second four-year term. Our Management Committee comprises Craig, Executive Director Irena Molloy and Chief Operating Officer Paul Roberts.

Dominic Offord

Job Titles:
  • Partner, Head of Commercial Dispute Resolution Commercial Dispute Resolution

Duncan Bagshaw

Job Titles:
  • Partner
  • Partner International Arbitration

Elizabeth Morley

Job Titles:
  • Partner Media Disputes

Esraa Abdel

Job Titles:
  • Advising Egyptian Journalist
Advising Egyptian journalist Esraa Abdel Fattahn, on resisting political persecution and oppression.

Hannah Capstick

Job Titles:
  • Solicitor Employment

Helen Loney

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board
  • Business Development & Marketing Director

Ian Ryan

Job Titles:
  • Partner, Head of Business Crime Business Crim

Irena Molloy

Job Titles:
  • Executive Director
  • Member of the Board
  • Member of the Management Committee

James Stewart

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board
  • Partner, Head of Real Estate Construction

Jane Amphlett

Job Titles:
  • Partner, Head of Employment Employment

Jonathan Huth

Job Titles:
  • Partner, Head of Middle East Group

Jonathan Polin

Job Titles:
  • Partner, Head of International Corporat

Julian Hindmarsh

Job Titles:
  • Partner Commercial Occupiers

Keith Lassman

Job Titles:
  • Partner, Head of Capital Markets Capital Markets

Krisha Jethani

Job Titles:
  • Solicitor Commercial Dispute Resolution

Liz Palmer

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board
  • Partner, Head of Private Wealth Private Client

Luke Barden

Job Titles:
  • Staff Member

Lydia Christie

Job Titles:
  • Head of Retail and Leisure Employment

Matt Symonds

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board
  • Non - Executive Director

Michael Chapelow

Job Titles:
  • Consultant Corporate

Michael Weissman

Job Titles:
  • Legal Director Construction

Naomi O'Higgins

Job Titles:
  • Partner, Head of Trusts and Estates Disputes Trusts and Estates Disputes

Patrick Keown

Job Titles:
  • Partner, Head of Banking and Real Estate Finance Banking and Financ

Paul Roberts - COO

Job Titles:
  • Chief Operating Officer
  • Member of the Board
  • Member of the Management Committee

Qing Miao

Job Titles:
  • Tax Director, Head of China Tax

Rebecca Wyke

Job Titles:
  • Associate Commercial Dispute Resolution

Reshmi Manekporia

Job Titles:
  • Partner Private Client

Robert Lands

Job Titles:
  • Partner, Head of IP & Commercial IP and Commercial

Sam Murray-Hinde

Job Titles:
  • Partner
  • Partner Employment

Simon Malkiel

Job Titles:
  • Partner, Head of Trusts, Tax and Estate Planning Private Client

Simon Taylor

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board
  • Partner, Head of Dispute Resolution Commercial Dispute Resolution

Vernon Dennis

Job Titles:
  • Partner, Head of Business Advisory Restructuring and Insolvency

Zahra Kanani

Job Titles:
  • Legal Director Wills and Succession Planning