HOWARD KENNEDY - Key Persons
Alex Watt is particularly adept at combining traditional worlds such as art and advertising with the technological breakthroughs generated by new technologies such as NFTs.
Alex Watt is an experienced intellectual property lawyer who specialises in commercial transactions that have intellectual property, often brands and their growth, at their heart.
Alex is a Partner whose practice tends to involve commercial legal work in IP-centric businesses, such as licensing, gaming, egaming, franchising and publishing. He is also known for his work within the art world, within which he advises galleries, auction houses and the artists themselves.
He has a deep knowledge of advertising and marketing and he leads the firm's advertising & marketing practice, providing advice to both agencies and brands directly. Recently such work has included increasing amounts of affiliate marketing and work a lot of work with influencers, and influencer agencies - as well as promotional advice, drafting ISBA compliant agency agreements, production agreements, sponsorship agreements, and advice more generally on ASA complaints and compliance.
His work is often international and until recently he was the National Representative for the United Kingdom within AIJA, an international network of lawyers with over 4000 members from 90 jurisdictions.
Alex has worked on secondment in-house a number of times, working closely with Universal Pictures, the Telegraph Media Group and the BBC, so he has a good understanding of what in-house lawyers expect and how they prefer to work.
Alex has won significant acclaim for his expertise in legal rankings. He is "recommended for transactional trade mark work and advertising and marketing deals" by Legal 500 2021. He was recently praised by clients within World Trademark Review's WTR 1000 for 2021, who also recommended him for transactions, and said that clients reported he was "solutions focused, responsive, pragmatic and knows the market".
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Member of the Property Litigation Association
- Partner / Real Estate
Amanda McNeil has a sharp legal brain complimented with bags of common sense and is a go-to solicitor for clients who want someone knowledgeable, practical and commercial in their approach.
Amanda McNeil specialises in contentious issues relating to commercial and residential property. She focuses on enabling clients to find the best outcome for their unique circumstances. She heads our Real Estate Dispute Resolution team.
Amanda has a diverse client base. As a solicitor she advises landlords, retailers and other commercial occupiers with their asset management needs. She works with commercial developers on site clearances, restrictive covenant issues, boundary and other disputes. She acts for high-net-worth individuals on disputes relating to their personal property portfolios and their homes in the UK.
Amanda's expertise in commercial property disputes includes acting on Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 lease renewals (including opposed renewals), forfeiture actions, rent recovery, service charge disputes, dilapidations claims, enforcement of covenants, rent reviews and withholding of consent to assign/sublet/carry out alterations.
She additionally guides clients through original tenant liability and liability of guarantors issues, disputes over rent deposits and property insolvency issues.
Meanwhile, her residential property experience includes advising on exercising the right to manage, service charge disputes, enforcement of covenants, and possession proceedings (both Rent Act tenancies and Assured Shorthold tenancies).
Amanda acts for both landlords and tenants advising on all aspects of leasehold enfranchisement including lease extensions of flats, collective enfranchisement (whereby the leaseholders in a building join together and buy the freehold), freehold purchase and lease extension of leasehold houses.
She prides herself on listening to her clients, understanding their objectives and provides first class strategically and commercially driven advice in an unstuffy way to achieve the best possible outcome in line with their unique needs.
Her alternative dispute resolution experience includes mediation, arbitration and advocacy. She represents clients in the Privy Council, Court of Appeal, High Court, County Court and increasingly in the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Chamber.
Amanda is a member of the Property Litigation Association and the Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners.
Arish is very intelligent and committed to his client's cause. He is particularly adept at managing high-value, complex, multi-jurisdictional cases.
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.
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.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Partner / Real Estate
Astrid Stanley is a perfect blend of commercial savvy and property knowledge. She had a direct and problem-solving approach.
Astrid Stanley is a partner specialising in commercial real estate and is a co-lead of the student accommodation group.
Astrid has established herself as a go-to solicitor in the practice and advises developers, investors and HNW individuals across real estate development and investment transactions. Her strength is her deep understanding of the real estate market and provides her clients with strong commercial and strategic advice throughout a transaction.
Her practice covers student accommodation, living, mixed-use, office, industrial and logistics, hotels & leisure, sectors.
Astrid's expertise is in development and finance and she has an ability to advise on large scale and complex transactions, with a strength in client relationships management. Astrid has broadened her experience in the development team, advising investors, landlords and occupiers on commercial acquisitions for lease and development acquisitions for sale and forward funding.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Partner / Real Estate Investment
Beth Myers is a partner with over 15 years' experience in the commercial real estate sector acting for (among others) landed estates, charities, investors, offshore companies and tenants in complex real estate matters.
Beth is a partner in the Commercial Real Estate team with a particular focus on commercial landlord and tenant, real estate investment acquisitions and disposals and corporate real estate for a variety of clients.
Beth acts for a wide range of clients, including landed estates, property companies, offshore companies, charities, education providers, private high net worth investors and retail and occupier clients.
Beth is a strong technical solicitor with broad experience and a commercial and efficient approach to transactions. She understands a client's needs and helps to deliver and achieve successful outcomes. She provides a proactive client-focused service.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate
- Solicitor
- Co - Head of the Building Safety Group
- Real Estate Dispute Resolution Solicitor
- Senior Associate / Real Estate
Bhavini Patel is an excellent solicitor with a keen eye for detail - intelligent and intuitive when it comes to strategy.
Bhavini Patel is a real estate dispute resolution solicitor with a practice spanning both commercial and residential property matters. She acts for investors/landlords, developers and tenants. Bhavini is also Co-Head of the Building Safety Group.
Bhavini regularly acts on contentious issues involving retail property and developer clients. She advises on business lease renewals, breach of covenant claims, break notices, possession claims, site clearance, forfeiture claims, contractual disputes and trespass actions.
As Co-Head of the Building Safety Group, Bhavini is an advisor on building safety matters including landlord and leaseholder certificates, accountable person and principal accountable person's responsibilities, registration of higher-risk buildings and recoverability of service charges incurred in remediating buildings. Bhavini works closely with the firm's construction team in relation to these issues.
She provides strategic advice to clients at all stages of the life cycle of a property, from planning, development and occupation and property management through to disposal. Bhavini focuses on ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements whilst also protecting the value of the asset.
Her practice spans County Court and First Tier Tribunal proceedings. She tailors her straightforward advice focusing on a non-contentious resolution. With litigious issues, Bhavini has the experience to resolve matters through negotiated settlements and has attended numerous settlement meetings and successful mediations.
She is a member of the Property Litigation Association.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Partner / Development
- Real Estate Solicitor
Charles Maxwell 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, 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 restauranteurs, hoteliers, and nightclub and bar operators.
Job Titles:
- Creative Agency Strategy Director
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Intellectual Property Solicitor
- Partner / Trade Mark Services
Colin Sawdy is an intellectual property solicitor specialising in trade marks, copyright and designs. He heads Howard Kennedy's Trade Marks practice.
Colin's practice focuses on international trade mark and design clearance, prosecution and portfolio management. He manages the filing and defence of opposition, revocation and invalidity actions, as well as, negotiates settlements and coexistence agreements. Colin regularly enforces clients' rights by way of dispute resolution and coordinating litigation in the UK and abroad. He is experienced in anti-counterfeiting matters and advises on, as well as, drafts intellectual property commercial agreements.
Colin assists clients with copyright and domain name matters, ranging from securing the protection of such rights through to their commercialisation and enforcement against infringing third parties.
He routinely advises clients in both written and spoken Japanese on a wide range of intellectual property matters, and regularly gives presentations in Japanese at industry events. He speaks, reads and writes Japanese fluently, having majored in Japanese language and culture as an undergraduate at university. He lived in Japan for over four years.
As a dual-qualified UK solicitor and US attorney at law, Colin provides strategic advice to clients seeking to protect intellectual property rights internationally. He is licensed to practise in the state of Illinois, having worked in the IP departments of international law firms in Chicago for a number of years.
Colin advises clients across a wide range of industries including computer games, financial services, technology, entertainment, media, character merchandising, cosmetics, fashion, art, sport, consumer electronics, household products, online retail, leisure and pharmaceuticals.
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner
- Member of the Management Committee
- Solicitor
- Managing Partner / Commercial
Craig Emden is the Managing Partner of Howard Kennedy. He is also a commercial litigator with over 30 years' experience acting for clients across a number of industries and sectors.
Craig was reappointed Managing Partner in 2021 for a second four-year term, having previously been joint Managing Partner. Building on the progress achieved in that time, with his reappointment Craig set out an ambitious three-year growth plan for the firm.
He prioritises building a culture where people thrive and the firm's values prevail: alongside ensuring top quality support to clients whatever their needs. As Howard Kennedy continues to grow, Craig is intent on ensuring that the firm only recruits people that will fit in with the firm's ethos and values.
Craig is a solicitor providing clients with commercial and straightforward advice on all aspects of commercial and real estate litigation, both domestic and international. His areas of expertise include sports-related litigation, corporate and partnership disputes (particularly shareholder disputes), professional negligence, insolvency, and general commercial litigation. His clients range from individual entrepreneurs and partnerships to major PLCs.
On the sports side, Craig acts for football managers and other coaching staff, players, and agents.
Craig's aim is always to ensure that he takes as much pressure as possible off the shoulders of his clients and to fully understand what the client wants to achieve and to do that as painlessly as possible.
Craig is an avid Spurs fan and is very happy to follow them to places like Kazan and Maribor, as well as, Barcelona and Turin!
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.
Dani has a particular interest and expertise relating to funding in the real estate finance, social housing finance and general corporate lending sectors.
Job Titles:
- Advising Egyptian Journalist
Advising Egyptian journalist Esraa Abdel Fattahn, on resisting political persecution and oppression.
Job Titles:
- Partner / Capital Markets
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Partner / Employment