She is a managing associate in the London office, but works nationally with colleagues across the UK. Rachel also frequently advises on cross-border matters and works closely with colleagues in the firm’s international offices, as well as external counsel. She acts for a broad range of clients, including insolvency practitioners, financial institutions, directors, shareholders, creditors and other key stakeholders in financially distressed businesses. Rachel regularly advises on formal insolvency appointments, company voluntary arrangements, supply chain risks, retention of title issues, the validity and enforcement of security, guarantees, debt recovery claims and the appointment of receivers.

Her work also includes advising insolvency practitioners on all elements arising from their appointments, including preparing insolvency applications, regulatory issues and advising on antecedent transactions (including transactions at an undervalue, preferences, extortionate credit transactions and transactions defrauding creditors). Additionally, Rachel regularly advises boards of directors on their duties in times of financial distress.

She also has extensive insolvency litigation experience, including in handling complex, multi-jurisdictional matters, shareholder disputes, partnership disputes, joint venture disputes and fraud-related claims. She is a regular contributor to various legal and industry publications, such as the Lexis Nexis Corporate Rescue and Insolvency Journal and the Thought Leaders Disputes magazine. Rachel is recognised in the Legal 500 for her ‘strong technical insolvency knowledge’.

She has a particular focus on the higher education sector, with universities and a number of the Cambridge and Oxford colleges amongst her clients. Sophie also has a growing practice acting for clients in the charities sector and, given her location in Cambridge, has many clients in the technology sector, with particular experience of advising university spin-out companies. She provides commercial and pragmatic advice on day-to-day employment matters, including redundancies and restructuring, TUPE, restrictive covenants and discrimination. Sophie is frequently called upon to deal with queries in very specialist areas of employment law including, for example, the evolving legal position around holiday pay.

On the contentious side, Sophie regularly handles complex Employment Tribunal matters, particularly discrimination and whistleblowing claims. She provides strategic advice on the claim’s progress and seeks to settle claims where it makes commercial sense to do so, including through the use of judicial mediation. Sophie also has experience in the appellate courts and the High Court, provides advice to senior employees, and has negotiated significant settlement agreements for a number of individual clients.

Her particular expertise comprises clients with complex assets and/or family circumstances; structuring assets to best suit the family while ensuring the best fiscal result; entrepreneurs and family businesses including farming businesses on tax efficient structuring and succession planning, to the best advantage of the family; and the use of trusts, partnerships and companies as a means of structuring family wealth. Cecelia delivers practical solutions with an eye to the costs of creating, maintaining and collapsing these structures, as against the advantages, both in tax terms and in family terms.

She acts for multiple generations of families, who rely upon her as their ‘trusted advisor’. She is proactive and supportive of her families over the years and this enables her to spot and avert family tensions that may adversely impact a family business or business problems that may cause family tensions. Cecelia helps the next generation to understand their responsibilities towards family assets and wealth, manage their advisory requirements and develop strategies for family wealth for generations to come. While many of Cecelia’s clients are Surrey-based, the majority reside elsewhere in the UK or overseas.

She qualified with a Magic Circle law firm in 1997 and joined Penningtons Manches Cooper in 2004. The latest edition of Chambers High Net Worth recognises her as a leading individual in her field.

Her work spans key regions in the South and North West of England, where she has built a reputation for delivering strategic and commercially sound guidance. Lyndsey is also skilled in negotiating and managing strategic option agreements and conditional contracts, representing both landowners and developers. In addition to her development expertise, Lyndsey has a wealth of experience in landlord and tenant matters. She acts on behalf of both landlords and tenants across the office, industrial, and retail sectors, offering tailored advice and comprehensive portfolio management services. Her ability to navigate complex lease structures and property management issues makes her a trusted advisor in the commercial property space.

Lyndsey is also a founding member of the South East Women’s Property Network, an initiative she is deeply passionate about. Through this platform, she actively supports and connects women working in the real estate industry in the South East, fostering collaboration, mentorship, and professional growth.

While she has a particular interest in life sciences and supporting emerging and growing companies, her client base covers a broad range of industry sectors, including financial services, technology, energy and natural resources and retail and leisure. With a strong track record for supporting clients with business transfers, restructuring and redundancies (on all scales) and drafting, negotiating and advising on the full range of employment documentation, Charissa is highly commercial and pragmatic in her approach.

She has significant experience of acting for senior executives, as well as their employers, providing strategic advice on restrictive covenants, exit strategies and settlement negotiations. Charissa is recognised by clients for her empathetic but indefatigable style. She qualified in 2004 and joined Penningtons Manches Cooper in 2018 after more than 10 years at a City law firm.  Building on her financial services experience, Charissa has also spent time working as part of the employee relations team at a major investment bank.

She also provides advice and assistance on a broad spectrum of Court of Protection issues to lay and professional deputies and has a particular interest in complex and contentious finance and property matters including gift applications, contentious deputyship applications and statutory wills. In addition, she acts as an expert witness in litigation matters, preparing reports and acting as expert witness at trial in relation to Court of Protection costs.

Grace qualified as a solicitor in 2002 and has specialised in private client work since 2004. She joined Penningtons Manches Cooper in March 2020 where she  has gained valuable experience in dealing with a wide range of matters including estate administration, trust management and a variety of applications to the Court of Protection.

She has been a full member of STEP, the world’s leading organisation for private wealth professionals, since 2004. She is listed as a leading associate by the Legal 500 and ranked in Chambers UK. She is also a member of the Association of Lifetime Lawyers.