Meet the experts

Counsel - Corporate

Michael Todd KC

Barrister

Michael Todd KC is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Martin Moore KC

Barrister

Martin Moore KC is a member of Erskine Chambers.

David Chivers KC

Barrister

David Chivers KC is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Peter Arden KC

Barrister

Peter Arden KC is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Rachel Agnello KC

Barrister

Rachel Agnello KC is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Andrew Thompson KC

Barrister

Andrew Thompson KC is a member of Erskine Chambers.

James Potts KC

Barrister

James Potts KC is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Andrew Thornton KC

Barrister

Andrew Thornton KC is CEO of FromCounsel in addition to his role as contributor from Erskine Chambers.

Edward Davies KC

Barrister

Edward Davies KC is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Nigel Dougherty

Barrister

Nigel Dougherty is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Ben Shaw KC

Barrister

Ben Shaw KC is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Ben Griffiths

Barrister

Ben Griffiths is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Patrick Harty

Barrister

Patrick Harty is a member of One Essex Court.

Jack Rivett

Barrister

Jack Rivett is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Anna Scharnetzky

Barrister

Anna Scharnetzky is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Chantelle Staynings

Barrister

Chantelle Staynings is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Andrew Blake

Barrister

Andrew Blake is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Philip Morrison

Barrister

Philip Morrison is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Seamus Woods

Barrister

Seamus Woods is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Tom Hall

Barrister

Tom Hall is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Counsel - Employment

Robin Allen KC

Barrister

Robin Allen KC is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Paul Epstein KC

Barrister

Paul Epstein KC is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Daphne Romney KC

Barrister

Daphne Romney KC is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Jacques Algazy KC

Barrister

Jacques Algazy KC is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Caspar Glyn KC

Barrister

Caspar Glyn KC is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Rachel Crasnow KC

Barrister

Rachel Crasnow KC is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Schona Jolly KC

Barrister

Schona Jolly KC is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Tom Coughlin KC

Barrister

Tom Coughlin KC is a member of Cloister Chambers.

Paul Mitchell

Barrister

Paul Mitchell is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Caroline D'Souza

Barrister

Caroline D'Souza is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Claire McCann

Barrister

Claire McCann is a member of Cloister Chambers.

Tom Brown

Barrister

Tom Brown is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Adam Ohringer

Barrister

Adam Ohringer is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Dee Masters

Barrister

Dee Masters is a master of Cloisters Chambers.

Sarah Fraser Butlin

Barrister

Sarah Fraser Butlin is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Chris Milsom

Barrister

Chris Milsom is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Olivia-Faith Dobbie

Barrister

Olivia-Faith Dobbie is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Caroline Musgrave-Cohen

Barrister

Caroline Musgrave-Cohen is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Nathaniel Caiden

Barrister

Nathaniel Caiden is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Chesca Lord

Barrister

Chesca Lord is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Rachel Barrett

Barrister

Rachel Barrett is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Tamar Burton

Barrister

Tamar Burton is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Jennifer Davies

Barrister

Jennifer Davies is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Jonathan Cook

Barrister

Jonathan Cook is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Charlotte Goodman

Barrister

Charlotte Goodman is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Laurene Veale

Barrister

Laurene Veale is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Helena Ifeka

Barrister

Helena Ifeka is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Ameer Ismail

Barrister

Ameer Ismail is a member of Cloisters Chambers.

Content Team

Sam Allibone

Legal Editor

Sam is responsible for providing editorial assistance to the FromCounsel PSL Team. Sam read English at the University of Bristol, graduating with First Class Honours before completing the GDL at City, University of London.

Eleanor Ayres

Knowledge Lawyer

Eleanor trained and qualified at HFW, specialising in shipping litigation/arbitration and personal injury. She spent 9 years there, working with ship owners, insurers and charterers on a range of disputes on matters including charterparties and bills of lading, shipbuilding, joint ventures and cross-border personal injury. Eleanor took a break from legal practice to run her own editorial and consultancy business, focusing on legal editing and drafting, as well as working as a consultant PSL. She then worked in a high street firm specialising in civil litigation, before joining FromCounsel in 2022.

Allie Bernier

Editorial Assistant

Allie studied Law (LLB) at the University of Warwick, graduating with a First Class Honours. She also completed the LPC at the University of Law, achieving a distinction.

Anne Marie Clayton

Knowledge Lawyer

Before joining FromCounsel, Anne-Marie was a corporate PSL for a number of years, and before that at Charles Russell and Norton Rose. Anne-Marie trained and qualified into the corporate department at Norton Rose where she advised on share and business acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures, corporate re-organisations and provided corporate governance and other advice to listed companies.

Finn Conway

Legal Editor

Finn is responsible for providing editorial assistance to the FromCounsel PSL Team. Finn graduated from the University of Oxford in Classics with First Class Honours before completing the GDL at the University of Law.

Sara Hamid

Knowledge Lawyer

Sara trained at Norton Rose, where she was an associate in the corporate finance team, before spending four years as a corporate PSL at Simpson Thacher and Bartlett LLP. She has advised on a range of corporate transactions with a focus on public and private M&A, equity capital markets and corporate governance matters.

Sharon Davidson

Knowledge Lawyer

Before joining FromCounsel, Sharon spent 9 years at Herbert Smith Freehills as a corporate PSL and, latterly as a Professional Support Consultant. Sharon specialises in public company M&A and has a broad knowledge of corporate law and listed company regulation. Prior to becoming a PSL, Sharon was an associate in Herbert Smith's Corporate Division, advising on a range of corporate and commercial matters for public and private companies.

Tim Deamer

Senior Legal Editor

Tim supervises the provision of editorial assistance to the FromCounsel PSL Team alongside his own editorial work. He studied history at the University of Oxford before working in Knowledge & Information at Clifford Chance for four years. More recently, Tim completed the PGDL with distinction.

Nicola Green

Chief Content Officer

Nicola started her career at Slaughter and May and has more than 20 years' City experience, including as a corporate partner at Gibson Dunn and at Squire Sanders, where she was also the know-how partner at both firms. Before joining FromCounsel, she headed up the corporate team at LexisPSL. Nicola has extensive experience of international and domestic corporate transactions, focusing on public and private M&A, equity capital markets, complex joint venture and shareholder arrangements, private equity, restructurings and, more generally, on corporate advisory and regulatory matters.

Valerie Griffith

Knowledge Lawyer

Valerie trained at Nabarro Nathanson, where she was also a corporate associate focusing on private equity and public company M&A transactions. She spent several years as a PSL at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Macfarlanes. Valerie has also worked as an in-house lawyer, most recently for a digital venture builder.

Huw Griffiths

Legal Editor

Huw has spent most of his career working in various roles across the Ministry of Justice, and the past 6 years at the Royal Courts of Justice working in the role of Companies Court Caseworker. In his role he advised the judiciary, court staff and court users in areas of law dealt with by Companies Court including Companies Winding up, Schemes of Arrangement, Reductions of Capital and Cross-Border Mergers. Huw is currently assisting FromCounsel in the creation of Precedents in relation to the areas of Company Law he previously worked in.

Nicola Hancock

Knowledge Lawyer

Before joining FromCounsel, Nicola was a partner at EMW Law LLP and was responsible for knowledge development. Prior to that she spent 10 years at Penningtons Manches LLP as the corporate team's PSL. Before becoming a PSL, Nicola was a corporate lawyer at SJ Berwin, London.

Claire Hammond

Knowledge Lawyer

Before joining FromCounsel, Claire performed PSL roles at, among others, Latham & Watkins and DLA Piper. She developed the core R&I precedents at Osborne Clarke and worked at Lexis PSL when the new Insolvency rules came into force. She trained and qualified at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Plum Hewitt

Legal Editor

Plum is responsible for providing editorial assistance to the FromCounsel PSL Team. Plum graduated from her LLB at the University of Brighton with a First Class Honours.

Zheng Hong See

Legal Editor

Zheng Hong is responsible for providing editorial assistance to the FromCounsel PSL Team. Zheng Hong graduated from the University of Manchester in LLB with First Class Honours before being awarded a distinction in the BCL at the University of Oxford. He has also completed the BVS at City Law School as a Middle Temple Scholar.

Dan Hooke

Knowledge Lawyer

Before joining FromCounsel, Dan spent 7 years as the PSL for Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP's corporate department in London. Prior to becoming a PSL, Dan was trained at Trowers&Hamlins and qualified into the corporate team, where he was an associate in the London office for 8 years. He advised principally on private company M&A transactions, joint ventures, corporate reorganisations and commercial agreements.

Paul Hughes-image

Senior Knowledge Lawyer

Paul has extensive corporate and commercial law experience, with a heavy focus on data protection, foreign direct investment, and competition law. He is an English and Irish solicitor and a member of the New York and Brussels Bars. Paul trained at Slaughter and May, joining the corporate department on qualifying. He has subsequently worked as a partner and as of counsel for a number of major UK and US law firms. Paul holds law degrees from the Universities of Oxford and Essex and a PhD (relating to merger control efficiencies) from the University of Cambridge.

Hannah Leonard

Knowledge Lawyer

Taryna Mason

Head of Training and Real Estate Content

Tarnya started her career at Dentons, practicing as a commercial property lawyer before joining Clyde & Co to run their real estate knowledge function. She now has over 20 years’ experience of providing commercial real estate knowledge services to lawyers. Before joining FromCounsel, Tarnya was Head of Knowledge at Penningtons Manches Cooper, managing a team of 24 knowledge professionals across multiple practice areas and central teams (including Learning & Development, Document Automation, Information Services and Legal Tech). She is passionate about leveraging knowledge and technology to deliver solutions that improve profitability and efficiency for business and empower lawyers to work at their best. Her favourite saying is ‘every day’s a school day’ and she never goes anywhere without her unicorn pen!

Dylan Matthews

Knowledge Lawyer

Before joining FromCounsel, Dylan worked in the Global Restructuring Group at Allen & Overy. He advised on a variety of restructurings, including through schemes of arrangement, administrations and liquidations. He also advised on the restructuring of a number of foreign companies in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Dylan has also worked for Allens, and King & Wood Mallesons, in Australia.

Naveed Memon

Legal Editor

Naveed is responsible for providing editorial assistance to the FromCounsel Markets team. Naveed graduated with a degree in Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London before later going on to complete the Legal Practice Course at BPP University Law School in Holborn. Before joining FC, Naveed worked in private practice as a paralegal fee earner and as a legal editor in a publishing company.

Claire Miller

Head of Document Automation

Claire joined FromCounsel from Stevens & Bolton LLP where she spent seven years as a Knowledge Lawyer in the Corporate team, providing specialist technical and practical support across all areas of private company law. At S&B Claire managed and developed know-how, precedents and the corporate training programme, with a particular focus on promoting efficiencies through legal technologies and process management. Prior to S&B Claire was a corporate associate at Clyde & Co where she gained a wide variety of experience in private M&A and other corporate advisory work (both UK and international) and spent 9 months on secondment to the UK Anti-Money Laundering team of a major US bank.

Lorraine Morris

Knowledge Lawyer

Before joining FromCounsel, Lorraine spent 11 years as a corporate PSL for Clyde & Co. Prior to becoming a PSL, Lorraine trained at Norton Rose, qualifying into the corporate finance department. Lorraine subsequently spent five years as a corporate associate at Manches advising on share and business acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures and corporate re-organisations.

Mark O'Donnel

Knowledge Lawyer

Before joining FromCounsel, Mark was a Director at Memery Crystal and prior to that worked at a number of other City law firms. Mark has experience across most aspects of corporate law including M&A, shareholder arrangements and company financings, as well as equity capital markets and listing transactions. Mark began his career in New Zealand.

Sian Robertson

Head of News | Head of R&I

Prior to joining FromCounsel, Sian began her career at Ashurst before moving to Greenberg Traurig. She has over 15 years' experience as a corporate lawyer specialising in restructuring, business reorganisation and insolvency. Her expertise includes advising corporate debtors, directors, insolvency practitioners and financial creditors on complex UK and cross-border restructurings and insolvencies. Whilst in practice, she advised clients across a wide range of industries and in both contentious and non-contentious situations. Sian initially joined FromCounsel as an insolvency specialist before moving to head up the News team in 2018.

Miranda Sadler

Legal Editor - News

Miranda is responsible for providing editorial assistance to the FromCounsel PSL Team. Miranda graduated from Harvard University with a BA in English before completing the Graduate Diploma in Law at BPP University and the Bar Vocational Studies at City, University of London as a Gray’s Inn Scholar. More recently, she completed a Masters of Laws in International Commercial Law at UCL.

Phil Smith

Knowledge Lawyer

Before joining FromCounsel, Phil had been a partner at Boyes Turner LLP in Reading since 2000, and was head of their insolvency team from 2007. He advised primarily on administrations, fixed charge receiverships, liquidations, and the sale & purchase of distressed businesses, as well as handling a wide range of insolvency-based litigation.

Laura Stigaite

Editorial Assistant

Laura is responsible for providing editorial assistance to the FromCounsel PSL Team. Laura graduated from her LLB at Brunel University with an Upper Second Class Honours before being awarded a distinction in the LPC LLM at BPP University. Before joining FromCounsel, Laura worked as a knowledge paralegal at Penningtons Manches Cooper.

Philip Thornton

Head of Employment

"Philip practised as an employment barrister at Devereux Chambers. His practice comprised advisory and drafting work plus extensive advocacy in employment tribunals, the Employment Appeal Tribunal, the High Court and Court of Appeal, concentrating latterly on complex discrimination matters for large employers. After 17 years there, he was recruited by LexisNexis to devise and develop what became the LexisPSL service from scratch. He and one other lawyer co-created the employment module, and he became head of the employment team. By the time he left to join FromCounsel, the LexisPSL service had grown from two to thirty-seven practice areas, four of which he was managing.

Helen Turnbull

Knowledge Lawyer

Helen was called to the bar in 2004. Prior to joining FromCounsel, she spent 12 years practising mainly in commercial and property law, developing practical litigation expertise in a wide range of courts and across various legal areas, including commercial landlord and tenant, contract, real estate, debt recovery and insolvency. Helen left practice to work at FromCounsel’s sister company, Sparqa Legal in 2016, first as a Managing Editor and latterly Head of Content before moving to FromCounsel.

Chris Warwick-Evans

Knowledge Lawyer

Chris trained at DLA Piper and spent his first two years as a commercial litigator, specialising in complex high-value litigation and regulatory matters. He requalified as an employment solicitor and over the last 8 years he has enjoyed acquiring extensive employment law experience advising businesses ranging from global multinationals and household names to start-ups on a wide range of employment law matters. Chris also has extensive experience advising senior executives on their personal employment law matters.

Claire Woolf

Knowledge Lawyer

Before joining FromCounsel, Claire spent 4 years as a Managing Editor at its sister company, Sparqa. Prior to this, Claire spent 9 years in private practice, specialising in dispute resolution. She began her career at Linklaters LLP before moving to Carter-Ruck as a senior associate. Whilst in practice, she advised clients across a range of industries on different types of dispute, including high court litigation and arbitration. She also handled regulatory matters, primarily in the banking sector.

Engineering

Kiri Evans

Project Coordinator

Michael Fernandez

UI Engineer

Before joining, Michael studied Computer Science (Software Engineering) at the Royal Holloway, University of London.

Tom Gould

Server-Side Engineer

Prior to joining Basement Crowd, Tom worked as a software engineer in the music publishing industry. He has experience with a broad range of languages, specialising in the JVM. Tom graduated from the University of York with a MEng in Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence.

Anuradha Gunasekara

UI Engineer

Before joining FromCounsel, Anuradha worked as a Front-end Software Engineer for a Dutch company. He has worked in many areas such as Finance, Retail, Robotics, and Project Management. He studied a BEng (Hons) in Software Engineering from the University of Westminster.

Rob Hinds

Chief Technology Officer

Before joining, Rob spent 4 years working as a senior engineer at an investment management start-up in London, building a cutting edge trading platform and marketplace for money managers. Prior to that, Rob spent 6 years working as a technical consultant at Accenture, working on a range of technology-driven, client-facing projects based across Europe. Rob holds a BSc in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science from the University of Birmingham.

Jordan Milton

UI Engineer

Jordan has been working as an allegedly professional developer for the last 6 years, though that was really just a natural progression from a childhood that largely revolved around playing computer games. Jordan is pretty confident this bio won't be read so he feels safe buffing the character count with this sentence that can be ignored. The main difference is that he now gets paid to spend all day at a computer.

Operations

Harry Birmingham

General Counsel & Company Secretary

Harry is General Counsel and Company Secretary at FromCounsel. Before joining FromCounsel, Harry was a senior legal editor at Sparqa Legal for over 4 years, having previously practised as a corporate solicitor for 6 years at Farrer & Co. Harry has broad experience advising on a range of transactional and advisory corporate matters, focusing in particular on private M&A, investments and joint ventures.

Carol Furber

Finance Support

Carol has spent the majority of her career as a Financial Controller for a construction and engineering company. She uses her knowledge to provide support to the FromCounsel team.

George Roberts

Chief Operating Officer

George has been involved with several technology startups and before joining FromCounsel was the Project Operations Manager for the launch of a new mobile advertising tracking application for Somo Global. Prior to that, George was the Director of Operations for CPDcast, a legal training startup he ran on a day-to-day basis from inception through to acquisition and integration into Informa plc.

Michelle Smith

Finance Manager

Catherine Thornton

HR Manager

Cath has over 15 years' experience as a senior manager for a major retailer. Prior to joining FromCounsel, she was a Director for an SME where she put into practice her expertise of HR and Operational Practices.

Alison Walters

Financial Controller

Alison's professional journey began in London in accountancy and audit, specialising in working with SMEs across sectors at Deloitte’s, and from there, heading up finance in successful organisations like Econsultancy Ltd, Teddington Studios and The Future Cities Catapult. She has been fortunate to work as a consultant with startups focused on positive environmental and social impact, most recently supporting The Open Data Institute and The Provenance Project with strategic planning, financial modelling, fundraising and mentoring.

Commercial

Victoria Abberton

Chief Sales Officer

Before joining FromCounsel, Vicki was at S J Berwin LLP and then Clyde & Co LLP, latterly as a Legal Director in the corporate team. During her time in practice, Vicki advised on a large number of private M&A and joint venture transactions, helped develop Clyde & Co’s corporate training programme and contributed to various business development initiatives. Vicki joined FromCounsel in 2015 to set up and run the current awareness service and in 2018, became Head of Commercial, utilising both her years in practice and her in-depth knowledge of the FromCounsel service to help ensure that it continues to be a high quality resource meeting the knowledge needs of subscribers. In early 2023, Vicki became FromCounsel's Chief Sales Officer.

Amy-Clare Dick

Head of Marketing

Amy is a marketing professional with over 20 years' experience within business-to-business organisations. The majority of her experience has been at tech firms, including a variety of marketing roles at Citrix and Oracle including events, social media, adoption marketing as well as field marketing to support sales teams. Her career started in subscription-led publishing where she helped businesses shift from traditional offline methods to digital marketing.

Stephen Hughes

Investment Lead

Over the past 20+ years, Steve has built up a wealth of international experience within early and growth-stage company development, holding senior positions in venture capital, start-up companies and universities. He has led investment and portfolio management activity in boutique venture capital companies and served as a board director for many companies in the Hertzian (UK), Axial3D (EU) and DSIMLAB (Asia). He has worked directly in several investee companies, including during the initial founding of FromCounsel, focusing on commercial strategy, business development, investment readiness and the development of strategic commercial relationships and networks. Steve is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (RSA) for services to knowledge transfer. He retains deep links within Higher Education, supporting entrepreneurs, incubation centres and the investment community.

Holly Martyn-Smith

Client Relationship Manager

Holly works closely with our clients to understand their knowledge, technology, and development strategy, and how we can best support firms with our growing portfolio of services. She works collaboratively with the marketing and content team to ensure that we continuously evolve our services in line with our clients' voice. Prior to joining FromCounsel, Holly was part of a unique journey at Blink, an employee communications app, from start-up to scale-up. She was involved in developing the go-to-market strategy and new business generation across a range of frontline industries.

Dan Mitchell

Senior Client Relationship Manager

Dan is our Senior Client Relationship Manager. He is responsible for growing FromCounsel and managing a number of our largest customer accounts. Prior to FromCounsel, Dan helped to launch our sister company, Sparqa Legal, and previously founded a SaaS startup. Dan has also worked as a strategy consultant at both Oliver Wyman and Accenture.

Anna Simmonds

Head of Customer Success

Anna joined the FromCounsel commercial team in 2015. Prior to that, she was a Barrister (2009 call) at a leading London chambers and an international law firm. She has significant experience in legal knowledge businesses, including as a founding member of Sparqa Legal; and in Head of Content and Publisher roles for Informa Law, engaging in the strategic and commercial management of a multi-million-pound portfolio of legal publications and training products. Anna utilises her in-depth knowledge of the market and broad commercial expertise to ensure customer-centricity remains at the heart of our business.

Board

George Roberts

COO

Andrew Thornton KC

Chief Executive Officer

Andrew is CEO of FromCounsel in addition to his role as a contributor from Erskine Chambers

Mark Paterson

Chair

Alongside his role at FromCounsel, Mark is also the Chair of Blink which plans to deliver the future of workplace messaging. From 2010-2015 he was the Chair of SwiftKey, a creator of world class language technology acquired by Microsoft in 2016. Called to the Bar in 1983, Mark was General Counsel of Orange plc 1990-2001; VP Business Development 2001-2003; and Vice Chair for Fairshare, providing a not for profit wholesale food recycling service to the third sector 2004-2012.

Michael Todd KC

Barrister

Michael Todd KC is a member of Erskine Chambers.

Nigel Dougherty

Barrister

Nigel Dougherty is a member of Erskine Chambers.