Shoosmiths has significantly expanded its specialised banking offering with the appointment of a team who will drive forward the firm’s expertise in the asset based lending (ABL) industry.
Renowned ABL experts Jon Bew and Natalie Barnes both join as partners along with Alistair Hayes who joins as a solicitor. The team will be further strengthened by the arrival of Andrew Watson who will join as a consultant at the end of the year. As well as directly growing the bandwidth of the banking department, the new team will work alongside the firm’s leading restructuring, finance litigation and debt recoveries teams to offer ABL clients a true cradle to grave service.
Jon has 25-plus years’ experience in the industry and is ranked as a tier 1 “Leading Individual – Hall of Fame” finance lawyer in the West Midlands by Legal 500 - one of only three lawyers with that ranking. Nat has worked alongside Jon for over 10 years and is described by Legal 500 as providing “first class advice”. Andrew has worked in the ABL industry since its inception and is well known and highly regarded by all.
As a team, Natalie and Jon have been described by Legal 500 as “important partners to our business” and “extremely approachable and knowledgeable”, providing a “responsive and cost-effective” service to an impressive range of clients.
Rebecca Mauleverer, who heads up Shoosmiths’ national banking and finance team, said: “Jon and Natalie’s appointments as partners represent a massive opportunity for the firm and the team, to take advantage of a growing ABL market, and they will have great support in Andrew and Alistair.
“With their vast experience and industry know how, we are confident they will build on their existing reputation as the market-leading ABL team.
“I’d really like to welcome the team to Shoosmiths and look forward to working with them.”
Jon said “We are all delighted to be joining Shoosmiths at this time. We have been enormously impressed with the team that we are joining both within the banking market and also in those areas that will complement our ABL practice. The ABL industry is one that we have served for many years and we are now in a position to properly service all aspects of that industry with true industry experts. The benefit to clients will be instant and we look forward to getting out there and working with our clients to help them grow their businesses.”
The financial services sector is a key focus for Shoosmiths with further growth planned, alongside other recent national team growth.