Our People

James Fownes
Partner
James Fownes
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
James works with clients and colleagues to find effective solutions to property disputes and problems.

James Woolstenhulme
Partner
James Woolstenhulme
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
James is an expert in managing and resolving complex disputes and guiding his clients through commercial problems so that they can focus on their business.

Jody Webb
Partner
Jody Webb
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Jody leads on substantial transactions including acquisitions, disposals, management buy outs and private equity investments with a particular focus on the UK mid-market with values of circa £5m – £100m across a variety of sectors.

John Rice
Partner
John Rice
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
John works with lenders and borrowers on a wide range of property finance transactions including acquisition, refinancing and development loans.

Jonathan Tyson
Partner
Jonathan Tyson
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Jonathan has worked in the healthcare sector since 2006. He really enjoys getting to know clients well and building long-term relationships with them.

Julia Rosenbloom
Private Wealth Tax Partner
Julia Rosenbloom
Private Wealth Tax Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Julia is a chartered tax adviser, solicitor and trust & estate practitioner. She has a wide range of experience, advising clients from both a personal and corporate tax perspective.

Justine Ball
Partner
Justine Ball
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Justine handles the full range of disputes that can arise in respect of property interests.

Kate Onions
Partner
Kate Onions
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Kate’s focus is on preventing disputes where possible and seeking commercial resolutions which align with her client’s goals when disputes do arise.

Lesley Davis
Partner
Lesley Davis
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Lesley works closely with her clients to assist and guide in all aspects of complex estate planning and asset protection including trust and estate administration after death, wills and powers of attorney.

Lucy Haynes
Partner
Lucy Haynes
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Lucy specialises in Residential Development and Strategic Land.

Mark Taylor
Partner
Mark advises on education collaborations and governance, having spent all of his legal career advising in the education sector.

Martin Edwards
Partner
Martin Edwards
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Martin is known for his flexible thinking to resolve challenging situations for clients including developers, corporate occupiers, owners and investors.

Matt McDonald
Partner
Matt McDonald
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Matt’s expertise cover all areas of Employment law. He has considerable experience of advising clients on complex employment litigation, senior hires and exits, large-scale redundancy exercises and complicated TUPE issues.

Mauro Paiano
Partner
Mauro Paiano
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Mauro has over 25 years’ experience in advising clients on contentious and non-contentious intellectual property related issues.
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Languages:
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English
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Italian

Peter Mayhew
Partner
Peter Mayhew
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Peter works tirelessly to ensure first and foremost that his clients’ objectives and deadlines are met.
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Languages:
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English
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French

Richard Thorpe
Partner
Richard Thorpe
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Richard is a partner in our Managed Legal Services team.

Ruth Phillips
Partner
Ruth Phillips
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Ruth uses her technical background in the industry to provide practical legal solutions to her clients.

Simon Hayden
Partner
Simon Hayden
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Simon acts for a range of property developers, land owners and occupiers but with a particular interest in development work.

Tom Long
Partner
Tom Long
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Tom works with employers to prevent and resolve people issues, ensuring their organisations continue to work efficiently and effectively.

Vicki Simpson
Partner
Vicki Simpson
Partner
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Vicki is renown for providing commercial real estate advice (including funding and recovery) with particular expertise in the education and charity sectors. She has international experience and is a practising Notary Public
She has expertise of advising clients on safeguarding and related disciplinary matters

Afreen Cole
Legal Director
Afreen Cole
Legal Director
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Afreen works for a range of clients including banks, Islamic finance institutions, short term lenders and other corporate entities.

Anieka Sheppard
Legal Director
Anieka Sheppard
Legal Director
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Anieka assists education clients to realise their goal and resolve their problems.

Daniel Kelly
Legal Director
Daniel Kelly
Legal Director
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Danny is a Legal Director in our Intellectual Property team, with a specific focus on contentious intellectual property matters.
He advises clients on the full spectrum of intellectual property rights, including patents, trade marks, designs, and copyright. Danny has particular experience advising clients in the retail, engineering, brewing, education, technology, medical devices, online and social media, and IT sectors.
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My Recent Articles
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Invalidity of a Patent for Prior Use – The Battle of the Battlekarts
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Ownership of IP Outputs from ChatGPT, Dall-E And Copilot – Do You Own What You Receive?
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BrewDog vs Hawkshead Brewery – Lake District brewery bites back to protect its trade marks
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Donna Barnes
Legal Director
Donna Barnes
Legal Director
Shakespeare Martineau Birmingham
Donna acts for a wide range of our investors, national housebuilders and corporate occupier clients.