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This year's North East Fastest 50 Awards were a great success and it was fantastic to see so many of you attend the ceremony.

Many of the Ward Hadaway team were in attendance at the awards and thoroughly enjoyed meeting you. They are available to continue any conversations you were having or to answer any of your queries. Below we have provided some mini profiles to help you put faces to names.

If you would like to connect with any other attendee from the awards, we would be more than happy to facilitate an introduction. Please email events@wardhadaway.com and we will be in touch.

Ward Hadaway attendees

  • Damien Charlton

    Damien is a highly experienced lawyer, who has been advising businesses on company and commercial matters for over 20 years. He is the Head of the Commercial Department and advises clients on a national basis.

    Contact Damien

  • Nick Gholkar

    Nick is the Executive Partner for our Newcastle Office and a partner in our Built Environment team.

    Nick advises on all aspects of Real Estate matters. Nick has extensive experience in acting on acquisitions, disposals, development, leasing and financing of Real Estate assets.

    Contact Nick

  • Imogen Holland

    Imogen is a Partner in the Corporate department at Ward Hadaway. She qualified in 2003 having trained at Ward Hadaway.

    She advises on banking, funding and corporate matters and has provided advice to both lenders and borrowers in a range of areas including acquisition finance, development and project finance. Imogen also advises on corporate matters including acquisitions and disposals and private equity transactions.

    Contact Imogen

  • Lesley Fairclough

    Lesley specialises in commercial property development work.

    Since qualifying as a solicitor in 1992, Lesley has worked in the Commercial Property Team at Ward Hadaway dealing with all aspects of commercial property work, but in particular development work (residential, commercial and mixed use schemes) acting for either landowners or developers.

    Contact Lesley

  • Gillian Chinhengo

    Gillian is an experienced and trusted employment lawyer, working across a broad spectrum of employment law matters, including TUPE, large scale reorganization/redundancy, discrimination issues and unfair dismissal.

    Gillian provides commercially focused advice to a broad range of clients and regularly conducts cases before Employment Tribunals. Gillian particularly enjoys working alongside clients to understand their business, identify their needs and offer a range of solutions, dependent on approach to risk.

    Contact Gillian

  • Richard Butts

    Richard has extensive experience in advising on the full range of corporate transactions, but with a particular specialism of advising growing business on funding matters (from very early stage investments right through to flotations) and advising fund managers on investment transactions, including advising on fund structures and associated documentation.

    Contact Richard

  • Jamie Gamble

    Jamie is a partner within the Employment Team and head of the Newcastle employment unit at Ward Hadaway, he has specialised in employment law since 2002.

    Contact Jamie

  • Louise Masters

    With almost two decades experience, Louise is a stalwart of the family law legal community, both regionally and nationally. Dealing with all aspects of family law, clients and contacts agree that Louise’s supportive but firm approach and stellar legal background sets her apart.

    Louise specialises in high value and complex financial remedy cases but also has a great deal of experience covering all areas of family law. She also delivers training to professionals on the cross over between family law and serious injury and to financial experts. Coupled with this Louise is engaged by Resolution to assess whether other lawyers should be accredited.

    Contact Louise

  • Matthew Cormack

    Matt is a Partner in the commercial team at Ward Hadaway, based in the Newcastle office, and acts for a wide range of clients from large multi-national corporate clients to early stage businesses.

    Contact Matthew

  • Robert Glassford

    Robert is a senior and experienced litigator having over 20 years of expertise handling a wide range of disputes for private, commercial, and public sector clients, and is recognised in Legal 500 as a leading individual.

    Robert acts for a range of Ward Hadaway’s national and international clients handling a wide variety of disputes. These include complex contractual disputes, insurance claims, professional negligence claims, company, shareholder and joint venture disputes, and intellectual property litigation.

    Contact Robert

  • Martin McKinnell

    Martin is an experienced Partner specialising in corporate transactional work. He is part of our Corporate team based in Teesside.

    Martin’s corporate transactional practice involves him acting for corporate entities, sellers, buyers, banks, private equity firms, insolvency practitioners and investors across a range of sales, acquisitions, reorganisations, restructurings, distressed deals, inbound funding, equity buy-outs, management buy-outs, fund exits and financing arrangements.

    Contact Martin

  • Steven Roper

    Steven is a Partner in the commercial team. His practice covers a wide range of business clients, from local businesses to household-name multinationals, advising on commercial contracts and corporate governance issues. Steven also leads Ward Hadaway’s Transport and Infrastructure team.

    Contact Steven

  • Alexander Rose

    Alexander is a Partner in the Commercial and Competition team at Ward Hadaway with a national reputation for his expertise in public funding, including Subsidy Control law. His advice is described as “streets ahead of the competition, in terms of both quality and value” in the Chambers Directory.

    At Ward Hadaway, Alexander is a trusted adviser to Combined Authorities, Councils and other public authorities administering funding programmes as well as to blue chip companies looking to secure grants, loans and guarantees from the public sector.

    Contact Alexander

  • Robert Eldon

    Robert is a senior and experienced litigator having over 20 years of expertise handling a wide range of disputes for private, commercial, and public sector clients, and is recognised in Legal 500 as a leading individual

    Contact Robert

  • Russell Ward

    Russell has an excellent breadth of experience which has involved dealing with a wide variety of commercial disputes. In particular, he has significant experience of matters of professional negligence against valuers and solicitors, as well as accountants and other professionals. In addition, Russell has extensive experience of employment claims which fall outside of the remit of the tribunals and within the jurisdiction of the courts, specifically with respect to claims for injunctive relief which arise out of matters of breach of confidence and breaches of post-termination restrictive covenants.

    Contact Russell

  • Neil Williamson

    Neil is a partner in the Construction and Engineering unit at Ward Hadaway.

    Neil advises both private and public sector clients on negotiating construction documentation including building contracts, consultant appointments, collateral warranties, novations, bonds and guarantees. He also works with colleagues across the firm to assist in drafting and negotiating construction-related provisions in ancillary documents, such as development agreements, agreements for lease and funding agreements.

    Contact Neil

  • Tom Wills

    Tom is Head of Agriculture, Rural Business and Estates and a Partner in the Real Estate team.

    With almost two decades of experience in the sector, Tom specialises in a wide range of Rural and Agricultural issues and is a Fellow of the Agricultural Law Association. He has particularly detailed knowledge of Agricultural Holdings, Rural Business, Commercial Real Estate, Renewables Projects and Mines and Minerals.

    Contact Tom

  • Martin Woodford

    Martin is a senior and experienced litigator listed as a Leading Individual in the Legal 500 and comes recommended in Chambers & Partners. He has a wide practice with a particular interest in high value and complex disputes.

    Contact Martin

  • Alex Smith

    Alex is a Partner in the Commercial Litigation team and is a highly experienced commercial lawyer, principally specialising in property litigation, construction and disputes with a cross-border or international element.

    Contact Alex

  • Gemma Iceton

    Gemma has over 20 years experience in family law and is a highly regarded Family Law Solicitor by clients and peers. She is committed to providing an outstanding service to her clients and is extremely passionate about achieving the best result for each and every client.

    Contact Gemma

  • Hollie Ball

    Hollie advises employers in the public, private and third sector from start-up businesses through to charities and multinational corporations. Hollie has a special focus on advising charity clients working closely with chief executives and trustees.

    Contact Hollie

  • James Nightingale

    James is a Partner in the Corporate team with over 15 years of experience of advising on all aspects of corporate finance work with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, investments, reorganisations and restructurings.

    Contact James

  • Kerry Adcock

    Kerry specialises in delivering contractual, corporate and commercial advice to public sector clients and organisations contracting with the public sector with expertise across education, local government and health sectors.

    Contact Kerry

  • Louise Miller

    Louise brings almost 20 years’ experience advising individuals, families and business owners on estate planning, wills, powers of attorney, trusts and probate matters. Her practice spans traditional private client work through to complex succession planning for entrepreneurs and owners of growing companies, as well as long-term support for individuals who want guidance in managing their personal affairs.

    Contact Louise

  • Nicola Williams

    Nicola is a partner in our corporate team, specialising in providing corporate tax legal advice on mergers & acquisitions and private equity investments, as well as heading up our share plans practice.

    Contact Nicola

  • Paul Wigham

    Paul is a partner in the Corporate team with over 15 years’ experience in advising companies, founders and entrepreneurs on all aspects of corporate finance work with a particular focus on venture capital and private equity backed technology businesses.

    Contact Paul

  • Tom Shears

    Tom is a Partner in the Employment team and provides advice on all contentious and non-contentious employment law to clients across the private, public and charity sectors. Tom has particular expertise advising schools and local authorities on HR matters and a wide range of education law issues.

    Contact Tom

  • Alistair McDonald

    Alistair stands at the head of our firm’s Business Development activities, orchestrating growth strategies, horizon scanning and making connections that continue to elevate our services and reputation. His comprehensive understanding of the legal landscape, coupled with his strategic mindset, has been instrumental in fostering our firm’s growth. His insights into the intricacies of the legal industry, have guided us in offering tailored solutions to our clients.

    Contact Alistair