Tuesday 1st May 2018

Stone King is delighted to announce that Julian Blake, formerly joint head of Charity and Social Enterprises at Bates Wells Braithwaite, and commercial property lawyer Caroline Taylor, formerly partner at Michelmores LLP, have joined the national law firm as partners. The firm has also made five new partner promotions across the business.

With extensive experience across charitable, commercial and educational matters, Julian Blake will add further depth to Stone King’s Social Enterprise and Social Finance services and drive this area of work. Described in legal directory Chambers UK as "one of the best charity solicitors in the UK today", Julian has particular expertise in applying commercial disciplines to public benefit organisations, establishing and working with social purpose clients, and has been closely involved in pioneering areas including social investment and social value and the engagement between social enterprises and the public sector.

Caroline Taylor has been a partner for 20 years with extensive commercial property law experience across both public and private sectors. Her expertise spans development, retail and major corporate work, as well as extensive experience of working with the National Health Service and housing associations. She has acted for more than 100 NHS Trusts to transfer their property portfolios from government. Caroline will be based at Stone King’s Bath office.

Steven Greenwood, Managing Partner at Stone King, says: “We are very pleased to welcome Julian and Caroline. Julian is a highly respected and prominent force in the charity sector who will allow us to further expand our Social Enterprise and Social Finance service offering. Caroline brings with her wide-ranging commercial property law experience and she will be a real asset to this area of our work.
“We are also proud to announce five new internal partner promotions, all of which richly deserved. We are privileged to have such a wide range of expert practitioners based throughout our national office network.”

New partners include Caroline Fell, who heads up the firm’s Family and Mediation Team. Based in Bath, Caroline specialises in financial matters on divorce and separation, often where complex issues and high value assets are involved. Polly O’Malley, who joined Stone King in 2016, specialises in all aspects of employment law with niche expertise in advising the education sector. She is based in the firm’s Leeds office.

In the business sector, Gavin Llewellyn and Tamsin Eastwood have both been made partners in the firm’s Corporate and Commercial Team and are based in London and Cambridge, respectively. Gavin specialises in intellectual property law with a particular focus on brands and design, and is a regular speaker as President of the Intellectual Property Commission of the International Association of Lawyers (UIA). Tamsin has more than 25 years’ experience in corporate finance, banking and financial services law and joined Stone King as a Consultant in 2013.

In the Charity and Social Enterprise Team, new partner Reema Mathur brings the firm to a 38% female partnership. Based in London, Reema acts for a wide range of charities, CICs and social enterprises and sits on the Executive Committee of the Charity Law Association. All partner promotions take effect from 1 May 2018.

Stone King is a leading national law firm with more than 240 people nationally and over 200 years of experience. The firm provides specialist legal advice and solutions to the four sectors of education; charity and social enterprise; business; and private client with offices in Bath, Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds and London. Stone King has been independently recognised as a leading law firm by Chambers and the Legal 500 directories.

 

For media enquiries please contact

Lucie Willis
01225 478180
LucieWillis@stoneking.co.uk