Travers Smith LLP has announced the promotion of five Senior Counsel as part of its 2018 promotion round.
Managing Partner David Patient said: "This is a strong promotion round, and we are excited to be appointing five extremely talented lawyers to Senior Counsel this year. I wish all of them well in their new roles."
The Senior Counsel appointments follow the recent promotion of eight lawyers to the Travers Smith partnership. All appointments are effective from 1 July. The new Senior Counsel and their principal areas of practice are:
Philip Baynes – Investment Funds
Phil specialises in the structuring, formation and operation of private alternative investment funds (primarily in the private equity, debt, real estate and infrastructure space). He also advises on co-investment, executive incentivisation arrangements and secondaries transactions and works with institutional investors on their participation in a wide range of fund structures. His recent experience includes advising the Local Pensions Partnership on the £billion+ pooling of the assets of two local authority pension schemes, advising a pan-European PE real estate house on the raising of an €800 million fund, and advising a global asset manager on the secondary acquisition of a portfolio of private equity interests.
Sacha Gofton-Salmond – Investment Funds
Sacha is an investment funds lawyer, focusing on secondaries (acting on the buy-side and sell-side), fund and manager restructurings and co-investments for institutional investors. Her recent work includes acting for a major UK institution on the sale of a $1 billion portfolio of LP interests in over 40 private equity funds, acting for a large UK pension fund on the transfer of a $160 million portfolio of private equity fund interests, the spin-out of a European venture capital group to create an independent business, and a number of infrastructure and real estate consortium and syndication arrangements utilising fund structures. Additionally, Sacha has experience of corporate M&A transactions and LLP work for fund managers. During her time at Travers Smith, Sacha has also been on secondment to a well-known UK private equity firm.
Joanna Roberts – Private Equity
Joanna is a corporate and M&A lawyer who specialises in private equity and regularly advises institutional investors, portfolio companies and management teams on both buy-outs and general corporate advisory work. Throughout her career Joanna has advised a number of the firm's key clients, including Bridgepoint, TA Associates, ICG, Carlyle and 3i. Joanna was also recently seconded to Bridgepoint as Assistant General Counsel. Recent transactions include the acquisition by WiggleCRC, a Bridgepoint portfolio company, of Bike24, the acquisition by TA Associates of Biocomposites, the acquisition by Bridgepoint Development Capital of PEI Group, and advising Patron Capital and management on the sale of CALA Homes to Legal & General.
AJ Venter – Corporate Finance
AJ is a corporate finance lawyer specialising in UK and international public and private M&A, equity capital markets and general corporate advice. He acts for a number of quoted and private companies, financial intermediaries and other clients and advises clients in the financial services, infrastructure, leisure, retail and technology sectors. Recent transactions include advising BUUK on the acquisition of OVO Energy's smart meter portfolio and Amphenol Corporation on its acquisitions of Invotec Circuits, Martec and SGX Sensortech.
Jonathan Walters – Corporate Finance
Jonathan is a corporate finance lawyer who advises on public and private mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets. He acts for a wide range of clients, specialising in infrastructure M&A. Recent work includes advising Ancala Partners on their acquisitions of Portsmouth Water and SAGE, the North Sea gas pipeline system, as well as Basalt Infrastructure Partners on their disposal of Alkane Energy to 3i Infrastructure plc. Jonathan has also advised a number of infrastructure clients on the implementation of management incentive plans.