Our Corporate Practice scooped four awards at last night’s Yorkshire Business Insider Dealmaker Awards; Corporate Law Firm of the Year, Deal of the Year (£25 million and above), AIM Deal of the Year, and there was an individual recognition for Paul Mann, who won Emerging Dealmaker. Held at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, over 600 people from the Yorkshire corporate finance community attended the Ceremony.
In naming us as Corporate Law Firm of the Year, the judges said: “The team at Squire Patton Boggs has had a hell of a year, involved in every major deal; involved in every headline grabbing transaction. The team has advised on 36 deals with a combined value of £1.2 billion. While other advisers had good years, the Squire Patton Boggs team has had an even better year. They are just everywhere."
According to the judges, Corporate partner Paul Mann was awarded Emerging Dealmaker for “leading nine transactions, taking on a variety of roles including a mid-market buy side PE role, and advising on a number of acquisitions for corporate groups who are serial acquirers.” They noted that a large proportion of Paul’s instructions had emanated from brand new clients to the firm across the last year. His deal highlights included the disposal of Volvox to Rubicon Partners, the sale of Homestyle Products to Acrysil and the disposal of Zigma Ground Solutions to Checkers Industrial Products. John Hall, the former chief executive of Volvox, said: "As a fairly intolerant person, it was good that the team’s calming influence meant that we completed without any major deal-breaking issues between sellers and purchaser. There was no doubt in my mind who I wanted to handle the legal side of the deal, and who I would go to first for any deals in the future."
We were also awarded Deal of the Year for advising on the sale of Poundworld to private equity firm TPG and won AIM Deal of the Year for advising on the flotation of Premier Technical Services Group.
Last night’s awards follow success at last month’s Yorkshire Legal Awards, where the firm won “Corporate and Commercial Team of the Year”. It has also been shortlisted for M&A Team of the Year at the British Legal Awards for advising on the Poundworld deal. The awards take place in London on 25 November.