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Shoosmiths joins Corporate Finance Faculty

Law firm Shoosmiths has become the latest firm to join the ICAEW Corporate Finance Faculty. Shoosmiths acts for public and private companies, management teams, investors and debt providers across the full deal lifecycle.

The law firm’s faculty contact is Elizabeth Ward (1), partner in Shoosmiths’ London corporate team. She joined in 2023 from Shoosmiths’ client, Five Arrows via Peerpoint, where she spent four years. Prior to that she was general counsel at two PE-backed businesses for six years: 3i-backed Audley Travel and Terra Firma-backed Wyevale. She previously worked for Ropes & Gray and Linklaters and sat on the BVCA legal and technical committee, having trained as a lawyer with SJ Berwin. She specialises in mid-market private equity transactions and portfolio company advice, for which she is recognised by the Legal 500.

“We take a collaborative and commercially focused approach, with partner-led teams delivering tailored advice on strategic, high-stakes transactions,” says Ward. “We are proud to join ICAEW’s Corporate Finance Faculty, and bring our reputation for delivering complex, high-value corporate transactions to this network of M&A advisers. We look forward to contributing to the wider corporate finance community.”

The firm’s private equity specialists advise on the establishment of funds, investments, buy-and build-strategies to grow portfolio companies, and exit processes. Its M&A team works on fast-paced, high-value transactions, often with cross-border elements.

The team

Shoosmiths’ national corporate team is led by Birmingham-based Ben Turner (2). He specialises in domestic and cross-border M&A across multiple sectors, including technology, industrials and national security. He previously worked for Hill Hofstetter (now part of Fieldfisher) and Mills & Reeve.

Amit Nayyar (3) heads up Shoosmiths’ private equity practice and relationships with private equity sponsors, having joined the firm nine years ago from Hogan Lovells and having previously worked for White & Case and Pinsent Masons.

And Elia Montorio (4) leads its M&A team. She joined Shoosmiths as one of its senior partners four years ago from DLA Piper, where she spent 28 years.

Other Shoosmiths corporate partners, who are members of the faculty, include:

• Claire Checketts;
• Kiran Dhesi;
• Holly Hirst;
• Kurt Ma;
• Nick McCarthy; and
• Sanjeev Sharma.

Shoosmiths has 128 corporate lawyers working across its 14 offices – one in Brussels and 13 in the UK: five core offices in Birmingham, Leeds, London, Edinburgh and Manchester, and hub offices in Belfast, Glasgow, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Nottingham, Solent, Thames Valley and Sheffield.

The firm has grown its corporate team significantly in recent years and is recruiting in growth areas such as financial services. On international deals, it is a member of a world service group so it co-counsels with firms it regularly works with on global deals.

FUTURE EVENTS

Dates for the diary

10 October

The UK government is consulting on proposed changes to acquisitions that qualify as notifiable acquisitions under the National Security and Investment Act Regulations 2021. The faculty is responding and comments for inclusion should be submitted by 10 October 2025 to Katerina.joannou@icaew.com.

15 October

The Corporate Finance Faculty’s AI webinar on the use of proprietary AI tools in M&A will be on 15 October 2025 at noon. Speakers will be Jan Chan, transactions and corporate finance partner and AI lead at EY, and Toby Popplewell, PwC partner and deals GenAI leader. To book a place, please visit Corporate Finance Faculty events.

13 November

The Annual Reception, the most popular event in the Corporate Finance Faculty’s and ICAEW’s calendar, will this year be held on 13 November at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

This year’s special guest speaker will be Jon Moulton CBE (1) chairman of Better Capital fund vehicles, which he founded in 2009. He is also the former managing partner of Alchemy, former chairman of finnCap (now Cavendish) and former chairman of the Channel Islands stock exchange. Before his 12 years at Alchemy, he was head of LBOs at Apax Partners and prior to that he spent nine years at Schroders Ventures, where he was founder and managing partner. He started his career with Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) in Liverpool, where he trained as a chartered accountant, before working on M&A and buy-out advisory, and made his first foray into buy-outs with Citicorp Venture Capital in 1980. He is an active angel investor, and trustee of the Jon Moulton Charity Trust, which has committed £53m to clinical trials, and last year received a CBE for his support for medical research. He is an outspoken columnist in Corporate Financier and regular media commentator on growth for businesses, so expect some opinions.

Other speakers at the event will be ICAEW CEO, Alan Vallance (2); Corporate Finance Faculty chairman and head of new investments at BGF, Alistair Brew (3); and ICAEW head of corporate finance, David Petrie (4).

The ever-popular event will include the presentation of the faculty’s Corporate Development Award, given to the UK listed business which has made the most effective use of M&A to increase shareholder value. Public companies are assessed by an empirical analysis of the contribution of acquisitions they have made over the previous two years, using a unique methodology devised by the Corporate Finance Faculty and the M&A Research Centre at Bayes Business School. Last year’s award was won by Pearson Plc, the FTSE 100 UK-headquartered lifelong learning company.

Prizes for the highest-performing students in the two sittings of the ICAEW Corporate Finance qualification exams will also be presented.

10 December

The launch of the Corporate Finance Faculty’s guideline 'HR Due Diligence', authored by Deloitte, will be held in the Great Hall at Chartered Accountants’ Hall on 10 December 2025.

For more information and to book a place, please visit Corporate Finance Faculty events.

GUIDELINES

Commercial due diligence guideline

The Corporate Finance Faculty’s guideline Commercial Due Diligence, co-authored by KPMG and Luminii, was launched at Chartered Accountants’ Hall last month.

• A copy of the guideline can be downloaded at: Commercial due diligence 

Nicola Longfield, KPMG partner and UK Head of deal advisory transaction services, gave an introductory talk on the growth of commercial due diligence services.

Lushani Kodituwakku, founder and managing director of Luminii Consulting, took the audience through the key elements of the guideline, illustrated by her extensive experience offering commercial due diligence advice.

ICAEW head of corporate finance David Petrie then chaired a panel discussion followed by questions from the audience.

The panel included ECI Partners partner Lewis Bantin; Inflexion managing director Jonathan Battye; Luminii’s Kodituwakku; KPMG deal strategy partner David Larsson; and Maven Capital Partners investment director Alexandra Lindsay.

Bantin emphasised the importance that ECI, as a private equity investor, places on ensuring the scope of a commercial due diligence engagement is focused. Battye said Inflexion looks to undertake such work as early in the process as possible, as its findings can prove fundamental to the investment case. Lindsay suggested that at the smaller earlier stage investment Maven undertakes, management due diligence is the first step, closely followed by commercial due diligence, ensuring that they are always keeping an eye on management’s ability to deliver on commercial due diligence opportunities highlighted.