Banking and finance advice adds up for Wake Smith

Wake Smith Solicitors’ expertise in banking and finance has earned the company increased rankings by organisers of the national benchmark for the best of the legal profession.

Duncan Shepherd’s team at Wake Smith was seen by analysts from The Legal 500 2019 as a go-to firm for banking and finance matters in Sheffield and South Yorkshire with advice always precise and well set out.

Wake Smith focuses on mid-market transactional work for bank clients and also assists with the drafting of standard and bespoke facility documents and security requirement issues.

Group head Duncan Shepherd excels in corporate refinancings, Neil Salter is the key name for secured lending matters and real estate-related issues, and John Baddeley handles transactional mandates and facility documentation, while other key lawyers include Paul Gibbon and Rebecca Robinson.

Key clients for the team include HSBC UK Bank, Santander and Yorkshire Bank.

Work highlights over the last year have included advising HSBC UK Bank on the funding of a £2m acquisition of a commercial motor vehicle business; assisting HSBC UK Bank with the funding of a management buyout; advising Yorkshire Bank on the funding of a commercial property purchase; handling the refinancing of a portfolio of properties and acting for Santander on the £2.4m acquisition funding for a multi-let industrial estate.

The established Sheffield-based company features in nine practice areas for the Yorkshire and Humber region including corporate and commercial; dispute resolution - commercial litigation; banking and finance; human resources - employment; clinical negligence; personal tax, trusts and probate; commercial property, property litigation and family law.

Wake Smith solicitors highlighted in the report, which ranks the leading law firms and individuals nationally and by region for personal and corporate work, included John Baddeley, Duncan Shepherd, Nick Lambert, Liz Shaw, Holly Dobson, Neil Salter, Paul Gibbon, Lisa Davison, Suzanne Porter, Terry Regan, Rebecca Robinson, Kate Lax and John Vallance.

Nick Lambert, chairman at Wake Smith, said: "An increasing amount of legal work continues to be fed into the city from the South Yorkshire region and further afield. Wake Smith has won high profile instructions and continues to work for businesses and individuals with the interests of our clients at the forefront.
“Although certain individuals have been highlighted in the report, Wake Smith has an exceptional team. We are delighted to see that nine of our practice areas are ranked in the region.”

Law firms only appear in The Legal 500 ranking tables and commentary on merit. It is purely based on whether The Legal 500 researchers believe the firm is good enough for inclusion.

The Legal 500 is based on feedback from 250,000 in-house peers and access to law firms' deals and confidential matters, which are independently assessed by researchers. The resulting tables rank the firms, and also provide commentary to help individuals judge which firm might be right for them.