15 new partners join Keystone Law

Keystone Law has welcomed 15 partners to the firm in its latest hiring round. The new appointments are Mario Jacovides, Linos Choo, Patrick Graves, Sam Coleman, Kevin Gude, Jonathan Chibafa, James Tumbridge, Robert Peake, Stephen Matthews, Tom Guida, Angela Stallard, Fiona Callanan, Trisha Siddique, Jonathan Day, and Olive Gathoni.

The partners, who have joined from firms such as Allen & Overy, DLA Piper, and Simmons & Simmons, will enhance the firm’s offering across its aviation, commercial, corporate, banking and finance, tax, IP, media, pensions, family, financial services, and dispute resolution practices.

 James Knight, Founder and CEO of Keystone Law, said:

“I am delighted to welcome Mario, Linos, Patrick, Sam, Kevin, Jonathan, James, Robert, Stephen, Tom, Angela, Fiona, Trisha, Jonathan, and Olive as Partners of Keystone Law. They will undoubtedly bolster the offering of their respective practice areas with their expertise.

“Keystone continues to attract lawyers of the highest calibre, an assertion supported by these 15 excellent new joiners.”

The new appointments are:

Mario Jacovides – Banking & Finance

Mario has specialised in asset finance and leasing transactions for over 30 years, with particular expertise in the aviation, defence and satellites sectors. He has extensive experience in the satellite sector, including in project finance constellation financings.

His clients include banks, lessors, airlines, manufacturers, sovereigns and ECAs across a whole spectrum of aviation deals including operating leasing, Japanese operating leases, finance leases, UK tax leases, French tax leases, debt financing, pre-delivery financings, Islamic leases, EETCs, manufacturer support and export credit transactions.

Joining from Allen & Overy, Mario was previously the Global Head of the Structured and Asset Finance group.

Linos Choo – Dispute Resolution

Linos specialises in commercial litigation and arbitration with particular emphasis on shipping, commodities, and international trade finance. Throughout his career, Linos has concluded many successful arbitrations through the ICC, UNCITRAL, LCIA, LMAA, SIAC, SCMA and CIETAC. He also regularly acts for clients in disputes in the High Court of Justice in London.

He has extensive expertise of complex charterparty, bills of lading, ship sale and purchase, shipbuilding, ship finance, marine insurance and maritime cross-border insolvency litigation and arbitration.

Linos joins Keystone from DLA Piper where he was a partner and formerly the Head of Marine in London.

Patrick Graves – Corporate

Patrick has over 25 years’ experience advising on all aspects of private and public company mergers and acquisitions, equity capital market transactions, and corporate finance and growth solutions for family and entrepreneurial businesses.

His clients include boards of several listed companies, both UK-based and international, across the TMT, FinTech and energy and natural resources sectors.

Patrick was a partner at Simmons & Simmons before he joined Keystone.

Sam Coleman – Tax

Sam is a tax lawyer who advises on a broad range of UK and cross-border matters for public and private companies, funds, banks, private equity houses, high-net-worth individuals and management teams across a number of sectors. For over 20 years she has specialised in advising private equity houses and management teams on the tax aspects of deal and fund structuring.

Sam has extensive experience in corporate mergers, acquisitions and reorganisations, equity incentive arrangements, employment taxation, tax disputes, tax aspects of real estate transactions, corporate lending and bond financings.

Sam was a Tax special counsel at Milbank LLP before moving to Keystone.

Kevin Gude – Pensions

Kevin is a group risk benefits and pensions expert who advises employers, trustees, insurers and employee benefit consultancies. He frequently works with employers’ finance, risk and HR teams on the design, implementation and revision of their businesses’ benefit plans, including the operation of their group pension schemes.

Kevin provides specialist advice to insurers and other third-party product providers in the review and modernisation of the governing documentation and delivery of their health benefit and group risk products and advising on legal and regulatory compliance details associated with customer-facing materials for new financial service products.

Kevin was a director in Gowling WLG’s pensions and benefits team.

Jonathan Chibafa – Fraud and Financial Crime

Jonathan is a highly regarded anti-bribery and corruption risk expert, specialising in internal investigations, financial crime, ESG compliance and supply chain risk management.

His expertise extends to advising on sanctions, anti-money laundering, anti-tax evasion, modern slavery and broader reputational risk, and he advises across a multitude of jurisdictions including the United Arab Emirates, China, Cambodia, Italy, Ukraine, Slovakia, Nigeria, South Africa, Vietnam, Poland, Kenya, Cameroon and Ivory Coast.

Prior to moving to Keystone, Jonathan was a legal director at Squire Patton Boggs.

James Tumbridge – IP

James is an intellectual property litigation lawyer with a specialism in data protection, and has litigated all IP rights, before the courts of several countries. He is also a qualified arbitrator and mediator, listed with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office, CIArb, Clerksroom and a number of other ADR providers.

His practice covers all types of intellectual property disputes, and ancillary issues in commercial litigation, employment, and insolvency affecting intellectual property rights.

James was a partner at Venner Shipley before joining Keystone.

Robert Peake – IP

Robert is an intellectual property lawyer with extensive experience in contentious and non-contentious matters covering patents, trade marks, copyright, designs, and confidential information, as well as broader commercial and regulatory disputes, often with multi-jurisdictional aspects.

He also advises clients on a range of regulatory matters including data protection, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.

Robert joins from Venner Shipley, where he was a partner.

Stephen Matthews – Financial Services

Stephen’s practice focuses on frontier and developing markets. He has expertise in debt transactions across a wide range of products, sectors and geographies, including significant experience of financings across Sub-Saharan Africa, having previously been based in Nairobi, Kenya.

He advises a wide range of financial institutions and other parties, including bilateral and syndicate bank and non-bank lenders, private creditors, borrowers, guarantors, bond issuers, sponsors, investors, sub-participants, facility agents, security trustees, lead arrangers and underwriters, hedge providers, lessors and development finance organisations.

Stephen  previously worked at South African firm Bowmans and Allen & Overy before moving to Keystone.

Tom Guida – Media

Tom is a dual-qualified (UK and New York) media and entertainment lawyer and producer who represents media, entertainment and sports clients throughout the world.

He advises on commercial, financing, production and corporate transactions to develop and exploit entertainment content primarily in television, film and digital media as well as sports, music publishing/distribution, podcasts, advertising, publishing and videogames.

Tom was general counsel at Marv Studios before joining Keystone, having previously been a partner at Clintons and Fieldfisher.

Angela Stallard – Banking & Finance

Angela is a banking and finance lawyer who advises on a range of complex financing transactions including structured finance, real estate finance, development finance, asset-based lending, working capital and corporate lending deals. Her clients include creditors such as banks and other stakeholders, insolvency office holders, and corporate debtors, other stakeholders and their directors.

Angela also acts for businesses and individuals on all aspects of insolvency, restructuring, business recovery, liquidations and refinancing including prepacks and corporate restructurings outside of the Insolvency Act.

Before joining Keystone, Angela was a partner at Pennington Manches.

Fiona Callanan – Dispute Resolution

Fiona is an experienced investigations and dispute resolution lawyer who has been resolving disputes and managing regulatory enforcement matters, crises, and internal investigations in the UK and Asia-Pacific (APAC) region for over 20 years whilst at the same time protecting client reputations.

She also has extensive experience identifying emerging compliance risks and then establishing suitable, proportionate and cost-effective processes, policies and procedures to mitigate these risks.

Fiona previously held general counsel roles at McKinsey & Company and Bank of America Merrill Lynch and was the former vice president and legal counsel overseeing Litigation and Investigations in Asia Pacific at Barclays.

Trisha Siddique – Family

Trisha advises on all aspects of family and relationship breakdown, with a focus on complex financial matters which often feature issues of non-disclosure or third-party interests, and cases with an international element (including Islamic divorce, validity of marriage ceremonies and foreign matrimonial settlements).

She also frequently advises on domestic and international pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements for those who may be seeking to protect mid- to high-value assets that have been built up before marriage or inheritance.

Before joining Keystone, Trisha was a partner at Family Law Partners.

Jonathan Day – Family

Jonathan is a highly regarded family law specialist who represents a wide range of clients including oligarchs, entrepreneurs, City professionals and celebrities.

He has previously represented the wife of a Russian oligarch within high-profile proceedings at the Royal Courts of Justice and Court of Appeal. The litigation involved assets based in France, Germany, Italy and the UK; and the Courts were asked to identify the true beneficial owner of each asset.

Prior to joining Keystone, Jonathan was a partner at JMW Solicitors.

Olive Gathoni – Family

Olive advises on all aspects of family law and typically represents clients with mid-high net worth or those with an international element, and has particular expertise in Kenyan family law where she will be a dual-qualified lawyer upon admission in 2024.

She frequently guides clients through complex financial matters post-separation, including family businesses and pensions, and drafts and reviews pre- and post-nuptial agreements and advises non-married couples.

Olive previously worked at Burgess Mee Family Law.