Humphreys Law Newsletter, October 2018

Dear all,

Summer came and went: we have sharpened pencils, polished shoes and are into the new term!  Despite the British heatwave (feels like a long time ago now) and the continuing media themes of Brexit, Brexit, Trump and then more Brexit, HLaw had a busy Q3 2018 (and also found some time to celebrate our first birthday).

Current experience suggests that perhaps the media present more volatility right now (focussed as always on personalities and soundbites) than is actually the case: corporate finance is still buzzing, M&A activity is strong and deals are getting done.  In particular, the US corporates that we speak to and act for still see great opportunity in the UK market and elsewhere in Europe. With difficulty and turbulence comes opportunity.

The team expanded recently: we were joined by Senior Consultant Annette Beresford, who has a fabulous CV build around her tax expertise.  Annette has joined us principally to support the work we do for venture capital trusts and EIS funds, meaning that we now have the capability inhouse to apply for HMRC clearances on tax efficient investments amongst other things.  We were also joined by Hermance Schaerlig in September, who – after finishing her legal studies in Geneva, Amsterdam and then London – joins us as a paralegal.

These last few weeks have seen us take in a flurry of new instructions on a variety of acquisitions (including for a US buyer), we are working on VC investments for new and existing clients, we are helping with various management equity arrangements and we are advising on an involved cross-border strategic partnership.  The pipeline is exciting and we are very much getting stuck into Q4 and expecting a strong finish to 2018.

In this newsletter:

• Highlights of recent deals we helped close
• Events: how to invest in an ICO the TokensGate way
• HLaw IP bulletin
• Collected comments from the HLaw team

Feel free to contact us if you would like more information on anything in this newsletter.  Best of luck for your business in Q4.

HLaw newsletter July 2018

All the best,

Henry Humphreys