Broadened legal and tax services from a growing team with a refreshing approach

We meet EMW and S-TAX to discover how expanded services and an ambitious team are providing more support for clients – whenever they need it.

At EMW everything is about delivering the best possible outcomes. Ambitious and competitive, it provides sound legal advice to clients that range from individual ideologists to FTSE 50 businesses. Behind that advice are experts who aren’t just good at what they do, they are people clients like.

S-Tax, part of the EMW family, is a specialist, boutique consultancy providing advice on capital allowance tax reliefs.

With a combined team that is now 170 people strong, services are delivered from offices conveniently located in Brighton, Gatwick, London and Milton Keynes.  

Its refreshing and flexible approach to working has positioned EMW as an attractive employer. It has become ‘home’ for the entrepreneurial independently minded, and that is something clients have been quick to appreciate. 

Always on the lookout for new talent, the firm says it is the right fit for those who want to work in a less formal setting and can challenge conventional thinking – attributes that have helped to shape the business it is today.

Its office at Gatwick has been growing steadily since a re-launch – meaning it can get to know and provide outstanding services to ‘more and more of the people and businesses that make this region one of the most important economic areas in the UK’.

The current EMW team comprises personable lawyers who have built a unique, fresh-thinking brand. 

They came together in early 2021, following a period of reflection after the departure of three of the partners.  EMW launched an intense recruitment drive knowing that the goal was to find the right people to broaden the legal services provided from the Gatwick base.

The result is an aspirational, energised team with laser focus.

Ian Mabbutt, partner in EMW’s Corporate Team, said: “Undoubtedly the resilience and conviction shown by those who remained, together with some bold decisions about which direction the office would take, has resulted in a closely bonded team taking real pride in each other’s success.”

Senior lawyers

The team is led by senior lawyers with significant industry experience in utilities, financial services, media, technology, fashion and telecoms.  We have experts in all areas of legal services including employment, banking, technology, real estate, dispute resolution and corporate. As we grow we are providing experience and mentoring for the next generation of lawyers, some of which attended the recent RICS Matrix event which was sponsored jointly by EMW and S-Tax.

Caroline Watkins is one of the longest serving members of the team and has been delighted to watch the team grow since being the sole partner at the time of our relaunch. Caroline provides expert construction legal advice and contract documentation (standard and bespoke) for a number of sectors such as housing, healthcare, education, commercial, retail, industrial and renewables. She acts for clients providing finance on matters of due diligence, insolvency protection and security. Her background includes six years spent in the City providing advice to clients in the professional indemnity insurance market and two years in-house at a large water supplier. Her route to construction law has been far from direct – her previous career in radio led to recruitment into a major tech firm to complete her training, but experience in construction clients and projects swayed her to decide to embark on a career as a specialist construction lawyer.  Caroline considers herself privileged to have carved out her early career in three high-profile firms despite the backdrop of the economic conditions in 2008, and finally finding her home (via two invaluable years in-house) making the best use of her experience at EMW. Balancing her career with solo parenting her son has been a massive challenge and one which she considers could not be met without the absolute belief, support and limitless energy from EMW management.

Aiden Dunning has 20+ years working in-house with global brands in Financial Services, Media and Technology sectors and, having joined the team as the first partner to join Caroline following those recruitment decisions made in 2021, he now shares this experience with our clients. It is essential to Aiden that he is able to provide clear and demonstrable value to the businesses he works with – this ethos was a key reason Aiden chose to make the change from previous management roles to join EMW. “Having spent 26-27 years building and managing legal teams and hiring external law firms, I could see that there are very few law firms that operate in the way EMW does.  During the interview process it was clear that the lawyers at EMW are focused on delivering the outcome for their clients and that this is more important than highlighting the legal work involved in doing so.  This was fundamental to my decision to join EMW at such an exciting time in their journey.”  Aiden advises on a range of commercial deals and compliance for owner-managed and private-equity backed companies and global corporates.

Adrian joined EMW in October 2021 to head up the Dispute Resolution offering in the Gatwick area.  He has since been appointed head of litigation across the firm with team members in Milton Keynes, London and Gatwick. The Dispute Resolution offering at EMW is comprehensive providing litigation advice on all areas of litigation.

Adrian made the difficult decision to stay in his position, however, as with a lot of people, the pandemic and the changes it brought with it meant that Adrian welcomed a call from EMW in March 2021.  “Law firms dealt with the challenges that the pandemic presented in different ways some decisions made me question whether I wanted to remain where I was.  By chance EMW got back in touch and asked if I was interested in a new challenge.”

When considering his options, Adrian noticed that the new offering at the Gatwick office had a much broader base, with added depth in real estate (Caroline with construction and Daisy’s appointment was on the cards at the time) in addition to corporate and commercial.  “This was the clincher for me.  As a property litigator, much of my work comes from working very closely with the real estate team.  It was therefore important that we had as broad a base of service offering as possible.  EMW had recognised the need to offer a much broader and comprehensive corporate and commercial service and had taken steps to address this”.    

Daisy Waldren is the latest partner to join the team and she heads up the real estate offering in the Gatwick office as well as specifically the Real Estate Finance team across the firm as a whole. Previously Daisy was a partner at a large regional South-East firm, so brings with her a wealth of experience and existing clients based in the South-East and London. Daisy acts for many lenders and investors on both investment and development finance, and investors acquiring and disposing of mixed-use property and the landlord and tenant management of those interests. She provides jargon-free, efficient and proactive advice, as a result of getting to know the goals of her client’s businesses and being part of their team.

“I chose to join EMW for the challenge of being part of a growing business and developing a real estate practice in the area for EMW. It was important for me that I was going to be given the autonomy to create a team and profile for the property side at EMW in Gatwick and the partners have allowed this.”

The S-Tax team are able to identify capital allowances that general practice accountancy firms don’t capture as the team includes both accountancy and surveying professionals.  S-Tax serves client operating care homes, bars & restaurants, hotels, offices, surgeries, Zoos, furnished holiday lets and industrial units.

Allan Shaw (S-Tax) has been involved in B2B business for over 25 years and heads up the S-Tax sales efforts, he is also responsible for growing our introducer/partner network along with looking after our existing referrers.  Allan loves the reaction he gets when S-Tax identify tax allowances that provide real-life savings which deliver clients unexpected upside. One recent project involved the purchase of a high value commercial property where the buyer was told that no Capital Allowances were available, an initial review was undertaken by S-Tax and terms were added into the sales contract that enabled the buyer to claim any Capital Allowances that might be available. Once the sale was completed S-Tax undertook a full survey of the property along with a validation of claim history and a successful claim was made for £1.6m.

Supporting the business community

EMW is proud of the support it offers local initiatives that deliver benefits to the wider community. 

“Our involvement in the Crawley Town Centre Business Improvement District is very important to us as local business community members and we have hosted meetings for Wendy Bell and their team at our offices (at the top of the old High Street in Crawley),” said Ian.

“We have done the same for the Gatwick Diamond Business Awards which is another example of our use of the great location and facilities we have here.  

“Our collaboration space is great for informal chats with clients and for breaking down the barriers often experienced when dealing with lawyers!”  

The business is running a series of breakfast sessions – so far covering topics such as Business Resilience, Employee Ownership Trusts, Water Neutrality, Construction Projects, Post-Brexit Employment Issues, Business Immigration, and B-Corporation applications.  

Each of the roundtable events provides clients with an opportunity to meet and share their experiences with each other – all under Chatham House rules.  

On an even less formal note, the team ran a one-off cycling event from the office to the iconic Box Hill and back.  

Before they finished the ride, EMW was petitioned to make it a regular event! This is now a permanent fixture on the calendar, with a different route being devised for next year.

Business and pleasure

Caroline said: “The large roof terrace at our penthouse office has offered opportunity to enjoy sun-downers during the summer with local business partners and was the backdrop to our End of Summer Drinks event, which was well supported by Charlie from Ridgeview and their excellent wines.  

“We are also arranging a private evening at popular outlet Mint Velvet with a personal stylist able to guide everyone who attends through their range of women’s clothing (and offer a generous 15 per cent discount).  

“These informal events are very much how our team like to spend time with clients and understand how we might add value to their business. These events also provide great networking opportunities for attendees.” 

Corporate social responsibility

Aiden said: “We take our corporate social responsibility as seriously as our client service.  

“During the last year, we have supported Crawley Open House homelessness charity with a number of events and will continue to do so. We will continue our tradition of selecting our next charity partner from suggestions provided by the team during our staff Christmas dinner.

“There is more to come from us over the next year too. Our breakfast sessions, cycle and fashion events will continue as will our involvement in the Crawley Town Centre BID, Gatwick Diamond Business, Building Sussex Connections and the Boundary Club.  

“We are sponsors of the Gatwick Diamond Business award for the Business of the Year (over 1M) and we are looking forward to meeting the nominees.  

“Victoria Bevis, from our Employment team, will continue to serve as a board member of the Bexhill Chamber of Commerce and provide her Inclusive Employment seminars. We’ve partnered with Littlegate Farm (a supported employment charity) and Strive Caf頨a not-for-profit business employing neurodiverse people) for those seminars and are very happy to help raise the profile of these great organisations.”

EMW will also further develop its relationship with the team at Plus X where it is part of their partnership programme.

The reputation of both EMW and S-TAX has been built on the work started at the office in Gatwick back in 2018. The current team has further expanded that excellent reputation – thanks to its unbridled drive and desire to be standout different.

It could not have been prouder when a client commented: “We were looking for advisers that we know, like and trust… and that’s EMW.”

Website: https://www.emwllp.com/

Twitter @EMWlaw

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/emw-law-llp