Track record of success continues for Penningtons Manches
The Oxford office of law firm Penningtons Manches continues to go from strength to strength. The past 12 months has seen its specialist teams complete a string of successful deals, welcome prominent new recruits and launch exciting new initiatives.
Based in Oxford Business Park the office has strong links with Oxford University and its related commercial spin-offs, which have helped establish its reputation as a leading provider of legal services to the technology sector, particularly among life-sciences businesses. The life-sciences team were recently awarded the Corporate Intl Global Award for Life Sciences Law Firm of the Year for the fifth year in a row.
The firm is a founding sponsor of a new Oxford network called TechTonic, launched at the end of 2016, which aims to address the lack of support for entrepreneurial women in the technology sector. The brainchild of partner Nicola McConville it aims to bridge the gap between the academic and business communities.
The corporate team has had continued success, completing several significant deals. Partner James Went led a team that advised the shareholders of Oxford University artificial intelligence spin-out Wrapidity on the sale of the company to Meltwater, a global media intelligence company which has 56 offices on six continents. He also acted for Celleron Therapeutics, another spin-out focused on precision cancer medicines, on its new financing round with a consortium of South Korean investors.
Partner Will Axtell advised Timico Technology Group, a leading managed cloud service provider, on securing an investment of over £50 million from Lyceum Capital to facilitate its evolution. Timico has a core client base of 500 mid-market and enterprise customers, revenues of £56m, 300 employees and has featured as one of the Sunday Times Tech Track Fastest Growing Companies.
Most recently, partner David Tighe advised the shareholders of the UK business of the Worldnet group of companies, which provides logistics services, on the sale of the UK and Paris businesses to the owners of Worldnet in the US.
The past year also saw the arrival of new partner Alison Talbot, who is recognised as a leading specialist in the not-for-profit sector. She and her team act for charities, not-for-profits and social enterprise clients on a broad spectrum of issues including compliance, mergers, joint ventures, restructuring, governance, and charity disputes work.
The firm also puts an emphasis on building strong ties with the community. It sponsors Oxford-based Creation Theatre’s programme of highly innovative productions, including the recent telling of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, staged in Oxford University’s new Mathematical Institute. Ahead of the opening performance partner Chris Shelley, who advises many tech companies, chaired a panel discussion on the growth of the data-driven society.
Alongside corporate and commercial advice, Penningtons Manches also offers expertise in real estate, employment, litigation, private client, family, and immigration law. The firm’s presence in the Thames Valley is further strengthened by its office in Reading. Moreover, a strong team-based approach also insures that each of its office locations – other sites include London, Guildford and Cambridge – provides access to the entire breadth of its expertise. This means that specialist services offered by other niche teams such as clinical negligence, personal injury and the India and North America groups can also be delivered to clients in Oxford.
