Litigation specialist Enyo Law has announced the creation of tax and insolvency practices, following the hires of Fiona Walkinshaw and Louise Bell as partners.
Walkinshaw, a commercial and tax litigation specialist with 30 years’ experience, spent the period between 2009 and 2015 as head of corporate tax disputes at Deloitte.
Prior to her tenure at Deloitte, Walkinshaw had a broad commercial disputes practice encompassing civil fraud, banking and finance litigation, shareholder and partnership disputes, and professional negligence. Walkinshaw qualified with Withers, before working at Theodore Goddard, Garetts and Reynolds Porter Chamberlain throughout her career.
Bell joins from Olswang ahead of the firm’s tri-partite merger with CMS Camerona McKenna and Nabarro, has a particular expertise in insolvency disputes. It is understood she was able to exit the firm ahead of the union due to client conflicts.
One of her recent cases, Jetivia SA & Another v Bilta (UK) Limited & Others, is now a leading authority on the illegality defence. Before Olswang, Bell qualified with Wedlake Bell and subsequently worked as a partner at Gateley. Key clients include FRP Advisory, Grant Thornton UK, Griffins and KPMG.
Enyo Law partner Simon Twigden told Legal Business: ‘We’re a specialist dispute firm that mostly does big ticket arbitration and litigation in the financial space. What we haven’t done is any tax litigation, and increasingly those cases are vitally important to the clients.’
Twigden (pictured) added: ‘Tax seemed like a natural fit, insolvency as well. If you asked me for a list of what we really needed going forward, it was those two. We’ve filled them both, we’re delighted about that.’
Earlier this month Legal Business revealed that an £80m deal for fellow litigation specialist Stewarts Law to buy Enyo had been scrapped. The acquisition was due to be finalised before the end of the financial year. Details surrounding the transfer of lawyers and staff to Stewarts were not disclosed.
In a statement, Stewarts said: ‘Following very preliminary and exploratory discussions both firms have decided not to pursue matters further.’
tom.baker@legalease.co.uk
Read more on litigation boutiques in: ‘Focal points – Law boutiques and the art of focus’