Nigel J. Davidson

Nigel is Senior partner of the firm and has over 25 years of commercial litigation experience. He is the head of our Dispute Resolution department. His particular areas of expertise are fraud, insolvency and contractual disputes.

Nigel is a co-editor of Salinger on Factoring which is the leading work on the law as it relates to the assignment of book debts and which is now in its fourth edition. He has lectured widely on fraud related matters.

Noel E. Ruddy

Noel is head of Company Commercial and Insolvency. He trained in the City before joining pdt in 1991. His particular expertise is in receivables financing and asset based lending generally, but he has also established a reputation for his private equity work in a range of sectors. He is also known for his work in advising insolvency practitioners on a wide range of matters relating to corporate insolvency.

Noel is a co-editor of Salinger on Factoring which is the leading work on the law as it relates to the assignment of book debts and which is now in its fourth edition.

James Clewlow

James is head of the Real Estate department. He acts for a number of house builders and developers together with a number of housing associations. He also heads the pharmacy acquisition team.

William J. Keating

William is a partner in the Real Estate department and acts for a number of major lending institutions and banks dealing with high value secured lending.He also deals with security work on behalf of many clients within the asset based lending industry.

In addition, William undertakes work for local and other public authorities particularly in relation to disposal of high value surplus sites for development purposes and the leasing of commercial premises to social bodies. William has a broad range of experience in commercial, landlord and tenant development work.

Dawn Shadwell

Dawn is a partner in the Company Commercial and Insolvency departments.

Her experience ranges from initial advice for business start-ups to more comprehensive advice relating to share or business acquisitions/disposal as well as providing general company commercial advice.  Dawn is also a specialist advisor to the asset based lending industry and by undertaking a secondment at a major invoice financier and passing the ABFA Certificate she has insight into the ever demanding decisions that need to be made every day by the industry.  Dawn also regularly provides customised training to many of the firm’s factoring clients.

Dawn’s insolvency expertise has been obtained by working closely with insolvency practitioners for over a decade advising on all aspects of corporate insolvency.  She also has considerable experience acting for directors when purchasing the assets of a distressed company and regularly advises funders on their alternatives in relation to distressed clients.

Tim Symes

Tim qualified as a solicitor in 2002, and has since built up a wealth of diverse commercial litigation experience.  Tim is a partner in the Dispute Resolution Department and heads up the firm’s contentious insolvency team.

Insolvency
Tim deals with the whole spectrum of contentious insolvency matters, both corporate and personal, including:

• Transactions at an undervalue
• Preferences
• Transactions defrauding creditors
• Avoidance of floating charges
• Illegal dividends
• General misfeasance under common law and statute
• Realising the matrimonial home

Tim’s tenacious and vigorous approach often produces good commercial settlements early on in disputes, without the need for legal proceedings.  Where proceedings are necessary but there are funding issues, Tim will look to run the action on a conditional fee basis.

Factoring and Invoice Discounting
Tim’s other significant practice area is factoring and invoice discounting which he runs a substantial caseload in often complex and high value claims.

William Angas

William is a partner in the Dispute Resolution department.  Having gained a broad range of experience in contractual disputes, he advises on all aspects of the litigation process with a particular emphasis on asset finance, construction, factoring law and contentious insolvency work.

Jane Bowden

Jane joined the Real Estate department as a partner in September 2008. She has over 13 years experience of residential development work and has acted for all types of property developers from major plc's to owner-managed businesses. She spent over 10 years in private practice and more recently was the "in-house" lawyer for a niche private house-building firm.

Jane deals with all forms of site acquisition and disposal work as well as related planning and infrastructure agreements.