Dealmaker Prize Recognises Investment In Building First-Class Team

By David Shirt

The Sheffield office of Irwin Mitchell is celebrating after being named ‘Corporate Law Firm Of The Year’ at an awards ceremony last night (20 June 2013).

The prestigious event, which was held at St Paul's Mercure Hotel in Sheffield and organised by Insider magazine, recognises excellence within the region’s dealmaking community.

Kevin Cunningham, Corporate Partner at Irwin Mitchell in Sheffield, said: “We are delighted with this award particularly as it reflects the significant investment made in the team over the last 12 months and also the range of deals that we have been involved in.

"We have worked with some of the region's most ambitious organisations on a range of transactions recently and we look forward to doing this in the future to ensure our clients take advantage of growth opportunities here in the UK or overseas. Although the economic climate remains tough, I'm pleased to say that our deal pipeline looks healthy."

During the last 12 months, Irwin Mitchell has bolstered its Corporate team with the additions of Partners Andrea Cropley from Nabarro and Matt Ainsworth from DLA Piper. The firm has also added banking and finance expertise with the appointment of Dean Gormley, also from Nabarro.

Irwin Mitchell’s Corporate team in the north of England recently announced that it had completed 35 deals in the first six months of the year.

During this time, the team in Sheffield has advised Fox Wire on its equity linked investment from Finance Yorkshire and multi-million pound refinancing with HSBC. It supported Cepac on three acquisitions and advised AESPUMP on its purchase of the James Walker Pump and Valve Refurbishment division of James Walker Benelux.

It also advised YFM on the acquisition by President Engineering of Bretby Gammatech (awarded mid market deal of the year) as well as advising HSBC Bank and HSBC Invoice Finance on the MBO and refinancing of Naylor Industries (awarded deal of the year).