Chris graduated from the University of Sussex in 2005 attaining an LL.B. with Honours and joined Coole Bevis in 2006, where he has helped to grow the firm’s Company and Commercial Department.
Prior to commencing a career in law, Chris worked for a short time in business management which helped him to develop an understanding of commercial business organisations and how to handle risk, devise strategies and make decisions.
Chris’s clients include private and public companies, partnerships and other organisations operating in a variety of business sectors throughout the UK.
He has considerable experience in dealing with group re-organisations and joint ventures as well as producing and negotiating shareholders’ agreements and other general commercial contracts.
Chris’s areas of expertise include:
- Mergers, acquisitions and disposals
- Business sales and purchases
- Management buy-ins and buy-outs
- Company formation and restructuring
- Group re-organisations
- Joint ventures and investment agreements
- Shareholders’ agreements
- Companies Act 2006
- Limited Liability Partnerships and conversion to an LLP
- LLP and partnership agreements
- Employee share schemes
- Commercial contracts and agreements
Accreditations and achievements
- Individually ranked in the Chambers & Partners UK Guides 2023, 2024 and 2025 (Band 2)
- Recommended Lawyer in the Legal 500 (2025)
- Member of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple
- Recipient of a Deal Maker of the Year Award for 2023 and 2025
Chris’s notable cases include:
- Acting for the shareholders of a plc on their £3.2m sale of the company (a leading manufacturer of commercial and industrial humidification and evaporative cooling products and systems) to a Swiss buyer which was fully listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange.
- Acting for the founders of a pioneering start-up company (offering the latest innovation in home exercise programming) raising over $2.8m (USD) in private equity investment.
- Acting for a leading developer and manufacturer of PID gas sensors and instruments in connection with its £10m acquisition of a specialist gas sensing and analysis manufacturer.
- Advising on the sale of a leading local professional practice of chartered surveyors and property managers as part of a £1.2m management buy-out.
- Advising on the sale of one of the largest estate agents and lettings agencies in Sussex to another dominant market leader for circa £10m.
- Advising one of the region’s leading group care home providers in connection with the acquisition and disposal of several of its care home businesses over numerous locations in East and West Sussex and the re-organisation of the group company structure.
- A lead adviser on a £20.64m transaction involving the disposal of a company operating in the energy sector to a well-known subsidiary of a Japanese multinational.
- Acting for the shareholders of a company group specialising in the distribution of products and complete systems for network infrastructure on the £26.6m sale of their shares to a Swedish company listed on the Nasdaq First North Stock Exchange.
