John has a wealth of experience advising a broad sector range of SMEs, public companies and other institutions and their employees and executives.
He specialises in:
corporate and commercial matters
employment law including TUPE
share incentive schemes and remuneration structures
joint ventures and partnerships including LLP/LLC conversion
venture capital and private equity investment
public sector and procurement law
John worked in industry for several years and has been Company Secretary and Main Board Director of a FTSE 350 public company. He has extensive experience of the utility service industry, public/private partnerships and outsourcing contracts. He has drafted and advised on tax advantaged and non-tax advantaged share incentive schemes and innovative remuneration structures since 1980 advising board remuneration committees, and working with external advisers and employees. He has also been both an executive and subsequently non-executive director involved in the formation, supervision and management of venture capital and private equity funds.
He has a particular interest in employment issues in an industrial context, in which he holds a First Class Master’s Degree with Distinction and was awarded the prestigious Lexis Nexis Butterworths Law Prize. He specialises in boardroom level disputes where his personal experience as a public company director and his expertise in corporate law, employment law, share incentive schemes and tax law gives him a special inter-disciplinary insight. Through his contacts with the academic world he also regularly advises academics on a variety of matters ranging from HR and disciplinary issues to the special problems academics face when working with spin off companies and in partnership and collaboration agreements between universities and industry.
He has recently been involved in a number of high profile or commercially sensitive cases where corporate law, employment law, public sector law and tax interact.
John has been a Chairman and Managing Partner of Laytons, is its Compliance Officer for Legal Practice, was initially a Tax Partner, and now works within its Corporate, Employment, and Tax groups.
Testimonials
“Maru management engaged Laytons to assist with individual and corporate matters relating to the acquisition of Maru by Stagwell, a US-based marketing firm. We were extremely happy with the quality and responsiveness of the service – and particularly impressed with the quality of the advice given by Johnathan Rees and John Gavan, including briefing on how negotiations would likely play out and the legal obligations of other parties. This was incredibly helpful in understanding our position, our obligations and our rights.”
Shane Wright, Maru Group
Contact details
Tel: +44 (0)20 7842 8000
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Qualifications
Qualified as a Solicitor in 1980
Recommendations
Expertise
“‘Laytons handles venture capital, private equity and investment fund work and has been advising Enterprise Venture-run funds on investments in various companies. David Sefton and John Gavan have ‘good commercial understanding’ of issues’.””
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