Ivan graduated in 1998 with a 1st Class Honours degree in Law and International Business from the University of Stirling, Scotland, before completing his legal education at the College of Law, London (with commendation). Ivan then trained and qualified as a solicitor in 2005 at the London offices of international law firm, Baker & McKenzie LLP, where he spent more than seven years specializing in complex cross border and domestic corporate reorganisations / simplification projects, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and investment structures, joint ventures and general corporate/commercial law and corporate governance advice for large corporates.

Ivan has advised a broad range of clients including those in the financial services, insurance, software/IT, SaaS, digital media, analytics, consulting services, advertising, hotels, manufacturing, pharma, chemicals and energy sectors as well as several well-known private equity and private and sovereign investment funds.

During his years at Baker & McKenzie LLP, Ivan was posted from London to the firm’s Moscow and Amsterdam offices for a combined total of three years, where he focused on international joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions and corporate, equity and debt restructuring projects.

Ivan began working closely with international tax, transfer pricing and finance professionals, focusing on the legal implementation of reorganisations for large corporates. He continued this work as an M&A and Integrations Legal Manager for Accenture from 2011 to 2014. From 2015 to 2016 he acted as Senior Group Legal Counsel for The Phoenix Group (the UK’s largest life insurance consolidator), where he gained invaluable in-house experience of large global corporate groups and in highly regulated business environments.

In recent years, Ivan has focused on international corporate structures and, in particular, Intercompany Agreements for the Transfer Pricing compliance of multinational corporates.

In addition to his corporate, M&A, restructuring and related transfer pricing experience, Ivan also brings broad corporate transactional experience in project management, commercial contracts, intellectual property, employment, tax, pensions, real estate, trade compliance, competition, litigation, anti-corruption and data privacy matters, in addition to other areas of compliance and regulation (including listed company and insurance sector regulation and supervision).

Ivan’s interests outside work include his family, sailing (RYA Coastal Skipper), surfing, skiing, SCUBA diving and international adventure travel.

Fun fact: Reading ‘Rumpole of the Old Bailey’ as a child is what inspired Ivan to become a lawyer.