Rachael advises on a wide range of corporate matters, including mergers and demergers, the sale and purchase of private companies (including MBOs), distressed/administration sales, borrowing and refinancing, and shareholder, partnership and joint venture agreements.

Rachael’s experience covers a broad spectrum of business sectors, including real estate, hospitality, care, consumer goods and health & fitness. She works with various clients and is comfortable advising both large corporate concerns and owner-managed businesses.

Before training as a lawyer, Rachael worked as an HR professional giving her an additional insight into how businesses operate, as well as an understanding of legal principles applying to employment situations (and TUPE in particular).

Rachael qualified in 2007 and joined Russell-Cooke in April 2017 after working for 10 years at a major London firm.

• The sale of a long-established property surveying practice to secure continuity and succession of the business
• Being a member of the corporate team advising Circle Research Limited and its shareholders, including the founder member, on the sale of its business to Next Fifteen Communications Group
• The sale of a large family-owned and managed hotel to a national chain, involving guiding clients (with significant emotional investment in the business having developed it over many years) through the transaction process, as well as a large and long-serving staff base
• Acting for a group in the hospitality sector on the purchase of a luxury hotel to expand their portfolio, involving a property SPV transaction, business transfer and negotiation of a hotel management agreement with a multinational operator
• The merger of two independent craft beer businesses as part of a planned expansion focussed on southwest London
• A management buy-out of an independent wealth management firm with a large number of private investors and a range of different investment models
• A management buy-out to facilitate the exit of a founder member of a London architectural practice, including putting in place appropriate transitional provisions to ensure no dilution of the goodwill attached to the brand
• The sale and purchase of a number of privately-operated care homes, involving highly complex cross-border lending and ownership structures
• The sale of two private schools (one within a very constrained time frame due to financial distress) and subsequent restructure of one of the underlying trusts