13 promoted to Equity Partner
Mishcon de Reya has today announced that 13 individuals have been promoted to Equity Partner in the firm's latest round of promotions.
A further 16 people have been promoted to Legal Director while two have been made Of Counsel. The firm also announced that 28 people have been promoted to Managing Associate.
Commenting on the news, Managing Partner James Libson said:
"As the outgoing Managing Partner, it is my privilege one last time to congratulate all of our newly promoted fee earners. Every year I am delighted to see the strength and breadth of talent we have in our firm and it’s such a pleasure to see Junior Equity Partners promoted to Equity Partner, welcome new partners to the partnership, and support our new Of Counsel, Directors and Managing Associates to take the next steps in their careers. I am delighted to see their talent and hard work rewarded and look forward to watching their continued progress.”
All promotions took effect from 1 April 2026.
The Equity Partner promotions are:
Andrew Short
Andrew is a Partner in the Commercial Litigation team, advising clients across a number of sectors such as financial services, healthcare, construction, technology and insurance. He also acts for governments and state organisations, including most recently for the Federal Republic of Nigeria in its landmark victory against P&ID. He has significant experience of public inquiries, investigations (both regulatory and internal), mediations and crisis management. Andrew has a growing practice in group litigation, currently acting on behalf of thousands of individual claimants in relation to a significant data breach. He also has an interest in environmental and climate change strategic litigation and has recently advised a number of environmental organisations in bringing a landmark complaint with the OECD against a large UK power plant operator.
David Kanter
David is a Partner in the Real Estate department, specialising in commercial real estate. He advises clients on high-value and high-profile acquisitions, disposals, development, landlord and tenant and investment management work. David has acted on transactions for a range of clients from institutional companies and funds to private investors and entrepreneurs, across a range of sectors to include office, retail, leisure and build to rent. David often advises overseas clients on all aspects of commercial property investment matters and is fluent in Hebrew. David was seconded to Blackstone Property Management & The Office Group as Legal Counsel.
David Parsons
David is a Partner in the firm's Employment department, acting for both employers and employees on all aspects of employment law. He has acted for clients in disputes in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, Employment Appeal Tribunal and Employment Tribunal on claims including in relation to the misuse of confidential information, team moves and restrictive covenants, employment status disputes, discrimination, whistleblowing, harassment, holiday pay and unfair and constructive dismissal. David has also acted in several disputes in the London Court of International Arbitration.
Hannah Barnett
Hannah is a Partner in Mishcon Private with expertise across all areas of UK immigration. She specialises in European free movement rights, long residence applications, family-based applications, litigation in the Tribunals and claims for Judicial Review, often with a human rights element. Hannah acts for both high net worth individuals and businesses on exceptional, complex and multi-jurisdictional matters.
James Paterson
James is a Partner in the Corporate Department. James focuses on private equity-related transactions and has extensive experience acting as lead counsel for management teams and owner/founder-managers, as well as private equity institutions and investee companies. James also provides general advisory and transactional services to corporate businesses and entrepreneurs with his practice covering a variety of sectors including financial services, consumer, leisure and technology.
Matthew Bowles
Matt is a Partner in the Commercial Real Estate department with extensive experience in all aspects of commercial property investment, financing, development and management work. Matt is a corporate occupier specialist and advises some of the UK's largest corporate occupiers on their property requirements in the UK and throughout Europe and has led on the acquisition, development and occupation of several large campus schemes.
Matthew Ewens
Matthew is a Partner in the White Collar Crime and Investigations Group within the Dispute Resolution department. Matthew represents individuals and corporates in cross-jurisdictional bribery, corruption and complex fraud matters. He is currently instructed in relation to a number of SFO and tax investigations as well as advising corporate clients in respect of internal investigations.
Matthew Wood
Matthew is a Partner in the Employment department. He advises employers and employees on all aspects of employment law and related commercial matters across a wide range of sectors. Matthew has extensive experience of litigating disputes in the High Court and regularly advises on claims relating to breaches of restrictive covenants, team moves, misuse of confidential information and related matters. Matthew has also successfully brought and defended multi-million pound discrimination and whistleblowing claims.
Neil Shanghavi
Neil is a Partner in Mishcon Private with expertise in business and corporate immigration law, specialising in advising organisations and individuals on complex and strategically significant UK immigration matters. Neil advises multinational corporations, financial institutions, professional services firms, and high-growth businesses on the full spectrum of business immigration issues. Alongside his corporate practice, Neil has extensive experience advising individuals on complex and sensitive personal immigration matters.
Robert Lewis
Robert Lewis is a Partner in the Employment department and Head of the firm's Education Group. A leading UK education and employment lawyer, he advises institutions and individuals on complex legal issues across the education and employment sectors. He has deep expertise in discrimination law, whistleblowing, executive misconduct, trade union relations, restrictive covenants, and day-to-day HR advisory work. As an education law specialist, Robert advises schools, Oxbridge colleges, universities, multi-academy trusts, and families on crisis management, safeguarding, student and parent complaints, exclusions, academic freedom, and equality law.
Sarah Heritage
Sarah is a Partner in the Real Estate Dispute Resolution group, specialising in property disputes specifically for private clients. Sarah advises high-net-worth individuals and their trusts, companies and family offices together with significant property-owning companies and large corporates. She acts on all property-related disputes relating to super-prime residential and mixed-use property and landed estates. Sarah advises frequently on a wide variety of disputes, including neighbour disputes, nuisance claims, freehold management company disputes, disrepair claims, possession claims, rights of way disputes and service charge disputes. She has extensive experience of negotiating resolutions between parties and litigating matters at court or tribunal, whilst providing strategic advice at any stage of a dispute.
Tom Middleton
Tom is a Partner in the Real Estate department, specialising in commercial real estate. He has extensive expertise in advising on high-value acquisitions and disposals, as well as significant development projects. He has particular expertise advising lenders and institutional funds on investment and development matters across different sectors of the real estate market, including office, retail, logistics, energy, build-to-rent, and purpose-built student accommodation.
Tom Roberts
Tom is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution department with a practice spanning Group Actions, Commercial Litigation and Fraud. He has significant experience of high value, multi-jurisdictional, complex commercial disputes across a broad range of sectors, including telecoms, betting & gaming, oil & gas, sport, media and technology. His practice encompasses both claimant and defendant work, and primarily involves breach of contract, negligence, fraud and/or breach of fiduciary duty claims. Tom has acted for large groups of individuals, high-net-worth individuals, sovereign wealth funds and investment banks, in addition to a variety of FTSE 100 and 250 companies and financial institutions.