29th April 2022 ❘

A New Head for our Corporate team

Michael Walby, Partner and Head of Corporate

A new era ahead for our Corporate team as Corporate Partner Michael Walby becomes its new Head. Current Head Vaughan Jones steps down from the role after a successful period leading the team, which saw it advise on transactions with an aggregate value approaching £200m during 2021.

Michael re-joined Burnetts in 2015, and provides a full range of Corporate advice to businesses, specialising in M&A transactions. He is ranked as a “Leading Individual” in Legal 500, the only Cumbrian based Corporate lawyer to receive this accolade, and Chambers & Partners have described him as having “outstanding commercial and legal acumen”.

Michael brings a fresh perspective to the role, with ambitions to build on the Corporate team’s reputation as the lawyers of choice in the Cumbrian market, having overseen many recent strategic transactions in the region. Michael has established himself as a trusted adviser to some of the region’s largest companies, including H&H Group PLC, Cumbria Waste and Cumberland Building Society. He and the team also enjoy advising many of the region’s SMEs and leading entrepreneurs.

The role transition comes after a sustained period of success for the Corporate department.

Vaughan Jones commented: “Michael is held in high regard right across the professional community, and is the perfect person to lead the Corporate team as it embarks on its next chapter. His drive and commitment will undoubtedly make a real success of the team, and see it continue with its growth strategy across Cumbria and the North East”.

Michael believes that the success of the Corporate team is not only due to its expertise, but its approach to its clients:

“We have a team of highly quality Corporate lawyers, with a modern team-working approach. Our commitment to delivering the best results for our clients is always our number one focus. The majority of our business is generated from recommendations, and this demonstrates that our clients and business contacts hold us in high regard.

“I am thrilled to be overseeing what will be an exciting period of growth and expansion of our team. In addition to developing Stephen Kirk in his new role of Paralegal, we are recruiting two new Corporate lawyers at Partner/ Legal Director and Solicitor level to join our team.

We are a certified Great Place to Work which we are very proud of, and are one of the only law firms in Cumbria that can offer City-level corporate work combined with a good work-life balance and employee wellbeing. I am excited to see what the future holds for us, watch this space.”

Michael Walby is our Corporate Partner and our new Head of Corporate. If you would like to know more about him you can find it here. You can contact him on 01228 552222 and hello@burnetts.co.uk. To see our Corporate team vacancies, click here.