Sarah Ward

Sarah Ward

Corporate Services Partner

Corporate Partner and ex General Counsel and Company Secretary of a Main Market listed company

What others say about Sarah

Efficient, reliable, personable, funny. Understands our needs and explains clearly what needs to be done and why. Very happy.”

“It was an absolute pleasure to have you on our team during the process of the sale of my company. Your explanations to me were very coherent and clear and you not only worked well with me but also our project accountants”.

“I would not hesitate to recommend you and your firm to anyone.”

Sarah Ward is described by Legal 500 as “another prominent name, with a track record in shareholder arrangements, investments, joint ventures and company law”.

Sarah has spent the majority of her career as a corporate specialist, having qualified as a solicitor in Manchester before moving to Eversheds in Birmingham where she spent seven years working on large scale M & A, including a number of cross-border transactions, and public company advisory, predominantly new and secondary issues. On moving from Eversheds, Sarah became a partner at Bevan Brittan where she led the corporate team, undertaking corporate work for both private and public sector clients, including within the health and education sectors.

Sarah then moved into industry and managed the legal function at Bicester Village before being appointed as General Counsel of UK Power Reserve, a group which acquires or develops, and then operates small scale (reserve power) electricity generating plants. In industry, as well as continuing work on corporate transactions, Sarah was fortunate enough to enjoy a varied workload where she managed a significant number of commercial property transactions and planning and construction projects as well as involvement in commercial arrangements, litigation, banking and environmental matters and she therefore has an incredibly wide commercial skillset. This helps makes Sarah a versatile, pragmatic and commercial lawyer who is adaptable and understanding of the myriad of issues involved in corporate transactions. She can see things from the client’s perspective as she has worn their shoes.

Sarah has also been company secretary to a Main Market listed company which included managing the governance, GDPR readiness, property portfolio and insurance of the group as well as acting as a pension trustee. Having been part of the senior management team of a public company she has boardroom experience and brings a commerciality to her dealings with clients, and a real understanding of their commercial drivers. Sarah has therefore enjoyed roles in a broad range of commercial sectors, including retail, energy and warehousing and logistics.

Experience

  • Acted for the shareholders of Mar Risk Services Limited (a London based marine insurance broker) on the sale of their shares to Costero Brokers Limited
  • Acted for the shareholders of Pro-Clean Industrial Services Limited, a West Bromwich based industrial cleaning and waste management company on the sale of the entire issued share capital of that company to the Red Industries group
  • Acted for the Hinton Perry & Davenhill group, based in Pensnett on its group reorganisation & capital reduction demerger, in order to facilitate separating its manufacturing business, investment business, quarry business and property business.
  • Acted for the owners of a Birmingham based manufacturing company on a Vendor Assisted MBO
  • Acted for the partners of a local law firm on the sale of their business
  • Acted for the CG Murray & Son group on its reorganisation and demerger prior to its merger with PCT Healthcare
  • Acted for Medeqiup Assistive Technology on its purchase of a telecare monitoring business
  • Setting up a Family Investment Company and drafting bespoke articles of association
  • Acted for the shareholders of Ductman Limited on the sale of the company to the Swedish listed Lindab group
  • Acted for the purchaser on a £13m acquisition of a property business
  • Acting for groups of companies on tax driven capital reduction demergers.
  • Drafting scheme rules and documentation for clients in respect of setting up EMI schemes.
  • Acted for a company developing an App on its various rounds of investment funding including via the Crowdcube platform.

And for something else…

Outside of the office Sarah has three children and life is busy. All are sporty so side-lines are a way of life but she has recently taken up cycling once more after vowing never to get on a bike again on crossing the finish line of the Velo 100 mile cycle a few years ago. Sarah also loves to ski, having worked in a ski resort when she was younger.