No. of offices 4 in 4 countries Date founded 2003 Founded 2003 | No. of lawyers 55 Headquarters London Company type Partnership | |
Major practice areas Aerospace, Transport, Private Equity and Commercial Law |
Gates and Partners was an international law firm with its main base in the City of London. The firm had offices in London, Brussels, Singapore and Dubai.
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Gates and Partners specialised in aerospace, private equity and corporate/commercial law.
The firm was headed by Sean Gates, cited in the Euromoney Best of the Best Expert Guide 2009 as having received more nominations than any other aviation lawyer worldwide. Sean Gates has also been ranked by Chambers UK Guide to the World's Leading Lawyers 2009 as the sole "star individual" for solicitors in aviation insurance and litigation. The firm is ranked in Band 1 for Aviation in the 2012 Chambers and Partners guide to the legal profession (UK).
History of the Firm
The firm was founded in the City of London in 2003 by Sean Gates, Daniel Soffin and Adosh Chatrath, who were previously partners at the aviation law firm of Beaumont and Son. They were shortly followed by several others aviation law specialists, including Paul Freeman (another former Beaumont and Son partner, who had his own aviation practice in Australia), and John Korzeniowski (previously a partner at aviation specialists Thomas Cooper & Stibbard) and Aoife O’Sullivan (from Clifford Chance LLP). The Singapore office of the firm was headed by David Johnston (previously a partner at Barlow Lyde & Gilbert LLP), the Dubai office by Jim Edmunds (previously senior partner at Clyde & Co) and the Brussels office of the firm was headed and managed by Dimitri de Bournonville (former director legal and insurance of the TNT Express group).
The firm did grow at a rapid pace since its setting up (notably by gaining BA litigation work in 2004), and included a global team of around 60 lawyers.
On June 1, 2013, the entire firm merged with Kennedys Law LLP.
Areas of practice
Gates and Partners was specialized in the following practice areas:
The firm was also running an auditing service to evaluate airlines' disaster preparedness, in a joint venture with Kenyon International Emergency Services.
Offices
The firm had 4 offices worldwide:
Firm awards
Awards received by Gates and Partners include the following: