Winckworth Sherwood LLP

Winckworth Sherwood is a fast-growing full-service commercial law firm headquartered in London, with additional offices in Oxford and Manchester. The firm has developed a diverse client base that includes some of the UK’s largest businesses and institutions, as well as investors, entrepreneurial companies, professional partnerships, family offices, charities, and high-net-worth individuals. It is recognised for its ability to deliver high-value and high-profile projects, with experience across transactions exceeding £3bn.

The firm is noted for its reliability, competitiveness, and breadth of expertise. Recent growth has been supported by significant senior appointments and lateral hires at partner level to expand its real estate, corporate, litigation, and employment capabilities.

Winckworth Sherwood advises across a wide range of practice areas. Its charities and social enterprises team works extensively in education, ecclesiastical, and housing matters, while its ecclesiastical practice is the largest in the UK, advising both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church on parish reorganisations, clergy appointments, marriage law, and complex land and property issues. The commercial and corporate practice covers mergers and acquisitions, partnerships and joint ventures, corporate finance, tax and governance, IT and intellectual property, outsourcing, procurement, and asset management.

The firm’s dispute resolution team specialises in real estate, construction, and commercial disputes, offering litigation, mediation, arbitration, and other resolution methods. Its education practice represents schools, universities, dioceses, charities, and related bodies. Employment lawyers act for both employers and employees, while the family team provides advice on divorce, civil partnerships, financial orders, cohabitation agreements, and international enforcement.

In leisure and hospitality, the firm advises on property acquisition and disposal, licensing, contracts, procurement, and employment matters. Its government practice encompasses parliamentary, procurement, constitutional, administrative, and information management law. The private client team advises on estate planning, wills and trusts, conveyancing, disputed estates, lease extension, enfranchisement, and Court of Protection matters.

Real estate services cover commercial property, construction, development, planning, regeneration, institutional investment, residential lease matters, and environmental issues. In social housing, the firm advises over 200 registered providers nationwide on construction, procurement, finance, housing management, litigation, and leasehold. Additional expertise includes corporate and real estate tax, inheritance tax, utilities and telecoms, and transport and infrastructure, particularly parliamentary and procurement work.

Staffing
73 UK partners
176 other UK fee-earners