Leaders and senior executives

When Harriet Green stood down as CEO of Thomas Cook in 2014, she turned to Withers' experienced team to help her develop and implement an exit strategy. The situation became more complicated in May 2015, while she was on garden leave, and had to deal with an onslaught of negative press coverage around her alleged handling of the death of two children in Corfu in 2006 (six years before she joined Thomas Cook). We developed a clear strategy and we closed the matter down to our client's satisfaction.

When our client, the MD of a leading recruitment firm, exited as director, employee and minority shareholder, we negotiated bespoke post termination restrictions and share purchase arrangements to ensure he separated on favourable terms.

This well-known speciality brand has annual revenues in excess of $400 million. We advised its chief executive and chief operating officer in a complex transaction to structure the buy-out of their equity interests by a private equity firm and allowing them to rollover their remaining interests into a newly formed holding company. We have developed a particular reputation for our ability to protect successful individuals in negotiations with private equity houses.

Our senior executive team negotiated a favorable severance package for the outgoing CFO of this major global brand, ensuring that the payout was made tax efficiently and that other terms were met.

When director and CEO of the Co-op Bank Plc Barry Tootell stepped down in difficult and controversial circumstances, Withers's team demonstrated our in-depth knowledge of difficult situations to advise and negotiate his exit. Since 2013, our team has continued to act for him on arising issues and enquiries related to his time at the Co-op.

We acted for our client in relation to the disposal of his substantial shareholding in the listed company, ITE Electric Co Ltd. We worked on the negotiation and drafting of the share purchase agreement as well as preparing and reviewing the announcements and ancillary documentation.

As a firm, we are best known for helping globally successful individuals to protect their interests internationally - in this recent matter we helped secure water-tight contracts for two C-suite directors as they relocated from the United States to the United Kingdom, while our transatlantic team reviewed their changed tax circumstances.

Withers advised Simon Henry, the former CFO from Royal Dutch Shell PLC, on the English law aspects of his departure.

This well-known, publicly held brand has more than 1,200 retail outlets throughout the US. We negotiated a new package (valued in excess of $2 million annually) on behalf of the incoming chief executive.

Our client built their business up to their target size for exit and chose us to help them with their management buy-out. We made sure that their exit was as tax efficient as possible and reduced their exposure to any future disputes with the purchaser, while also structuring rewards for the key employees who had contributed to the success of the company.

Withers was called on to act for a well-known managing partner of an international investment firm when his reputation was under threat. Our robust approach to reputation management prevented the filing of false statements in a form U-5 (Uniform Termination Notice for Securities Industry Registration) that would have had a detrimental effect on his future career and earnings.

A prominent Ukrainian businessman instructed us to represent him in a complex £30 million dispute involving breach of contract, misrepresentations and fraud allegations.

We acted for the CEO of an international and award winning pharmaceutical company in relation to her acrimonious exit. As a co-founder of the business and a minority shareholder, we negotiated the terms of her multi-million pound settlement, working closing with one of the top four accountants on valuation issues.

Succession planning for leading hedge fund and private equity managers with assets in or connections with Italy, France, Switzerland and the US, among other jurisdictions.