Slaughter and May elects new Head of Mergers and Acquisitions

Slaughter and May today announces that Roland Turnill has been elected as Head of the firm’s M&A Practice. This follows the election of Steve Cooke, the firm’s current Head of M&A, as Senior Partner. Both appointments will take effect on 1 May 2016.

Roland trained with Slaughter and May and became a partner in 2004. He has a broad commercial and corporate finance practice spanning public takeovers, private acquisitions and disposals and public equity offerings.

Roland has advised on some of the most high profile corporate transactions of recent years. For example, he is advising Vodafone on the merger of its Dutch operations with those of Liberty Global and he advised Royal Dutch Shell on its £47 billion recommended combination with BG Group. Other recent transactions include advising Banco Santander on the proposed combination of Santander Asset Management and Pioneer Investments.

Chris Saul, Senior Partner, commented: "I am delighted that Roland has been elected as Head of our M&A practice. He is an outstanding corporate lawyer, respected by clients and colleagues alike."

Steve Cooke commented: "I know that Roland will make a tremendous contribution in developing our M&A practice as well as continuing to advise on some of our most important work."

Roland Turnill said: "It is an immense honour to be succeeding Steve as Head of M&A. My focus will be to ensure that we continue to earn the trust that clients place in us and develop the exceptional talent and commitment that exists within our team."