Charlie Leveque is the firm’s co-managing partner and head of the corporate practice.

Outside of his management roles, Charlie advises on a wide range of corporate transactions from private and public mergers and acquisitions to investments, joint ventures, fundraisings and shareholder arrangements involving private equity, venture capital, family office and strategic parties. He has advised on a number of IPOs on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.

His clients comprise investors, funds and companies of all sizes, from startups to international corporations in a wide range of industries; he is particularly experienced in advising clients in the technology, media, entertainment, retail and leisure sectors. He is also passionate about advising entrepreneurs, accompanying them from the inception of their ideas to exit.

Charlie is a member of the British Screen Advisory Council and the EIS Association.

Rosie Marston is a managing associate in the firm’s venture capital and emerging companies practice.

Rosie’s practice focuses on supporting startups and investors in the venture capital ecosystem. She has extensive experience advising on a wide range of corporate transactions, including venture capital and growth stage fundraisings, mergers and acquisitions, shareholder arrangements, early stage SEIS/EIS investments, convertible instruments (including ASAs, SAFEs and convertible loans), founder disputes, share incentive schemes (including EMI options), joint ventures and corporate reorganisations.

Rosie acts for startup and scale-up companies, entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capital funds, family offices and other corporate investors across a wide range of sectors, with particular experience advising clients in the technology sector.

Rosie trained and qualified at Allen & Overy, where she worked in the corporate M&A team for four and a half years, including secondments to the Singapore office and a client secondment to Virgin Management. She subsequently spent two years at law firm MJ Hudson, before joining Harbottle & Lewis in June 2023.

Rosie is passionate about improving the existing gender imbalance within the startup community and has co-written two articles about how diversity has been threatened by rule changes in the UK venture capital ecosystem, both published by FT Adviser. Read the articles here and here.

Kieran Jay is a partner and head of the firm's music practice.

Kieran represents high profile music and entertainment industry clients on all their commercial issues including A list artists, song-writers, producers and mixers as well as independent management, record and publishing companies. His clients include some of the UK’s most successful artists and leading music industry executives.

Kieran advises on all levels and types of recording, publishing, management, live performance, merchandise and endorsement agreements. He specialises in advising clients at the beginning of their career and connecting them with the relevant contacts in the music industry to develop and grow their teams, partners and business.

Kieran also has a growing practice representing leading UK music industry executives in respect of their employment and entrepreneurial arrangements.

Kieran has significant experience in sports law, having spent a number of years as partner at Herbert Reeves & Co, advising leading Premiership footballers and managers, athletes and agents on playing contracts, image rights arrangements and endorsements, broadcast arrangements, regulatory and disciplinary issues.

Sofie Sigvardt is an associate who specialises in music, and model and influencer work.

Sofie advises on a wide range of commercial contracts and matters relating to the use and exploitation of intellectual property rights, with a particular focus on advising music artists, producers, mixers, record labels and music publishers and other music industry stakeholders such as film and television producers on all music requirements for their productions. She also carries out specialist work in the fashion industry which includes advising models and influencers on their contracts with agencies and brands.

Sofie’s previous work experience includes two years of industry experience working in the in-house legal team of a large independent UK record label and publisher.

During her training, Sofie spent time in our corporate team where she gained experience working on corporate transactions within the music and live events industries.