Bio

Fiona Neilson advises a wide range of businesses, primarily family owned and owner managed SMEs in Highlands and Islands, on corporate and corporate finance matters including start-ups, mergers and acquisitions, business and share sales, share buy-backs, equity investments, joint ventures, partnerships, corporate governance, succession planning, restructuring, exit strategies, finance and securities. She has broad experience as a corporate lawyer having previously led a team advising both private and public sector clients for many years. Clients have included economic development agencies, banks and a new university, in relation to its establishment. Other areas of interest include commercial contracts, charity law, intellectual property and franchising. Her international experience includes sales and acquisitions, joint ventures, advising on establishing a branch abroad and inward investment and more recently advising on Scots law in relation to a US Chapter 11 bankruptcy and complex global group restructuring. Fiona advises clients in a variety of business sectors including tourism and hospitality, aquaculture and seafood processing, farming/rural, transport (including motor trade and services), healthcare, IT and telecommunications, property services and construction, insurance and professional services. Examples of her recent transactional work include the restructuring of an insurance and financial services business partnership to create a new LLP group, acquisition of a motor service business, providing Scots law advice on corporate aspects of the financing and restructuring of a large global satellite provider exiting Chapter 11 US bankruptcy proceedings, the sale of a family owned telecoms company to a growing UK communications and technology solutions group and pre-sale exercise of EMI options and a warrant instrument. Fiona is a former Board member of Inverness Chamber of Commerce and Inverness College UHI. Fiona is recommended in Corporate & Commercial and Franchising (London) by UK legal directory, The Legal 500.