Marlow: Law firm Moorcrofts appoints two new partners

Rapidly growing Thames Valley based corporate law firm Moorcrofts has strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of two new partners – Julia Ferguson, commercial property partner and Tim Astley, tech and IP partner. 

Ferguson joined Moorcrofts in 2016 from a leading Thames Valley firm and took over as head of the department in January 2019 before formally joining the partnership on April 1. She is a highly experienced commercial property lawyer, specialising in business landlord and tenant transactions. Ferguson has particular experience acting for both developers and tenants negotiating pre-let agreements, drafting overage agreements and advising corporate tenants on commercial lettings predominantly in London and the Thames Valley, as well as acting for regional landlords on their property portfolios.

On her appointment, she said: “I am very pleased to be joining the partnership. Moorcrofts offers an excellent level of commercial work and services a high calibre of clients. It is also a very supportive place to work with flexible working arrangements, which has enabled me to develop my career and build up to partnership alongside family commitments. I am looking forward to continuing the team’s development together with senior associate Ian Hylton and Anita Johnson who has recently qualified as a commercial property paralegal, as well as driving forward our specialism in the area of tenant representation.”

In the past 12 months, Ferguson has advised on a number of high-level commercial property deals, including advising Riwal UK as it prepares to open a major new depot for London and the M1 corridor at Prologis Park, Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire. The new depot is due to open in spring 2019.

Tim Astley joined the tech and IP team in December 2015, and acts for a broad range of clients from start-ups through to SME IT/telecoms providers to multinationals, particularly in cloud services, telecommunications, IT service provision, software licensing, intellectual property and data protection matters, as well as undertaking general commercial drafting and negotiation.

On his partnership appointment he said: “I am very happy to join the partnership at Moorcrofts. The firm's commercial approach and expertise in technology and niche areas of opensource and openchain enable us to ensure our clients are not only compliant but have a competitive edge in business. I look forward to continue to manage and develop our technology team’s transactional service division."

Since joining Moorcrofts, Astley has negotiated a number of complex cloud service agreements in regulated sectors and participated in advisory and steering committees for groups involved in open data and data protection matters.  He is the firm’s primary contact with major cloud service providers and his work in this sector has involved international travel to conduct negotiations.

Andrew Katz, CEO and head of tech, and Teri Hunter, CFO and head of corporate, added: “We are delighted to welcome Julia and Tim to the partnership. Their promotions are well-deserved and come at an exciting time in the development of our business in Thames Valley, hot on the tail of securing a six-figure grant for a ground-breaking AI project to research the development of a legal contract management system.”