Leading UK law firm Shoosmiths continues its ambitious growth strategy in Northern Ireland with the appointment of rising star corporate lawyer Grant Edwards as a partner.

Grant is dual-qualified in Northern Ireland and England and Wales and has worked with venture capital and private equity funds across the UK on their investments in Northern Ireland. Grant also has considerable clean energy deals experience and is ideally placed to support the firm’s strong renewable energy offering in Belfast.

Grant has received three shortlistings at the Insider Northern Ireland Dealmakers Awards and is described in legal directories as an ‘Associate to Watch’ in Chambers and Partners UK 2021 and in The Legal 500 as “technically very strong and a good negotiator…”

Head of corporate at Shoosmiths Stephen Porter said: “Grant’s knowledge and strong reputation in the local market for providing top quality corporate legal advice and client service complements our growing national private equity and venture capital practices at Shoosmiths as we increasingly are handling larger and more complex transactions.”

Grant said: “The private equity and venture capital sectors are very active currently and with the quality of businesses in the region, there is plenty of deal activity in Northern Ireland. I am excited to join Shoosmiths at such a busy time and build on its quality offering to Northern Irish stakeholders.”

Shoosmiths has built one of the UK’s leading venture capital practices, regularly advisising on more than 200 venture deals a year. This success has been recognised with numerous industry awards such as the ‘Advisory Firm of the Year’ at the Amazon Scale-Up Awards and The Legal 500’s ‘Corporate and Commercial Specialist Team of the Year’ award.

Shoosmiths LLP is a UK law firm with 13 locations across the United Kingdom, and 210 partners and 1423 lawyers and business support employees. It announced a turnover of £154.2 million to end April 2020. Shoosmiths LLP was named National Firm of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2019 and has been ranked in the top five firms for deal volume for the past four years in Experian MarketIQ’s M&A Review.