Constantine Law, the ‘agile’ employment and regulatory specialist law firm has recruited two senior partner-level hires: Emma Vernon of EV FS and Jemma Sherwood-Roberts have joined the firm. The appointments take Constantine Law to a headcount of 13, with an all-female team of four senior lawyers within the firm’s regulatory and investigations practice.
Emma Vernon (pictured) joins as a consultant, (partner level). Emma has been head of legal at Kleinwort Benson and has a range of commercial, corporate, finance and financial services legal experience. She has spent the last 11 years working hands-on running and leading legal, compliance and risk functions across banking, wealth and investment management platforms and pensions. She has dealt with significant change projects, multi-million-pound disputes, changes of ownership, acquisitions, mergers, technology re-platforming, business process out/offshoring, as well as having significant regulator liaison experience. Emma is also the founder of EV FS which provides project and interim support to the financial services industry.
Jemma Sherwood-Roberts joins as a partner from Corker Binning, a boutique criminal and regulatory firm. She is an experienced litigator with over ten years’ experience advising and representing individual and corporate clients in a range of financial, tax and business crime and regulatory matters.
Jemma has advised and represented individuals facing investigation or prosecution by the Serious Fraud Office, the Crown Prosecution Service, the National Crime Agency, HM Revenue and Customs and the Financial Conduct Authority. She is highly skilled in assisting those facing allegations of business crime, including offences of false accounting, fraud, money laundering, bribery and corruption. She has represented individuals at every level of business, at both large international companies as well as smaller and sole-trader businesses.
Emma and Jemma join a growing team of senior lawyers at Constantine Law, a firm set up by John Hayes in 2015 which last year recruited employment partners, Will Clayton and Sarah Evans, and regulatory and corporate crime senior associate Ami Amin. In January, the firm joined forces with Nick Hine and his specialist employment team from Hine Legal.
Emma and Jemma will now join highly regarded regulatory and investigations partner Sarah Wallace and senior associate Ami Amin to create the four-strong all female regulatory and corporate crime team.
Commenting on the new appointments, managing partner John Hayessaid, ‘At Constantine Law we have created a new type of law firm—one that is entrepreneurial and agile and works to a lean business model delivering a smarter, more responsive service to our clients. We are without the fixed costs of many firms which enables us to offer senior expert advice at extremely good value prices.’
‘We are also more progressive: we don’t impose targets and solicitors have more freedom to do and develop work. The fact that we now have an all-female regulatory team is a testament to the attractions of working for a collegiate firm like ours in these modern times and a testament to our business model.’
