Steve Porter is head of the corporate division at Shoosmiths, responsible for the management and direction of the range of services Shoosmiths provides for the owners, directors, investors, funders and shareholders of companies.

As divisional head, Steve manages more than 130 legal advisers, who between them provide a full range of corporate transaction advisory services, together with specialist teams in banking and finance, venture and growth capital, private equity, corporate restructuring and advisory, company secretarial and tax (including EIS work).

Steve has more than 20 years’ experience advising on corporate transactions, specifically mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, capital fundraising and reductions, compliance and corporate governance. He is equally at home providing strategic advice to the board of a PLC client or to the management team on a buy out or exit. He is described in the current edition of Chambers UK as “an excellent lawyer who is very pragmatic at doing deals".

As divisional head, Steve is driving a clear-sighted strategy for Shoosmiths to be the natural choice for any UK organisation seeking the benefit of trusted and continuous strategic legal advice throughout the business lifecycle, whether advising on successive funding rounds, buy-and-build expansion, or the consolidation and re-shaping of larger group structures in line with a rapidly changing global economy.

Steve joined Shoosmiths in 2004, was promoted to partner in 2006 and joined the board as divisional head of corporate in 2018.