Niall specialises in employee incentives and remuneration, advising listed and private companies.
Niall specialises in employee incentives and executive remuneration. He advises listed and private clients on the establishment, operation and tax implications of a variety of cash and share-based incentive arrangements. He also advises on the incentives aspects of corporate actions, including takeovers, IPOs, schemes of arrangement, rights issues and demergers.
He also advises clients on corporate governance and remuneration reporting, including on the preparation of directors’ remuneration policies, as well as on the remuneration aspects of executive recruitment and termination. Niall also advises financial institutions on remuneration regulation.
Niall is a member of the Tax-advantaged Share Schemes Committee of Proshare and of the Share Plan Lawyers Group.
Accolades
Niall is listed as a Leading Lawyer in the Employee Share Schemes category in Legal 500 UK (2025).
Experience & expertise
Selected matters
- a number of FTSE companies on the establishment and continued operation of discretionary and all-employee share and cash incentive plans (including for British Land, British American Tobacco, Coats Group, easyJet, James Fisher, Genus, Ferrexpo, Gulf Keystone, Johnson Matthey, Inchcape, Severn Trent and Travis Perkins)
- a number of FTSE companies on their directors' remuneration reports (including for BHP, British American Tobacco, Coca Cola HBC, easyJet, Ferrexpo and Man Group) as well as the associated shareholder voting matters
- 4Finance, Itau BBA, ClearBank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Tandem Bank, TSB and Westpac, among others, on banking remuneration issues and compliance with European and UK regulations, including drafting and advising on incentive arrangements, the bonus cap and the categorisation of employees as "Code Staff"
- Anchorage, BlueCove, First Sentier Investors, HRL Morrison, IFM Investors, and Man Group, amongst others on UK remuneration code compliance, including drafting and advised on deferral arrangements, disclosure and categorisation of employees as "Material Risk Takers"
- Marex Group on all aspects of compliance with the MIFIDPRU remuneration regime, and on the remuneration and share plan aspects of its $1.35bn New York IPO
- Sky on the share plan aspects of the competing takeover offers to acquire Sky by Comcast Corporation and 21st Century Fox
- FTSE 100 client National Grid on the share plan and incentives aspects of its £7.8bn acquisition of the UK’s biggest electricity distribution company, Western Power Distribution, from PPL Corporation
- OneWeb, a low earth orbit (LEO) broadband satellite communications company, backed by the Bharti group, the UK Government, SoftBank and Hanwha Systems, on the share plan aspects of its all-share combination with Eutelsat Communications, a listed French satellite and telecommunications company
- Wincanton on the recommended £960 million all cash takeover by GXO Logistics, Inc and competing bid from CMA CGM.
- Hotel Chocolat on its £534 million takeover by Mars.
- Many leading French companies such as Atos, Cap Gemini, Credit Agricole, Danone, EDF, L'Oréal, Saint-Gobain, Societe Generale, Spie, Suez, Vivendi and Worldline on the UK implementation of their global employee share offerings
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