Our Legal Team
Brian McDonnell
Partner
Brian is recognised for providing practical advice to a wide range of financial services firms. He has over 20 years of experience, 12 years as a city law firm partner, most recently as head of Financial Markets at Addleshaw Goddard.
Brian McDonnell
Partner
Brian is recognised for providing practical advice to a wide range of financial services firms. He has over 20 years of experience, 12 years as a City law firm partner most recently as head of Financial Markets at Addleshaw Goddard. He is ranked by Chambers as a leading individual (Financial Services: Non-contentious Regulatory).
He has in-depth industry knowledge, and has spent time as regulatory counsel at the London Stock Exchange and on secondment to Bank of America Merrill Lynch as the lawyer responsible for supporting MiFID implementation.
Brian sits on the City of London Law Society Regulatory Law Committee; and the Lexis Financial Services Consulting Editorial Board. He is the UK legal advisor to the Association of International Life Offices and is the author of Thomson Reuter’s A Practitioner’s Guide to Inside Information (2nd edition).
David Ellis
Partner
David has over 20 years of experience providing legal services to financial services firms. He has in-depth industry knowledge having worked for a period in-house (at Citigroup and Legg Mason) with a particular focus on asset management.
David Ellis
Partner
David has over 20 years of experience providing legal services to financial services firms – 8 years as a partner at Addleshaw Goddard.
He has in-depth industry knowledge having worked for a period in-house (at Citigroup and Legg Mason) with a particular focus on asset management.
He is especially expert on regulatory capital, client money and derivative matters. David also has experience with documenting a wide range of financial services arrangements such as outsourcing; broker agreements; administration agreements; ISDAs and custody agreements.
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Richard Ellis
Partner
Richard (unrelated to David Ellis) is an experienced financial services lawyer with a wide-ranging regulatory practice. Before McDonnell Ellis, he worked in the Financial Services Regulation & Funds practice of Charles Russell Speechlys having trained at Hogan Lovells.
Richard Ellis
Partner
Richard is an experienced financial services lawyer with a wide-ranging regulatory practice. Before McDonnell Ellis, he worked in the Financial Services Regulation & Funds practice of Charles Russell Speechlys having trained at Hogan Lovells.
He acts for exchanges, multilateral trading facilities, organised trading facilities, proprietary trading firms and investment managers. His FinTech experience is wide and deep including acting for payment services firms, crowdfunding platforms and cryptoasset businesses.
Richard has a particular interest in insurance. He has worked on secondment to the legal team of a leading insurance firm and in the claims team of a Lloyds of London insurer. His legal advice is informed by his practical experience of the insurance industry.
Paul Estlin
Consultant
Paul is a financial services regulatory lawyer with over 20 years’ experience. He has a wealth of experience, combining a deep understanding and technical knowledge with a practical approach. He worked as a regulator at the Financial Services Authority and one of its predecessors, the Personal Investment Authority.
Paul Estlin
Consultant
Paul is a financial services regulatory lawyer with over 20 years’ experience. He has a wealth of experience, combining a deep understanding and technical knowledge with a practical approach. He has worked as a regulator at the Financial Services Authority and one of its predecessors, the Personal Investment Authority.
Since qualifying as a solicitor, Paul has focused on financial services regulatory work at a number of prominent law firms. He has also worked in-house at an investment bank and a global bank’s wealth management arm. Latterly, Paul has worked with LexisNexis providing knowhow to law firms and financial institutions on financial laws and regulations.
Paul’s focus in primarily related to retail financial and payment services. He advises clients on how to interpret, apply and adapt to regulatory change.