Briony Pollard

Her principal areas of expertise include the intellectual property, information technology and data protection and privacy aspects of corporate, M&A and private equity transactions, intellectual property procurement, licensing and litigation, information governance and data protection, advertising regulation and other general commercial matters.

Briony has advised on matters in a wide range of sectors including TMT, Life Sciences, Retail and Consumer Goods, Travel, Leisure and Entertainment, Luxury and Fashion, Financial Services, FinTech and Sport.

Representative experience:

• Kantar (a portfolio company of Bain Capital) on (a) the merger, in partnership with SilverTree Equity, of Kantar Xtel with StepUp; and (b) on the carve-out and sale of its Health division to Cerner Corporation
• Cobham (a portfolio company of Advent International) on the carve-out and sale of its: (a) Aerospace Connectivity division to TransDigm Group Inc. for $965m; and (b) Aviation Services UK division to Draken International (a portfolio company of Blackstone)
• Transaction Services Group (a portfolio company of Advent International) on the merger with Clearent (also a portfolio company of Advent International) to form Xplor Technologies
• M&G Catalyst as lead investor in the $168m Series B fundraising of Vaccitech, a spin-out from the University of Oxford which co-invented the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, and on the IPO of Vaccitech
• Bain Capital on (a) the $4bn acquisition of 60% of Kantar from WPP Group (for which Weil was named 2020 Private Equity Team of the Year at the Legal Business Awards); and (b) the £1.2billion take private of the esure Group
• Advent International on the (a) acquisition of Transaction Services Group and numerous add-on acquisitions; (b) acquisition of Williams Lea Tag from DHL; (c) acquisition of a co-controlling stake in Planet Payment Group
• Bain Capital Credit on its bid to acquire LV=
• General Atlantic on its minority investment in Greensill and subsequent sell down to Softbank, its strategic investment in Kiwi.com and PropertyFinder
• VINCI Airports on its acquisition of a majority stake in Gatwick Airport from Global Infrastructure Partners
• Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board on the acquisition by its portfolio company (Busy Bees) of the Treetops Nurseries Group
• Advent International and portfolio company Laird on the carve-out sale of Connected Vehicle Solutions, Connectivity, Performance Materials and Thermal Systems divisions
• Brookfield on a range of international privacy, cyber security and data protection matters
• THI Investments on the acquisition of WJ Group
• Sanofi on the acquisition of Kymab
• Montagu Private Equity on the acquisition of ISI Emerging Markets Group
• SoftBank Vision Fund in its Series E minority investment in GetYourGuide
• PSP as part of a consortium on the $10 billion carve out acquisition of Nestlé Skin Health
• Providence Equity on numerous European transactions, including its acquisition of Node4 Group
• OMERS Private Equity on a number of transactions, including (a) sale of Civica; and (b) on the acquisition of Alexander Mann Solutions
• The seller of the iconic Ritz Hotel in London
• Antin Infrastructure Partners on the sale of Kellas Midstream
• Wejo Limited, a connected vehicle data business, on its $1.1 billion business combination with Virtuoso Acquisition Corp., a SPAC sponsored by Virtuoso Sponsor LLC
• Lee Equity Partners in its investment in the McLarens insurance business
• Campbell Soup Company in its sale of the Kettle Foods business to Valeo
• Mid-Europa Partners on its sale of Walmark to STADA AG
• The joint official liquidators of ABRAAJ Investment Management Limited
• TCV as lead investor on its acquisition of Retail Merchant Services
• Apple Inc. in relation to various technology acquisitions