Fox Williams is delighted to announce two new senior hires for the firm. Scott Keown has joined as a partner in the real estate team and Jo Varia has been appointed tax director in the firm’s tax and incentives practice.
Scott is a real estate specialist with 15 years’ experience in the industry. He joins after 10 years at Dundas & Wilson/CMS Cameron McKenna in London and is dual-qualified in Australia and the UK.
Scott acts for UK and overseas institutional and private participants on the acquisition, development, asset management and financing of complex real estate assets across the office, residential, retail and industrial sub-sectors. He has an excellent track record representing corporate clients in the financial services, professional practices and retail sectors on their operational real estate requirements.
He is actively engaged in the wider property sector, with roles on the Investment Property Forum’s (IPF) Next Generation Committee and on the organising committee of Muscular Dystrophy UK’s annual property-industry-backed Microscope Ball fundraiser.
Scott Keown said: “Led by partner Phillip Hope, Fox Williams has a thriving real estate practice, recognised for its capabilities in asset management and acquisitions and disposals, as well as in the hotel and leisure sector. I am looking forward to playing an active role advising the firm’s real estate clients and continuing to grow the practice.”
Tax director Joanne Varia has extensive experience advising on direct and indirect tax matters including private equity transactions, corporate re-organisations and restructuring, inward and outbound investment, public and private UK and cross border M&A, public listings and offerings, and property and other financings and tax structured financial products.
As a member of the Share Plan Lawyers Group, Jo is at the cutting edge of issues relating to employee share schemes and management incentive arrangements. She also advises on tax issues affecting entrepreneurs, investors and business owners (including venture capital tax schemes). Her UK and overseas clients represent a wide range of business sectors including travel and leisure, real estate, banking, financial services, technology and digital and fashion.
After working for Travers Smith for eight years, Jo spent several years as a tax knowledge lawyer at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
Jo Varia said: “I am delighted to be working with Fox Williams’ head of the tax and incentives practice, Emma Bailey, and to be advising clients from a range of sectors, including technology, fintech and the travel and leisure industries.”
Paul Osborne, senior partner at Fox Williams, said: “Both Scott and Jo are highly professional, personable and experienced practitioners who will provide our clients with effective commercial advice. I am delighted that they have chosen to develop their careers at Fox Williams.These new appointments, combined with our bumper round of internal promotions, represent an important step in achieving our growth objectives in these disciplines.”
