Attracting and retaining experienced and talented professionals is key to supporting our client relationships and their continued success. We pride ourselves on being flexible, effective and efficient in determining our clients’ objectives and are driven by their success.
We are diverse in our backgrounds, education and experience allowing us to serve our clients with the scalability of an external law firm and the responsiveness of an in-house team.
CEO
Emma Cleveland
Emma’s goal since launching Cleveland & Co has been to change the shape of legal services provision within financial services, and provide clients with high-quality effective advice. With over 15 years’ experience in the investment management sector, working with blue chips such as AIG, Threadneedle, Russell Investments and Aviva Investors, she is well-placed to do so.
A tri-qualified lawyer, whose career began at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, her broad-based expertise covers all areas of investment management: front office, middle and back office, business development, risk, compliance and legal. Emma has also played a key role in building new legal departments, creating and implementing global policies and managing international teams.
Legal Team
Alessandra Annoscia
Alessandra is an Italian qualified lawyer with over 10 years’ experience in the legal industry. She has extensive experience of private practice in litigation roles, both in Italy and in London and her more recent roles have been in-house at financial services institutions, such as Barclays and Lloyds Bank.
A reliable and motivated professional, Alessandra is currently in the process of qualifying in England and Wales. Her dual-jurisdictional experience gives her a unique insight and perspective on matters, and has placed her in an ideal position in the financial services industry, where cross border transactions are the norm. Alessandra’s experience in litigation and dispute resolution, linked to derivatives, has allowed her to hone her expertise in relation to complex financial products and their trading documentation.
Carol is a Brazilian qualified lawyer with over 5 years’ experience advising on corporate, commercial and financial services matters. Her strong analytical skills have enabled her to assist clients with drafting, amending and negotiating a range of corporate, commercial and financial services contracts.
Carol has a keen interest in financial services and has recently completed her LLM in Banking and Finance Law at Queen Mary University of London. Through her studies of corporate finance and compliance, she has gained exposure to the supervisory and regulatory framework for the financial services sector in Europe and the United Kingdom.
Carol is a disciplined, motivated and dynamic professional. Furthermore, Carol’s communication and interpersonal skills have allowed her to build excellent relationships with people from different backgrounds and levels of seniority.
Leela has 5 years’ experience in financial services, having previously worked in the legal team at Invesco. Leela’s experience to date covers private equity, hedge funds and traditional fund sectors and includes advising and assisting a range of services providers within the asset management industry including administrators, brokers, custodians, introducers, investment advisors & managers, and placement agents.
Since joining Cleveland & Co, Leela has worked with clients to prepare and submit FCA notifications (e.g. change in control), along with advising and assisting them in updating their legal documentation as a result of MiFID II, GDPR and the upcoming SM&CR.
Leela is a determined and ambitious professional who has become adept at working in different, fast paced environments with people of all levels within an organisation.
Chantelle graduated from Durham University with a Law LLB before completing the Legal Practice Course at BPP University with a distinction.
Prior to joining Cleveland & Co, she worked as a document negotiator as part of an in-house legal team for a top tier investment bank, where she used her language and interpersonal skills to bring legal negotiations to a close, while maintaining strong relationships with internal stakeholders and clients.
At Cleveland & Co, Chantelle assists the team with various legal matters and research on investment management and general commercial matters, with a focus on negotiating commercial and financial contracts such as NDAs, ISDAs, CSAs and GMRAs. Chantelle also contributes towards the company’s newsletters, short guides and templates.
Fiona is a financial services regulatory expert with over 25 years of experience spanning a range of regulatory regimes and business models. She is a subject matter expert in the FCA rules and EU financial services regulation.
Fiona’s previous roles include head of regulatory development at a leading investment manager and more recently, executive director at a regulatory consultancy firm leading their technical team on complex regulatory issues and developments on a global scale, in addition to setting up and supporting their Singapore, Hong Kong and US offices. Additionally, having also worked at the FCA and supervised the full breadth of financial services providers, Fiona has not only become a subject matter expert in the FCA rules and EU financial services regulation but is also able to advise firms at a strategic level.
Caroline studied law at the University of East Anglia, before going on to study the Legal Practice Course at BPP University in Cambridge, achieving a distinction. She specialised in commercial law and intellectual property, civil litigation and commercial property.
At Cleveland & Co, Caroline assists the team with a broad range of legal matters and research covering investment management and general commercial matters as they arise. Caroline also assists in putting together guides for our company templates and contributing to our Industry News posts regarding relevant updates to the financial industry.
Kwan Mei obtained her degree in law from the National University of Singapore and was admitted as an Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore in 2008. She has since undertaken a wide range of global-facing work in the corporate and commercial field, with more than five years of experience in the real estate and investment space. She enjoys working with people from all different levels of an organisation and in various capacities, as both an external counsel and in-house counsel. She has worked in several notable MNCs, as well as the fund manager of a listed hospitality real estate investment trust.
Kwan Mei has worked closely with businesses in the investment and real estate sectors and therefore understands how they operate. She is highly attuned to the day-to-day operational procedures that businesses regularly face. Kwan Mei’s legal knowledge combined with her commercial acumen, make her a valuable member of the C&Co team.
Amanda is a dual-qualified lawyer with extensive experience in the banking and finance sector. She qualified as a solicitor and barrister in Victoria, Australia, in 1998, before qualifying as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2003.
Amanda’s career began in top-tier law firm, Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks (now Allens), where she focussed on employment, corporate and commercial matters. She then moved to an in-house position with Credit Suisse First Boston (now Credit Suisse), first in Sydney, then in London. Over this time, she provided legal coverage for various business units, including the alternative investments, prime services and capital markets businesses, as well as the stock lending, repo and listed derivatives desks.
Vicki has in excess of 15 years’ financial services experience working in various back office roles, including working within the mergers and acquisitions team of Credit Suisse for 7 years.
Coupled with over 6 years’ experience in senior operational roles within SME environments – Vicki has a broad array of transferrable skills and experience in both multi-national companies and SME’s which allow her to utilise her strong organisational, interpersonal and problem-solving skills to achieve favourable outcomes.
Sarah has over 8 years’ experience working with CEO’s, C Level Executives and high-profile talent where she has built a broad array of knowledge and skills, as well as becoming accustomed to working in fast paced environments across a wide range of industries from Music to Travel and Private Equity.
Victoria has over 16 years’ of experience working in the professional services industry, including 13 years spent at magic circle law firm, Linklaters, as both a personal assistant and marketing assistant. She has worked alongside managing director, Emma, and supported her in her vision to change the shape of legal services within the financial services sector for many years.
At Linklaters, Victoria supported a wide range of senior staff and partners, across both the practice itself and business services and has extensive knowledge and experience of business areas such as HR, marketing and professional indemnity. In terms of her practice experience, Victoria has worked in investment management, financial regulation, pensions, real estate and private equity.
Anna has over 15 years’ experience in the employment industry, training in international law firm Freshfields and working for Addleshaw Goddard for 10 years. Anna acts for individuals (including senior executives) and companies, from small local businesses to FTSE 100 companies.
Andrea has over 16 years’ experience, having previously trained and worked for 11 years with national law firm Pinsent Masons LLP. She acts for companies of all sizes as well as individuals. Andrea acts for companies of all sizes as well as individuals and has considerable experience of carrying out due diligence and advising on employment law issues in relation to business sales and acquisitions.
Linda has over 30 years’ experience in the legal sector, primarily within financial services, qualifying as a barrister in 1982 and then as a solicitor in 1987, with an expertise in funds and insurance. She has extensive experience of a number of key financial services regulations such as AIFMD, NPPR, SMCR, and the Payment Services Directive and significant technical skills covering structured loan notes, FCA applications, peer to peer lending, investment management agreements and collective investment schemes.
She previously held the position of Head of Legal at the Aviva Group, where she was part of the management team who had responsibility for all legal and regulatory issues. Most recently, Linda was a Partner at Eversheds Financial Services Group advising on all aspects of UK financial services regulation.
