Melissa Reid’s practice focuses on employment law and management equity arrangements.

She advises in cross-border and domestic public and private M&A and joint venture transactions for corporate, financial, and investment fund clients, including TUPE work, and on a broad range of standalone advisory matters, including senior executive appointments and exits. She also has a substantial management equity, incentives, and executive compensation practice, including advising on regulatory remuneration rules under CRD IV, the AIFMD, and UCITS V.

Melissa has particular experience leading the employment work on large and complex multijurisdictional corporate transactions. She also has experience on a range of UK corporate, commercial, and partnership matters.

Melissa joined the firm in 2007 and became a counsel in 2019.

Notable Experiences

  • Walgreens Boots Alliance on the cross-border employment aspects of the $6.5 billion strategic transaction with AmerisourceBergen Corporation.

  • BNP Paribas on the cross-border employment aspects of a novel transaction in relation to Deutsche Bank’s global prime brokerage and electronic equities businesses, and in the acquisition of a Delta One book.

  • Hillhouse on the management incentive aspects of its acquisition of The Loch Lomond Group (LLG), together with LLG’s management team, from Exponent Private Equity.

  • Fidessa group plc on the share incentives aspects of the approximately £1.5 billion acquisition by takeover offer of Fidessa by Ion Capital.

  • Belron Group, owner of the Autoglass and Carglass business, on the management incentive plan established following the investment in Belron by funds managed by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.

  • La Financière ATALIAN S.A.S. on the employment aspects of its acquisition of Servest Limited.

  • Credit Suisse on the cross-border employment aspects of its spin-out of Credit Suisse Quantitative and Systematic Asset Management.

  • Alpha Capital Partners on the management incentive aspects of their successful €400 million leveraged buyout of Ipcom, a pan-European supplier of insulation products.

  • General Motors on cross-border pensions and UK employment aspects of the sale of its Opel and Vauxhall businesses, along with the GM Financial European automotive financing operations, to the PSA group.

  • The Coca-Cola Company in employment and incentives aspects of the combination of Coca-Cola Enterprises, Coca-Cola Iberian Partners, and Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetränke to create the world’s largest independent bottler of Coca-Cola products, including the implementation of a long-term incentive plan for the combined group and advice on the treatment of legacy equity awards.

  • American Express on the employment aspects of the formation of a 50/50 joint venture of its Global Business Travel division with an investor group, involving the transfer of over 14,000 employees.

  • Bank of America Merrill Lynch on the employment aspects of the sale of its non-U.S. wealth management business to Julius Baer Group Ltd., involving the transfer of over 2,000 employees and approximately $84 billion of assets under management.

  • Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic on the employment aspects of their joint acquisition from Banco Santander, S.A. of a 50 percent stake in Santander Asset Management, with the remaining 50 percent to be owned by Banco Santander.

  • Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic on a proposed cross-border management equity plan for their joint venture between SAM Investment Holdings Ltd and Unicredit S.P.A.

  • TPG on the employment aspects of its ₤400 million acquisition of TSL Education Group Limited from Charterhouse Capital Partners LLP and the implementation of  a management equity plan.

  • TPG on the implementation of a management equity plan in the Prezzo group.

  • VizEat on the implementation of a share option plan.

  • A major global private equity firm, a major global banking group, a multinational banking and financial services corporation, and a global financial services company in relation to the UK implementation of CRD III/IV remuneration and remuneration disclosure rules.

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Selected Activities

Member, the Employment Lawyers Association and the Share Plan Lawyers Group

Publications