About LCN

Paul is the co-founder of LCN Legal and the author of “Intercompany Agreements for Transfer Pricing Compliance – A Practical Guide”. He is passionate about bridging the gap between tax and legal professionals, and helping multinational groups to create effective corporate structures for transfer pricing compliance.

Paul studied European law in the UK and Germany, trained as a corporate lawyer in the City of London, mainly advising German, Swiss and Austrian clients on acquisitions, joint ventures and commercial contracts. He qualified as a solicitor in 1994 at the firm of Pritchard Englefield, a London-based firm established in 1848. He was appointed as a partner of that firm four years later in 1998.

Paul joined KPMG’s UK law firm in 2001, and Paul developed a specialism in working alongside international tax and transfer pricing professionals on the design and legal implementation of restructuring projects for large corporates. This has included projects such as Eurobond listings, corporate migrations, cross-border mergers and intercompany agreements for transfer pricing. He later became a corporate partner in the London offices of McGrigors LLP and of Pinsent Masons LLP.

During his legal career before setting up LCN Legal in 2013, Paul successfully lead legal teams on projects for a range of well-known high profile clients, including acting for a major European airline on a business sale and joint venture, creating a franchise network for a well known European mobile phone operator, establishing various real estate and other funds, group reorganisations and corporate simplification projects for a range of household name clients, and advising a Middle Eastern Royal family on corporate structures for family investments.

Paul has been recognised and quoted as an expert by publications such as the Financial Times, the Scotsman newspaper, Financial Director Magazine and Accounting Web. He regularly contributes to technical publications for legal and tax professionals, including the Tax Journal, Tax Adviser magazine, Taxation magazine, InCompliance magazine, Today’s General Counsel, Practical Law (a Thomson Reuters resource for legal professionals), Lexis Nexis’s online resources for transfer pricing professionals and Lexis PSL’s legal resources for practicing lawyers.

Through LCN Legal, Paul has pioneered the publication of templates, checklists and other resources for tax and legal professionals. These include template intercompany agreements for transfer pricing, as well as legal guides and resources for various corporate structuring projects.

Paul is regularly asked by multinational corporates, financial institutions and professional firms to present training sessions and workshops on subjects relating to corporate and investment structures and the legal aspects of transfer pricing compliance. Through LCN Legal, he has hosted workshops and webinars on these subjects for numerous multinational corporates and tax and TP advisory firms.

Xiaofang is the co-founder and CEO of LCN Legal. She is passionate about ensuring that our clients consistently receive the best possible legal support, by listening and responding to their feedback. She is also passionate about the role of women in international business.

Xiaofang was born and grew up in Henan province, China – the birthplace of Chinese civilization with over 3,000 years of recorded history, and now a booming logistics hub of China. In 2007, she graduated with a bachelor’s law degree from the China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, the largest institution in the World for legal education, and widely regarded as one of the top two law schools in China.

She came to the UK in 2008 and completed an LLM in International Commercial Law at the University of Edinburgh. Following her graduation she was asked to join the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry in order to help establish the Chinese Business Association (CBA) there.

Now, as CEO of LCN Legal, she leads the firm and helps it to expand its presence internationally. She is also the co-founder of Chinese Mums in Business Club.

Ivan is a Partner at LCN Legal, specialising in Intercompany Agreements for the Transfer Pricing compliance of multinational groups, corporate restructuring projects and cross border and domestic joint ventures and M&A transactions.

Ivan graduated in 1998 with a 1^stClass Honours degree in Law and International Business from the University of Stirling, Scotland, before completing his legal education at the College of Law, London (with commendation).  Ivan then trained and qualified as a solicitor in 2005 at the London offices of international law firm, Baker & McKenzie LLP, where he spent more than seven years specializing in complex cross border and domestic corporate reorganisations / simplification projects, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and investment structures, joint ventures and general corporate/commercial law and corporate governance advice for large corporates.

Ivan has advised a broad range of clients including those in the financial services, insurance, software/IT, SaaS, digital media, analytics, consulting services, advertising, hotels, manufacturing, pharma, chemicals and energy sectors as well as several well-known private equity and private and sovereign investment funds.

During his years at Baker & McKenzie LLP, Ivan was posted from London to the firm’s Moscow and Amsterdam offices for a combined total of three years, where he focused on international joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions and corporate, equity and debt restructuring projects.

Ivan began working closely with international tax, transfer pricing and finance professionals, focusing on the legal implementation of reorganisations for large corporates. He continued this work as an M&A and Integrations Legal Manager for Accenture from 2011 to 2014. From 2015 to 2016 he acted as Senior Group Legal Counsel for The Phoenix Group (the UK’s largest life insurance consolidator), where he gained invaluable in-house experience of large global corporate groups and in highly regulated business environments.

In recent years, Ivan has focused on international corporate structures and, in particular, Intercompany Agreements for the Transfer Pricing compliance of multinational corporates. Together with Paul Sutton and Leiza Bladd-Symms, Ivan leads LCN Legal’s practice in creating legal substance for Transfer Pricing compliance.

In addition to his corporate, M&A, restructuring and related transfer pricing experience, Ivan also brings broad corporate transactional experience in project management, commercial contracts, intellectual property, employment, tax, pensions, real estate, trade compliance, competition, litigation, anti-corruption and data privacy matters, in addition to other areas of compliance and regulation (including listed company and insurance sector regulation and supervision).

Ivan’s interests outside work include his family, sailing (RYA Coastal Skipper), surfing, skiing, SCUBA diving and international adventure travel.

Fun fact: Reading ‘Rumpole of the Old Bailey’ as a child is what inspired Ivan to become a lawyer

A Director at LCN Legal, Leiza focusses on advising multinational groups, across a range of sectors, on the creation of legal substance for transfer pricing compliance, associated international restructuring projects and general corporate and commercial matters

A director at LCN Legal Limited, Leiza has built her specialist practice by working closely with tax and transfer pricing professionals in advising high profile multinational corporates on both the drafting, implementation and continuing management of intercompany agreements for transfer pricing compliance and on broader legal matters related to the same, including effective corporate governance, group reorganisations and cross-border joint venture and M&A transactions. With a client base that spans the globe, Leiza provides advice to a broad range of corporates headquartered throughout Europe, the US, Australia and the Middle East.

A regular speaker and presenter, Leiza has trained teams of tax and legal professionals across the globe on the legal implementation of transfer pricing and contributed to LCN Legal’s “Online Course on Intercompany Agreements for Transfer Pricing Compliance” listed by the UK’s Chartered Institute of Taxation as applicable to its Advanced Diploma in International Taxation. She also acted as editor to her colleague, Paul Sutton, in his authoring of “Intercompany Agreements for Transfer Pricing Compliance – A Practical Guide”: the seminal academic publication on this subject.

Leiza joined LCN Legal from the global multinational, A J Walter Aviation, where she was Head of Legal. During her time with A J Walter, Leiza acted on a wide variety of aviation, corporate and commercial transactions and was responsible for the management of all legal matters for the group. A large part of her role revolved around internal and stakeholder management and she was regularly required to advise the Board on the legal aspects of commercial decisions.

Prior to taking an inhouse role, Leiza worked at both Clyde & Co LLP and ”Magic Circle” firm, Linklaters. Whilst in private practice in London and Sao Paulo, she focused on M&A, joint ventures, cross-border and restructuring transactions. Acting for a wide range of clients across varied sectors, Leiza attained extensive experience in representing the interests of top tier corporates and private equity investors.

Drawing on over fifteen years of experience, Leiza is a business focused, commercial lawyer and noted for her ability to offer practical and effective legal solutions in a clear and accessible manner.

Fun Fact: Leiza presented a children’s television program when she was young.

Oversees the operational needs of the company

Being fully conversant with all operational aspects of the business, Sonia ensures all functions run as efficiently as possible and is always working with the team to improve processes, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the client experience.

With a degree in foreign languages from the University of Bristol, Sonia has honed her business skills over an expansive career, having worked in various companies such as Tesco Head Office, the BBC, Arcadia, Novartis, Sodexo and the National Fostering Agency.

Sonia has a keen interest in property investment, cocktail-making and playing tennis.

Ian is a senior tax professional with more than 30 years’ International Corporate Tax experience and acts as a non-executive adviser to LCN Legal. Prior to this, Ian was the VP and Head of Corporate Tax EMEA for American Express. Ian now acts as a mentor to tax and other professionals, on a pro bono basis.