Ward Hadaway appoints new head of corporate

Law firm Ward Hadaway has appointed corporate partner Nik Tunley as its new head of corporate, following the firm’s merger with Teesside-based The Endeavour Partnership.

The appointment brings additional strategic focus to Ward Hadaway’s national corporate offering across Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Teesside, with further growth planned.

Nik specialises in mid-market mergers and acquisitions for owner-managed businesses and private equity investors. 

Having joined The Endeavour Partnership in 2008, he led its corporate team for more than a decade before becoming finance partner. 

His recent work includes the growth partner investment in Host & Stay, the sale of Arbtech to Inflexion-backed Celnor, as well as Gi Group Holding’s acquisition of Encore Personnel.

In his new role, Nik will lead a multi-office team advising on complex transactions of all sizes, while supporting the firm’s wider expansion plans, including its growth ambitions in Birmingham.

Nik said: “We are a highly capable corporate team with genuine strength in depth across our offices. 

“The merger has added further scale and specialist expertise. 

“My focus is to keep standards high, knit the teams even more closely together across locations and deepen our relationships with the adviser community.  

“Our combined forces have a shared reputation for giving clients straight answers and conducting well-run deals, whatever the complexity, and so we have an extremely strong base on which to further extend the team, and the work we are doing for clients.”

Nik’s appointment follows a series of senior hires and promotions across Ward Hadaway. 

The corporate team continues to be recognised as one of the UK’s most active dealmakers, ranking in the top ten nationally in the latest Experian MarketIQ league tables for completed M&A transactions.

Steven Petrie, Ward Hadaway’s managing partner, added: “Nik has grown and led high-performing teams for many years. 

“As a corporate lawyer, he combines calm deal leadership with commercial judgement that clients value on mid-market M&A. 

“As a leader, he embodies the firm’s values of straightforward, respectful and ambitious. 

“His appointment underlines our commitment to further building our corporate reach and maintaining the momentum we’ve built since the merger.” 

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