Alison Gilson

Practice Areas

Alison is a corporate partner and head of the firm’s Edinburgh office. She has extensive experience advising on a wide range of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, MBOs, investments, disposals and joint ventures. She also has significant experience advising on shareholder arrangements, group reorganisations and corporate governance matters.

Alison acts for clients across a wide range of sectors and has developed particular expertise working with businesses in the healthcare, technology, transport and media sectors.

Her transactional experience includes advising:

•Extreme E, an international racing series that brings off-road electric racing to remote parts of the world to highlight climate change, on a range of corporate matters including the recent strategic investment into Extreme E by Formula E;

•Electric Sea Racing Limited on its launch of the "E1 Series" and its partnership with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia whose investment will enable them to create the world's first electric powerboat racing championship;

•national commercial vehicle hire business MV Commercial Limited on various share and business acquisitions and disposals;

•Carewatch Care Services Limited on a series of acquisitions in Scotland, England and Wales and then on the sale of various divisions in a complex transaction that required the completion of 6 transactions within 4 weeks;

•the sellers on the £40m sale of digital marketing business Realise to St Ives plc;

•various healthcare businesses on acquisitions, disposals and group restructurings, including the sale of Scotland’s largest independent pharmaceutical business.

Alison was awarded the "Rising Star of the Year" award at the Scottish Legal Awards in 2009. She joined Shoosmiths in November 2013 to lead and grow its corporate practice in Scotland and is head of Shoosmiths’ Edinburgh office and responsible for the firm’s contribution to, and profile within, the city’s business community.