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Colin Lawrie

Partner

Portrait of Colin Lawrie

Colin Lawrie

Partner

Contact
CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP
Saltire Court
20 Castle Terrace
Edinburgh
EH1 2EN
United Kingdom
Languages English

Colin Lawrie advises on the establishment, investment in and debt finance of unregulated funds, primarily in private equity and real estate asset classes, helping clients harness the benefits of collective investment. His work has earned him the recognition of a Chambers Band 1 ranking.

Colin also advises on the use of alternative vehicles, both onshore and offshore, such as Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs), Limited Partnerships (LPs), General Partnerships, Unauthorised Unit Trusts (JPUTs etc.) and ‘stacked’ combinations of such structures to provide hybridised results, both for transactional and project purposes (e.g. Joint Ventures). His work focuses primarily on the renewable energy, property and financial services sectors. 

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"Colin Lawrie is highly regarded by sources for his knowledge of LLPs, joint ventures and funds. "He has a good grasp of detail. He can find a pragmatic solution to most problems, and he doesn't over-egg the pudding. He does what he does well," said one client."

Chambers & Partners

"CMS ‘provides excellent advice, leveraging its significant industry knowledge and experience’. The sizeable cross-office team is headed by the ‘responsive and client-focused’ real estate funds expert Melville Rodrigues. Cathy Pitt, a go-to lawyer on listed funds matters, advised River Mercantile on its £50m IPO, and private equity specialist Colin Lawrie represented SSE in its role as cornerstone investor in the Environmental Capital Fund."

Legal 500, 2015

"Colin Lawrie is highly regarded by sources for his knowledge of LLPs, joint ventures and funds. "He has a good grasp of detail. He can find a pragmatic solution to most problems, and he doesn't over-egg the pudding. He does what he does well," said one client."

Chambers & Partners

"CMS ‘provides excellent advice, leveraging its significant industry knowledge and experience’. The sizeable cross-office team is headed by the ‘responsive and client-focused’ real estate funds expert Melville Rodrigues. Cathy Pitt, a go-to lawyer on listed funds matters, advised River Mercantile on its £50m IPO, and private equity specialist Colin Lawrie represented SSE in its role as cornerstone investor in the Environmental Capital Fund."

Legal 500, 2015

Relevant experience

  • Clyde Blowers Capital IM LLP on the successful launch of Clyde Blowers Capital Funds II (2008, circa £250m) and Clyde Blowers Capital Fund III (2011/12, over £400m).
  • Glebe Asset Management Limited in the successful launch (£101m raised at first closing) of the Glebe London Property Fund.
  • Sigma Technology Management Limited in the successful launch (£50m raised at first closing) of the Sigma Sustainable Energy Fund II L.P.
  • SSE on the use of an LLP structure to open up a significant hydro-electric project in Scotland by partnering with the landowner through an LLP which allowed the landowner to overcome certain tax issues.
  • A Scottish local authority on the deployment of an innovative "stacked" LLP structure for a major wind farm project to allow it to work alongside a private sector partner while at the same time preserving the benefits of its tax exempt status and retaining a "project finance" friendly structure. 
  • A UK bank on the use of LLPs to adopt a more tax-efficient structure for the delivery of its telecom needs.
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Memberships & Roles

  • Member, The Law Society of Scotland
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Publications

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Education

  • 1993 - Diploma Legal Practice, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
  • 1992 - Law, LLB Hons (1st Class), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
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Expertise

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FCA con­sults on il­li­quid open-ended re­tail funds
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Lim­ited Part­ner­ship Re­forms: "It's the end of the world as we know it and...
Bad people have been do­ing bad things with UK Lim­ited Part­ner­ships and Scot­tish Lim­ited Part­ner­ships (SLPs) in par­tic­u­lar. It’s far from clear who these bad people are (in­deed the De­part­ment for Busi­ness...
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15/03/2018
Pre-mar­ket­ing - Pro­posed changes to AIFMD
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Ex­ten­sion of “PSC” trans­par­ency rules: Ac­tion re­quired with­in 14 days
At the last minute in ad­vance of the EU dead­line, the Gov­ern­ment has fi­nally is­sued the reg­u­la­tions (The In­form­a­tion about People with Sig­ni­fic­ant Con­trol (Amend­ment) Reg­u­la­tions 2017 & The Scot­tish Part­ner­ships...
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In our pre­vi­ous brief­ing, we re­por­ted that the UK is due to ex­tend its “per­sons with sig­ni­fic­ant con­trol" (PSC) rules on trans­par­ency of cor­por­ate own­er­ship with ef­fect from Monday 26 June. Click here...
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UK to ex­tend “PSC” trans­par­ency rules
Fur­ther to the EU’s Fourth Anti-Money Laun­der­ing Dir­ect­ive, the UK is about to ex­tend its “per­sons with sig­ni­fic­ant con­trol" (PSC) rules on trans­par­ency of cor­por­ate own­er­ship. The PSC re­gime will...
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24/01/2017
Lim­ited Part­ner­ships: UK Gov­ern­ment call for evid­ence on Re­view of Lim­ited...
Read­ers may be for­giv­en for think­ing that Gov­ern­ment re­views of lim­ited part­ner­ship law are much like the pro­ver­bi­al bus, you wait ages (dec­ades even) for one to come along and then two come at the same...
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