Profile
Fiona Adams is Executive Vice President, Managing Shareholder of the London office and the Co-Chair of the Global Corporate Practice. She primarily represents corporate clients, focusing her practice on mergers and acquisitions, and other transactional matters. Her work spans a range of industries, including pharmaceuticals, industrials, automotives, financial institutions, and media. Fiona has broad experience working on large, complex cross-border transactions.
Fiona was awarded Management Partner of the Year at the Legal Business Awards 2023, Law Firm Leader of the Year: Large Practice at the Woman & Diversity in Law Awards 2024, and Legal Leader of the Year at the Women, Influence & Power UK Awards 2024. She continues to be highly recommended by both of the leading independent guides to the legal industry, and is currently ranked in the Hall of Fame for M&A: Lower Mid-Market Deals, £100m-£750m in Legal 500 UK 2025 and ranked in Band 2 of the Corporate/M&A: £100-800m category for Chambers & Partners 2025. According to Chambers & Partners 2025, Fiona “is an outstanding lawyer and a great fit with our in-house team. She is also super responsive and very easy to work with," "is a really strong and capable lawyer. She is very efficient and understands the core of problems" and “is very client-oriented with wide experience." The Legal 500 2024 edition advises "Fiona Adams is extremely hard-working and responsive. She has a vast amount of experience to tap into and does so quickly and succinctly."
Concentrations
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Corporate transactions
- Joint ventures
Capabilities
Experience
- Represented TELUS, a Canadian telecoms company, in the acquisition of the Proagrica brand, a provider of data services to agriculture companies, from the RELX Group, a British multinational information and analytics company that also owns LexisNexis.
- Represented a multinational transport manufacturing corporation on numerous transactions including:
- a joint venture with a European car manufacturer to create a new generation of fully electric vans and light commercial vehicles;
- its EUR500 million three-way JV relating to the installation and operation of a high-performance public charging network for battery electric, heavy-duty long-haul trucks and coaches across Europe; and
- a joint venture relating to the development and commercialisation of a software-defined vehicle platform.
- Advised Rentokil Initial plc, the world’s leading commercial pest control services provider, on the worldwide acquisition of Cannon Hygiene business from OCS Group Limited.
- Advised Rentokil Initial plc on the purchase of the entire issued share capital of DCUKFM Holdings Limited, a leading UK commercial and residential property remediation specialist.
- Advised Rentokil Initial plc in the circa £44 million acquisition of Urban Planters, a group operated via four companies (Urban Planters Franchise Limited, The Palfreymans Limited, Tropical Innovation Limited and Newman’s Plants Limited) and their five subsidiaries, which were acquired immediately pre-completion along with other assets from a number of individual sellers.
- Advised MonteRock, a UAE-based investment company, in relation to its investment in a joint venture with Singapore-based hospitality group Aman, to develop and operate the Aman hotel in Mykonos, Greece. The new joint venture entity is based in Cyprus.
- Advised a US bridging group on the acquisition of a UK modular bridging business.
- Advised Rentokil Initial plc on its joint venture agreement with Haniel & Cie. Holding Company which created a leading provider of workwear and hygiene services in Europe with combined revenues of c. €1.1bn.
- Advised AstraZeneca plc on the sale of its small molecule antibiotics business to Pfizer for US$725m.
- Advised AstraZeneca plc on its agreement with China Medical System Holdings and its associated company Tibet Rhodiola Pharmaceutical Holdings Co., Ltd., to divest Imdur, a mature medicine for the prevention of angina in patients with heart disease for the global market for US$190m.
- Advised AstraZeneca AB on its agreement with Grünenthal to divest the European rights to Nexium for an upfront payment of $700 million with further sales-related and milestone payments of up to $90 million.
- Advised AstraZeneca AB on its agreement with Grünenthal to divest the global rights to Vimovo in all markets excluding the United States and Japan for an upfront payment of $115 million and further payments up to another $17 million.
- Advised AstraZeneca AB on its US$243 million divestment to Cheplapharm of the global rights (excluding China, Japan, USA and Mexico) for LOSEC (omeprazole) and associated brands.
- Advised AstraZeneca AB on its US$236 million sale of Atacand to German pharma company Cheplapharm Arzneimittel. Atacand is a prescription medicine for the treatment of heart failure and hypertension.
- Advised Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB, an international biopharmaceutical company on the entry into a worldwide exclusive distribution agreement and associated supply arrangements with Akcea Therapeutics in respect of Tegsedi and Waylivra, two orphan medicines used to treat rare diseases.
- Advised an international biopharmaceutical company on the acquisition of a drug, including on the purchase of all rights, title and interest in the product, for use worldwide and a license back to the Sellers for their continued use in Japan.
- Partner, Mayer Brown, 2000-2009
- Associate, Mayer Brown, 1991-2000
- Foreign Associate, New York office of an international law firm, 1997
- General Counsel, HMV Media Group plc, 2000
Recognition & Leadership
- Winner, Global Legal Post Women & Diversity in Law Awards, "Law Firm Leader of the Year," 2024
- Winner, Law.com International Women, Influence & Power in Law (WIPL) UK Awards, "Legal Leader of the Year," 2024
- Winner, London Legal Business Awards, “Management Partner of the Year,” 2023
- Listed, Best Lawyers in the United Kingdom, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, 2015-2025
- "Lawyer of the Year," 2022
- Team Member, a Law360 “Product Liability Practice Group of the Year,” 2021-2022
- Listed, IFLR 1000 United Kingdom
- "Highly Regarded" M&A, 2019-2024
- "Leading Lawyers" M&A, 2017-2018
- Listed, Chambers UK Guide, Corporate/M&A, 2012-2020, 2022-2025
- Listed, Chambers Global, Corporate/ M&A (UK), 2014-2020
- Listed, Chambers Europe, 2020, 2022-2025
- Corporate/M&A: Mid-Market, 2024-2025
- Corporate/M&A: High-end Capability, 2020, 2022
- Listed, The Legal 500 United Kingdom, 2012-2025
- Corporate and Commercial – M&A: Upper Mid-Market and Premium Deals, 2012-2023
- "Leading Individual" 2023
- M&A: Lower Mid-Market Deals, 2024-2025
- "Hall of Fame," 2024-2025
- Corporate and Commercial – M&A: Upper Mid-Market and Premium Deals, 2012-2023
- Listed, Euromoney's Expert Guides: "Women in Business Law," 2021-2022
Credentials
- B.Sc., De Montfort University, 1989
- England and Wales