Our People

Directors / Solicitors

Jennifer Simmons – COLP

Jennifer Simmons was admitted in 1976, having completed her traineeship at Jacques & Co in Gray’s Inn. Jennifer has experience in civil litigation, debt collection, employment and property management. She acts on behalf of individuals, corporate and business clients seeking advice on a wide range of issues. Jennifer is a Partner and spends most of her time managing the firm.

Desmond Taylor

Desmond Taylor was admitted in 1975 and practices in commercial and residential property law including residential and commercial, landlord and tenant, commercial and residential development and financing. He also handles Business Acquisitions and Sales.

Mark Shulman

Mark Shulman is a specialist Litigation Solicitor who deals with a wide variety of litigation matters in the County Court and the High Court. He has also dealt with matters reaching the Court of Appeal. He can conduct advocacy without the need to instruct Counsel where appropriate. He also has knowledge of Intellectual Property Law. He is able to give clear easy to understand advice and conducts his litigation in the most economical way possible for the benefit of the client. Where appropriate no win no fee arrangements can be considered.

Nicolas Shulman

Nicolas specialises in advising clients on commercial, employment and property law, particularly with regard to residential leasehold matters involving service charges, lease extensions and enfranchisement. He has written widely on the subject and is the author of Being a Leaseholder – The Essential Guide to Owning a Flat.

Nicolas also regularly advises clients on employment related matters including employment contracts, grievances, dismissals and discrimination claims. He has particular experience in representing senior executives and management and in resolving disputes by way of a settlement agreement.

He is often asked for opinion and comment in the local and national media and has appeared on BBC News, BBC Radio, and in The Times, The Daily Express, The London Evening Standard, The Metro as well as many other websites and magazines.

Solicitors

Harvey Shulman – Solicitor and a member of ILPA

Harvey Shulman was admitted in 1972 and has had nearly four decades of legal experience. In particular, Harvey works with early stage start-ups in diverse industries, seeking to turn them into highly successful ventures. He has been involved with designing and implementing several highly successful investment schemes. Harvey has also been on the Board of numerous companies, both public and private. He has a Master’s Degree in Law (LLM) specialising in Company Law, Tax and Intellectual Property. Harvey regularly speaks at conferences and webinars relating to  business immigrations start up companies and has a wide network of business contacts. He has a wide experience in most areas of law and specialises in Business Immigration. Harvey is a member of the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association.(ILPA)

Lydia Pratt

Lydia Pratt was admitted in 1995, having completed her traineeship at Wood Nash Kimber in Gray’s Inn, following an earlier career in healthcare. Her areas of practice are civil and commercial litigation, employment, wills and probate. She acts on behalf of individuals, corporate and business clients seeking advice on a wide range of issues.

Lydia is a member of APIL. She studied law and modern languages at Surrey University. She is bilingual with previous experience in advising French insurance companies and individuals.

Edward Mackewn

Edward has been with the firm since 2010 and qualified as a solicitor on completion of his training contract. He has experience of property management and development and litigation but specialises in corporate and commercial matters with a strong focus on start up companies.

Diane Brodkin

Diane is a very experienced solicitor who was has been in private practice since being admitted in 1972. She specialises in residential conveyancing matters as well as undertaking Wills and probate work. Her conveyancing expertise covers both leasehold and freehold sales and purchases as well as matters relating to lease extensions and enfranchisement. Diane’s undoubted expertise and vast wealth of experience, allied to a friendly, personal service provide a high quality of service to all her clients.

Delwar Hussain

Delwar qualified as a solicitor in March 2019 and joined Canfields Law in June 2019 having obtained a distinction in the Legal Practice Course joint with a Masters. He has extensive experience and specialises in litigation matters ranging from business/corporate litigation to debt recovery matters. He regularly deals with cases in the High Court of Justice but also deals with cases in the County Court. Delwar also specialises in employment matters and has represented both employers and employees in complex disputes. In addition, Delwar often receives instructions on family law and housing matters.

 

Delwar is regularly praised as being a friendly and approachable solicitor to instruct as well as handling client matters in a unique, adaptive style and achieving goals for clients.  

In his spare time, Delwar enjoys playing and watching football as well as cricket.

 

Luiza Abazi – Solicitor

Luiza qualified as a solicitor in November 2020, having completed her training contract with our firm and having previously worked as a paralegal with us and another  firms .She has therefore had over 5 years experience working in various departments of law firms  and she now works in our Conveyancing , Commercial and Immigration departments. She is also fluent in Albanian.

Immigration Lawyers 

 

Michael Rodrigues – Registered Foreign Lawyer 

I am an Immigration Lawyer registered and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in the UK, the Portugal and the Brazil Bar Associations.

I have almost two decades of immigration experience by working for some of the world top-ranking corporate firms, including PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Fragomen and Ernst and Young (EY), on a variety of private and corporate immigration matters.

I am also Global Immigration experienced, where I successfully managed several medium to large-sized projects helping global market-leading companies to move their employees across the globe.

I understand the pain, the anxiety and the burden an immigration process can bring to applicants, their family and their employers and stakeholders. I am pleased to be in a position to make this process as smooth as possible for all parties involved.

Qualifications:

  • LLB – Brazil, Toledo University in Sao Paulo, Brazil – 1998
  • LLM – Constitutional and Public Law – Estacio University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 2000
  • LLM – European Law, University of Lisbon, Portugal – 2002
  • GDL – University of Hertfordshire, St Albans, UK – 2003
  • PhD – Constitutional Law and its implications on the international legal framework, Estacio University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 2015

Memberships:

  • The Law Society, UK
  • Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), UK
  • Immigration Lawyers Practitioners (ILPA), UK
  • Free Movement, UK
  • Ordem dos Advogados de Portugal (OAP), Portugal
  • Ordem dos Advogados do Brazil (OAB), Brazil

Marcio Dos Santos-Immigration Adviser

Marcio graduated from Universidade da Amazonia (Brazil) with a first-class Law Degree in 2008. In March 2008, Marcio was admitted to the Brazilian BAR (Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil) and, later (2016), to the Portuguese BAR (Ordem dos Advogados). In 2017, Marcio started practicing Immigration Law in the United Kingdom and, in January 2019, was admitted to the Office of the Immigration Services (OISC)Commissioner as an Immigration Adviser. Marcio has been practicing Electoral Law, Public Law and Litigation for over 13 years within Civil Law jurisdiction and Immigration Law in the United Kingdom for over 3 years.

 

In his spare time, Marcio enjoys playing sports of the likes of football and reading, specially about History.

Business Executives

Muzaffar Saydiganiev

Muzaffar came to Canfields Law with a strong background in finance and venture capital, having worked in banking at a high level. He holds an MSc in International Business Economics from City University of London and is expert in matters relating to business immigration.

Finance Director 

Stuart Veitch

Paralegal & Support Staff

Pauline Curham — Senior Administrator & Legal Support Team

​Pauline is very experienced and has had over 30 years working for legal firms. 

Accounts

Samuel Garcia –  Accounts assistant

Samuel Garcia is originally from Tenerife and joined the Accounts team in November 2019 bringing 20 years of experience as Accounts Assistant, working closely with our COFA. Qualified in Spain, before joining Canfields Law, Samuel worked for a London-based Media Report company over four years. When not at work, he likes to swim, cycle also enjoys gardening.

John Marney

John Marney joined the Accounts team at the end of 2020 after graduating with a First Class Honours Degree in Business and Management (Accounting) BSc. at Brunel University London. During his degree he completed a year in industry working for an International French Banking group as part of their accounts team, to facilitate French businesses entering the UK market. Throughout his degree and year in industry, John has been exposed to a variety of functions within finance having acquired proficiency in a range of accounting software’s such as  SAGE, Xero, QuickBooks and SAP, whilst delivering a professional, quality and timely service to his client base. John is a part-qualified accountant under the body of ACCA and is expected to be qualified by 2022.  John is an avid reader and he likes to keep active. He possesses a great interest in nutritional sciences and biochemistry.