Overview
Meila Burgess is a Senior Lawyer in Applied Intelligence, Linklaters’ multi-disciplinary practice operating at the intersection of law, AI and data science to deliver bespoke solutions to our clients’ most significant problems and opportunities. She leads the practice’s corporate-side work, working closely with the firm’s Corporate Division and data scientists to identify, shape and deliver AI-augmented mandates for clients.
Meila has a broad range of experience in public and private M&A transactions, joint ventures, corporate reorganisations and corporate governance, with particular focus in global carve-out transactions and public M&A. She also spent time in the corporate legal team at Unilever on secondment during the simplification of their dual-listed company structure.
Prior to being part of the founding Applied Intelligence team, Meila led the rollout and adoption of Legora across the firm’s Mainstream Corporate practice in London. She has always had a keen interest and active involvement in the adoption of technology during practice – before AI dramatically lowered the barrier to building such tools, she designed and delivered a client-facing carve-out portal leveraging her global carve-out expertise, used on global transactions to provide real-time reporting and key data, which was welcomed by clients as delivering real value.
Experience
- Britvic plc: advising on Carlsberg A/S’s £3.3bn takeover of Britvic.
- Barratt Developments plc: advising on the £2.5bn recommended all share offer for Redrow plc.
- Perfetti Van Melle: advising on the US$1.35bn acquisition of Mondelez’s developed-market gum business in Europe and North America.
- Thermo Fisher: advising on the £2.3bn acquisition of The Binding Site group, a Birmingham-based life sciences company focussing on the research, development, production and sale of specialist medical diagnostic products which detect and monitor types of bone marrow cancer, from a group of sellers led by Nordic Capital.
- Unilever PLC: advising on the €4.5bn sale of the world’s leading tea business with a portfolio of 34 leading brands (including PG Tips, Pukka, T2 and TAZO), 11 factories and three tea estates in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania to CVC Capital Partners, including a complex pre-acquisition carve out.
- Takeda Pharmaceuticals International AG: advising on the €350m sale of its haemostasis product TachoSil to Corza Health, Inc.
- Unilever PLC: advising on the €6.825bn sale of the global baking, cooking and spreads business to KKR.
- National Grid: advising on its £13.8bn sale of a 61% equity interest in its UK gas distribution business to a consortium of long-term infrastructure investors, including pre-acquisition reorganisations.
Admissions