Karen Davies

Karen Davies

Global Chair based in London

+44 20 7859 3667 +44 7801 782 031
Karen Davies

Karen Davies is Ashurst's Global Chair and a senior M&A partner in our corporate practice

Elected as Global Chair in 2021, the first woman to hold the role in the firm's 200+ year history, Karen brings a combination of strategic leadership and market leading transactional expertise to the firm. She previously served as UK Head of Corporate, and has been a member of the Ashurst Board since 2017.

Throughout her tenure as Global Chair, Karen has ensured the Board’s effective leadership, leveraging the firm’s strengths to drive meaningful transformation through innovation and technology, and delivering for Ashurst’s people and its communities through sustainable and inclusive practices.

As one of the city's most prolific dealmakers, Karen continues to advise on some of the largest and most complex deals in the market. She is a trusted advisor to a number of the firms key clients including Tritax Big Box REIT, Babcock International, McLaren Group and UK Government. Clients value her 'breadth of knowledge', commercial judgment and effective handling of M&A and capital markets transactions, noting she is a 'pleasure to work with' who 'delivers advice rapidly and pragmatically with a strong emphasis on what matters to her clients'.

Karen has extensive experience advising both corporate clients and investment banks on a full range of domestic and cross-border corporate finance transactions. She specialises in merger and acquisitions and equity capital markets work, advising on acquisitions and disposals as well as corporate finance matters (Official List and AIM). She is ranked as an Eminent Practitioner by Chambers, recognised amongst the top dealmakers by MergerLinks, and has led the MergerMarket lawyer rankings for both the number of M&A deals and number of deals by value.

Widely regarded as one of the strongest female leaders in the City, Karen has also been recognised by Financial News as one of their Most Influential Women in Finance (2021 - 2025) and in their inaugural list of the Most Influential in European Finance (2024), by the Financial Times as an Innovative Leader (2022), amongst Law.com International's Women, Influence & Power in Law (2020 and 2021) and as one of The Lawyer's Hot 100 standout lawyers.

Latest thinking

Carousel: clicking the "Previous" or "Next" button changes the content between the buttons.

Latest news, deals and awards

Carousel: clicking the "Previous" or "Next" button changes the content between the buttons.

image

News

Welcome to our new partners!

Ashurst welcomes 20 new partners to the global partnership.

Read More