Our People

Valeriya advises on a broad range of corporate matters, focusing on private M&A, corporate reorganisations, investments and fundraisings and corporate governance. She has acted for family-run companies, founders and investors and corporate groups across the hospitality, TMT, live events and real estate sectors. Drawing on her earlier experience in real estate finance and property, she brings a strong grounding in asset-backed and real estate-heavy transactions.

She is active in business development, contributes thought leadership on legal technology and AI, and has participated in the industry roundtable on the future of AI in legal services.

Valeriya joined Teacher Stern in 2019 as a paralegal in Banking & Finance before moving to Real Estate, where she assisted a family-run group on the restructuring of a £400m property portfolio and refinancing of major UK shopping centres. During her training contract she returned to Banking & Finance and completed seats in Commercial Litigation, Construction, and Corporate & Commercial.

Originally from Ukraine, Valeriya is fluent in Ukrainian and Russian, speaks conversational Spanish, and is learning Arabic.

Year qualified: 2024

 Representative experience

• Acting as lead associate on the acquisition of a UK live-events company by an Australian group, drafting and negotiating the SPA and managing disclosure to a tight completion timetable.
• Advising on the pre-sale preparation and the subsequent JV structuring for a national hospitality group.
• Supporting a telecoms company on the acquisition of a printing business, with a focus on commercial due diligence.
• Advising the founder of a luxury recovery wear business on early-stage fundraising and subsequent VC investment (including shareholder and subscription agreements and amended articles of association).
• Corporate reorganisations, including cross-border share-for-share exchanges, share buybacks, capital reductions and demergers.
• Advising residential property management companies on corporate governance and board processes, including director disputes and drafting bespoke articles of association.

Professional achievements

• Secured a £40k fee uplift on an M&A transaction by driving timetable discipline and documentation strategy.
• Pro bono: supported OnSide youth zone projects in Barnet, Manchester, Crewe and Warrington; part of the firm’s team awarded the Founders Patrons Award (2021).

Education

•  LLB Law, City University London (First Class Honours)
  • Recipient of six academic prizes, including Dennis Glover Memorial Prize (Company Law) and Martin Dockray Prize (Best Part 3 Performance).
• LLM in Corporate Law, UCL
• LPC, BPP Holborn (Distinction)