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Overview
Max Baird-Smith is a Partner and Head of the Corporate Practice. He is also Co-Head of the firm’s Family Office Practice.
Max has extensive experience handling complex domestic and cross-border corporate transactions and family-office matters and is particularly recognised for his commercial, solution-focused approach.
He works with clients across a broad range of sectors including technology, financial services, energy, infrastructure, media and real estate.
Max is also Head of the firm’s Luxury Asset Practice.
Expertise
Max specialises in:
- Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
- Private Capital and Family Office Transactions
- Corporate/Family Office Advisory
- Joint Ventures and Strategic Partnerships
- Cross-Border Corporate Transactions
- Luxury Asset Transactions
Work Highlights
- Advised an international family office on the recapitalisation of a FTSE250 listed company and related financing and governance arrangements.
- Advised Eon Productions Limited and members of the Broccoli family in forming a joint venture with Amazon MGM Studios concerning intellectual property rights attaching to the iconic James Bond franchise.
- Advised an international family office on key-executive incentive and carry arrangements.
- Advised Merck Mercuriadis, founder of Hipgnosis Song Management, in connection with Blackstone’s £1.3 billion takeover of Hipgnosis Songs Fund.
- Advised a family trust on the disposal of a major industrial group.
- Advised an international family office on the creation of a film-production joint-venture.
- Advised a branch of a significant Middle Eastern family on restructuring of shareholder and governance arrangements.
- Advised senior executives in the quantitative trading sector in forming a joint venture with a leading American quantitative trading firm to develop and operate automated quantitative trading strategies across global financial markets.
- Advised an international office in relation to purchase and management of luxury assets in France.
- Advised the shareholders on the disposal of a significant infrastructure business.
- Advised a major UK specialist social care and education provider in arranging a complex, multi-phase transaction involving the acquisition of a number of sites, the establishment of a joint venture for the operation of a specialist care facility and financing arrangements.
- Advised a family office on its co-investment with Graphite Capital in Storal Learning Ltd.
- Advised a global education investment firm in connection with its complex cross-jurisdictional acquisition of a UK company providing software solutions to international schools and universities.
- Advised France–based international consultancy firm Sia on the acquisition of various businesses in the consultancy and technology sector.
- Advised an internationally-recognised art dealer, collector and philanthropist in connection with the establishment of a family fund structure.
- Advised a family on the restructuring of the vehicle holding the family’s aviation business.
- Advised in relation to the restructuring of a Swedish family-office’s family investment funds and the establishment of a UK family office.
- Advised Cerno Capital Partners on its purchase of the business of Alvarium Investment Managers.
- Advised Medtech in connection with its inspection services partnership with the Liberian Government.
- Advised Vectura Group plc on the management buy-out of its oral manufacturing subsidiary, Skyepharma Production.
- Advised Lactalis on the squeeze-out and delisting of its Croatian subsidiary, Dukat.
- Advised EDF on its equity investment in Standard Microgrid, a leading solar microgrid developer based in Zambia.
- Advised Chenavari Investment Managers on the disposal of its leasing subsidiary, Geolia Leasing Solutions.
- Advised Carlisle Companies Incorporated on its acquisition of Draka Fileca SAS, a supplier of high-end cable solutions to the aerospace, space and defence sectors, from Prysmian Group.
- Advised Bpifrance on the initial public offering of Verallia group (a global glass bottle manufacturer) on Euronext Paris, one of the largest recent IPOs on Euronext Paris.
- Advised KKR on its strategic partnership with Tivoli Capital to develop Newton Offices’ new generation of offices in France.
- Advised Cahiers du Cinema (UK) on the disposal of film magazine Cahiers du Cinema to a group of French investors.
- Advised Vinci on the disposal of the London Olympic stadium operator.
- Advised Crédit Agricole Assurances on the acquisition of Indigo car parks alongside Ardian (enterprise value €1.96 billion).
- Advised Crédit Agricole Assurances on the acquisition of a minority stake in the gas pipeline company TIGF (enterprise value €2.4 billion).
- Advised Crédit Agricole Assurances on the acquisition of a minority stake in motorway concession company, Atlandes.
- Advised Stockdale Capital Partners on its acquisition of CEIT.
- Advised DeA Capital on its disposal of a majority stake in Générale de Santé for €788 million.
- Advised Bpifrance on the acquisition, alongside Apollo, of Verallia (enterprise value €2.945 billion).
- Advised Bpifrance on the disposal of the French activities of TDF (enterprise value €3.6 billion).
- Advised Bpifrance on the acquisition of a minority stake alongside Apax in INSEEC higher-education group.
- Advised Safran on its space-launcher joint venture (Airbus Safran Launchers) with Airbus Group, a significant and complex joint venture which created a European champion for space launchers.
- Advised the French State on the merger of tank and armored vehicle manufacturers Nexter (company owned as to 100% by the French State) and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (combined enterprise value of €2 billion).
- Advised VimpelCom on its sale of a 51% controlling stake in Omnium Telecom Algeria (formerly known as Djezzy), held by its Global Telecom Holding (GTH) subsidiary, to the Algerian National Investment Fund (FNI) for US$2.6 billion.
Certain matters handled prior to joining the firm.
Qualifications & Accreditations
Max qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2005 after training at Slaughter and May and became a partner in 2013.
He is a graduate of Oxford University, speaks French and is also a member of the French Bar (non-practising).
Awards & Accolades
- The Legal 500 UK 2027 ranks Max Baird-Smith as a ‘Recommended Key Lawyer’ for ‘M&A: Smaller Deals (£10m–£100m)’.
- Spears 500 2026 ranks Max Baird-Smith as ‘Top Recommended’ for Corporate Lawyers with a focus on non-contentious transactions.
- The Legal 500 UK 2026 ranks Max Baird-Smith as a ‘Recommended Key Lawyer’ for ‘M&A: Smaller Deals (£10m–£100m)’.
- Spear’s Corporate Lawyers Index 2025 ranks Max Baird-Smith as ‘Top Recommended’.
- Chambers High Net Worth 2025 highlights Max Baird-Smith as a ‘Notable Practitioner’ for ‘Family Offices & Funds Structuring’.
