One minute with Oliver Walker, Tax Partner in the London office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
A large part of my practice involves corporate and finance transactions. Often, there is some inertia in January as the work can take a little while to ramp up following the inevitable push to close things by the previous year-end. However, my matters list is already looking healthy and includes IPOs, take-privates, incentive plans and a number of private acquisitions and disposals. 2025 is off to a flying start.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
I think some of the best lawyers are curious people, and I would encourage anybody at the start (or any other part) of their career to ask lots of questions. Ask your clients to confirm why they want something in a certain way. Ask your counterpart to justify their request, and explain why it is so important to their client. And never forget to ask your colleagues for help or guidance. Also, I was probably a bit more uptight when I was a younger lawyer – it took me a while to understand that it is possible to be professional and to enjoy your work at the same time!
If you could make one change to tax, what would it be?
I would not ask for much – just a more accessible set of tax rules (particularly those that impact tax planning for individuals and small businesses) and better opportunities for taxpayers to engage in meaningful discussions with HMRC on points that they are unsure of. Lack of certainty around tax outcomes can have a chilling effect on transactions, even where the concerns may be overblown or misplaced. While larger businesses might have the resources to instruct advisers to analyse the rules for them, set some funds aside in case of challenge, or possibly pay for insurance coverage, those avenues are not always open for individuals and smaller businesses. Although many of my clients do not fall into that bracket, they will often enter into transactions with people that do.
Are there any new rules that are causing a particular problem in practice?
As we all know, clients are now spending considerable time and resource working through the impact of Pillar Two and debating whether they should make consequential changes to their group structures. On the transactional side of things, joint ventures can be complicated by the possibility of one party’s wider tax profile adversely affecting the Pillar Two analysis for the other(s). The financial risks can be mitigated through contractual protections, but that can result in additional time spent drafting and negotiating complicated provisions for the investment agreement.
And on a completely different note, the increase to employer’s NICs announced in last year’s Autumn Budget, coupled with the rise in the minimum wage, is going to pose a real problem particularly for those affected companies that are not currently profitable (perhaps because their business is seasonal or there has been a recent downturn in their sector). The full effects of the increases will unfold over time.
You might not know this about me but...
When I am not practising tax law at Weil, I co-chair the London office’s wellbeing and disability inclusion efforts, essentially focusing on how we can better look after our people and enable them to bring their full selves to work. I find both initiatives extremely rewarding and my dual roles have allowed me to meet lots of inspiring people outside the firm who have come up against some form of adversity and emerged on the other side – by and large, their stories make giving tax advice look a doddle!
One minute with Oliver Walker, Tax Partner in the London office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
A large part of my practice involves corporate and finance transactions. Often, there is some inertia in January as the work can take a little while to ramp up following the inevitable push to close things by the previous year-end. However, my matters list is already looking healthy and includes IPOs, take-privates, incentive plans and a number of private acquisitions and disposals. 2025 is off to a flying start.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
I think some of the best lawyers are curious people, and I would encourage anybody at the start (or any other part) of their career to ask lots of questions. Ask your clients to confirm why they want something in a certain way. Ask your counterpart to justify their request, and explain why it is so important to their client. And never forget to ask your colleagues for help or guidance. Also, I was probably a bit more uptight when I was a younger lawyer – it took me a while to understand that it is possible to be professional and to enjoy your work at the same time!
If you could make one change to tax, what would it be?
I would not ask for much – just a more accessible set of tax rules (particularly those that impact tax planning for individuals and small businesses) and better opportunities for taxpayers to engage in meaningful discussions with HMRC on points that they are unsure of. Lack of certainty around tax outcomes can have a chilling effect on transactions, even where the concerns may be overblown or misplaced. While larger businesses might have the resources to instruct advisers to analyse the rules for them, set some funds aside in case of challenge, or possibly pay for insurance coverage, those avenues are not always open for individuals and smaller businesses. Although many of my clients do not fall into that bracket, they will often enter into transactions with people that do.
Are there any new rules that are causing a particular problem in practice?
As we all know, clients are now spending considerable time and resource working through the impact of Pillar Two and debating whether they should make consequential changes to their group structures. On the transactional side of things, joint ventures can be complicated by the possibility of one party’s wider tax profile adversely affecting the Pillar Two analysis for the other(s). The financial risks can be mitigated through contractual protections, but that can result in additional time spent drafting and negotiating complicated provisions for the investment agreement.
And on a completely different note, the increase to employer’s NICs announced in last year’s Autumn Budget, coupled with the rise in the minimum wage, is going to pose a real problem particularly for those affected companies that are not currently profitable (perhaps because their business is seasonal or there has been a recent downturn in their sector). The full effects of the increases will unfold over time.
You might not know this about me but...
When I am not practising tax law at Weil, I co-chair the London office’s wellbeing and disability inclusion efforts, essentially focusing on how we can better look after our people and enable them to bring their full selves to work. I find both initiatives extremely rewarding and my dual roles have allowed me to meet lots of inspiring people outside the firm who have come up against some form of adversity and emerged on the other side – by and large, their stories make giving tax advice look a doddle!
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