Mr Smith brings a wealth of corporate finance and boardroom expertise, including in M&A, private equity and equity capital markets matters across a range of sectors from his time at Linklaters, Dentons and, latterly, as general counsel at Argenta, a KKR backed international pharma services group.

He said: “I am delighted to join the Corporate Finance team at Shepherd and Wedderburn and look forward to using my experience to support clients with their corporate finance needs and to further expand the firm’s excellent corporate finance offering.”

Andrew Blain, managing partner, added: “We are delighted to welcome Donald to our team. His breadth of experience – particularly in life sciences, private equity and energy – will further strengthen our offering in key strategic areas for our firm.”