Overview
Cara specialises in the design, documentation and disclosure of executive and all-employee incentive arrangements (including employee share plans) and pay reporting requirements. She advises large private company, FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 boards and managements across a broad range of strategic advisory and governance matters relating to remuneration and employees more broadly, including gender and pay ratio reporting, workforce engagement and pay disclosure rules. She regularly advises on highly confidential director/senior manager recruitments and terminations.
Cara also has in-depth experience in complex public and private M&A, rights issues/capital raisings, divestments/reorganisations to extract value for shareholders (including returns of capital/special dividends), and IPOs. She works closely with Linklaters’ corporate, tax, employment, disputes and trust teams, as required, to ensure clients receive joined-up day-to-day advisory and transactional advice.
Cara has been recognised by Management Today’s prestigious 35 Women Under 35 list for her strong reputation in the market, advising boards and senior executives of numerous FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies on remuneration strategy and governance.
Work highlights
As well as regularly advising many FTSE100 and FTSE 250 companies, Cara has advised on the remuneration and incentives aspects of many major corporate deals. These include advising:
- The Just Eat board and management on its £12bn combination with Takeaway.com
- Takeda Pharmaceutical Company in relation to its £46bn recommended offer for Shire plc, the largest ever outbound M&A deal by a Japanese company
- Capita in relation to its c. £701m rights issue
- Helios Towers on its London IPO
- Brookfield Global Business Advisor on its recommended £2.2bn cash offer for Network International Holdings
- EY Global on the share plan aspects of the proposed separation of its global audit and consulting businesses
- A FTSE 100-listed energy group on its acquisition of a 50.03% interest in a renewables company
Professional experience
Cara has additional experience of working as a remuneration consultant. She worked in that capacity for EY in Sydney between 2011 and 2014, before rejoining Linklaters in London.
Cara is an innovation champion within the firm, and actively supports the firm’s gender diversity and financial literacy initiatives.
Cara was until recently secretary of the tax committee of the Share Plan Lawyers Group, an informal group for lawyers in law firms advising on employee share plans.
She is a regular speaker at industry events. Her publications include:
- “Executive pay: How to prepare for the CEO pay ratio reporting requirements”, Employment Law Journal, December 2018/January 2019, with Mirit Ehrenstein.
- “CEO pay ratios disclosure: time to prepare”, Practical Law, November 2018, with Mirit Ehrenstein.
Education and qualifications
Cara studied law and arts at the University of Technology, Sydney.
