John McMahon is a Solicitor with 30 years of experience as a corporate commercial lawyer, specialising in M&A, corporate finance, and renewables. He has worked in England, Northern Ireland, and overseas, both in private practice and in-house for large multinational organisations.
John trained with Eversheds in Manchester and remained with the firm post-qualification, working across the corporate, commercial, and intellectual property teams. During this time, he completed in-house placements with Zeneca and Granada Television. He later became a Partner at Halliwells in Manchester before moving to Bermuda in 2001 to join offshore law firm Appleby. There, he worked as Counsel in the corporate insurance and reinsurance department, advising on US private equity investment in new Bermuda-based reinsurance companies in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. He was also involved in the subsequent listing of those reinsurance companies on the New York Stock Exchange.
John is known for being a solutions-based commercial lawyer and dealmaker. In 2016, he co-founded McMahon McKay in Belfast with co-director Danny McKay, and has since developed a wide-ranging practice encompassing renewable energy, carbon reduction and sequestration, logistics, healthcare, leisure and hospitality, aerospace, and transport. He is recognised in the Legal 500 for his M&A work and currently heads the Corporate Commercial team in the Northern Ireland office.
John is now the Founding Partner of Spencer West Ireland with offices in both Belfast and Dublin. He is admitted to practise in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and is also on the roll as a Barrister and Attorney in Bermuda.
John is the co-author of the current edition of Sweet & Maxwell’s Sale of Shares and Businesses and brings a wealth of practical experience and commercial insight to his work.
Outside the office, John enjoys golf, cooking, walking, and live music.
