“I support ambitious and innovative clients to take advantage of a range of strategic opportunities – be that partnering with others, raising finance, acquisitions or mergers.”

John has expertise in all aspects of corporate law, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity, venture capital, corporate restructuring and reorganisations, joint ventures, and governance matters.

John advises clients across several sectors, with a particular focus on renewables (he leads our onshore renewable sector), technology, life sciences and other high-growth companies (he has acted for many such companies), and private equity and venture capital (he has acted for many development banks and European private equity houses on funding arrangements).

He has a wide range of clients: he has acted on high-profile transactions for the Scottish National Investment Bank, Epic Games, TV Squared, Two Big Ears, Offshore Wind Power, Outer Dowsing, Acciona, EDPR and TMC Pharma, among others. He is active in the Scottish business community and, in his pro bono work for accelerators, he mentors several ambitious entrepreneurs. John also launched, and now leads, our Start to Scale initiative. He is also the Company Secretary of Scottish Renewables.

Areas of practice include:

Sector experience includes:

Admitted

2011: Scotland

Relevant experience

Renewables

Acting for a significant renewable energy developer in relation to its development joint venture with REG.
Acting for EDPR on the acquisition of five Scottish onshore wind projects.
Acting for Vattenfall on its joint venture arrangements for Ourack Wind Farm.
Acting for an onshore wind developer on over 30 separate sales of onshore wind projects.
Acting for Viking Energy on its arrangement for Viking Wind Farm.
Acting for RPPL on the acquisition, development and sale of certain reserve generation and BESS assets.
Acting on the acquisitions of four reserve power plants, being Ashford Power Ltd, Brecon Power Ltd, Beaufort Power Ltd and Wednesbury Power Ltd, from First Gen.
Acting for Eider Investors on the sale of a number of energy projects.
Acting for a major European developer on the proposed acquisition of one of the largest portfolios of BESS projects to come to market in the UK to date.
Acting for Cierco on the acquisition of SBM Renewables’ interest in Floventis Energy, the joint venture undertaking the Llyr (Celtic Sea) and Cademo (California) floating offshore wind projects.
Acting for Offshore Wind Power Limited on the 2GW West of Orkney Wind Farm involving Corio, Total and RIDG.
Acting for SMartwind and each of the SMartwind project companies on the investment into the Zone by Ørsted as well as the eventual sale of the Zone to Ørsted.

Technology, life sciences and other high-growth companies

Acting for TV Squared in its sale to NASDAQ-listed Innovid.
Acting for FanDuel Limited on its sale to Flutter.
Acting for Two Big Ears on its sale to Facebook.
Acting for TMC Pharma on the £18m investment into the company by LDC.
Acting for Cytochroma, Serene and Valla on all of their investment to date.

Private equity and venture capital

Advising the Scottish National Investment Bank and others on the £16.7 million investment into spaceflight company Orbex.
Advising Old College Capital on its a number of investments.

“John takes so much (extra) time to understand your business and open doors and look for contacts who can help. I can’t count the number of times he’s gone above and beyond and introduced me to people who were helpful to my business.”

Founders Survey – Unsung Heroes (2022)

Further testimonials

“John Morrison was exceptional at leading the S+W team, as well as negotiating with a very difficult counterpart. Its added value is very high in highly complex operations.”

Legal 500 (2025)

“John Morrison is absolutely fantastic. He’s empathetic, pragmatic, and always very clear when helping me make difficult decisions. He has supported us through some incredibly tough times with good humour and excellent advice.”

Legal 500 (2025)

“John is an excellent lawyer who gives support legally and commercially.”

Chambers (2025)

“John is very strong and meets our expectations.”

Chambers (2025)

“John has an encyclopaedic knowledge of all relevant corporate and commercial agreements across a range of topic areas.”

Chambers (2024)

“He has a calm, decisive and clear way of interacting which inspires confidence in him and what he puts together.”

Chambers (2024)