Profile
Ian Coulter is the Managing Partner of the firm and one of the Senior Partners in the Corporate Department. He joined Tughans from City of London firm Mayer Brown. Ian has been a Partner in the Corporate Department since 2001 and became Managing Partner at Tughans in 2009.
He specialises in mergers and acquisitions (particularly those with multi-jurisdictional elements) and venture capital transactions. He also has considerable experience in management buy-outs and buy-ins and institutional/private equity leveraged deals. In addition he has built up an expertise in providing advice to information technology companies, particularly in relation to venture capital funding. He acts as company secretary for several clients and also for Momentum (The Northern Ireland ICT Federation).
More generally, Ian is Chairman of the CBI in Northern Ireland. He is also a visiting lecturer in Company Law at the Institute for Legal Studies, Belfast and is a leading member of Pro-Help, a Northern Ireland pro-bono organisation.
Ian is recognised as a leader in the field of ‘corporate/M&A’ by Chambers UK 2013 where he is ranked in Band 1.
He is described by sources as "very impressive: he’s commercial, listens to the client and doesn’t get bogged down in having an unnecessary legal sparring match." ' (Chambers UK 2013)
Clients highlight his knowledge and experience, and add that he is “a good strategist and a good project manager.” (Chambers 2012).
According to one interviewee Ian Coulter "works harder than any other lawyer in town on client relations" (Chambers UK 2011).
He is also described as “client focused” and “very commercial and thinks outside the box” (UK Legal 500 2010).