Danny McNeill

Danny McNeill is an Associate in Bird & Bird's Employee Incentives and Benefits team, based in London. His primary practice area is Employment Law, with a focus on employee incentive arrangements.

He advises listed and private companies on their employee incentive arrangements, including both share-based and cash incentive plans. His work covers initial plan design, day-to-day operations, and the incentives aspects of funding rounds, M&A and joining or leaving a business.

A significant part of his practice involves helping clients think through the commercial and tax implications of their incentive structures. He works closely with founders, management teams and investors to design arrangements that align with their business objectives, and regularly assists clients in agreeing valuations with HMRC's Shares and Assets Valuation team for both EMI and CSOP options.

On transactions, he advises on matters including EMI and other tax-advantaged schemes, equity rollover structures, and management participation across different deal stages. He has worked on early-stage funding rounds through to complex exits, helping clients manage the tax, regulatory and documentation challenges of incentivising management in competitive deal environments.

He trained at a Silver Circle firm before joining Bird & Bird, gaining strong exposure to complex cross-border matters and corporate transactions. He is particularly interested in the intersection between incentives and M&A, including how plan design supports value creation and how buyers scrutinise incentive plans in due diligence.