Corporate
Law

We have a strong track record of delivering practical and insightful legal advice, helping to get your acquisition or sale successfully completed. We work closely with our clients and their advisers, whether you are an owner-manager, private company or large public entity, to understand the business, the marketplace, and the core objectives for the transaction. Our deal size is typically £2m-£30m with many deals in the £7m-£20m range, but whatever the size of your transaction please do get in touch. 

We can advise you on share or business sales and purchases, management buy-outs and fundraising. From the due diligence stage right the way through to completion and integration.

Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) provide the organisational flexibility of a general partnership, but with the added benefit of limiting the liability of its members, similar to that afforded by a limited liability companies. Our team can assist with incorporating an LLP, transferring the business and assets from a general partnership to the LLP, preparing a members agreement setting out the right obligations of the members of the LLP and advising on the appointment and retirement of members.

We have years of experience in drafting and negotiating both UK and cross-border joint venture arrangements which deliver their commercial objectives. We can assist you in identifying the best structure for your joint venture, which would normally either be through a contractual arrangement or forming a new corporate entity as the joint venture vehicle. The latter would involve the preparation of a joint venture shareholders’ agreement.

We often deliver training to directors and in-house legal teams on their duties and responsibilities and advise on corporate governance procedures and policies.

There are many practical and legal considerations when choosing a particular corporate or partnership structure, including the type of funding to be provided, how the business is managed or controlled and how any potential exit may be achieved. We can assess the various options and help you to make the right decision.

Our Corporate team works closely with you to ensure that your business is structured in the most efficient way. We can support you at all levels, from drafting effective shareholder and partnership agreements, through to guiding you through a reorganisation to drive efficiencies and profitability. We advise on, and implement, corporate reorganisations in many forms. This helps clients to achieve a wide range of objectives including streamlining their business, preparing for sale, succession planning, providing an exit strategy for shareholders or for tax or financial purposes. We will work closely with your management team and other advisers to develop a pragmatic, commercial solution whilst avoiding disruption to the business during the process.

Shareholders’ Agreements and Articles of Association provide a company with stability and clarity, yet they are often overlooked. We can work with you to draw up documentation that works for both you and your business, to regularise the relationships between shareholders. We also support our clients when dealing with a wide range of director and shareholder disputes. Every shareholder dispute is unique and in some instances a resolution will be resolved through litigation in the courts, but in other instances a more favourable outcome can be achieved by agreement between the shareholders and restructuring the ownership arrangements. We can assist you with both approaches.

Our team advises on all aspects of lending including advising on loan related documentation such as facility letters, guarantees and intercreditor deeds, as well as on any related security documentation (including debentures and legal charges).

We deal with the incorporation of new companies and can help companies with routine Companies House filings and maintenance of their statutory registers after incorporation.

We deal with the incorporation of charitable companies limited by guarantee and Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIO). We can also advise on the transfer of assets from an unincorporated charity to a charitable company or CIO.