Company & Commercial

We provide a comprehensive range of corporate and business law services to clients of all sizes, both domestic and cross-border, and at all stages of their development.

We assist clients from start-up to exit and beyond, providing “on-call” advice and solutions along the way. Beyond our corporate transactional services, we pride ourselves in providing pragmatic and proactive legal advice in respect of all our clients’ day to day commercial and operational issues.

The Department is a member of the firm’s Offshore Client Group and has formed strong relationships with legal and other professionals around the world. In this capacity we have developed strong transaction management skills in the cross-border context.

Our clients include banks, insurance companies, private equity investors, FSA regulated entities, listed and private companies, consortia, professional partnerships and individuals. Our clients operate in sectors as diverse as building and construction to financial services and high street retail to intellectual property exploitation and development.

Our relationship-focused and partner-led approach allows us to provide a client-tailored service, acting as either quasi in-house counsel, occasional counsel or anything in between.

Our fundamental objective is to assist our clients in developing their business interests and maximising their profitability.

Our recent experience includes:

Corporate

  • Mergers and acquisitions (including cross-border transactions)
  • Management buy outs and buy ins
  • Corporate finance
  • Joint ventures (often in association with our Commercial Property Team)
  • Corporate governance
  • Listing and Public Company
  • Solvent restructuring
  • Partnerships
  • Limited liability partnerships

    Commercial
     
  • IT contracts
  • Agency and distribution
  • Outsourcing
  • Terms and conditions of business
  • Operational issues and contracts
  • Intellectual property exploitation and protection

    Company
     
  • Formations
  • Secretarial services
  • Shareholders agreements
  • Compliance
  • Directors and officers liabilities

    • Latest News

    Virtual Closings and the Mercury Tax Case - Is a physical closing/completion meeting required now?

    31st July 2009

    The Mercury Tax Case (more formally R (on the application of Mercury Tax Group and another) v HMRC [2008] EWHC 2721)) provides a salutary reminder that form is sometimes more important than substance.
     
    Prior to Mercury it had become common and accepted practice for pre-signed signature pages to be circulated among the parties at a virtual, that is, non-physical closing where the signature pages were exchanged by email or fax.
     
    But in Mercury the judge held that the signature on an incomplet... read more