Corporate & Commercial

From the outset, choosing the right structure for your business venture is crucial to its success. In order to choose the right structure, you need advice that is thorough, practical and proactive. At Butcher & Barlow, we advise in relation to sole practitioners, partners, LLP’ and Limited Companies, as well as the establishment of Trusts and charitable organisations. The Team will work alongside your Accountant and any other business advisor, and once decided upon, will draft the appropriate Agreements, constitutional documents and ancillary Agreements.

Under UK company law the relationship between shareholders remains, save for limited statutory provisions and a company’s articles of association, unregulated. A written agreement is therefore necessary to define and govern the relationship between shareholders, which lessens the risk of a dispute arising. You can read more about Shareholder Agreements in our downloadable guides.

We will also consider whether a Cross Option Agreement is required to protect the business and the surviving shareholder on the death of a shareholder.

There are many day-to-day legal issues in the running of a business and ensuring the right contracts and agreements are in place with suppliers, customers, agents and your employees is key to the business’s long-term success. The ability to pair the technical legal skills of our team with the commercial needs of our clients is what makes us the perfect fit for you and your business. We draft, review, negotiate and report on a full range of commercial agreements across numerous sectors, with clients ranging from local start-ups to multinational companies.

We are able to provide a complete legal service for Franchisors or Franchisees to ensure that their legal rights are protected, and that both businesses are able to achieve a positive return on the franchise.

There comes a point in the period of ownership of any Shareholder where he, she (or they) is looking to exit the business and dispose of the shares. We have particular expertise and substantial experience in this area of law and are able to advise at all stages of the process, from the initial terms of agreement for the sale of the shares, to dealing with due diligence enquiries or replies to drafting or reviewing the sale terms including any warranties that are attached; we can also deal with the employee and property considerations and another ancillary to secure the outcome you desire.

Our Team has extensive experience in advising on all stages of asset sales and purchases. This experience allows us to thoroughly understand your commercial objectives and provide you with clear, tailored advice and documentation to enable these objectives. Our team will work collaboratively with the employment and commercial property teams to ensure an efficient transaction.

We are able to give advice in relation to all aspects of Partnership law, including formation, Partnership Agreements, regulation of Partners and dissolution and retirement, both in respect of the traditional Partnership model and LLP’s.

From the credit and underwriting process, through to drafting the facility agreements and putting in place security, our team can assist. Having worked with lenders and borrowers for many years, we understand the financing challenges from both perspectives, enabling us to deliver practical, commercial solutions to the most complex of arrangements.

We are able to deal with purchase of businesses that may be in administration or liquidation, or advise Directors looking to enter such arrangements, where necessary, working closely with insolvency practitioners. With a long history of being able to deal with purchase of assets from Insolvency Practitioners, we can ensure that something can be salvaged from a very difficult and often distressing situation.

Succession planning is the process of deciding how best to move your wealth on to future generations. At its simplest succession planning will consist of making a Will but complex situations may require further steps for example setting up a Family Investment Company or a Trust. Working with our Private Client Team, we will take time to understand your business and your personal objective and create a succession plan specifically tailor to your needs.