Our clients include national and international investors, trusts and pension funds, national retailers, trading companies, local authorities, private and public healthcare providers, schools and colleges.

Our commercial lawyers can help you and your business grow and develop – whether you’re starting a new business, need advice on the day-to-day running of your existing operations, are looking to expand through financing, merging or buying or are simply selling up. We work with small and medium sized businesses, owner managed businesses and entrepreneurs in Hertfordshire, London and across the UK.

We work closely with you and your other professional advisers to provide practical and commercial advice to ensure that projects are delivered within agreed timescales and within budget. We offer highly competitive rates compared with City firms, without compromising on the quality of service.

Working with our employment, property and litigation teams, we advise on all forms of company and commercial work and have a particular focus on the IT, charities, recruitment and healthcare sectors. Our approach is to provide you with a single integrated service backed up by our industry knowledge.

Banking, Finance & Loan Agreements

Ease of access to finance can make or break a business. We know that providing fast, practical advice is essential to ensure that funds are there to tide you over in the difficult times or to help you push on with your next venture.

Whether we are asked to advise on documents issued by your bank, take out security over assets and property or draft documents to protect your interests, we provide a hassle free service and a no nonsense explanation of the process and risks involved for you. We are regularly instructed by lenders and investors, as well as borrowers and companies seeking finance. We can advise individuals on personal guarantees and companies on corporate or cross-guarantees together with the associated security package, such as debentures and legal charges, as well as priority arrangements involving deeds of priority, deeds of postponement or intercreditor agreements.

Our team of lawyers works closely with both banks and businesses to ensure that sums being borrowed are made available as quickly as possible. We have years of experience of dealing with the process and know when and how far to push to get a deal completed.

The key issues to consider when seeking or providing finance include

What is the risk to you if you borrow?
In the case of many small to medium sized businesses seeking to borrow sums, the lender may ask for a personal guarantee. This allows the bank to seek repayment of the loan from you as an alternative to suing the business if it defaults. If you agree to this, you may place your home at risk if the business fails and is unable to repay its debts. It’s important that you check at the outset whether a personal guarantee will be asked for and, if it will, consider carefully whether you are willing to agree.

What are the risks to you if you lend?
The biggest risk to you as a lender is that the sums being loaned are not repaid. Whilst you can usually sue the borrower for any outstanding repayments, that right will be of limited value if the borrower has already disposed of its assets. Taking security in the form of a debenture over a company backed up by legal charges against its property, provides you with an option to prevent certain assets being sold in the first place.

Buying and Selling a Business

Buying or selling a business can be a complex task. Having the right team working with you from the outset will make all the difference when it comes to getting fast, straightforward legal and professional advice, allowing you to remain focused on the business.

Whether you are buying or selling, timing and achieving maximum value are key to success. We can advise you every step of the way, from initial negotiations through to completion, identifying any possible issues and drafting and negotiating documents required to complete the transaction.

Every transaction is different so we take a creative approach to find the best solution to meet your needs; finding the best structure, communicating regularly with other professionals involved in the deal, whilst keeping a close eye on costs to make sure the transaction remains within budget.

You’ll also benefit from the expertise of our property and employment lawyers who have extensive experience of all the possible issues that can arise from a commercial transaction.

The key issue to consider is whether you will be buying or selling either the shares or assets.

Share sales
If you are buying or selling an entire company (rather than part of a company, a partnership or sole trader) it will be an option for you to buy or sell the shares of the company.

The main advantage to you if you sell your shares, is that you will effectively (with some exceptions) cut all ties with the company going forwards. All of the existing liabilities, including any legal claims and outstanding debts, will be transferred with the company’s assets to the buyer. By selling your shares, you will also receive the purchase price directly.

If you are buying a company you will want to negotiate warranties and indemnities to make sure there are no hidden liabilities. If the seller is not honest, you will want to have sufficient protections in place to allow you to recover from the seller your expenses of dealing with any hidden costs.

Asset sales
An asset sale may be the only (and at times the most sensible) option if the business is not incorporated as a limited company or if only part of a business is being sold. It may also be required by the buyer if they are unwilling to take on the liabilities of the business.

If you are buying a business the advantage of an asset sale is that the seller takes the current liabilities with them unless you agree to take those liabilities on as part of buying the business.

If you are selling your business you will want to ensure that you are not left with any liabilities which will be impossible to satisfy once the business has been sold (such as the performance of the business’ contracts).

You will also need to be aware that if you sell assets owned by a company it is the company which will receive the purchase price rather than you as a shareholder. In such circumstances you may, if permitted, need to pay the purchase price to yourself and other shareholder at a later date by means of a dividend payment (or other form of distribution).

Employment Law

Whether you run a business or work within one, employment law is evolving rapidly and affects us all.

Our employment team works as trusted advisors to owner managed/family businesses, entrepreneurs, SMEs and individuals throughout Hertfordshire and the rest of the UK. We help you navigate the complexities of employment law and minimise commercial risk; whether by taking defensive action to avoid time consuming and costly court disputes, or by offensive action to protect business connections or confidential data.

When complications arise, we take a commercial and creative approach to protect your reputation and avoid lengthy and costly disputes.

We help individuals, particularly at senior/board level, to negotiate favourable terms before starting a new role, or achieving a swift and fair outcome to any workplace dispute, including exit agreements.

Whatever your needs, short court time limits and commercial realities dictate the pace of our work. Time is almost always of the essence, and our team’s focus is on delivering excellent advice quickly with the aim of achieving fast and pragmatic solutions.

Please fill in the form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible or to speak to one of our experts call 01296 392999