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Business & Commercial Law

Business and commercial law refers to the laws governing the rights and relations of businesses engaged in trade and commerce, either with the public directly or with other businesses. It is one of the most important areas to consider when setting up or running a business, as it impacts significantly on the success of the business.

Our experienced solicitors regularly advise business and commercial clients from varying industries on a range of legal matters, including:

  • Buying, selling, or starting a business
  • Business structures including partnerships, trusts, and corporations
  • Business name registration
  • Partnership and joint venture agreements
  • Lease agreements
  • Lending agreements, guarantees, and security documents
  • Bankruptcy and debt collection
  • Copyright and intellectual property law
  • Corporate structure, governance, and compliance
  • Corporate mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and sales
  • Employment law, employment contracts, employee share and option schemes
  • Employee rights, unfair dismissal, and confidentiality agreements

Business advice

If you are setting up or running a business, it is important to get expert legal and tax advice on how best to structure the business and deal with different situations as your business grows or develops. Strategic planning will affect how profitable your business will be and may also impact other decisions you need to take further down the track. Too many businesses fail, and friends, colleagues or partners fall out because they did not have the right legal documents in place to direct their business decisions and commercial outcomes when faced with opportunities and challenges.

Having one or several of the following agreements drawn up can help put parties involved in a business on the same page from the start and help them resolve any disputes along the way.

Joint venture agreements

At different times your business may decide to work on a particular project that needs a strategic alliance with another business or person in order to ensure success. A joint venture can be the ideal arrangement for small and medium-sized businesses that need to achieve a certain goal in the short-term.

Although a joint venture is similar to a partnership it has no legal standing. While the project is on-going all costs, assets and income belong to the joint venture. Therefore, the joint venture agreement is an essential document to detail your rights and obligations and those of the other party.

A lawyer can draw up the joint venture agreement clearly setting out the arrangement so that both parties understand the basis of the joint work.

Normally the joint venture agreement would come to an end when the particular work it was set up for is finished.

Partnership agreements

In England as soon as at least two people come together to conduct business, they are deemed to have formed a business partnership under the Partnership Act 1890. Partnerships may take many different forms. Some people imagine a small a husband-wife team running their business, but there is no limit on the number of partners that can form a business partnership.

As a general rule, all partners share equally in the profits and losses of the business and there is no obligation to have a partnership agreement in place. In practice, however, it is very important to have a written contract that sets out the responsibilities, business rules and financial details of the partnership.

Shareholder agreements

A shareholder agreement is a contract between shareholders setting out how the company in which they have interests should be run. They are intended to protect both the business or corporate entity and the shareholders, by setting out the arrangements for how company shares should be bought and sold and stopping those with a simple majority from wielding too much power over the company.

Shareholder agreements can also cover circumstances such as the death or retirement of a shareholder, resignations of board members, how dividends are paid and the frequency of board meetings.

Shareholder agreements are highly recommended for businesses with between two and twenty shareholders. Having a shareholder agreement in place can also demonstrate business stability to banks and other credit institutions.

If you need assistance, contact [email protected] or call 01289 306724 for expert legal advice.