WH Corporate

Our 30-strong corporate team can advise you on all types of transactions including buying, selling and investment, corporate reorganisations and advice and public company transactions. With over thirty years in business, our team of corporate solicitors bring their exceptional experience to bear, ensuring transactions conclude efficiently.

Our team of tax lawyers advise on many different situations, from highly complex corporate structures to ensuring an owner-manager selling their business obtains the most from their deal. From efficiently motivating your employees via incentive schemes to the structure of property transactions.

Our experienced commercial solicitors have significant experience and can work alongside your teams to navigate you through a wide range of commercial contracts and agreements. Whether you’re seeking to complete on a major commercial contract or require specialist advice on a niche area of law, our contract law solicitors are able to help.

Our experienced team of Intellectual Property and Trade Marks specialists can help protect your hard work, offering advice and guidance on the legal ownership of your intellectual property and options on how to safeguard it for the future. We can also help you protect your IP internationally, commercialise it through licencing agreements, as well as offering a Trademarking and design registration support service.

Our specialist team of data protection lawyers can provide help and support to ensure your compliance with data protection regulations and advise on everything from privacy notices, data sharing and Information Commissioner’s investigation to audits, cookie notices and subject access requests.

We provide a clear 360-degree view on corporate governance and have in-depth expertise advising organisations of all sizes across all sectors. Our commercial experts advise on everything from the rights and responsibilities of officers, observers and members and their respective reporting lines through to rules and procedures for decision making, conflicts of interest, accounting for benefits and stakeholder rights.

Our outsourcing lawyers are experts in drafting and negotiating agreements and are skilled in resolving disputes between customers and suppliers, having advised on deals worth more than £950m in the last few years alone.

Our employment team support a wide range of organisations from start-ups and SMEs to major national and international companies on all areas of employment law including: day-to-day advisory support on matters such as performance, conduct and sickness absence; ongoing strategic support such as advice on restructuring; and complex/contentious disputes such as Employment Tribunal claims and settlement                                                            agreements. They also offer “HR Protect”, a package where clients receive all day-to-                                                          day HR and employment law advice for a fixed monthly price.

Our team of specialist immigration solicitors offer a full visa and immigration advice service. Our significant experience includes supporting businesses on a variety of corporate immigration matters including sponsor licence applications, sponsor licence management and compliance and right to work issues. We help businesses recruit new members of staff from overseas and secure their Skilled Worker visas for them as well as relocating staff from overseas group companies via Global Business Mobility visas and bringing key people to the UK temporarily as business visitors.

Our friendly and professional safeguarding experts work in a range of sectors and can help you implement safeguarding best practice, and an effective framework to handle and respond to any safeguarding issues. They can also walk you through the practicalities of policy implementation and deliver staff training.

Our multi-disciplinary team of property lawyers advise businesses and organisations across all sectors on everything from acquisitions and disposals, property development and planning to property disputes, funding and regulatory, finance, landlord and tenant matters and everything in-between.

Our planning lawyers specialise in all areas of  planning, compulsory purchase and highways law. They advise on everything from planning agreements, planning appeals, judicial reviews, planning enforcement, and compulsory purchase orders as well as infrastructure proposals, development consent orders and public rights of way matters. The team also consists of chartered planners and technical drawers who are ably equipped to submit planning                                                            applications and appeals, representation to Development Plans and objections to planning                                            applications.

Our team of experienced construction lawyers have many combined years of experience working across the construction and engineering industry, advising businesses of all shapes and sizes on building, refurbishment and engineering projects. This breadth of knowledge means our construction team understands the world of construction in all its many guises.

Our specialist environmental lawyers can advise you on the full range of environmental matters. We take a pro-active approach to compliance with regulatory requirements in order to address the potential reputational damage that may arise from breaches of environmental law. And in the event an environmental incident does occur, we have particular expertise in dealing with environmental litigation and defending clients both against prosecution and claims.

Our specialist property litigation team have a wealth experience advising on all types of property related disputes including the service of notices, possession, dilapidations, service charge disputes and other commercial landlord and tenant disputes; telecoms matters, easement, covenant, adverse possession and boundary disputes and, finally, property related professional negligence claims.

Our commercial disputes team have years of experience advising on all types of disputes from contractual disputes, defamation/privacy, fraud and insurance disputes to property disputes, intellectual property disputes, IT disputes, Judicial review, shareholder disputes, enforcement of restrictive covenants, sports disputes (for Clubs, governing bodies and agencies), reputation management advice and professional negligence.

In parallel with protecting your rights via litigation where necessary, we always consider, and are well versed in, pursuing appropriate methods of alternative dispute resolution (ADR, including, without limitation, mediation, early neutral evaluation and without prejudice negotiations) to resolve even the most entrenched of disputes. Our team has a strong track record of success with the exploration of ADR and regularly substantial costs savings for their clients in the process.

Whilst we cannot be the mediator in any dispute where our client is a party, we can provide mediation services to third parties which you may know or have commercial dealings with. Multiple of our experienced litigators are also accredited mediators who act impartially to facilitate (whether virtually or in person) the resolution of dispute for parties who have agreed to mediate and then appointed them to conduct the mediation process.

Our team assist clients on the full range of criminal, regulatory and enforcement matters and can provide support through all stages of proceedings, from investigation management through representation at formal interviews (including interviews under caution) and before any court or tribunal.

Our competition and Subsidy Control team work with a range of businesses helping them get to grips with this complex legal area. Our remit includes providing trade-related competition advice covering commercial arrangements, the conduct of firms that are dominant in a market, mergers and joint ventures, public procurement and Subsidy Control.

Our team of licensing lawyers advise a range of clients on all aspects of the Licensing Act 2003, including managing contested applications and successfully securing new licences. We have strong relationships with licensing stakeholders across the country which we utilise to the benefit of our clients.

Our specialist team of health and care Inquest and Court of Protection lawyers work with care organisations to provide responsive legal support, advice and court representation in respect of inquests, associated coronial matters, health and welfare concerns, deprivations of liberty and mental capacity matters

We provide a range of debt recovery solutions, from volume cases to one-off claims, no matter how complex. Our debt recovery team specialises in business-to-business debt recovery. You can also access support from our insolvency specialists who have technical expertise and experience from working with national insolvency market leaders. Meanwhile, our in-house creditor services team can advise you on everything from the content of Voluntary Arrangement proposals, through to the engagement of insolvency practitioners.

One of our Partners, Lesley Fairclough is a Notary Public who can act as an impartial and legally trained witness to authenticate and certify facts and the valid execution of documents intended for use outside the UK. Her signature and seal are recognised as evidence of a responsible legal officer in most countries of the world.

Should you ever need legal assistance with any foreign advice, our membership to the world’s leading multi-disciplinary alliance of professional services firm, Geneva Group International (GGI), will be invaluable. As members of GGI, we are able to provide you with access to high-quality legal advice from across the globe.

In addition to advising your business, we are able to support stakeholders and Directors on private matters relating to them. Our highly specialist and experienced teams are as sensitive as they are skilled, and help guide you through often complex and emotional times. They are able to advise you on a full range of services from Wills, Trusts, Estate and Inheritance Tax Planning, Powers of Attorney and Administration of Estates, to relationship matters, matters concerning children, contested estates, personal injury, mediation, criminal defence and rural estates.

In particular, our dedicated private client and family law experts work closely with our business teams to ensure that the advice given is rounded and cohesive, recognising that behind the business are always individuals with their own private and personal legal requirements.