Practice areas

Commercial agreements: Commercial contracts are often business critical, high value and complex.  Accordingly, they deserve a great deal of legal attention; more than they often get. A failure to dedicate such attention at the outset results in unclear and poorly drafted contracts, lack of revenue security, potential litigation and disproportionate future cost. For this reason, lawyers in our group are contract law specialists and tailor documents to reflect accurately each client's commercial deal. The type of arrangements on which we commonly advise include:

• agency, commercial agency and commissionaire relationships;
• franchising and concessions;
• joint ventures and partnerships;
• manufacturing (including OEM and toll manufacturing);
• outsourcing;
• procurement, purchase and supply of goods and services;
• research and development;
• sponsorship;
• sports and leisure;
• terms of business. and
• warehousing, distribution and logistics.

Regulatory: We provide appropriate regulatory advice, both in the context of commercial arrangements and to help shape client policy, in respect of:

• advertising and marketing copy clearance;
• ASA/BACC guidance;
• commercial agency;
• consumer protection;
• cosmetics and consumer products;
• data protection;
• ecommerce and distance selling (B2B and B2C);
• food and drink; and
• gambling, promotions and lotteries.

Intellectual property: The brand profile of many of our clients means that intellectual property law plays a greater or lesser role in many of the deals we do - franchising, advertising and manufacturing deals would be incomplete without due consideration of proprietary rights.  Our lawyers advise regularly on the management, structuring and exploitation of intellectual property across a variety of situations so they are able to deliver advice in a commercially sensitive manner.