Spencer West

Whether you are engaged in buying or selling commercial property, acting as a landlord or a tenant, or pursuing commercial property development, the stakes are high. It is crucial that your legal team comprehends your commercial objectives, navigates transactions swiftly, and effectively mitigates risks. 

With extensive experience spanning various sectors, including office, retail, hospitality, leisure, and industrial, our lawyers at Spencer West work closely with developers, owners, operators, and funders. Our services encompass acquisitions and disposals, transaction and portfolio restructuring, due diligence, and commercial advisory work. Collaborating as an extension of our client’s team and working closely with property professionals involved in transactions, our lawyers ensure a smooth and successful conclusion to every matter. 

Our diverse clientele includes sellers and buyers of commercial premises, landlords and tenants in commercial lease grants, participants in retail, hospitality, and leisure transactions, and large rural estates involved in agricultural and farming real estate transactions. We also represent Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) providers and SIPP investors in commercial property transactions.

Whether you’re involved in buying or selling a business, seeking third-party investment or financing, entering a joint venture, expanding across jurisdictions, or undergoing business restructuring, wise counsel is crucial to navigate commercial complexities and structure your business effectively 

Spencer West’s corporate lawyers bring a wealth of experience, advising finance directors and boards of both listed and unlisted companies. Many of our lawyers have direct experience working in-house or serving as directors on company boards. With a resolute business perspective, we offer advice with the ‘business owner’s eye. 

We provide a comprehensive range of corporate, commercial, and business-related legal services, covering every aspect of a business’s legal life, from inception and constitutional documentation to development, expansion through equity and debt finance rounds, and strategic exit planning. Our clientele spans from startups to listed international corporations.

When family relationships encounter challenges, navigating through these situations demands both empathy and practical guidance to achieve resolution. At Spencer West, our team of leading family lawyers offers pragmatic, commercial, supportive, and caring advice. As experts in family law with substantial technical proficiency, we strive to provide decisive counsel at every stage, taking into account the complexities of family finances and strategic goals. From high-net-worth cases with international and offshore assets to disputes over the jurisdiction of English Courts, we handle cases of all sizes and complexities. 

Driven by a commitment to cost-effective solutions, our team explores alternative dispute resolution methods whenever possible. We are equally adept in court processes, prepared to litigate when necessary to secure the right result for you. Our expertise extends to pre-and post-nuptial agreements, living together agreements, and disputes between cohabitees, all handled with sensitivity and discretion. 

We aim to offer realistic and clear advice, enabling informed decisions early in your case to avoid pursuing unrealistic goals and unnecessary litigation.

In the face of disputes, having a skilled dispute resolution lawyer by your side is essential. Our team excels in assessing merits and providing strategic advice to achieve a commercial resolution promptly. In the modern era, resolving contentious matters within an appropriate costs budget is crucial, and our proactive, commercially-minded, and realistic dispute resolution lawyers are up to the task. 

We recommend strategies for early dispute resolution through negotiation, mediation, and early neutral evaluation. If a satisfactory agreement is not attainable, our lawyers efficiently pursue proceedings before the courts, tribunals, or arbitration panels. Our experience extends to litigation in national courts across various jurisdictions and international disputes involving multiple jurisdictions. 

With a growing international capability, our formidable team of international arbitration practitioners specializes in major arbitral forums, handling diverse disputes such as those related to international trade and construction projects. 

Our expertise includes the enforcement of judgments and arbitral awards, successfully obtaining interim remedies like freezing orders. Spencer West boasts specialist teams in areas including construction, engineering, projects, employment law, family and divorce, insurance, intellectual property, international arbitration, property disputes, trusts, probates, and estate disputes, as well as a team of mediators and international arbitrators.

The landscape of employment relationships is diverse, encompassing various arrangements such as full-time, part-time, seasonal work, interns, volunteers, workers, consultants/independent contractors, and partners. Establishing well-drafted contracts of employment and consultancy contracts is crucial to define roles, rights, and obligations clearly. 

Our Employment Law team excels in advising on a comprehensive spectrum of employment and consultancy contracts. This includes addressing complexities arising from business sales, transfers of undertakings (TUPE), corporate restructuring, and other workforce-related matters. We recognise the importance of effective employment contracts, workplace rules, and policies in ensuring legal compliance, providing necessary information to staff, and fostering a harmonious work environment. 

Should disputes arise, our specialist Employment dispute resolution lawyers offer extensive experience in advising businesses and individuals on employment law rights and obligations. This spans issues such as fair treatment, remuneration entitlements, contractual restrictive covenants, discrimination, and whistleblowing provisions.

Ensuring immigration compliance is paramount for the smooth operation of businesses in the UK. The intricacies of the immigration system can be overwhelming for HR staff, legal counsel, and those with operational responsibilities. Our dedicated Immigration team of lawyers offers insightful advice tailored to your needs, backed by a comprehensive understanding of immigration requirements. From securing the right visas to ensuring your employees have the proper work authorisations, our immigration services guide your organisation through the complex landscape. 

For individuals navigating visa requirements related to career or family, our specialist support facilitates living and working in your chosen location. Whether it’s obtaining a visa for yourself or a loved one or addressing other immigration issues, our Immigration team provides bespoke advice, explaining options and requirements clearly to empower you in achieving your goals.

Drawing on over two decades of experience, our Insurance team at Spencer West offers specialised expertise in the insurance market. Our lawyers have represented major insurers and insureds, demonstrating a niche understanding of the industry with resolute independence. 

Our seasoned lawyers provide comprehensive advice on insurance regulation, including InsurTech, and have actively contributed to the development and drafting of various insurance and reinsurance policies. This includes, but is not limited to, trade credit, professional indemnity, contractor policies, directors’ and officers’ liability, employers and public liability, and contingency policies. 

Handling coverage claims is a core strength, with our lawyers adept at managing proceedings ranging from smaller claims in the thousands of pounds to complex cases exceeding $20 million. We excel in advising and pursuing subrogation claims, showcasing our commitment to securing our clients’ interests. 

Our extensive experience extends to managing professional negligence claims against various professionals, such as brokers, solicitors, barristers, architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, and financial intermediaries. 

Beyond claims, we assist companies in understanding their insurance coverage requirements, especially concerning corporate governance, corporate transactions, and commercial contracts. Our expertise also encompasses regulatory and compliance requirements for regulated entities in the insurance sector.

In the contemporary knowledge-based economy, safeguarding intellectual property is crucial for the success and security of businesses. At Spencer West, we recognise the profound responsibility involved in protecting and defending these assets, and we are dedicated to helping you achieve your goals. 

Our intellectual property lawyers bring extensive experience to the table, advising company boards on the identification, registration, maintenance, and protection of intellectual property assets. With industry-specific expertise in information technology, data and cybersecurity, media (including advertising and digital marketing), and telecoms, our lawyers ensure a nuanced understanding of your sector’s unique challenges. 

We adopt a commercial, business-oriented mindset to protect and defend your ideas, aiming to maximise their potential both in the UK and on a global scale. Serving as trusted advisors, we collaborate across Spencer West to assemble bespoke teams tailored to your business and specific situation.

Financial distress is a crisis; and such a situation calls for early strategic advice in order to maximise options for successful turnaround and mitigate risks for the business and its management team personally. Often the situation presents the opportunity for restructuring to bring the business back into liquidity and to right-size it for future growth. However, restructuring options and actions take time so it’s essential that advice is taken as soon as management information or external events first threaten cash flow. The alternative is almost certainly a formal insolvency. Whatever the position, the company and its directors need swift and incisive advice as to the options available to them and how and to whom they should exercise their duties.

Our expert Insolvency and Restructuring lawyers act for a wide range of clients, and draw on the wider expertise of corporate lawyers, sector experts and litigators within the firm. We provide excellent technical and strategic advice in addition to finding creative restructuring and insolvency solutions.

We are experienced in handling restructuring, refinancing, turnaround assignments both in the UK and involving other jurisdictions as well as in all types of formal insolvency and insolvency related matters. We work closely with our clients and other professionals to achieve their identified objectives and protection. Details of the type of work we do and our clients are set out below.