Commercial & Corporate Law

When buying or selling any business we provide legal advice to assist you negotiate complex issues and avoid common pitfalls that may occur. Issues include ensuring a balanced and fair contract is negotiated, taxation issues, protection of Intellectual Property rights, continuity of staffing, putting in place supply contracts, security of tenure and legislative compliance.

We provide tailor made services for your company including setting up governance processes, creating the correct constitutions designed to fit your specific needs, addressing shareholder classes and shareholders rights, shareholder voting thresholds and shareholder agreements. We advise you on your ongoing obligations under the Companies Act assisting you to meet these ongoing obligations from the outset and as your company grows.

A shareholder agreement regulates the affairs of shareholders to a company and provides a set of rules that are clear to all shareholders addressing such matters as admission of future shareholders, how shares are valued if a shareholder wishes to sell shares, how capital is contributed to the company and importantly dispute resolution between shareholders.

Businesses can adopt various ways to carry out their business affairs. We have extensive experience in setting up business structures and will advise you what structure is best suited to your business activity, for example a joint venture, trading trust or a company. 

We work closely with your other business advisers ensuring a team approach is provided to meet your needs.

We advise both owners of a business (franchisor’s) and individuals who have been offered a right to sell a product or provide a service by the franchisor (franchisee’s). Whether you are a client wanting to grow your business or a client wishing to buy a franchise we provide legal advice about the risks and advantages, draft the necessary documentation and advise you about the legal relationship you are entering into when agreeing to be a partner in a franchise arrangement.

We regularly provide advice to clients around their security structures for lending from banks and other institutions. We have a thorough knowledge of the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR), debt subordination, the requirements of various securities and advice on guarantees.

Every worker deserves to come home from work safe and sound and we can help businesses with their health and safety obligations.

All businesses face a variety of risks. An integrated risk management plan is a useful tool to help a business minimise or even eliminate risk. Either using the international standard risk management template, Work Safe template or an individualised format we will assist you to manage risk in your organisation.

We provide initial legal support and guidance to start-ups regarding the best legal structure for the proposed business as well as identifying and advising on the legal issues relevant to the business.

There are many reasons why a business may decide to execute a restructuring process. Restructuring is a tool available to business owners or CEO’s to improve the performance of the business if it is not moving ahead and developing. Reasons for a company deciding to restructure are varied: the company may have merged or been partially sold, a new technology may have been introduced, cost-cutting may be necessary to improve productivity. Redundancies may occur during the process. Be mindful that redundancy cannot be used as a way to address problem employees. 

We advise clients on the organisational side of implementing a restructuring process from creating a business plan for restructuring, consultations, disestablishment, redeployment and if necessary, redundancies. Employers must be aware of their statutory and contractual obligations and that procedural fairness is paramount as is acting legally, with integrity and transparency.

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