David Hughes, a qualified corporate solicitor, has worked for a number of UK commercial law firms. He has worked with many different company owners over the years: from the very smallest family run sandwich shop to the shareholders of the London Aquarium in their sale to the Merlin Entertainments Group.
Some years ago he set up a niche company law consultancy. Now he spends his days using his expertise to help company owners in two ways:
First, by advising company owners on how to manage the business relationship between themselves via a shareholder agreement.
Secondly, by helping company owners through the process of buying or selling a business.
From David:
I am a company lawyer. But I try hard not to be a typical one. Or at least, to be a modern one. I tweet, write blogs, run networking events and write books to share the legal knowledge I have picked up over the years.
A lot of what I do is simple, or at least, it seems simple to me. The most valuable advice that I provide is not usually on the finer detail of the Companies Act but is in sharing the benefit of my years of experience of what other company owners decided to do, what the pitfalls were and how they avoided them.
I have found that most client meetings I attend to discuss shareholder agreements follow a familiar script. The company owners ask similar questions, have common worries, want to achieve matching outcomes and, in response, I give them the same answers.
I realised that I could provide the benefit of my experience via an easy to digest guide that is available to all company owners, wherever they are, at any time of the day or night, for a fraction of the cost of meeting with a solicitor. The result is ‘Shareholder Agreements: the 60 minute guide’, which explains the typical issues that arise when company owners want to put in place a shareholder agreement and how to overcome them.
