Professional Practices and LLPs

We provide a full service to clients, bringing together experts from our corporate M&A, employment, tax, private client, financial regulation and dispute resolution practice groups.

We provide a comprehensive service to a wide range of professional service firms, including accountants, law firms, private equity funds, hedge funds and other asset managers, architects, surveyors and other consultancies.

Our specialist expertise means that we understand all the key issues and can advise on a commercial and practical basis, while understanding the particular sensitivities of professional practices. 

Our professional practices team regularly advises on:

• mergers and acquisitions of professional practices;
• Alternative Business Structures (ABSs) in the legal services sector;
• the use of LLPs as a business vehicle, including conversion of existing businesses to LLPs;
• tax structuring and financing for professional practices;
• establishing limited partnerships as fund vehicles and the partnership law implications of these structures;
• disputes involving professional practices;
• the use of LLPs, partnerships and other vehicles for personal financial planning;
• compensation and remuneration structures, including carried-interest and co-investment provisions;
• the degree of statutory employment protection enjoyed by LLP members;
• the appointment and removal of team members; including associated leaver arrangements (contested or otherwise)
• the protection of critical business assets and enforcement of restrictive covenants against leavers; and
• the application of standard employment provisions such as family friendly rights in the LLP context.