Business Law and Corporate Law

A letter of wishes is a flexible companion document to your Will that allows you to record personal preferences, explain decisions, and provide guidance to executors or trustees. While not legally binding, it offers valuable insight into your intentions regarding personal belongings, funeral preferences, and trust management, and can be updated at any time without changing your Will.

When divorce involves significant wealth, one of the hardest questions is whether you can trust the financial picture being presented to you. You may be worried that assets are being hidden, undervalued or moved out of reach. Or you may be a business owner, entrepreneur or someone with inherited wealth who is concerned about how to protect assets properly without being accused of concealment. These are very different concerns, but they often meet at the same point: the need for clear, accurate financial disclosure and a strategy that protects your position from the outset.

Estate planning extends beyond wealth transfer after death—it's about protecting children throughout their lives. From appointing guardians for young children to managing financial needs during education and early adulthood, proper planning provides security and stability. Tailored provisions can safeguard vulnerable beneficiaries, ensure continuity through Lasting Powers of Attorney, and create lasting legacies for future generations.

Privilege rules vary significantly across jurisdictions, so it’s important not to assume your home country position “travels”.

This review examines five recent court decisions addressing critical procedural and liability issues in civil litigation. From pre-action costs disputes and small claims track protections to privilege hunting abuses and the evolving landscape of omnibus claim forms, these cases provide essential guidance on contemporary litigation challenges and judicial approaches to procedural fairness.

The European Commission's broad information-gathering powers under EU competition law have been reinforced by the General Court's dismissal of Broadcom's challenge to document production requests. The case raises critical questions about the extent to which the Commission can compel production of documents held overseas that are subject to legal professional privilege in other jurisdictions, particularly communications with non-EU qualified external counsel.

For eligible companies, EMI options and growth shares each offer distinct advantages in employee equity incentives. But what happens when you combine them? This analysis explores how EMI can wrap contingent growth-share interests, the valuation principles that must be respected, and why the hurdle, exercise price and performance conditions need to be designed together to avoid accidentally over-gearing management's participation.

On 7 September 2026, the Government published its "Modernising Corporate Reporting" consultation document, setting out its proposed approach to modernising and streamlining corporate reporting requirements...

When a public company faces a takeover, executive remuneration arrangements designed over three-year cycles suddenly collide with deal timetables measured in months. This analysis examines how boards should distinguish between preserving existing value, repairing transaction-caused losses, rewarding deal-specific contributions, and creating future incentives—and why a single payment figure rarely tells the complete story.

In this episode of Life Of A Dealmaker, host Tarun sits down with John Messer, Founder and Managing Partner of Copilot Capital, a European private equity firm specializing in B2B software investments. The conversation explores Messer's journey in building and leading a focused investment firm in the competitive European tech landscape.

The UK's proposed AIFM reforms aim to create a more proportionate framework for emerging alternative investment fund managers. As these businesses evolve from proof-of-concept to institutional scale, they face increasingly complex questions around fund structuring, investor access, and long-term platform development that require sophisticated jurisdictional solutions.

Veranova Bidco LP v Johnson Matthey Plc [2026] EWHC 1021 (Comm) addresses a question that M&A lawyers have been watching closely: can you stitch together the knowledge of multiple executives to build a case of corporate fraud? The High Court says no, and every buyer, seller, and M&A lawyer should take note.