Banking, Finance & Professional

April is set to be a busy month for changes to employment law.  From 1st April, a number of changes will come into force and employers are being advised to…

They say prevention is better than the cure and it seems that rarely is this clichéd statement truer than in the area of employment law. It’s hard for me to…

On 13 February 2013, the government finally issued the detailed regulations to bring into force the reforms to the Civil Justice System brought about by the Jackson Report. While the…

Last year, we posted a blog on the outcome of the FSA inquiry into the interest rate swap market and its damning conclusion that a number of financial institutions had…

It is increasingly common for directors who are also shareholders of companies to lend money to those companies. Usually this is to facilitate cash flow for the company where, perhaps,…

The much publicised Jackson Review into civil litigation costs is due to be implemented in April 2013, bringing with it significant changes to the current costs regime. While focused primarily…

On October 1 2012 the auto-enrolment process for pensions started and now all UK employers will have to automatically enrol any eligible workers into a pension scheme. The enrolment scheme…

This is one of the first questions to consider when looking at how to structure a business acquisition. Essentially, a share sale is where the purchaser acquires the company itself…

George Osbourne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced on October 8 that the government intends on introducing a completely new type of employment contract called owner-employee contracts. This new contract…

Research suggests many acquisitions fail to add the value expected by the purchaser – sometimes because inadequate steps have been taken to identify a suitable acquisition target. Your first move…

A recent investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has identified that four banks – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS – have been guilty of mis-selling complicated commercial hedged lending…

Employers should beware of government plans to introduce ‘protected conversations’ to encourage settlement agreements (also known as compromise agreements). The initiative is part of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill,…

An exclusivity agreement is a contract between two businesses to deal exclusively with each other in a specific area. Typically the agreement restricts only one of the parties, such as…

The Employment Act 2002 gave employees the right to request flexible working. Employers can turn down specific flexible working requests for legitimate business reasons set out in the legislation. However,…

Harrison Drury's mergers and acquisitions team has advised County Insurance NW Ltd on its purchase of Shropshire-based Whitchurch Insurance Services. The purchase, for an undisclosed sum, is the first of…

What does due diligence mean to you? To some people it is the legal equivalent of kicking the tyres or looking under the bonnet of a used car. To some,…

Employers need to take note of a change to unfair dismissal laws, coming into effect from April 6 2012, which extends the qualifying service period for employees wanting to bring…

Harrison Drury has been appointed to advise on an ambitious regional acquisitions spree by insurance broking subsidiary County Insurance NW Ltd. County Insurance NW Ltd has been set up to…