The Legal 500

Fladgate LLP is one of central London’s leading law firms, providing legal advice of the highest quality to a diverse portfolio of clients.

The firm: The firm’s client base has a strong commercial focus, comprising multinationals, major institutions, listed companies, banks, lenders, entrepreneurs and SMEs.

Fundamental to the firm’s philosophy is the belief that clients want a high standard of professional service and a high degree of personal attention, but at competitive rates. At Fladgate, this is illustrated by the ability to have immediate access to a partner and the firm’s readiness to take the initiative in offering advice. The firm’s fee-earners have in-depth knowledge of the industries in which they practise and extensive experience of delivering advice that is both commercially and technically expert.

In addition to advising a substantial UK client base, the firm provides a proactive and efficient service for clients with international business through specialist groups which serve continental Europe (with an emphasis on the Germanic countries), Israel, India, the US, the Middle East and South Africa.

Types of work undertaken: Fladgate is organised into three departments: corporate, property and litigation.

The firm’s corporate department advises on listings and flotations, including AIM flotations, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, MBOs and private equity, UK and cross-border corporate and commercial transactions, private capital, employment and employee benefits, insolvency and corporate restructuring, corporate and business tax, technology and intellectual property, and banking and partnership law.

The property department advises on acquisitions and disposals, development and construction, funding, investment, secured lending, landlord and tenant, housing association, town and country planning, environmental issues, joint ventures, portfolio management, and residential estate conveyancing.

The litigation department has established a strong reputation, handling general commercial litigation, cross-border disputes, international arbitration, professional negligence, asset recovery, corporate recovery, banking litigation, intellectual property, libel, media disputes, construction disputes, building and product liability, insurance litigation, and contentious trust matters.

The firm also operates a number of specialist cross-departmental teams that provide co-ordinated advice on a wide range of issues. The banking group draws together the firm’s expertise in property finance, corporate banking and banking litigation to serve domestic and overseas banks, as well as clients who deal with financial institutions. The tax team is highly regarded for providing services in all aspects of taxation, including corporate and business taxes, and offshore and international aspects, as well as personal tax planning. The private capital team provides bespoke solutions to a full range of private capital issues, including complex tax questions, succession, asset protection and private capital management. The construction team has extensive experience of acting for all sides of the industry on a wide range of projects. The PFI team advises on primary and secondary PFI projects. The retail, leisure and hotels team provides the full range of legal services required by clients across the industry. The investment funds group provides advice on both onshore and offshore fund structures including tax and regulatory requirements. The employment team meets a growing demand from corporate clients for advice on all aspects of employment law and employee benefits issues. The media and technology law team focuses on servicing the specialist requirements of these dynamic industries. The restructuring group responds to the needs of those concerned with solvency problems at all points of the economic cycle. The property litigation team utilises its expertise in landlord and tenant matters to provide a commercial approach to all aspects of property litigation.

Breakdown of work %
Commercial property 32
Corporate 43
Litigation 25

Number of UK partners 47
Number of other UK fee-earners 51