The Legal 500

This central London practice provides a range of commercial and international services for a prestigious client base, notably in corporate finance, dispute resolution, antitrust, property and intellectual property.

The firm: Established in 1796, the firm was originally a family run practice and has always been based near the Royal Courts of Justice. Originally serving a mixture of private and commercial clients, the firm is now established as a well-regarded commercial and corporate finance practice that has remained true to the core principles of integrity, reliability and quality but combined them with the best of modern business methods. It delivers an efficient, client-focused, partner-led and high quality service to UK and international clients.

The firm acts for several major businesses including LSE, NYSE and NASDAQ listed companies. Among the more prominent clients are John Menzies plc, Gulfmark Offshore Inc and the European Medicines Agency, an EU institution. However, the main focus of the firm is on entrepreneurs and smaller businesses, which it considers to be ill-served by a larger or ‘city’ law firm.

Peachey & Co LLP is the UK representative of JCA International – an international network of small but independent commercial law firms in 22 European countries. The network allows the firm to provide its clients with a truly pan-European service.

Types of work undertaken: Peachey & Co LLP has a wealth of experience in all aspects of corporate and commercial work. Industry sectors in which it has particular experience are: aviation and aviation support services; creative media; new media; distribution; education; financial services; manufacturing, energy (including oil, gas and renewables); procurement; real estate; shipping; software and IT services; sport and telecommunications.

In the past few years the corporate finance team has experienced considerable growth. It has advised on transactions with a combined transaction value of over £1.5bn. However, most of its corporate work involves transactions from £1m to £50m and for SMEs/unlisted/private companies. Outside this range the firm has regularly been engaged in large group refinancing, general offers for UK listed companies, corporate bond issues, AIM listings (it recently completed the listing of Argos Resources) and large scale disposals.

It also has extensive expertise in the energy sectors, including exploration for hydrocarbons, especially oil and gas and increasingly renewable energy sectors.

The firm advises on UK and European Competition law, acting for complainants and defendants in antitrust cases and in respect of merger control procedures.

All aspects of employment law are handled including contracts, standardisation of terms, consultancies, tribunal claims, redundancies and trade unions matters.

Intellectual property expertise covers trade marks, copyright, patents and designs. The IP practice handles diverse matters ranging from the exploitation of new technologies and software products to their protection from infringement and registration.

Members of the litigation team have handled cases in all domestic fora from Employment Tribunals to the High Court and House of Lords (now Supreme Court), as well as the Court of the First Instance (now General Court) of the European Union and international arbitrations. Recent cases include injunctive proceedings, carriage of goods and shipping disputes, shareholder disputes, contractual claims, tort and competition law.

The property department handles substantial transactions involving all types of real estate work, whether for investors, developers or end users. As well as heavyweight transactional capacity, the firm has expertise in all associated advisory matters and dispute resolution.

The shipping practice is internationally recognised and whilst traditionally weighted in favour of non-contentious work such as sale and purchase, chartering, leasing, finance and registration, it also has more recent extensive experience in connection with arrest, charter party and carriage of goods disputes and salvage. The firm also has considerable experience in aviation services and in aircraft sale and purchase, leasing and finance.

Peachey & Co LLP intends to steadily expand its core commercial and corporate finance business, maintaining the high standards of service for which it is known.

Breakdown of work %
Corporate finance 30
Commercial/dispute resolution 20
Energy 20
Shipping 20
Commercial property 10

Number of UK partners 5
Number of other UK fee-earners 6