The Legal 500

20 REGENTS STREET, NOTTINGHAM, NG1 2AX

What we say about the firm's legal practice in East Midlands

Corporate and commercial

Within Nottingham and Derby, tier 4

The continuing high regard in which longstanding clients hold the corporate and commercial team at Actons can be attributed to the focus of Adrian Foster’s group on maintaining and growing relationships with the owner managed business sector. The team includes corporate finance expert Simon Dakin (who impresses clients with his ‘personal attention to assignments and commercial approach to finding solutions’) and rising star Peter Flowerday, and advised on matters including a £1m MBI in the building industry; the sale of a specialist UK packaging distribution business; and the establishment of an upstream supply network in the Far East and distribution arrangements in the UK and the US for a leisure and fitness industry client.

Dispute resolution

Within Debt recovery , Actons is a third tier firm,

Actons’ personalised service has attracted new client The Nottingham Park Estate Limited to its collection of high street retailers and equipment coding concerns for whom it provides bulk debt collection services. Insolvency debt cases are a distinguishing feature of the practice.

Within Nottingham and Derby, tier 4

Actons continues to represent its owner-manager client base on matters including partnership disputes and issues arising from business sales, and has a developing niche in equine law cases, which has resulted in instructions on several substantial disputes. Mediation is the method often best suited to clients of Chris Murratt and insolvency specialist Richard Leman.

East Midlands Overview

Finance

Within Insolvency and corporate recovery, Actons is a first tier firm,

At Actons, stand-out lawyer Nicky Calthrop-Owen’s contentious insolvency skills were put to use in a variety of complex fraud investigations and asset recovery cases in 2008. Leading player Richard Leman has 30 years’ experience, and Chris Murratt adds to the litigation prowess of the team, which ‘competes easily with larger regional and national competitors’.

Human resources

Within Employment, Actons is a third tier firm,

At Actons, the ‘down-to-earth’ Claire Bell is noted for her data protection experience. Employers and senior employees have instructed the firm on equal pay, sex and race discrimination and dismissal matters.

Insurance

Within Personal injury and clinical negligence - claimant, Actons is a third tier firm,

Tom Payne has joined highly experienced head Peter Seymour and Gary Chadwick at Actons, which works for claimants in road traffic and employer’s liability cases.

Private client

Within Family, Actons is a third tier firm,

Regarded as a ‘very safe pair of hands’, Michael Spencer at Actons assists clients on financial disputes arising on divorce, through trusts and estates, and on incapacity. He has recently achieved notable successes in high-value ancillary relief matters involving an expatriate client and a settlement on realisation of property when the divorce occurred 34 years earlier.

Within Personal tax, trusts and probate, Actons is a third tier firm,

Actons’ clients range from individuals to charities and NGOs seeking advice on trusts, tax and the legislation relating to trusts and public guardianship matters.

Real estate

Within Nottingham and Derby, Actons is a third tier firm,

Susan Lawson at Actons has recently advised two European banks on the financing and re-mortgaging of a waste recycling centre and a hotel; and Amanda Gordon has assisted with the acquisition of development sites for housing associations. The group has niche specialisms in minerals and transactions involving medical practices, in addition to handling the full range of property matters.


Legal Developments in the UK

Legal Developments and updates from the leading lawyers in each jurisdiction. To contribute, send an email request to
  • Student employees – new restrictions on employment

    On 10 February 2010 a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules was laid before Parliament which is due to come into force on 3 March 2010.
    - Penningtons Solicitors LLP
  • Landlord & Tenant Briefing

    Dilapidations in commercial premises – ten points to consider
    - Bircham Dyson Bell LLP
  • Being a helpful Landlord may be a mistake!

    Most landlords and their solicitors try to resist the impulse to be helpful, however, in these recessionary times when landlords are concerned to avoid empty space, there may be the temptation to take shortcuts to ensure a letting proceeds. In circumstances where it is intended that Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (the 1954 Act) should not apply to the tenancy, i.e. that the tenant should not have the benefit of security of tenure, then occupation before the lease has been finalised (and the appropriate ‘contracting-out’ steps taken) is a potentially dangerous step and needs to be taken only when the landlord has fully comprehended the potential consequences.
    - Bircham Dyson Bell LLP
  • New regime for approval of major transport projects set to ‘switch on’

    The Planning Act 2008 (the Act) introduces a new regime designed to speed up the planning and, in turn, the delivery of infrastructure projects of national significance. For transport projects, it is one of the most important pieces of legislation in recent years. The new procedure will have to be used for any third runway at Heathrow, amongst other high-profile projects.
    - Bircham Dyson Bell LLP
  • Divorce and the media: the courts, the pay-outs and the speculation

    The rising divorce rate and some well-publicised settlements running into tens of millions of pounds have focused attention on a growing issue in divorce cases: just how far can spouses go to obtain information about their partner’s financial affairs?
    - Schillings
  • Top ten really useful cases of 2009

    If you want your panel solicitor to‘get off the fence’, need to know when a cause of action accrues or wondered whether the judiciary live in the 21st century, the following cases from 2009 provide some really useful guidance. With professional negligence claims on the increase, whether you are giving or receiving legal advice, the cases discussed below highlight practical points for all legal advisers to be aware of.
    - Bond Pearce LLP
  • The twilight zone: legal issues for directors

    there is no legal definition of the term ‘twilight zone’ (perhaps derived from the cult TV series, the writer would like to think), which is now widely used to describe a period of trading when a company has, or is predicted to have, insufficient cash to pay its debts as they fall due. This might be an immediate cash-flow crisis or the problem might be anticipated many months ahead.
    - Holman Fenwick Willan
  • Cloud computing:key issues for SMEs

    Although many definitions exist, broadly speaking ‘cloud computing’ is the outsourcing of specified IT functions via the internet (the cloud) to provide or receive services that would otherwise only be available if the end user had installed the appropriate hardware and/or software on desktops, or on local networks controlled by that organisation itself. Such services may include the use of software over the internet or remote storage of business data by a third-party provider. One benefit of this is that businesses can structure payment for these services differently (for example pay-as-you-go or on a subscription basis), rather than having to pay large sunk costs for long-term software licences, and the purchase and installation of IT infrastructure necessary to support the services locally.
    - SJ Berwin LLP
  • Commission victorious in ‘regulatory holiday’ action brought against Germany

    On 3 December 2009, following an action brought by the European Commission under article 226 of the EC Treaty (now article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU) the European Court of Justice (ECJ) confirmed that Germany had failed to comply with its obligations under the European regulatory framework for telecommunications (the Common Regulatory Framework (CRF)). The ECJ’s judgment in European Commission v Germany [2009] confirms that Germany acted unlawfully by adopting a national law excluding ‘new markets’ from regulation – so called ‘regulatory holidays’.
    - SJ Berwin LLP
  • New Commission

    On Friday 27 November 2009 the new European Commission, which will begin its mandate early in 2010, was announced by Commission President José Barroso. This announcement followed a week after the appointment of Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton as the President of the European Council and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy respectively, the two new roles created by the Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force on 1 December 2009.
    - Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP