Corporate & Commercial
Dean Drew
Dean is a corporate partner with over 20 years’ experience at national and regional law firms in the UK, during which time he has also held key business leadership roles.
His principal areas of expertise include mergers & acquisitions, disposals (private sale and auction), equity investment and fund raisings, group company restructuring, reorganisations and demergers, joint ventures and shareholders’ agreements, commercial agreements and UK Companies Act compliance.
Dean provides specialist advice to clients on the process and approach to closing successful mergers & acquisitions and other transactions. Over recent years he has won awards for his work on complex and high-value acquisitions and fund raisings.
His work is mainly in the technology, automotive and real estate sectors where he is able to provide deal-related sector insight to clients based on wide-ranging experience.
Danielle Slater
Danielle is a Senior Associate in the Corporate & Commercial team at Lester Aldridge.
She assists and advises on transactional M&A matters, where clients are either buying, selling or merging companies or partnerships, and also advises on share buybacks and company restructuring. In addition to drafting and helping to negotiate the transaction documentation, Danielle has experience managing the due diligence and disclosure process. She remains calm and level-headed in situations that can be stressful and time-critical.
Danielle often reviews and reports to the client on a variety of commercial agreements and arrangements, highlighting the potential risks and incorporating new clauses to ensure that the document achieves the client’s desired outcome.
Another aspect of the services she provides is corporate compliance and company secretarial services. She conducts reviews of the company’s corporate books, registers and filings and advises the client accordingly.
Deals
- Advised Trant Engineering, a new client for the firm, in relation to corporate and commercial work and real-estate and planning matters. With an annual turnover of £137m, Trant Engineering is recognised as one of the top 30 businesses in the Solent region.
- Negotiated the terms of a management buyout of the business and assets of a well-known restaurant and pub in the New Forest on behalf of a local businessman and entrepreneur, Brendan Treacey and partners.
- Fund raising for Flabba Limited, a fast growth technology company. The funding raised is to support the company’s roll out of its document management solution across the UK in its chosen sector markets.
Team Services
Lester Aldridge’s Corporate & Commercial team blends a wealth of experience with strength in depth so that we can advise on all the main areas of commercial and company law, including:
Corporate services:
- Business start-ups
- Business sales and acquisitions
- Group reorganisations and simplification
- Management buy-out/ins
- Joint ventures
- Private equity investment as a means of access to finance and expertise
- Debt finance arrangements
- AIM listings to help your business access a new source of funding
- Company secretarial and other regulatory aspects that your business may be subject to
Commercial services:
- Distribution, agency and supply agreements
- Shareholder relations
- Website development agreements
- Intellectual property protection and commercialisation
- Standard terms of business;
- Data protection
- Competition law
- LLP and other partnership agreements
- Supply of goods and/or services agreements, which provide for every aspect of your USP
- Artificial Intelligence - AI implementation and operations, legal responsibilities, protecting your intellectual property
Our clients include all businesses in all sectors from software development to care homes and manufacturing to hotels and hospitality.
As well as advising clients in the UK, we are also able to advise clients on cross-border transactions and overseas business matters.
Client testimonials
Raoul Perfitt, Herb UK
As a UK-based international distribution company, our requirements for legal advice are varied and often span cross-border jurisdictional issues – we have found that Grant and his team are able to cover all of these bases. In many respects, we see Lester Aldridge as a business partner rather than as our adviser.