Practice / Corporate & commercial
Corporate & commercial
From the first shareholder agreement to the sale of the company, we draft and negotiate the documents a business is built on, and we tell you which clauses matter and which are noise.
Scope of work
Formation and shareholder agreements
Company set-up, articles, vesting, drag and tag rights, and what happens when founders disagree.
Investment rounds
Seed to Series B for companies and investors: term sheets, subscription and disclosure, completion.
Mergers and acquisitions
Buying or selling a business or its assets, due diligence, warranties, earn-outs and completion.
Commercial contracts
Supply, distribution, licensing, agency and terms of business that hold up when a deal goes wrong.
Recent matters
- 2026 Sale of a family-owned food manufacturer to a European trade buyer Completed in eleven weeks £48m
- 2025 Series A investment for a medical devices company Closed with two new investors £12m
Partner responsible
Questions clients ask
When should a start-up bring in a lawyer?
Before the first outside money arrives, or before founders split shares. Fixing a shareholder agreement later costs far more than writing it once.
Do you work on fixed fees?
For most transactions, yes. We price the whole matter after the first meeting and say in writing what would change the price.
Can you act for both buyer and seller?
No. In a transaction we act for one side only, and we will tell you on the first call if we already act for the other.
In witness whereof, let's talk.
A first meeting is forty-five minutes, costs nothing and ends with a straight answer: whether you need a lawyer, and if you do, what it should cost.
Signed for and on behalf of Ashby & Thorne LLP
Helena Ashby
Helena Ashby, Managing partner
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