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Clients & Sectors

LegalLens is synonymous with the highest quality legal advice and service. We steadfastly guide our clients through their most turbulent moments. We help them to deal with the things that matter most to them. We anticipate what may lie ahead for them.

We can do this because we know the sectors in which we work inside-out. We marry our experience of advising some of the most influential public and private figures and businesses with the latest legal thinking and technology in order to deliver a high-quality result, every time.

Client service is at the heart of everything we do.

Sectors

At LegalLens, we have a market-leading practice which services all the legal needs of individuals, families, trustees and family offices.

Comprehensive Expertise

Our clients operate in an increasingly complex environment. Regulation and reporting is on the rise, investment choices are broadening, while family life is impacted by social change. These developments play out against an increasingly international backdrop.

Our role is to navigate this complexity on behalf of our clients. We have the ability and expertise to meet the legal needs of the most sophisticated of clients: from family governance to divorce, tax planning to trust disputes, immigration to property acquisition, philanthropy to reputation management.

An integrated and personal approach

We know it is not sufficient to have the expertise; it is about delivering the advice sensitively and effectively.

With LegalLens, clients don’t deal with a procession of individuals, but with a dedicated partner who identifies the correct mix of legal experts to tackle each individual scenario. We take the time to get to know our clients and to understand their concerns and priorities. We provide advice which is integrated, pragmatic, forward-looking and, above all, personal.

We are adaptable. We can deal with the most delicate of family situations in a sensitive way; we can also be determined advocates of a client’s interests.

The family business and the business of families

Individuals and families are structuring their affairs in an increasingly corporate style. We live and breathe the world of private capital, family offices and international holding vehicles. We can switch from overseeing the most personal of family matters to the most complex of corporate transactions without missing a step. And we get things done.

A London firm with an international outlook

We are a London-based firm with an international outlook.

Our international strategy is one of independence. We have our clients' interests at heart. Drawing on our extensive network, we work with the most suitable advisers in other jurisdictions to meet our clients' specific needs. This enables us to provide our clients with a service which navigates the complexities of cross-border work in the most co-ordinated, pragmatic and responsive fashion.

Private Wealth

We know that dynamic leaders and their vision are the heart of successful businesses. By gaining a deep understanding of your business, its culture, people and future plans, we tailor our advice to align with your objectives. This means our guidance is not only commercial but anticipates future challenges and opportunities. Our expertise in complex, high value matters, including M&A transactions, real estate, critical disputes, and cutting-edge technology like AI and data processing, is trusted by our clients to effectively address core business issues.

Private capital focus

At LegalLens, our focus is on the investment and protection of privately held capital. Our dedicated teams specialize in guiding clients through both the investment process, managed by our transactional lawyers, and the protection of their assets, which is overseen by our disputes, private wealth, and commercial advisory experts.

As experts in private capital, our transactional lawyers advise on:

Private company M&A

Real estate transactions for developers, owners and occupiers.

Equity and debt investment

Joint ventures

Restructuring.

What sets us apart is our ability to form tight-knit, multidisciplinary teams to solve complex client issues. Our corporate, commercial, real estate, technology and employment experts regularly collaborate with our banking, financial services regulation, charities, tax, immigration, insolvency and disputes resolution teams to navigate the complexities of private capital transactions, ensuring our clients' interests are safeguarded and their objectives are met with precision and expertise.

Industry focus

While we advise businesses of all types and from all sectors, we have, over the years, built up specific expertise across corporate, commercial, contentious and property-based issues, in the following industry groups:

Energy & Renewables

Healthcare, Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences

Hotels, Hospitality & Leisure

Media, Technology & Publishing

Retail & Consumer

Sport Business & Clubs

Buniesses

We recognize that navigating the complex and evolving regulatory landscape at the same time as continuing to provide a first-rate service to clients is an ongoing challenge for financial services businesses.

We have decades of experience advising financial institutions including private banks, wealth managers, asset managers and funds, corporate finance firms and placement agents. We also act for newer entrants to the market including payments and e-money firms and welcome the opportunity to work on novel projects. For each of our clients we are able to provide an excellent and comprehensive service tailored to our clients' needs and expectations.

Our expertise is broad and varied. Whether you are a wealth manager striving to remain a trusted adviser in the face of increasing regulation, an asset manager setting up a new fund, or a private bank financing a complex real estate deal, you can be confident that we understand your client base and the unique demands that are placed upon your business. We also regularly act on acquisitions/disposals involving financial institutions, drawing on the expertise of our multi-service teams, provide pragmatic advice on all aspects of such transactions.

We enjoy getting to know our clients, their businesses and the individuals who keep them running. Many of our lawyers have spent time on secondment giving us a valuable insight into what our clients want from their lawyers. We aim to provide additional support to our clients through webinars, briefings, bespoke events and in-house training as well as playing an active role in industry associations

Asset Managers & Investment Funds

The asset management sector is one of its great success stories of the UK. However, asset managers are under pressure from regulatory change as well as increasing costs and competition. We understand the challenges our clients face and work with them as part of their team to provide the expert advice and support they need.

Our client base extends from large, blue-chip institutional asset managers through to medium sized and start-up asset management firms. Our ability to provide expert and comprehensive advice to this wide range of firms marks us out and means that no matter what the focus of your business, we are able to provide you with the very best technical and practical advice.

We advise our asset manager clients on the full spectrum of legal and regulatory issues that impact them, including the application of the FCA’s rules, anti-money laundering requirements, financial promotion rules, FCA and PRA prudential requirements, employment matters, including drafting remuneration policies and the extension of the Senior Managers & Certification Regime. We also work with investors which gives us a unique insight into both sides of the asset management market.

Our investment funds practice is notable for the diverse and unusual range of funds we have worked on, and our bespoke, high-quality and comprehensive service. We cover the structuring, establishment and documentation for investment funds as well as the regulatory issues which impact the fund and the fund manager.

We regularly act on the establishment of FCA authorized funds such as UCITS and NURS funds and have worked on numerous restructures including schemes of arrangement as well as putting in place master feeder arrangements - both domestic and cross border. We have also acted in relation to some of the newer types of FCA authorized funds including the establishment of Qualifying Investment Schemes (QIS), Qualifying Money Market Funds, Authorized Contractual Schemes (ACS) and most recently Charity Authorized Investment Funds (CAIFs). We also have particular experience advising some niche funds including closely held funds, funds established and included solely for charity investors under particular statutes and/or other tax exempt investors.

Financial Institution

As a country with a rich tradition of philanthropy, it is no surprise that many third sector organizations are embedded into the fabric of society, and we are lucky to work with some of those household names. These organizations fulfil a vital role in our collective philanthropic and charitable ventures. They allow us all at different times and in our own ways to be both generous benefactor and grateful beneficiary. They are an inherent part of our culture.

In order to flourish, big or small, old or new, they all need to ensure that they have

the processes to keep abreast of regulation

the structures and governance to ensure a sustainable future, and

the digital technologies to reach their donors in new ways while at the same time finding alternative sources of funding.

They must also work hard to maintain and build their reputation.

There are many challenges. These have been amplified by the pandemic, which has seen huge fluctuations in financial sustainability both over time and across different charitable activities. The pandemic, climate change and the push for greater diversity and inclusion are rapidly re-shaping agendas and societal concerns. But there are great opportunities too, and we can help with both.

Our understanding of the not-for-profit sector

We have been working with not-for-profit organizations and philanthropists for nearly as long as we have existed and, throughout that time, we have advised them on the matters of the day that have been important to them. We continue to build on that. It’s our depth of experience combined with an unrivalled knowledge of the industry and its challenges which is of paramount importance to our clients.

We anticipate regulation, manage reputation, provide quick solutions in a crisis, offer transactional advice.

Above all, we are at the heart of many transformational projects involving multi-layered structures, innovative financing initiatives, real estate portfolios, intellectual property rights, immigration and employment issues, and safeguarding concerns.

The service we provide lends itself to the complex, the unusual and the high risk.

Our relationships within the not-for-profit sector

Understanding the issues in the sector is the prerequisite of delivering the most commercial and best value advice to our clients. But knowing the people in the sector adds another dimension to our offering.

At LegalLens, we have unrivalled networks – with CEOs, senior management, in-house lawyers, trustees, philanthropists and regulators. We understand what motivates them personally, what is pivotal in their professional lives as well as where their priorities lie. We share not only best practice and legal developments but regularly bring people together to share their concerns, experiences and their ideas. For us, long-term relationships are what count.