Partnerships, joint ventures and shareholders agreements

Expert legal advice on joint ventures and strategic partnerships

If you’re about to collaborate with another person or business, then the right legal advice and formal agreement are a vital part of your future relationship. Clarke Willmott’s corporate and commercial law solicitors understand the importance of joint venture partnerships and shareholder agreements and have the expertise and experience necessary to get the detail and the spirit of a written agreement just right for your business.

Having the right paperwork in place ensures that all parties are clear of their position from the outset and that interests are protected down the line.

How our corporate and commercial solicitors can help

Our corporate and commercial law team have experience in all types of business collaborations of varying scales and regularly advise on:

• Shareholder agreements
• Joint venture agreements
• Partnership agreements and Limited liability partnership deeds

Who we can help and how

Our corporate solicitors help individuals and businesses draft formal deeds of partnership with terms suited to their circumstances and objectives. Tax planning and succession issues can also be incorporated, which can remove a great deal of uncertainty and ill feeling should a venture not work out as planned.

Corporate joint ventures can be entered into by individuals or corporate entities and are often utilised when two or more parties collaborate together on a specific project. A joint venture or shareholders’ agreement (in conjunction with a company’s articles of association) will operate to regulate all parties dealings with one another at shareholder and director level.

Minority shareholder protections are common too, as are provisions dealing with transfer of shares (in all circumstances), what happens if one party wants to sell to a third party (drag and tag along rights) and mechanisms to deal with disputes that may arise.

Some of our recent work with partnerships and joint ventures

National College for Nuclear

Our Corporate team acted for Bridgwater College in Somerset and Lakes College in Cumbria in relation to establishing a new joint venture company, National College for Nuclear. NCfN is part of a government led “national colleges” initiative to provide specialist educational courses in key industry sectors. Our role involved drafting the constitutional documents for the new entity taking in to account the interests of the founding FE colleges as well as the requirements of the industry partners and higher education establishments who also make up the board of the new college.

We have also assisted with the contractual arrangements being put in place with between the new college and its various interested parties, setting out the roles and responsibilities in respect of the new entity.

Joint venture between Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and British Council

Clarke Willmott LLP advised Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) on a joint venture with British Council. The deal will enable British Council to provide global examination administration services to ACCA in countries where British Council operates. ACCA described the deal as “a strategic contributing enabler for ACCA’s 2020 strategy for CBE”.

Recommendations

‘Extremely knowledgeable, flexible and hard-working. The Clarke Wilmott team are very professional, embrace new technologies of communication and importantly translate very complex important legal terms/clauses with care and attention to ensure you fully understand.’ – Legal 500 2025

“Some of their strengths are their responsiveness, efficiency, pragmatism and focus on finding solutions. The team are prompt and responsive, as well as commercially experienced.” – Chambers 2025

Contact a corporate lawyer

If you would like to find out more about how our Corporate team can support you with your partnership, joint venture or shareholder agreements, please contact one of our lawyers directly or by calling 0800 652 8025. Click here for contact details for our Corporate team.

Clarke Willmott has offices in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, London, Manchester, Southampton and Taunton. We provide corporate legal advice both to businesses located within the UK and internationally.