The Legal 500 Highlights: Blandy & Blandy LLP – ‘Excellent and responsive’

Corporate & commercial

Blandy & Blandy gives ‘excellent advice at a fair cost’ to owner-managed businesses, investors and financiers on deals with values up to £25 million. Corporate practitioner David Few heads the practice and advised Lloyds Bank in connection with the financing of the acquisition of Witney Lakes Resort, Spa and Golf Club by The Club Company. Few also assisted Search Technologies with the due diligence exercise undertaken on the UK subsidiary in the course of the acquisition of Search Technologies and its global subsidiaries by Accenture.

IP practice head Debbie Brett and Nick Burrows, who leads the charity and education team, are the primary contacts for commercial work. Perfetti Van Melle and Launch Diagnostics are also clients.

Licensing

At the ‘excellent‘ Blandy & Blandy, Sue Dowling works in conjunction with colleagues in the planning and environmental and commercial and regulatory departments to provide extensive venue licensing expertise.

The team handles the full spectrum of work in this area, including advising on alcohol and regulated entertainment licensing for all manner of well-known stadiums and venues covering concerts, sports events, conferencing and other hospitality events, and representing clients in contested hearings.

Dowling stands out for her ‘responsive approach and thorough knowledge‘ of this area of law. In recent work, she assisted a major sports client with obtaining a new premises licence, and in another highlight obtained a new licence for a client, which involved successfully negotiating with objectors and avoiding the need for a hearing.

Commercial litigation

David Murray heads the commercial litigation and insolvency sub-practice at Blandy & Blandy, with joint managing partner Philip D’Arcy heading the dispute resolution practice as a whole.

Highlights included Murray advising a client in respect of its exposure to the administration of a major tobacco, food and alcohol wholesaler and defending another client against a range of claims, including that it had defamed its departing president. Clients of the ‘responsive and strong team’ include ePayroll Services, Englefield Estate Trust Corporation and BDO. Debbie Brett and senior associate Jessica Irwin are other names to note.

Insolvency

Blandy & Blandy‘s insolvency team handles both contentious and advisory matters, such as corporate turnarounds, voluntary arrangements, administrations, liquidations, receivership, individual bankruptcies, investigations and debt recovery.

Recent highlights include team lead David Murray's representation of a manufacturing company as creditor in its retention-of-title claim concerning the administration of Palmer & Harvey Group; he also advised a global technology platform provider on the defence and settlement of several court proceedings, as well as the refinancing and restructuring of the international group. Corporate lawyer David Few advises on insolvency-related transactions, while the real estate and employment partners provide additional support. BDO, Harrisons Business Recovery and Insolvency, Quantuma and KRE Corporate Recovery are among the active clients.

Employment

The ‘excellent’ Blandy & Blandy offers clients a ‘timely response, which is particularly important with employment matters’, and is noted for its ‘sound advice and good technical knowledge’. Developing areas of practice include disability discrimination claims, education-related HR issues, business immigration matters and assisting with clients with GDPR compliance.

Project highlights included representing private clients in claims against a county council for discrimination on a number of grounds and against an NHS Trust for unfair dismissal, disability discrimination and alleged breach of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.

Practice head Sue Dowling deals primarily with complex employment litigation involving unlawful discrimination and also frequently assists company clients with handling the restructuring of management teams and the departure of high-level executives. Firm joint managing partner Tim Clark and solicitor Andrea Corr are recommended as being ‘highly professional, very experienced, understanding, non-judgmental, sympathetic and above all very human’.

Commercial property

The ‘excellent‘ Blandy & Blandy team is ‘responsive, commercial and prepared to roll up their sleeves’, with a strong reputation for development work, secured lending and transactional advice. Representative clients include Svenska Handelsbanken, Cove Construction and Asset Advantage.

Team head Jane Gunnell handled Austin Fraser’s entry into a 10-year lease agreement for Reading’s newly refurbished landmark Thames Tower and advised the University of Reading on a number of sale transactions and the re-negotiation of documentation relating to previously completed transactions.

Departmental manager Katja Wigham has provided advice on the purchase of two freehold properties as part of a corporate transaction in the waste management sector and is noted for her expertise in advising charities and educational institutions. The ‘commercial, responsive and flexible’ John Dingle is ‘a pleasure to work with’, and is recommended for healthcare sector matters and secured lending.