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© Raymond Thatcher 2006Divorce is an all too-familiar fact of life in the 21st Century and can have far-reaching implications, especially for the increasing number of owner-managed businesses. What are the implications when the break up of a personal relationship impacts on the ownership and assets of a business? What can happen to the employees, shareholders, premises etc., especially if the business is in the names of both parties in the divorce? In these circumstances it is essential to take early, specialist advice from a legal practice that can look beyond basic divorce procedures. A significant number of divorcing couples are facing these problems in today’s “equal rights” world but there are few firms of solicitors with the expertise to cater for both the personal and the business aspects of a modern divorce. Colemans solicitors of Maidenhead is just such a firm. When you instruct Colemans in connection with your divorce you do not just get a divorce lawyer, you have access to a whole team of lawyers who have specialist commercial training and experience. Here are just a few aspects of a “business” divorce with which Colemans’ lawyers have experience:-

• How to hold on to your business, particularly if you take advice at an early stage.
• Advice in connection with the sale of a business or the purchase by one spouse of the other spouse’s interest or indeed assist with the provision of formal Shareholders Agreements if both spouses are to remain in the business together after the divorce.
• Guidance over commercial property holdings held by one or both spouses and in connection with possible leases back to the business and related matters.
• Assistance with raising finance and providing security to banks and other funders particularly where one spouse is borrowing money to buy out the other.
• If you are in business with your spouse we can advise on the rights of minority shareholders, the duties of directors and company secretaries particularly if documents have been historically signed without a full understanding of their implications.
• Where one spouse is an employee of the other and will either cease to be so or has been dismissed, quite possibly for reasons connected with the divorce rather than as a consequence of the employee’s performance or conduct, we can provide advice.
• We can prepare new Wills to apply pending the divorce, and cater for Inheritance Tax implications.
• Residential conveyancing in connection with the sale or mortgage of the matrimonial home and/or acquisition of a new property can also be undertaken or advice given in connection with such matters,

With more than 60 years experience of providing legal advice in the Thames Valley, Colemans of Maidenhead is very well placed to meet the needs of local business owners, directors, and shareholders. To arrange a personal, confidential appointment on your current or impending situation, contact the head of Colemans’ Family Law Department, Alison Whistler, on 01628 631051 or by email to family@colemans.co.uk For more details about the firm please visit the web site at www.colemans.co.uk.