Marches Leisure (The Shrewsbury Club) and Holmer Park Spa and Health Club (Herefordshire).

What does Lanyon Bowdler provide?

Corporate and commercial legal advice regarding business acquisitions.

What does the client say?

We’re health club operators – we understand the inner workings of our business – but we are less familiar with the legal ramifications of buying and selling a business. You need guidance, not just on the legal documentation and processes, but with the negotiations which come with business acquisitions.

Those negotiations can be tricky, so you want a strong team working alongside you who can be tough when necessary. Although you are keen to get things agreed, you sometimes need your lawyer to say: “Actually you shouldn’t agree to that, for these reasons…”

Understanding the business

We have worked with Lanyon Bowdler for more than six years and the team has always provided sound advice, helping us to stand our ground and achieve the best possible deal for our business. They have represented and acted for us well.

A key thing for us is the efforts the lawyers have made to really understand our business, which has been integral to the ongoing success of our working relationship.

Affordable expertise

Although Lanyon Bowdler is a provincial law firm, it’s large enough to have the experts when you need them, which means their services are more cost effective than working with a national law firm.

We have always received the level of expertise and specialisms we need, but in a way that’s affordable for us as a business.

One point of contact

A good example of people working together effectively came from a complicated acquisition regarding land ownership and other issues, meaning various departments were involved in the transaction.

So we were dealing with lawyers in Lanyon Bowdler’s commercial property team and the corporate team, as well as the firm’s employment law specialists, but crucially we had a central contact who pulled it all together which was vital for us.

We were able to pick up the phone to just one person for regular updates about what was happening, which as any business owner will tell you is always hugely appreciated!