The legal work we undertake for partnerships and LLPs covers a broad spectrum, at one end providing basic partnership or members' agreements for the small trading partnership/LLP and, at the other end, providing and advising on complex arrangements for a variety of professional partnerships and LLPs. For example, we advise partnerships and LLPs with different categories of partners/members involving different rights and obligations in respect of capital contributions, sharing of profits and losses and voting rights.
The partnership agreement, or members' agreement for an LLP, is the document that regulates the partners'/members' business relationship, setting out their respective rights and obligations in all the situations that might affect the partnership or LLP. In the absence of a partnership or members' agreement the provisions of the Partnership Act 1890 (or regulations made under the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000) will regulate the partnership or LLP. Unsurprisingly, these provisions are not suited to most business environments and every partnership or LLP, whatever its size, should have its own partnership or members' agreement which is reviewed at regular intervals and kept up to date with the circumstances of the partnership or LLP.
In addition to preparing and advising on partnership and members' agreements, we act in partnership and LLP disputes. Typically, disputes arise where there is no partnership or members' agreement, or the partnership or members' agreement has not been kept up to date and either does not address the situation that has arisen or addresses it in a way that is not satisfactory to one or more of the partners/members. We have lawyers within our Dispute Resolution Team with extensive experience in resolving such disputes.
We also have experience of advising clients who wish to trade through a limited partnership, whereby one or more of the partners has limited liability provided certain conditions are satisfied.
Our Medical Practices Unit provides specialist advice to GP partnerships.
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