Areas of Practice

~How We Can Help You~

Conveyancing

A large proportion of our work deals with assisting clients in the buying and selling of houses and land, including the following:
·        Sales, purchases, mortgages and re-mortgages;
·        Purchases with Northern Ireland Co-Ownership Housing Association, N.I.H.E. right-to-buy, equity release, mortgage and re finance, purchases on new developments;
·        Sales of repossessed property for mortgagees in possession
·        Appointing and Acting for Receivers
·        Advice on rights of way and other easements
·        Ground rent redemption

Landed Estates

We have very considerable experience in this area, having acted for many families, often over generations, and advising in relation to and dealing with the many specialist issues involved.

Wills, Probate and
Administration of Estates

We advise and provide a service to our clients carefully tailoring the drafting of your Will to your requirements, making the law clear and easy to understand and assisting executors and personal representatives in the administration of estates, including:

· Will-drafting

· Trusts

· Estate Planning (to include planning relating to Inheritance Tax)

· Enduring Powers of Attorney

· Probate and Administration of Estates

· Contentious matters such as disputed wills

We are happy to arrange home visits to facilitate our clients.

Charity Law

We advise many charities including schools, charities and charitable companies and other voluntary and community sector organisations in relation to their constitutions, governance, operations and financing.

We appreciate the importance of the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland society and seek to assist charities and voluntary organisations to provide effective support and assistance to their beneficiaries and the communities in which they operate.

We advise on the impact and requirements of charity legislation and on the regulatory framework.

· Establishing charitable status

· Applications for registration to the N I Charity Commission

· Constitutional issues

· Property advice

Commercial property

We act for a wide range of local and national property owners, landlords, tenants and developers of both residential and commercial property in the sale and management of property and related issues, including:

· Site acquisitions, amalgamations and disposals.

· Reports on title both for purposes of lending institutions, client’s own needs and in relation to wider commercial transactions.

· Site development agreements.

· Letting structures on behalf of landlords or retail centres and business parks.

· Sale and lease back.

· Disposals and acquisitions by auction.

· Banking and lending securitisation.

· Option agreements

· Portfolio management

· Business tenancies

· Planning law

· Waste, contaminated land and other environmental issues.

Our aim is to understand the particular attributes of the land and title in question and to ensure that these fit with our client’s commercial requirements.

Litigation

We are experienced at representing both private and commercial clients in a variety of contentious matters, with particular experience in matters which relate to land and property, including:
·        Disputes regarding land or property
·        Contractual disputes
·        Commercial disputes
·        Mortgage repossessions for lenders
·        Professional negligence
·        Lands Tribunal proceedings
·        Debt recovery
·        Insolvency (to include bankruptcy and winding-up petitions)
·        Compensation

Personal Injury Litigation

When an injury is not your fault you can claim against the person or organisation responsible.

If you have suffered an injury as a result of an accident we can help. We can advise you on the merits of bringing a case. We will sympathetically guide you through the process.

We have a wide range of experience dealing with straightforward and complicated injuries to include:
-Road Traffic Accidents
-Slipping, Tripping, Falling injuries
-Accidents at Work
-Medical negligence

Employment Law and Advice

We have a long and well-established practice in providing employment advisory and litigation services to both employers and employees.

On the advisory side clients are faced with never-ending statutory regulation of all aspects of the employment relationship. We regularly advise on the content of contracts of employment, policies and procedures and how clients might deal with individual situations as they arise. We advise all sizes of enterprises as well as public and quasi-public bodies.

We also frequently advise employees and executives in relation to the acceptance of job offers, the negotiation of changes to contracts of employment, terms and conditions, contentious situations and severance packages.

In Northern Ireland there is a marked readiness to litigate in the employment field. In addition to general issues of wrongful and unfair dismissal and redundancy, there is a strong awareness of and reliance on the laws concerning unlawful discrimination. We frequently advise upon age, disability, racial, religious and political discrimination and sex discrimination cases.

We also advise in relation to transfer of undertakings situations, having defended one of the first cases to arise in Northern Ireland in the 1980s.

Our objective is to give realistic and practical advice to clients giving full weight to their needs and objectives.

Matrimonial

We appreciate how difficult matrimonial breakdown is and our desire is to assist our clients involved in matrimonial disputes in such a way as to remove the stress from the legal aspects of the breakdown and to provide to our clients legal resolution and closure:

· Taking and defending Divorce proceedings

· Financial resolutions following matrimonial breakdown

Company/ Commercial

We diligently service the needs of local business clients in Northern Ireland, with whom we have developed ongoing relationships and assist in many aspects of their legal work; as well as the business needs within Northern Ireland of companies established elsewhere in Europe.

We are used to acting in cross-jurisdictional transactions where an understanding of the requirements of lawyers and clients elsewhere is important. Stress is placed on understanding the client’s business and identifying the key issues at an early stage to further the client’s commercial objectives and meet formal legal requirements.

We can advise on:

Setting up a company
Acquisitions, mergers and disposals by way of share or asset transfers
Management Buy Outs
Joint ventures
Contractual trading issues
Shareholder Agreements
Business succession planning
Partnerships

Areas of Practice: Practices