Articles by ‘James Worrall’

In the midst of the unprecedented challenges facing companies, boards of directors around the UK are considering their personal responsibilities as directors and the corporate governance processes their companies have in place. The Corporate team here are RWK Goodman are being consulted by a number of boards at the moment and James Worrall, a partner in the South West team, shares some of his experiences and advice below.

With Brexit behind us now, and the UK one month into the transition period, it’s still business as usual (well, almost) for the rest of 2020. There is, however, plenty of speculation out there about how UK plc will perform this year. Brexit benefits, rate of growth, the likelihood of the EU/UK FTA being wrapped up by 31 December… there is still much we don’t know. Corporate Partners James Worrall and Iain Butler look at the facts and add their voices to the discussion.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued its final guidance on consumer law advice for care providers back in November 2018.

Succession planning is critical for any company. In the unfortunate event that a director dies, often the surviving directors are able to step in and run the company, sharing out the responsibilities of the deceased director between them. But what happens if a sole company director dies and the company’s articles of association do not set out a procedure for what happens next?

You’ve done the hard work. You’ve spent years building a successful business and have reached the stage where you are looking for a potential exit. To assist with a smooth sale process, we recommend conducting a review of the company’s history to identify any areas that may be detrimental to the transaction and cause concern to a potential buyer. A very common issue that can delay a sale or potentially cause it to abort are inconsistencies with the company’s filing history, statutory registers and share capital.

Bristol is a city that prides itself on being able to combine its strong ethical compass with commercial ambition. So when the Employee Ownership Association (EOA) recently issued a challenge to the government (whatever its complexion post 12 December) to adopt and implement a new, national strategy for employee ownership, we thought that Bristol would be brilliantly placed to take advantage.

RWK Goodman has presented a bench to a scheme run by its charity partner which gives everyone the chance to get into cycling.

Barchester Healthcare Limited (Barchester) is potentially facing a £12 million liability in respect of their residents’ contracts breaching consumer law.

“RWK Goodman have been the perfect legal partner to support us through the negotiations with our investors. They took a commercial and pragmatic approach while still providing invaluable advice with our best interest at heart.”
– Shane Carnell-Xu, Co-Founder, Shakeup Cosmetics Limited

RWK Goodman has been shortlisted for Advisory Firm of the Year at the Business Leader Awards 2019 in Bristol.

The Corporate team at RWK Goodman has supported beauty start-up Shakeup Cosmetics on an equity investment as part of an initial funding round to support the launch of the business.

The recent High Court decision in Burnden Holdings (UK) ltd (in liquidation) v Fielding serves as an important reminder of the importance of careful planning and execution for corporates planning a demerger or distribution as well as highlighting the importance for all boards of the directors’ duties regime.