By seven on a Friday evening Brixton Village and Market Row are full, and almost every unit in them is a small business on a short lease: restaurants, bars, record shops, butchers and grocers whose owners have more to lose from a bad lease than from any other document they will sign. A business law solicitor in Lambeth reads those leases before the tenant does, negotiates the break clauses and rent reviews, deals with the renewal when the term ends, and advises on what happens when a landlord decides the whole street should be something else, which traders in Brixton's railway arches learnt the hard way when the arches were cleared for refurbishment a decade ago.
The borough's businesses are small, numerous and concentrated in hospitality, nightlife, retail and the creative trades. Vauxhall's late-night venues need licensing advice and robust contracts with security firms and promoters; Clapham's restaurants and gyms need company formation, partnership agreements and terms of business; the agencies and production companies around Waterloo need contracts with clients and freelancers and clear ownership of what they produce. The technology and professional firms moving into the new offices at Vauxhall and Nine Elms bring investment rounds, shareholder agreements, data protection and the occasional acquisition.
When things go wrong, debts are chased and contracts disputed in the county court, with larger claims issued in the Business and Property Courts at the Rolls Building; nearly all are settled or mediated before trial. Insolvency advice, for a bar that has not survived a quiet winter, is part of the work.
Company formation, standard contracts and lease reviews are usually fixed-fee; negotiation and litigation are hourly.
Business law firms serving Lambeth are listed below, verified first. Read the guides to business law, commercial property law and dispute resolution, see the general business law solicitors page, and for staff matters turn to employment law solicitors in Lambeth.
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