What do a Borough Market cheesemonger, a Bermondsey Street restaurant, a Peckham brewery and a consultancy on the thirtieth floor of the Shard have in common? Each of them, sooner or later, needs a contract read, a lease negotiated, a partner bought out or a debt collected, and each can find a business law solicitor without leaving Southwark. The borough's commercial law runs from the international practices at London Bridge to small firms on Borough High Street and in Camberwell that look after local companies on fixed fees.
Hospitality dominates the small-business work. Leases in railway arches and market units are short, personal guarantees are standard, licensing for food and alcohol is a council matter, and the arches themselves changed hands some years ago, leaving many tenants with rent reviews and renewals they had not expected. Southwark's solicitors draft and negotiate those leases, set up the companies and partnerships behind the businesses, write terms of business and supplier contracts, and sort out the shareholder agreement that should have been signed before the first disagreement.
Further up the scale, the offices at More London, Bankside and Blackfriars house technology, media, finance and professional-services firms that need investment agreements, data protection advice, acquisitions and disposals, and litigation when a contract goes wrong. Disputes are issued in the county court or the Business and Property Courts at the Rolls Building, though most are settled or mediated first, and insolvency advice is part of the job in a sector where margins are thin.
Expect fixed fees for company formation and standard documents, and hourly rates for negotiation and disputes.
Business law firms serving Southwark are listed below, verified first. Read the guides to business law, dispute resolution and commercial property law, see the general business law solicitors page, and turn to employment law solicitors in Southwark for staffing questions.
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