Our Banking and Finance Team provides specialist advice and transactional support to lenders, financiers, corporate clients and other borrowers. They have a strong commercial focus and act as a central resource for clients across both private and public sectors. Key areas of work are structured finance, PFI/PPP (Private Finance Initiatives/Public Private Partnerships) and corporate borrowing.

Clinical Risk

Our Clinical Risk Team provides the NHS, professional medical bodies and insurance companies with practical solutions and support on all aspects of clinical negligence claims including inquiries, inquests, disciplinary proceedings and medico-legal issues. Both our Winchester and Bristol Clinical Risk Teams are on the NHSLA panel.

Commercial Litigation

Our Commercial Litigation Team's expertise spans banking and finance, cross-border disputes, information technology, contractual and warranty claims, regulatory enquiries, partnership and shareholder disputes, intellectual property, breach of confidence, injunctions, professional negligence, debt recovery and public law judicial reviews.

Construction and Engineering

Our Construction and Engineering Team offers strategic and practical advice to contractors, sub-contractors, developers, property owners and consultants, as well as insurers of construction, engineering and professional risks. A number of the team are dual-qualified in both law and construction/ engineering/quantity-surveying.

Corporate Finance

Our Corporate Finance Team advises on acquisitions and disposals, stock market listings and securities offerings, company structuring, Management Buy-Outs and Buy-Ins, corporate governance, company constitution issues, shareholder relationship structures and issues, joint ventures and special purchase vehicles, regulatory compliance and competition issues. Alternative Investment Market (AIM) specialists working within the team have assisted a number of companies to successful flotation over the past 12 months and are recognised as some of the best in their field.

Employment

Our Employment Team advises public and private sector employers on human resource issues from daily personnel matters, including disciplinary and grievance issues, to strategic management issues such as redundancy programmes, industrial action, and wrongful dismissal claims. As part of their service, the team provides management training and consultative advice tailored to the client's specific needs. Many of our employment lawyers are experienced tribunal advocates; between them they handle over 400 tribunal cases per year. The team has a strong track record in providing employment advice to public health sector clients and private sector clients including many blue chip companies.

European Law and Competition

Our European Law and Competition Team specialises in public procurement law and EU issues arising in major projects, particularly in Public Finance Initiatives and Public Private Partnerships. Experts in the team sit on the Confederation of British Industry's Competition Policy Panel, the Law Society's EU Committee and the European Competition Lawyers' Forum.

Health & Social Care

Our Health and Social Care Team provides a complete package of legal and regulatory advice covering the issues encountered by over 200 NHS Trusts, Strategic Health Authorities, Primary Care and Foundation Trusts and NHS regulatory and professional bodies. Specialist areas include corporate and clinical governance, patient care issues, new policy and other regulatory issues, estate and property matters, human resources, information technology and intellectual property issues and clinical negligence claims. The team has contributed to many Public Finance Initiatives and Public Private Partnerships projects, including NHS LIFT and in the private sector acts for private healthcare providers and industry suppliers.

Insolvency

Our Insolvency Team advises on everything from creditor claims and the disposal of a business to the recovery of assets and claims against directors. Clients include insolvency practitioners, lenders, the Official Receiver, creditors and directors.

Personal Injury

Our Personal Injury Team advises insurers and corporate clients in their defence of claims relating to fatal accidents, catastrophic injuries, rehabilitation, employer liability, product liability, sports injuries, aviation injuries, occupational stress, repetitive strain, occupational cancers, new diseases, noise- induced hearing loss and severe road traffic accidents. Services cover both high value specialist claims and smaller, less complex ones. In addition to this, the team provides advice on fraudulent claims and coverage disputes.

PFI/PPP

Our Projects Team has closed more than 60 PFI/PPP projects, working with both public sector clients and private sector bidders. Clients include hospital trusts, building contractors, schools, financial institutions, facilities management providers, government departments and local authorities. In May 2004 the team won the accolade of Best Project to Reach Financial Close (All Sectors) at the Public Private Finance Awards for their work on the Defence Sixth Form College PFI Project.

Product Liability

Our Product Liability Team provides regulatory and legal advice to corporate clients from the cradle to the grave, from product design and development through to launch, marketing, distribution and discontinuation. The team advises on claims management and dispute resolution, recall, consumer protection rights and multi-jurisdictional issues. They are particularly experienced in the aerospace, chemical, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, retail and other industrial sectors.

Professional and Financial Risks

Our Professional and Financial Risks Team advises insurers and professional organisations when they are faced with the threat of a professional negligence claim. They act on numerous high value and sensitive claims for clients throughout the UK and the rest of Europe, including accountants, architects, brokers, engineers, lawyers and their insurers. The team is particularly experienced in the deployment of alternative dispute resolution techniques, including mediation and arbitration.

Property

Our Property Team covers every stage of the property lifecycle including investment, asset management, development, planning, landlord and tenant, environment, funding, construction, litigation and dispute resolution. Clients include property management and development companies, health trusts, shopping centres and other institutions, both in the UK and overseas.

Public Law

Our Public Law Team specialises in European law, governance and constitutional issues, freedom of information, human rights, data protection and disciplinary proceedings for professional regulatory clients. Clients include central and local government organisations, educational institutions, public health sector organisations, statutory and chartered bodies, and professional regulators.

Insurance and Reinsurance

We have separate teams providing Insurance and Reinsurance services, although some of our lawyers work with both teams. The teams have expert knowledge of insurance and reinsurance matters, including insurance and reinsurance litigation, closure of funds, outsourcing, collections, treaty construction, international disputes, the run-off market, multi-party disputes and subrogated recovery actions. Team members also advise on strategic issues such as the establishment of insurance companies and all regulatory issues relating to insurance, including the impact of EU legislation.

Safety, Health and Environment

Our Safety, Health and Environment Team provides commercially focused advice on health, safety and environment issues in the context of our clients' corporate risk management framework, protecting the interests of FTSE quoted companies, household names, public sector bodies and almost every major insurer in the UK. Services include preparing incident reports, advising organisations under investigation, representing clients at police and HSE interviews, defending corporate manslaughter cases and assisting with media strategy immediately after incidents and during investigations.

Tax and Trust

Our Tax and Trust Team advises on the full range of commercial tax transactions and also provides a private client service for high worth individuals focused on maximising family wealth by tax planning. We advise on estate planning, purchases and sales of companies, tax shelters, trusts and wills, property and tax disputes.

Technology & Commerce

Our Technology and Commerce Team specialises in all aspects of information technology and telecommunications, e-commerce and new media, data protection, freedom of information, intellectual property, franchising and licensing, privacy and commercial contracts. The team has particular experience in IT outsourcing and major IT procurement, acting internationally for many of their clients who include telecoms companies, internet service providers, media companies, global franchises, local and central government organisations and health and educational bodies.

Financial Services

Our specialist, multi-disciplinary Financial Services Team is driven by the needs of the financial services community to provide advice in context. The team advises businesses regulated by the FSA in 4 market sectors - life and pensions, general insurance, fund management and banking. They also offer services to venture capitalists investing in the financial services sector, combining the expertise of financial services lawyers, commercial litigators and our financial sector consulting arm, Beachcroft Consulting. In line with the rising level and increasing sophistication of financial crime the team recently recruited additional expertise in internal and external fraud.

Beachcroft Consulting

Beachcroft Consulting is a dedicated team of experts who provide regulatory advice to financial services organisations. All the team's consultants have held senior regulatory positions in the Financial Services Authority and/or other bodies. The team focuses on compliance issues, regulatory policy, regulatory affairs and public policy relating to financial services. They consider the full impact of current and possible future policies on the company as a whole, its employees and its products, from the initial development of a product through to its launch and distribution.

Risk Counsel

Our Risk Counsel Team helps clients use the challenge of legal risk as a tool to engage every element of their business, from strategic and financial to operational and hazard risk. Their bespoke Risk Counsel service uses a variety of leading edge forensic and facilitative techniques to help clients identify and minimise risk. It allows clients to focus on individual issues, 'problem' businesses, or to examine legal risk in the whole enterprise.

Strategic Litigation

Our Strategic Litigation Team works on key issues in the insurance industry and supports the strategic development of the law associated with them. Credentials include leading costs cases such as Callery v Gray, Sarwar v Alam, the Claims Direct Test Cases and the Accident Group Test Litigation.