Legal Services

If control of the company is held by two or more shareholders, the shareholder agreement is essential (OR: Having a shareholders’ agreement is essential for the companies with two or more shareholders). The shareholder agreement helps to resolve a broad range of issues related to the management of the company, as well as other substantial and complex commercial disputes that may arise in the future (for example, when shares are sold by one of the shareholders or when shareholders cannot agree either at board or shareholder level). A signed shareholder agreement will help significantly reduce the cost of advice when the shareholders cannot reach agreement without having to resort to legal action. A shareholders’ agreement under English law is commonly used in other jurisdictions (OR: A shareholders’ agreement in England allows the parties to agree which countries’ courts are to have jurisdiction to hear disputes arising from the contract).

A share purchase agreement (SPA) is a legal contract between a buyer and a seller, in which the seller sells a stated number of shares at a stated price. SPA is an agreement setting out the terms and conditions relating to the sale and purchase of shares in a company, according to which the seller agrees to transfer the ownership of certain shares to the buyer, and the buyer agrees to accept those shares and pay the price determined by the contract.

Our specialists have more than 15 years of experience in corporate transactions, so they can draft, negotiate, amend or generally advise on any share purchase agreement and approach your case not only from a legal point of view but will also consider the commercial aspects of the transaction in order to avoid common mistakes.

Businesses need finance for a variety of different purposes, and at some stage they may apply for funding. Usually they take out a loan by signing an agreement between the parties. Such loan agreements are a common practice and are universally accepted. However, to attract more investors, we suggest our clients to issue Eurobonds that have an ISIN number and can be purchased electronically through any broker. Eurobonds also allow investors to diversify their portfolios and see the value of bonds in a portfolio.

Registering a trademark, a patent or design gives its owner a monopoly over the use of this type of intellectual property and protects it from being stolen or copied by other people. Without registration the owner can lose their exclusive right to use their respective trademarks or service marks, likewise the party obtaining the trademark registration first will benefit from such registration.

Having a federally registered trademark provides the advantage of a legal presumption that you are the owner of the trademark in case of any disagreement over the use of the trademark. England as a country that requires formal registration of a trademark provides the greatest number of benefits including legal protection, economic rights, and ownership rights.

The Apostille was established in 1961 by the Hague Convention XII on Private International Law. It is an official certificate issued to public documents (judicial, administrative and others), so they will be recognised in member states without further legalisation. It was introduced to authenticate the document as genuine, and reduce bureaucracy and administration costs associated with the difficulty of documents identification in foreign countries.

This international treaty was concluded in the framework of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, which aims to standardize international legal norms. Provisions of the Convention allow in many cases to replace the existing procedure of legalisation for certain foreign public documents (which is an onerous and complex process) by a simpler method of their legalisation.

More than 70 countries have become members of the Hague Convention including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and the United Kingdom. Hague Convention is still accepting applications, so the number of member states continues to increase. All of the member states of the Hague Convention recognise the apostille and request foreign documents are legalised correctly before they will accept them. Each member state shall independently designate the authorities who are competent to issue apostille certificates. The Legalisation Office of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is the authority that issues Apostille services in the United Kingdom. Original documents are required for apostille legalisation.