Is your Lawyer a Business Confidant or Commercial Fire Fighter?
July 2009
Nick Blackbourn, Director of the region’s leading specialist commercial law firm, Blackbourn & Bond, explains how a closer relationship with your lawyer can bring added business benefits.
Many people associate lawyers with crisis or contracts. And in that sense you only need one as a reaction to an event. Whilst this is partially true, specialist commercial lawyers have a vast wealth of business experience and are able to blend this knowledge with law practices to help clients operate their businesses more effectively without waiting for unforeseen events to occur. At Blackbourn & Bond, we encourage active engagement with clients offering expert, common sense and cost effective solutions to business issues and change. This dynamic commercial approach is best illustrated by existing clients such as Contour Casings in Telford, who have worked with the Shrewsbury law firm for over three years.
Lawyers and solicitors Blackbourn & Bond has been engaged by Contour Casings of Telford to handle numerous projects, from Human Resource processes and procedures to company relocation and business contractual obligations. Throughout the relationship, personal contact has also been maintained for informal advice and direction on specific issues. Leigh Simpson, Managing Director, Contour Casings explains the broader benefits of the relationship: “Blackbourn & Bond has a good background in commercial business and is able to offer legal services with a common sense commercial angle. This includes sharing useful tips, past experience and practical help with day to day challenges.
“When we are too close to our own business issues, we use Nick Blackbourn as our commercial sounding board as he always offers a pragmatic view, brings clarity to situations and delivers the quickest and most cost effective solutions. He has a ‘real-world’ perspective and appreciates and understands how the business world operates, thereby offering experience that cannot be taught from a legal reference book. With a good commercial lawyer like Nick, you have a legal expert, personal confidant and business partner in one professional service.”
Businesses need commercial legal experts to fall back on when in-house attempts to deal with situations are not possible. Regular and direct contact with your lawyer, however, can open the door to ways of dealing with challenges yourself without necessarily having to incur costs. The greater the effort in developing closer working relationships with your commercial lawyer the greater the benefits will be.
About Nick Blackbourn
Nick is the firm’s founding partner and set up the practice back in 2003, and has more than 25 years industry based experience, working with some of the UK’s largest PLC’s such as Guinness Plc, Ranks Hovis McDougall Plc, and United International Pictures (UIP).
Nick specialises in the corporate finance and company commercial sectors focusing on working alongside clients involved in company acquisitions and disposals, business development, management buy outs/ins, private equity, commercial contracts, Intellectual Property and corporate structures.
For further information, please visit www.blackbournbond.co.uk, or telephone Nick or Dwight directly on 01743 233255.