Summer is the obvious time for business partners to fall out. People sit on the beach and finally have the time to ponder the issues, personality clashes and contractual arrangements they have grown tired of. From all this festering comes a new resolve to sort things out. It means that one of the first calls they make when they get home is to their lawyer.
Can you get me out of this deal?
In a perfect world company directors would have air-tight shareholder agreements – the business equivalent of a Hollywood pre nup – and be spared a messy exit. In practice, if such agreements exist at all, they lack the necessary scope or detail to cover all the eventualities.
In my experience, the disenchantment at the heart of disputes between company shareholders is a people thing - a basic loss of trust and confidence. And once that’s gone, there’s no way back.
Aside from acting to protect the interests of individuals, these disputes can also see us appointed directly by the court who can see the warring shareholders and feel it necessary to have legal advisors appointed to the company to protect its interests. For example, we’ve seen cases of shareholders involved in a dispute attempting to walk off with company property and cash.
It’s a fact of life that business relationships can fail – and when that happens, you need a good lawyer….