EM Law

Firm Details

Managing Director: Neil Williamson

Number of lawyers: 14

Other team members: 3

Firm Overview

EM Law is a modern commercial law firm based in Shoreditch, London. We were founded in 2013 with one lawyer and one client. Since then, the firm has grown its team and client base to serve a diverse range of SMEs across the UK and from over twenty other jurisdictions, mainly the US. Over 80% of the firm’s client base are SMEs - ranging from high-growth start-ups to established businesses and sector leaders.

We are a client-centric law firm, delivering solutions promptly, with minimum fuss and for excellent value for money.

Main Areas of Practice

Technology and AI: we advise on a broad range of technology contracts and the legal issues around the delivery and operation of software including AI solutions. Most of the contracts we help with are SaaS agreements, increasingly for platforms with AI capabilities. We also advise on software design, development and support agreements (agile and waterfall), supply and integration agreements, reseller agreements and other licence agreements. We recently helped a foreign government with the procurement of a $millions immigration management system.

Corporate Law: we act for SMEs on business mergers, sales and purchases as well as on private equity / VC investment transactions. We tend to support owner-managed businesses doing deals in the UK but we have also helped UK clients sell overseas entities and we have helped foreign clients acquire UK businesses including advising on complex SME mergers with competition law concerns and potential sales to foreign buyers with an NS&I component. We also regularly help clients with other corporate matters such as shareholder agreements, share buy-backs and restructuring.

Commercial Contracts: we help SMEs negotiate contracts with leading organisations in the UK, including media companies, banks, FTSE 100/250 listed companies, and public bodies. Most of our clients need help with contracts for the supply of services but we also help with distribution agreements for our clients sourcing products from Asia and with subcontract, teaming agreements and joint venture arrangements for clients working on large projects. We also help our clients with consumer contracts.

International Development: we are one of the few firms in the UK with expertise in the aid-funded business sector. We help suppliers to the UK’s FCDO and other international donors put in place contracts across their supply chain, data protection compliance, general compliance (e.g. Bribery Act), dispute resolution and with the sale or purchase of their businesses.

Data Protection: the firm has extensive experience helping clients with data protection compliance and the implementation of policies and best practices across what are frequently new ways of processing personal data (e.g. AI or new forms of digital marketing). We have helped clients implement a full suite of policies and procedures which have been successfully tested when these clients have been audited by public bodies or lawyers carrying out due diligence for investors or purchasers. We help all kinds of clients from a start-up health tech businesses using personal data to train their AI models to a multinational NGO conducting research on education standards in schools across Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia.

Commercial Property: most of our work involves helping SMEs secure leases for office or retail premises. We have also helped SMEs buy or sell property and we are starting to act for developers who will require help with acquisitions and then the letting out of office/retail space.

Dispute Resolution: most of the disputes our clients need help with involve non-payment of fees / lack of performance. We have also helped clients with larger and more complex disputes, for example, defending and successfully settling a £multi-million claim for a project that our UK client undertook in Asia; advising an African state-owned entity on its potential claims under a shareholders agreement with an Italian entity, and advising a Turkish company on restrictive covenants in a share purchase agreement around the use of a mobile offshore drilling rig.

Employment: we advise on all aspects of contentious and non-contentious employment law matters with a team that includes a former partner at Dentons. Over the last year we have advised clients on several complex exits of directors and other employees as well as defending claims, implementing compliance programmes and helping with TUPE transfers.

Employee Incentives: unusually for a firm our size we advise clients on the full range of employee share incentive schemes. Typically, these are EMI option schemes. We advise companies with the setting up and ongoing compliance of these schemes as well as individuals who have been offered share options.

Construction: our work in the construction sector is usually for consultancy companies, some of whom have worked on major projects such as HS2. We have also helped architects and design studios on their contracts including professional appointments and collateral warranties.

Office

White Collar Factory, 1 Old Street Yard, London EC1Y 8AF