Business owners’ disputes are, by nature, disruptive. Resolving them is essential to minimising negative impact.
Succession issues, internal disagreements, long-term illness or death, or conflicting opinions regarding the business’ strategic direction – all are time-consuming and expensive distractions that can affect business performance and productivity. So how do you deal with or resolve them to best effect?
Business advice from expert legal advisors
Our business dispute specialists always keep the commerciality of your business front of mind, and can help you achieve your desired outcomes while minimising disruption to your business.
Chambers and Partners (2025) the legal industry ‘bible’ for over 30 years, describes Stephens Scown’s Dispute Resolution team as “pragmatic and commercially-focused”, and “able to quickly grasp the details of the matter.” We feature in The Lawyer magazine’s prestigious Top 200 rankings, while Legal 500 (2025) rank us Tier One. This is testament to our understanding of how business works, and our qualification to address any business dispute that poses a risk to your success.
Some of the disputed situations we advise frequently on include:
dividends payments
board disputes concerning control
shareholder disputes/exits
partnership termination and winding up
company rescue/restructure
breakdown in communication
business sales.
Expert legal advice that matches your needs precisely
Whatever the size of your business or the scale of the dispute, we’re committed to providing the best targeted support and advice. To help our clients we offer three fixed-fee packages of legal support to directors, partners, business owners and shareholders, to investigate, advise and agree the best strategy to achieve your objectives.
All include an initial review of shareholder or partner agreements, where appropriate, plus articles of association, Companies House entries to assess your position, answers to FAQs, and an alternative dispute resolution guide.
Early mediation service
We also provide a business mediation service for resolving business owners’ disputes, in which we remain fully neutral. If mediation does not resolve matters, we would then cease to be involved in the dispute.
Our dedicated team of business dispute specialists can help you review your options and decide on the best course of action for you and your business. We are highly experienced, commercially minded, and fully transparent – so you can talk to us plainly and get straightforward answers.
