- Managing Partner: Steven Booth
- Number of partners: 30
- Other UK fee-earners: 72
THE FIRM IBB is West London’s leading law firm, a regional heavyweight in the South East of England and a full-service firm. IBB has two offices, one in Uxbridge for corporate, employment, IT/IP, real estate and community legal services, the other in South Bucks for private clients. IBB boasts one of the region’s largest real estate teams outside of London and a corporate team working with UK headquarters of multinationals based in the South East. IBB handles complex work with great attention to detail and high quality client service, making it particularly suited to working with clients who may be used to working with central London firms but who are increasingly questioning the value and commerciality they are getting from their spend. IBB’s partners are recommended in the legal directories as leading individuals in their fields and there are six accredited commercial mediators and one accredited family mediator within the firm. IBB is also 9001:2000 and Lexcel accredited and a member of LawNet - a federation of independent law firms.
PRINCIPAL AREAS OF WORK
Real Estate: The group has developed an impressive national client base in areas as diverse as commercial development and construction, residential development, investment, finance and occupational management. The development team is one of the largest dedicated teams in the South. The construction and landlord and tenant teams continue to grow an increasing share of the South East market. The teams are supported by property tax expertise and specialist real estate dispute resolution lawyers and mediators.
Private Client: High net worth private clients form a significant part of the client base for IBB’s private practice. Services including wills, probate, tax, trusts, estate planning, property and financial advice for individuals. Work is also undertaken for institutional clients. The team is particularly strong in its Court of Protection work with a partner and a senior solicitor appointed as panel deputies. Two solicitors are members of STEP. Other related teams with whom there is a close working relationship provide charities advice, criminal defence, family law advice including children’s cases, employment and personal injury.
Corporate & Fraud, Business Investigations & Governance: Ranked in the top four teams in London by fees, the team has a place on the Very High Cost Case Panel. The team advises on a wide range of white-collar crime including the powers of regulatory bodies, both compliance and investigation and any resultant criminal sanctions.
Commercial Dispute Resolution: This growing team advises corporate and commercial clients, including household names, on a wide range of complex contractual and business disputes. It also undertakes IT and IP dispute work, franchising disputes, debt recovery, professional negligence, commercial fraud and shareholder / partnership disputes. The team includes a number of qualified commercial mediators and promotes a flexible approach to dispute resolution.
Commercial The corporate and commercial teams cover M&A, corporate finance, corporate advisory, private equity, JVs, partnerships, commercial contracts, competition and regulatory, franchising, outsourcing, business recovery and insolvency, pensions, IP and IT. Clients range from medium-sized organisations who appreciate the firm’s West London location and business links, to public companies and UK subsidiaries of foreign companies looking for business acumen as well as legal advice.
Restructuring & Insolvency: The team supports insolvency professionals and provides insolvency services for corporate, banking and finance and commercial real estate clients.
Employment: The team provides employers with advice on HR issues and disputes including disciplinaries, performance management and grievances; outsourcing, restructuring and redundancies; representation in employment tribunal proceedings; drafting employment documentation; and they also deliver in-house training seminars. The team advises many household name clients and tailors its advice to the business and culture of each client.
Charities: The team advises on all aspects of legal issues that affect the firm’s charity clients including: formations, mergers and incorporation of charities, regulation and compliance; liaison with the Charity Commission; commercial issues: property acquisitions and disposals; litigation, risk assessment and personal liability of trustees.Clients include a number of significant household names in addition to substantive religious, educational and music charities.
Banking & Finance: The firm advises UK and foreign banks and other leading lending institutions on facility agreements, security structuring and secured lending. IBB can also advise on the best way to structure the financing of businesses or particular investment or development deals, whether related to senior or mezzanine debt funding. The firm also has specialist expertise in the creation of the appropriate vehicle for finance deals, including SPVs and various forms of co-investment such as joint venture structures. IBB Solicitors is also one of only a few firms with the specialist knowledge required for the establishment and operation of collective investment schemes.
Personal Injury: The team works in respect of employer’s liability, road traffic, public liability and clinical negligence. The team particularly specialise in serious head injury, spinal injury and child abuse cases.All senior fee earners of the team are members of the Law Society Personal Injury Panel. They are also members of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), with the lead Partner a Fellow of APIL. The team are also on the Headway referral list.
Areas of PracticeReal Estate: 26%
Private Client: 16%
Fraud & Crime: 19%
CDR & PI: 24%
Family & Childcare: 8%
Corporate Commercial: 6%