Critical Situations, Governance & Negotiation
Independent counsel when the decision may materially affect control, value, continuity or reputation — shareholder conflict, governance failure, a transaction, a negotiation under pressure, a succession, a crisis.
Most decisions can be corrected. A small number cannot.
Who controls the company. What it is sold for. Who succeeds the founder. How a shareholder exits. What is said publicly in the first forty-eight hours of a crisis.
These decisions tend to arrive with incomplete information, competing interests around the table, and less time than they deserve. The work is to slow the decision down enough to structure it, and to make the consequences visible while they are still avoidable.
What this usually looks like
-
01
Shareholders want different things, and the disagreement is no longer procedural.
-
02
An offer has arrived and the decision is running on the counterparty's timeline.
-
03
The board and the executive team are no longer telling the same story.
-
04
A negotiation is approaching where the other side is better prepared.
-
05
Succession is overdue and nobody will name the problem.
-
06
Something has become public, or is about to.
Four areas.
-
01
Governance & Board
Board structure and composition, decision rights, accountability, board cadence, and independent non-executive support.
-
02
Shareholders & Succession
Shareholder alignment, ownership transitions, entry and exit, family governance, and succession planning before it becomes urgent.
-
03
Negotiation & Transactions
Partner disputes, investor negotiations, material contracts, and negotiations over control. In M&A the contribution is strategic — evaluating the decision, aligning shareholders, preparing the position and governing the transaction. Where transaction, legal or specialist execution is required, it is commissioned separately under an independent mandate.
-
04
Crisis & Reputation
Reputational exposure, leadership breakdown, regulatory or media pressure — situation triage, containment options, narrative control and an operating cadence while the situation is live.
How the work is structured
Focused Intervention — one decision, one negotiation, one situation. Defined scope and end.
Structured Programme — governance design, shareholder alignment or succession preparation over a fixed period.
Ongoing Advisory — standing counsel to a board, a shareholder group or a family.
This is not legal representation and does not replace counsel. It is the strategic and governance layer around the decision: your lawyers execute the instrument — the question here is what the instrument should be.
Private Initial Conversation
A confidential conversation, without commitment, to understand the situation, assess whether there is a fit and define the appropriate next step. Nothing needs to be prepared in advance.
Where control, shareholders or counterparties sit across jurisdictions — Iberia, France and francophone markets, Brazil, Angola or the Gulf — the work extends to the cross-border dimension of the decision.
Request a private conversationNotes on Growth, Leadership and Decision
When the decision is irreversible, preparation is the only advantage.
Live situations are prioritised.