Professional Services
We provide comprehensive legal support to a wide range of professional services organisations, including accountancy practices, independent financial advisers (IFAs), law firms, consultants, advisory specialists, and insurance brokers.
Our dedicated team has extensive experience advising professional service businesses on both contentious and non-contentious matters. We regularly assist clients with issues such as data protection and privacy compliance, mergers and acquisitions, employment law and workforce management, regulatory obligations, and business succession planning - including transitions to Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs).
As a professional services firm ourselves, we understand the pressures and priorities that shape your business - from maintaining client confidence to managing risk. We work as an extension of your team, providing pragmatic, commercially focused legal advice that aligns with your strategic objectives. We form long-standing partnerships with our clients, built on trust, and transparency, helping you to operate efficiently, manage risk effectively, ultimately to achieve sustainable commercial success.
We assist our clients with a variety of matters, including all manner of mergers, acquisitions, disposals and joint ventures. We also assist in the day to day operations which your business may require, or in helping your business take the next step on its growth journey, whether this is with your debt finance arrangements (such as loan and re-financing agreements), capital or equity investment, your commercial contracts, or your regulatory compliance (such as data protection advice).
We aim to mix legal necessity with commercial reality, and approach each matter so as to provide you with the most efficient, but also most effective advice, putting your needs at the heart of the work we do, so your goals can be met with as quickly, and in as straightforward a way as possible.
We act for clients in the professional services sector in all areas of employment law, including preparing bespoke employment contracts and policies tailored to the unique needs in this arena; managing staff; advising on employment disputes, termination and recruitment; acting in employment tribunal litigation and immigration assistance.
With our comprehensive understanding of the sector, we swiftly navigate complex workplace matters to ensure, where possible, a swift, practical resolution is reached. Our experience in the sector means our solicitors give relevant, specialist, practical and up to the minute advice on situations in your business as they develop.
Our team provides support to professionals in the local area and beyond. We are able to assist accountants, architects, surveyors, financial advisors, estate agent, law firms and other professionals both on an individual or corporate basis. We are sensitive to the reputational and regulatory considerations which effect professionals. We are also experienced with bringing claims against professionals.
Our team deals with:
- Professional negligence disputes including:
- Alleged errors in design, analysis or advice
- Failure to meet professional standards
- Claims involving financial losses
- Accountancy, Audit and Tax Professional disputes
- Financial and Investment Professional disputes
- Corporate / Partnership and LLP disputes
- Engagement contract disputes
- Defamation
- Team moves
- Enforcement of restrictive covenants, including emergency injunctive relief
We work alongside our clients on all their property needs, including taking new leases, assigning leases following Partner retirements and appointments, granting underleases to complimentary occupiers, buying and selling property and financing premises.
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What our clients say
I would just like to say that you have, over the past three years on this matter, looked after me exceptionally well. Thank you.
Partner Alisdair Douglas leads the team and has almost 20 years’ experience in family law. He is an advanced member of the Family Law Panel, an accredited Resolution specialist in the areas of advanced financial provision and private children law, and a member of the Good Divorce Group in Norfolk.
Leathes Prior’s team is helpful and professional. Resolution-accredited Alisdair Douglas and rising star Simon Willis excel in divorce, financial remedy and private Children Act matters.
As always excellent, courteous, prompt and professional service.
Excellent service and thorough responses.
One of the best local firms.
They give sound and practical advice on a range of private client matters with some strong lawyers on their books.
The team listens carefully, is very professional and makes clients feel comfortable.
Exemplary service and clear and accurate advice.
I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for all your hard and professionalism throughout the proceedings. I always felt you were looking out for my best interests. It was a pleasure doing business with you and the company and will use you again should I need to and will recommend to others.
My heartfelt thanks go to you for guiding and advising me through the last two and a half years and for achieving a fair financial settlement for me. No mean feat given the complexity of the latter.
Just superb – great service, great communication, no gobbledegook.
Autumn Budget 2025: Agricultural Property Relief & Business Property Relief Changes
It was announced in the 2025 Budget that from 6 April 2026, changes will be made to agricultural property relief and business property relief. These changes bring APR and BPR in line with the nil-rate band rules, meaning unused allowances can be transferred to a surviving spouse or civil partner. This is a significant step towards making estate planning easier for families who own farms or businesses.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 is expected to come into force tomorrow (18 December 2025)
After an extended period of back-and-forth amendments between Parliament and the House of Lords, on 16 December 2025, the ERB finally received approval from the House of Lords, with the formality of Royal Assent due to take place tomorrow (18 December 2025). Head of LP Employment, Dan Chapman, explains...
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Charity of the Month: The Matthew Project
Leathes Prior is delighted to be supporting The Matthew Project as our Charity of the Month for December 2025. The Matthew Project supports young people and adults across Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex to overcome issues around drugs, alcohol, and mental health, empowering them to rebuild confidence and lead fulfilling lives.
Leathes Prior’s Milan Pandit appointed President of the Norfolk & Norwich Law Society
Leathes Prior Solicitors is proud to announce that Milan Pandit, Solicitor in our Corporate & Commercial Team, has been appointed President of the Norfolk & Norwich Law Society (NNLS) for 2025/26.
Commercial Lease Renewals: A guide for Landlords & Tenants
Commercial lease renewals are a topic that every commercial landlord and business that rents commercial premises should have at the forefront of their minds. It is essential for good succession planning, though it is often neglected until the expiry of an existing lease term is looming or once the existing term has come to an end and the tenant is holding over. In this article, our newly qualified solicitor, Maggie Berry explores the process that landlords and tenants can expect when navigating this complex area of law.
Our Guidance, Your Legacy: What is a Will, and why should I make one?
Not only is a Will one of the most important steps you can take to protect your loved ones and ensure your wishes are respected, but it also limits the likelihood of a claim/dispute following your death. To ensure your loved ones and the causes you care about benefit from your estate, a Will is essential to ensuring this happens. Find out more in this article.
Lease extensions: The essentials to getting started
Extending your lease can seem complex, but taking the right steps early can make the process much smoother. Jake Mowatt, Associate and Harry Smith, Trainee Solicitor in our Residential Property Team outlines the key essentials every leaseholder should understand prior to extending their lease.
Upcoming changes to bringing employment law claims: What these mean for you
The highly anticipated Employment Rights Bill (ERB) is set to increase the time limits in which employees can bring an employment tribunal claim. Gareth Stevens & Rose Woolterton explain what this means for employers & employees.
Service Charges in Residential Leases: FAQs
Service charges are forever a hot topic in the world of property disputes, and it remains one of the most contentious areas between freeholders and leaseholders, particularly in long residential leases. Danny Turpin, Associate, discusses frequently asked questions regarding service charges on long residential leases.
Leathes Prior winners in nine categories in the prestigious Legal 500 Future Laywer Survey
We are thrilled to announce that the firm has placed once again in the Legal 500 Future Lawyer survey as No.1 in the UK for our Social Life; a ranking we have held in the survey for seven years out of the past nine years.
Jess’s Rule – New Guidelines for GPs
A new initiative is being rolled out across GP practices across England in the hope of preventing serious illnesses being missed by GPs where patients present with the same, or deteriorating, symptoms on multiple occasions. Kimberley Nelson in our Personal Injury & Clinical Negligence Team discusses new guidelines for GPs.
Leathes Prior are excited to announce that four Trainee Solicitors qualify at the firm
Leathes Prior is excited to announce that four of our amazing trainees, Eleanor Chapman, Maggie Berry, Alex Robinson, and Georgia Sartin, have successfully completed their training contracts and are now qualifying as Solicitors at the firm.
