Retail & leisure

Our Real Estate team support well-known brands and household names such as FatFace, Burger King, Turtle Bay and Lidl, helping them deliver real estate solutions in support of their core business. The property aspect of retail doesn’t just include stores but also leisure destinations, corporate premises, branch offices, or warehouse storage and distribution.

We have specialist teams in contentious and non-contentious construction and advise on every aspect of the procurement process within the retail and leisure sector. Increasingly more retail space is built as mixed used and our lawyers can offer support through the entire process.

Our national Property Litigation team covers all aspects of property management and development disputes. We can provide advice on potentially contentious matters at the drafting stages or early negotiation, straight through to proceedings. Our aim is to help our clients achieve their commercial objectives as efficiently as possible, ensuring most disputes being settled by negotiation or mediation.

We manage the property portfolios of national and international retailers and can help maximise them, however premises are used. From large portfolio restructuring projects to one off advice on a dispute with a landlord, our expert team has the knowledge and experience retailers require. We will work hard to understand businesses and to come up with commercial solutions, tailored to making a property portfolio work for a business.

Our Corporate team regularly acts for buyers, sellers and investors in the retail and leisure sector. Our far-reaching experience means we can advise retailers of any size from entrepreneurs, start-ups and private equity investors to family owned businesses, public companies and multinational corporates.

Our Commercial team advises on commercial contracts including supply contracts, distribution agreements, technical contracts, IT and terms and conditions. They are also experts in GDPR and can advise on all aspects of data security, data protection and the protection of confidential information or trade secrets. The team also provide “business as usual” advice which covers advice on various commercial agreements.

Our IP specialists manage trade mark portfolios and disputes and advise global names on brand protection and anti-counterfeiting strategies. They also advise on franchising from the perspective of both franchisees and franchisors.

We also have a solutions-focused Employment and HR team who can help with day-to-day employment advice as well as specialist advice on all kinds of HR issues including employment tribunals and HR audits.

We advised on a mixed-use development with Montreaux in North London, involving a Lidl store at ground level, with residential above. Contracts conditional on planning with negotiation of Agreement for Lease, Lease, Development Agreement.

We advise Fat Face Limited and, in the past, have advised in respect of the negotiation and completion of an agreement for lease and lease together with connected licence for alterations and storage licence at a new retail premises in St Pancras International Station, London.

Clarke Willmott act on behalf of Farrow & Ball and have negotiated, approved, and completed a lease and ancillary side letter for a Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 contested lease renewal for their showroom premises in Oxford.

We manage Mozzo Coffee’s trade mark portfolio and disputes. We have a watch service in place and advise the client on an on-going basis in respect of new applications and potential infringements.

Our Employment and HR team advised an online retail client on the relocation and reorganisation of its warehousing needs and the resultant collective redundancy and TUPE processes.

We acted for the sellers on the sale of Inayah Limited to Wed2b Limited. Inayah are an online Islamic fashion retailer, specialising in Islamic wedding attire. The deal completed in a three-week period.