Partnership Agreement Solicitors

If you are running a business with one or more other people and have not signed a partnership agreement, the default provisions of the Partnership Act 1890 already govern your relationship in full, including equal profit shares regardless of capital contributed and joint liability for the firm’s debts. Our corporate and commercial solicitors draft and negotiate partnership agreements for professional practices and family businesses alike, and our multilingual team can manage the English law position clearly wherever partners are based overseas.

What does our partnership agreement service cover?

A partnership agreement replaces the Partnership Act’s default terms with provisions that reflect how the partners actually intend to work together. We advise and act on:

• Drafting new partnership agreements for professional practices, family businesses, and joint trading ventures.
• Profit and loss sharing arrangements, moving away from the default equal split under section 24 of the Partnership Act 1890 where partners contribute unequally.
• Capital contributions and drawings, setting out how much each partner invests and how much they can withdraw.
• Decision-making and management rights, including which decisions require unanimous partner consent.
• Retirement, expulsion, and admission of partners: under section 25 of the Partnership Act 1890, no majority of partners can expel a partner unless the power to do so has been conferred by express agreement.
• Restrictive covenants on outgoing partners, including non-compete and non-solicitation clauses.
• Dissolution provisions, addressing what happens to the partnership’s assets, goodwill, and liabilities if the partnership ends.
• Converting an existing partnership into a limited liability partnership or limited company where that structure suits the business better.
• Resolving disputes between partners, including disagreements over management, profit shares, or a partner’s conduct.

Why choose Law Lane Solicitors for partnership agreements?

The Partnership Act 1890 was written for a business world that no longer exists, and partners who rely on its default terms usually only discover the gaps once a disagreement over profit share, capital, or an underperforming partner has already turned into a dispute. Our company and commercial team drafts partnership agreements that replace those defaults with terms the partners have actually agreed, covering expulsion, dissolution, and restrictive covenants, the clauses most likely to be tested once a partnership comes under strain.

We tell you plainly where an informal arrangement leaves you exposed. We draft agreements that work for how the partnership actually operates day to day, and we advise just as readily on converting a partnership into a limited liability partnership where that structure better protects your personal assets. As a full-service firm, we also support the tax, property, and employment issues that sit alongside most partnership arrangements.

Get in touch

If you are forming a new partnership, or you need to update terms with existing partners, our commercial team can put an agreement in place that reflects how you actually work together. Phone 020 7870 4870 or email info@lawlanesolicitors.co.uk to make an appointment.