Transaction law

Pursuing growth through mergers, acquisitions, divestments or other deals can be a powerful but complex strategy. Working collaboratively with colleagues across the firm, our UK Transaction Law team can help resolve a wide range of issues that come from a single transaction and support you on your transformation journey.

Related topics Law Strategy and Transactions Tax Mergers and acquisitions Assurance

The team

Philip Goodstone

Philip Goodstone

Partner, UK&I Head of Law, Ernst & Young LLP

Mark Hough

Mark Hough

Associate Partner, UK&I Law, Ernst & Young LLP

Claire Scott-Priestley

Claire Scott-Priestley

Partner, Law Lead for EY Private, Ernst & Young LLP

View all

What EY can do for you

Businesses are increasingly focused on the economies of scale that result from acquisitions. This means that they require an efficient and effective post-acquisition and merger process.

Integrating EY lawyers with professionals from Assurance, Tax, Transactions and Advisory, we are able to handle a range of issues that can arise in a single transaction.

In addition, we complement transactional skills with extensive knowledge, covering a wide range of business areas including anti-trust, employment and benefits, environmental law, intellectual property, and tax.

Making deals happen

We provide detailed legal transaction advice and support including: 

  • Carve-outs and separation
  • Transaction structuring and negotiation
  • Auction processes and process documentation
  • Buy-and sell-side due diligence
  • Debt and equity financing
  • Share and asset purchase agreements
  • Investment and shareholders’ agreements
  • Joint venture agreements
  • Service-level agreements and other intercompany arrangements
  • High volume contract review and transfer exercises
  • Labour union and works council consultations
  • Competition law clearance
  • Completion and post-transaction reorganisations

Whatever your transaction goals, we’ll work with you to arrive at a solution that’s right for you and your business. 

  • Pre- and post-transaction reorganizations

    Acquiring or disposing of a business comes with a number of challenges. To navigate these, multinational companies need:

    • A clear strategy for corporate, financial, tax and people-related restructuring. 
    • Knowledge of the legislative requirements and corporate or commercial law issues in each jurisdiction.
    • An understanding of business and industry dynamics to minimise operational disruption.
    • Clear communication with the workforce to reduce uncertainty and promote employee retention.
    • Seamless coordination of work streams in multiple countries.

    How we can help

    Our lawyers, working alongside our colleagues from across the business can make reorganisations smoother by:

    • Managing communications with local counsel, other EY teams and third-party advisors. 
    • Creating clear schedules, deadlines, consistency and efficiencies with global templates for legal documents. 
    • Supporting in-house staff and project management functions.

    Our joined-up approach reduces friction throughout the process and can help clients achieve significant savings, along with increased shareholder value.

  • Private M&A

    Our team help businesses convert their strategic vision into reality, supporting them at every step of their M&A journey.

    Each M&A transaction comes with its own potential risks and deal-breakers; these might include: 

    • Funding incapacity on the part of the purchaser.
    • Litigation and regulatory risks.
    • Change-of-control issues such as termination rights under critical contracts, loss of public grants or subsidies and loss of major suppliers or customers.
    • Misrepresentations, particularly around accounting and tax.
    • Retaining key employees.

    How we can help

    Whether you are a selling, purchasing, investing, a joint venture (JV) partner or a management team, our team can guide you through even the most challenging of private M&A transactions. 

    We can support you by:

    • Critically assessing a planned investment or divestiture.
    • Assisting with carve-outs to make your divestiture ready for sale.
    • Providing timely help with structuring, negotiating and executing transactions. 
    • Helping with reorganisations that will integrate the acquisition into your business.

How EY Dynamic Transactions Solution can help streamline transaction reorganization projects 

The EY Dynamic Transactions Solution platform has been designed by experienced EY Law transaction professionals to help improve efficiencies and reduce risks for organizations throughout the life of the transaction. 

The customizable solution features a user-friendly interface and offers:

  • A centralized source of project information to better organize and access documents and entity information
  • Collaboration tools for seamless communication among stakeholders, including a detailed and interactive project plan
  • Automated documents and workflows, including embedded e-signature capabilities, to reduce the risk of errors and help ensure compliance with legal requirements, and
  • Customized dashboards with real-time progress indicators and analytics to improve project management

With these capabilities, EY Dynamic Transactions Solution allows you to take greater control over your project without becoming weighed down by the details.  

Show resources

How the law department is key in unlocking your sustainability strategy

As sustainability issues increasingly create risk, law departments are expected to play a key role in driving their organization’s compliance.

Discover more

Contact us

Like what you’ve seen? Get in touch to learn more.

email