Specialist Corporate and Commercial Lawyers
Family Business Advisory Services
We have extensive experience working with family businesses of all sizes to help them protect and grow their businesses. We always invest the time and effort to understand family dynamics and specific needs of each family business and provide advice accordingly.
How we can help
- Business Succession
- Business Succession Planning
- Company Secretarial
- Asset protection and trusts
- Wills and Testamentary Trusts
Expertise
SWS Lawyers has a proven track record working alongside family-owned businesses throughout all stages of their lifecycle, from start-up and growth strategies to succession planning and retirement, along with all the stages in between. We have advised some of the Hunter’s largest family-owned businesses, most successful entrepreneurs, and high net worth family enterprises.
Many of our principals and key staff members hold board or advisory roles within family businesses and are familiar with the complexities of navigating family dynamics and family members with common shareholding in high value businesses. The services we offer to family businesses are tailored to facilitate communication, enhance governance structures, and increase growth, such as:
- advising on and drafting key organisational documents such as shareholders’ agreements, constitutions, trust deeds, family charters, wills, powers of attorney, testamentary trusts;
- providing advice on business structures, including assisting with acquisition or divestment, engaging with relevant stakeholders, establishing and formalising
- corporate governance and family oversight, and facilitating a formal process for identifying and resolving family conflicts;
- conducting preliminary due diligence to identify and manage risks to the business, leveraging that information to develop an appropriate business transition plan, and then implementing an intergenerational change; and
- liaising with insurance brokers and tax professionals for specialist business planning and family financial advice.
Their approach is always professional and delivered at a standard comparable to a capital city law firm. It is the clear strategic direction that has always impressed me about the SWS team.
We believe their ability to combine first rate legal expertise, commercial judgement and strong negotiating skills is rare amongst lawyers and provides us with a real competitive advantage in corporate transactions. We use SWS because of their ability, not their post code.
The combination of rare legal expertise, commercial judgement and strong negotiating skills is rare amongst lawyers and provides us with a real competitive advantage in corporate transactions.
SWS has assisted with advice on securing and exercising complex property and commercial contractual rights and assisting with protracted contractual management and implementation. We value legal experts who can offer pragmatic and commercial legal solutions for our complicated matters. SWS Lawyers has consistently met these criteria.
The team at SWS Lawyers have already showcased their professionalism, commitment, positive can-do attitude and insight into our needs and have a clear understanding of the disability sector.
