Lee Bolton Monier-Williams

Who are we?

We have been providing legal advice to institutions, businesses and private individuals from our unique premises in the heart of Westminster for more than 150 years.

We wouldn’t be where we are today if we hadn’t gained the trust and loyalty of our clients. We believe that this trust and loyalty has been earned through the consistently excellent legal advice we have provided and the manner in which we have provided it. Our aim in every piece of work we undertake is to be an asset to the client, to make a positive impact and to be people that our clients enjoy talking to.

Whilst our legal advice will always remain of the highest quality, we know that this is not enough on its own. To add real value, we place that legal advice in the context of the transaction, the dispute or the family background. We understand the goal for each client in each piece of work and see how our legal advice can help achieve it. We play our role with confidence and humility.

We’re proud of our heritage, our wood-panelled boardrooms and our long-standing, institutional clients who have been part of our history and like us for our traditional values. But without losing any of that, LBMW today is a diverse, modern and dynamic law firm that punches well above its weight. We have global drinks brands, innovative tech companies, international charities and bright entrepreneurs as clients. We have lawyers who enjoy coming to work and feeling part of a driven and productive team with a strong commitment to excellence. We want to make positive contributions to the people and communities that we come into contact with.

We aim to grow exiting relationships and build new ones based on the excellence of our service and our people.

Types of Work Undertaken

Commercial and Corporate:

We offer a multi-sector and well-resourced business service for individual, charitable and commercial clients.

Our corporate team advises on mergers & acquisitions, business structuring, fundraising, private equity, joint ventures and corporate governance. Our clients are both domestic and international ranging from private equity investors to start-ups. We have clients doing corporate transactions in technology, food & beverage, education, healthcare and retail.

The commercial team handles business contracts of all types. We regularly draft and advise upon sales contracts, software contracts, shareholders’ agreements and distribution agreements.

Disputes:

Our Disputes team has specialist property litigation lawyers with extensive experience in dealing with property and land disputes, acting for and advising developers, landed estates, commercial landlords and occupiers, schools, charities and private property and land owners.Our team also deals with contested trusts, estates & wills.

We advise and protect charities and NFP organisations with every type of contentious legal issue from governance matters through to challenging wills and protecting legacies. We are one of the leading church and faith practices in London and the country acting for Diocese, PCCs and other faith based organisations resolving all manner of disputes. We also act for independent and maintained schools, Higher Education Institutions and Universities in highly disputes in the courts, in the tribunals and through ADR.

Our Disputes team have extensive experience of acting in judicial review claims in both the Administrative Court and Court of Appeal both defending public bodies that are subject to judicial review and acting for corporates, schools and charities seeking to challenge unlawful decisions

Education:

Our highly experienced team is able to cover all Commercial, Land, Employment, and Educational aspects of an academy project. We are experienced in the creation, expansion, dissolution and reorganisation of academy trusts, charities, and trading subsidiaries, working with church and secular education providers to ensure the children served have the best opportunities to flourish in the Academy system.

We are able to offer a depth of experience in the church education sector which is unparalleled. We currently act or have acted for the majority of dioceses in both the Church of England and Church in Wales in respect of their education work and are also experienced with assisting other faith education providers, many of which face similar challenges to those faced by the Church of England.

We can advise on a wide range of issues including:

• Admissions and Exclusions
• Data protection
• DfE and EFA Guidance
• Education Acts
• Education Bills
• Governance
• Premises
• School meals
• SEN
• Staffing and employment
• Statutory Guidance

Employment: 

Our employment team provides strategic and practical advice to business clients. Our specialists are on hand to partner clients and assist them achieving their employment aims. We provide swift, decisive and commercial advice based on the type of the business, the sector and the client’s needs.

Whether advising on regulatory and compliance issues, drafting contracts and policies or defending the client in an Employment Tribunal claim, our employment team is an experienced and available resource. We carry out contentions and non-contentious work for employers and employees and work with People Directors and HR professionals at all stages from recruitment to the end of the employment relationship.

Our employment team provides specialist advice on discrimination issues and how to minimise the chances of having to defend such claims. Our employment team represent clients in the Employment Tribunal in disputes ranging from unfair dismissal to discrimination, loss of rights, pension disputes and breaches of trust.  Our employer clients include large corporations, SMEs, LLPs and partnerships, schools, multi-academy trusts and not for profits and religious organisations.

Family:

Family matters on which we advise include: financial remedies including pensions, property, periodical payments, shares and lump sums; Divorce, dissolution and annulment; Child residence and contact issues;  Prenuptial and postnuptial Agreements; Adoption; Cohabitation Agreements; Non-Molestation and Occupation Orders; and  Separation Agreements.

GDPR & Data Protection:

Our lawyers advise clients of all types (SMEs, charities, religious organisations and schools) on GDPR.  The work ranges from practice and policy reviews and updates, handling subject access requests, advising on data breaches, drafting privacy notices and assisting with full data audits. 

IP & Technology:

We regularly deal with trademark applications and disputes, copyright, IT contracts, database rights, negotiate software licences and information, management and protection.

Not For Profit and Charity:

We have a national reputation as a leading practice in advising faith and religious organisations.  We advise organisations of different faiths on all issues affecting them and provide support and assistance so that the organisations remain compliant with regulation and best practice.

Our clients include organisations of different Christian denomination (including Church of England, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Independent and Evangelical churches) and organisations that are connected to Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist among others.

Our staff act as the legal officers to five diocesan registries, providing advice to bishops, clergy, parish officers and diocesan organisations. We are also home to the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury. We are the authors of the practitioners’ guide Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents (Ecclesiastical Law). 

Our Education Team maintains active links with government, the Department for Education, General Synod, the Charity Commission and other relevant bodies. Through our role as advisers to the Church of England Education Office (otherwise known as the National Society), being the body which represents Church of England schools throughout the country, we not only respond to legislative change but are also involved in shaping it. The wealth of our experience means that we are fully equipped to address any queries raised.

We act for a wide range of charities working across the entire charity spectrum and have strong links with the Charity Commission, Privy Council Office, Department for Education, the Welsh Government and HMRC.

Private Client:

Our expert lawyers have extensive experience in drafting wills and will explore with you both your personal and financial circumstances to provide you with the best solution. We can assist, executors, administrators, beneficiaries and family of the deceased during the estate administration process.

Creating the right kind of trust to suit your needs can be complex and littered with potential adverse tax consequences. Our private client team has a wealth of experience in dealing with trusts and their associated complexities, including inheritance tax, income tax and capital gains tax implications. We have an experienced team who are able to offer a full range of accounting and administrative services to assist the trustees of UK resident trusts whilst reducing the burden on them. Working with independent financial advisers and accountants we can advise on how best to use the exemptions and reliefs accepted by HMRC to minimise your tax liability.

Our team can advise on Lasting Powers of Attorney or make applications to the Court of Protection.

Real Estate – Residential:

Our highly experienced solicitors offer the following advice:

• • In relation to freehold and leasehold sales and purchases
  • Regarding joint ownership arrangements and buy-to-let schemes;
  • Planning issues;
  • Transfers of Ownership
  • Right to Buy 
  • Help to Buy
  • Plot sales
  • Property management, equity release issues and ‘lock out’ agreements;
  • Ownership, redevelopment and use of basements or vaults.
  • Licence to Assign
  • Leasehold Enfranchisement
  • Licence for Alterations

Real Estate – Commercial:

As well as the agreed commercial terms, we particularly focus on break clauses, rent reviews, rent deposits/guarantees, services and service charge/caps, insurance/uninsured risks, alienation, repair/schedule of condition, environmental, landlord’s and tenant’s works.

Whether you are a landowner looking at the development potential of your land or a developer or promoter, our team can act at each stage of the development process from the promotion/conditional stage to site acquisition through to lettings and disposal. We have a particular expertise in negotiating overage and clawback arrangements and regularly deal with pre-emption/development/conditional/promotion agreements. 

We also advise commercial clients on leasehold enfranchisement, and our work involves advising clients on the  the process and timeframes, liaising with surveyors drafting and serving of notices, checking the validity of notices, applying to the Tribunal, representation at the Tribunal, drafting and agreeing the form lease/transfer, completion and registration.

Real Estate – Islamic Finance: We act for clients obtaining Islamic Finance (also known as Sharia-compliant finance) in the context of real estate transactions in both the residential and commercial sectors. 

Burial, cremation and cemetery management

We are the authors of the practitioners’ guide to burial law and cremation – the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents (Burial and Cremation) and can assist private individuals, religious organisations, parochial clergy, parochial church councils, cemetery owners and managers and local authorities in the following areas:

• • Acquisition and disposal of burial grounds
  • Granting and extinguishing exclusive rights of burial
  • Churchyard regulations and faculties for memorials
  • Disinterment/exhumation of human remains
  • Infrastructure works requiring disturbance of burial grounds
  • Setting up new burial trusts
  • The post-death treatment of human remains, including disputes
  • Questions around organ donations upon death and use of human tissue for medical research
  • Responsibilities of local authorities and burial authorities in open and closed cemeteries (including under the Open Spaces Act 1906)
  • Consecration of burial grounds and consequences
  • Building or development of disused burial grounds
  • Setting up new burial grounds, including woodland burials
  • The legality of other methods of disposing of human remains.