England - South West • Corporate and commercial

Lester Aldridge LLP

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Lester Aldridge LLP is particularly noted for its corporate and commercial work in the technology, social media and e-sports industries, as well as manufacturing. Based in Bournemouth, the practice is headed by Grant Esterhuizen, who is dual qualified in England and Wales and South Africa. Splitting his time between the firm’s Southampton and Bournemouth offices, Dean Drew has particular experience advising companies in the technology sector, in addition to counting a number of social media influencers among his clients. Associate Danielle Slater is a go-to contact for SMEs and is well versed on matters such as share buybacks, corporate governance and commercial contracts.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Lester Aldridge provide excellent advice. They are professional and also very commercial, which is great.’

  • ‘Grant Esterhuizen is a superb solicitor. Very experienced and easy to deal with. He always considers the commercial aspects of the deal as much as the legal position. He’s intelligent, open-minded and a real expert.’

  • ‘This practice is very personal and professional. Always willing and able to help with whatever request we submit.'

  • 'Grant Esterhuizen is helpful and patient with all questions and requests. I would highly recommend Grant to any company needing legal or corporate governance assistance in the UK.’

Key clients

  • Flabba Limited
  • Supernova Events and Esports Limited
  • Futwiz Ltd
  • Trant Engineering Limited
  • Applications Platform Limited
  • Upload Agency

Work highlights

  • Advised Trant Engineering, a new client for the firm, in relation to corporate and commercial work and real estate and planning matters.
  • Negotiated the terms of a management buyout of the business and assets of a well-known restaurant and pub in the New Forest on behalf of a local businessman and entrepreneur.
  • Advised Flabba Limited, a fast-growth technology company, on fundraising to support the company’s roll-out of its document management solution across the UK.

Lawyers

Rising stars

Danielle Slater

Danielle Slater

Lester Aldridge LLP

Danielle is an Associate in the Corporate & Commercial team at Lester Aldridge. She assists and advises on transactional M&A matters, where clients are either buying, selling or merging companies or partnerships, and also advises on share buybacks and company restructuring. In addition to drafting and helping to negotiate the transaction documentation, Danielle has experience managing the due diligence and disclosure process. She remains calm and level-headed in situations that can be stressful and time-critical. Danielle often reviews and reports to the client on a variety of commercial agreements and arrangements, highlighting the potential risks and incorporating new clauses to ensure that the document achieves the client’s desired outcome. Another aspect of the services she provides is corporate compliance and company secretarial services. She conducts reviews of the company’s corporate books, registers and filings and advises the client accordingly.

Leading individuals

Grant Esterhuizen

Grant Esterhuizen

Lester Aldridge LLP

Grant is a partner at Lester Aldridge who heads up the firm’s Commercial Group and Corporate Team. He is dual-qualified UK solicitor and South African attorney and has specialised in company and commercial law since qualifying in the UK. Grant has over 20 years’ experience advising on commercial and corporate matters.  His advisory scope includes joint ventures, commercial agreements and corporate transactions. He has particular experience in cross-border corporate transactions, having closed transactions involving buyers or sellers based in foreign jurisdictions such as China, Australia, Canada, USA, Brazil, French Polynesia and Europe. Grant has clients across a number of SME sectors and has specific specialism in advising clients in the software development, software licensing, manufacturing and export sectors. His clients regard him to be commercial yet tenacious in his approach.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Grant Esterhuizen

Other key lawyers

Dean Drew, Edward Adamson, Susan Cowan, Danielle Slater, Ruth Chornolutskyy