The firm undertakes agency work on behalf of other solicitors across all our areas of practice. Please contact Roy Richards.
We act for a number of charitable and other not-for-profit organisations. We advise on a range of legal issues affecting these bodies, providing a practical framework in which to apply an increasingly complex and fluid area of the law.
Our expertise includes the establishment of many types of charity with different constitutions, advising on trustees' duties and powers, local authority charitable projects, legacies, donations, general fund raising and management of assets.
Please contact Jem Barnecutt.
We are able to provide immediate advice in relation to the adjudication of disputes under the 1996 Construction Act and can prepare all the necessary documents such as adjudication and referral notices and conduct the whole process. Stephen Millen, who sits on the TeCSA Panel, acts as an adjudicator.
We only advise on the most appropriate dispute resolution process after a detailed assessment of each case, its key features and associated risks.
These include -We keep our clients fully advised at all stages of a dispute and monitor costs against forecasts, objectives and likely outcomes so that strategy and tactics can be constantly reviewed.
Our Projects team contain many experienced contract lawyers who are able to assist with advice and drafting on a wide range of contracts from major PPP/PFIs to smaller scale commercial contracts for the sale of goods and services.
Please see our major practice area for more details - Projects »
Several solicitors in the litigation unit have particular expertise in costs. We prepare bills of costs for detailed assessment, handle the detailed assessment process itself, represent clients in hearings for cost judges and advise on settlements and enforcements.
Please contact Ashley Badcock or Trevor Griffiths.
We can offer advice on the application of the Data Protection Act 1998 and related issues concerning information rights.
Please contact Ashley Badcock or Paul O'Sullivan.
Sharpe Pritchard has a particular area of expertise in the law and practice of parliamentary and local government elections. Ashley Badcock is well known for acting on behalf of Returning Officers and has been instructed in most of the leading election cases.
The firm offers a 'hotline' advice service in the run up to polling day and for the actual 24 hours of polling day.
Rosemary Sunter is the partner leading our Employment Practice. We represent employers and employees before tribunals and in the courts and advise on transfers of undertakings, on internal procedures and how employment disputes can most effectively be resolved. We draft terms and conditions of employment and service contracts and have wide experience in advising on all aspects of discrimination law.
The Sharpe Pritchard planning team has wide experience of all aspects of local authority environmental law. We have extensive experience in environmental assessments, nature conservation and SSSIs, national parks, trees and hedgerows, the SEA directive, contaminated land waste, fly tipping and environmental health law. We act or appear in criminal prosecutions and judicial review cases and also advise on the environmental law aspects of local authorities' own developments and redevelopment projects.
Please contact John Harrison.
Please contact Roy Richards for advice and assistance in relation to divorce and matrimonial matters.
Please contact Rosmary Sunter for advice and assistance in relation to childcare matters.
We can offer advice on the application of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and related issues concerning Information Rights, including breach of confidence.
Please contact Ashley Badcock or Paul O'Sullivan.
We are a national leader in major health and social services projects and related issues.
We advised on an innovative joint health and social services PFI transaction for a London Borough. We have closed another major social services PFI transaction for the provision of resource centres for rehabilitation for a County Council.
We were responsible for writing parts of and advising on the legal issues relating to the 4Ps Procurement Pack for social services PFI projects.
We have acted on a number of outsourcing transactions involving personal care, day care and residential care. We are experienced in advising on the human rights aspects of closure of residential homes and have successfully defended a judicial review against such a closure.
Please contact John Sharland.
We act for both local housing authorities and registered social landlords and have advised on disposals and housing development as well as the range of legal issues arising in connection with housing management.
We have carried out several transfers of housing stock. This has included both large-scale and small-scale transfers and trickle transfers. We have prepared documentation to give effect to complex profit sharing and overage arrangements.
Our experience in dealing with the acquisition and disposal of housing land is extensive and we have frequently prepared development agreements and advised on obligations to undertake works of construction, demolition and refurbishment.
We carry out a range of functions for registered social landlords and have acted in connection with the provision of finance and the terms of facility agreements. We have experience of complex refinancing.
Our litigation department has extensive experience of acting for landlords in connection with housing management. This work has ranged from routine possession and squatter actions to complex judicial reviews. We have particular experience of dealing with harassment and anti-social behaviour and we have obtained a number of injunctions and more recently have obtained anti-social behaviour orders on behalf of social landlords.
Please contact John Sharland.
The firm has extensive experience in all areas of ICT procurement including software development, hardware purchasing, telecommunications and WIFI, web-hosting and turnkey solution provision. Our services include drafting and negotiating the terms as well as advising on ICT strategy.
We have a highly experienced ICT team for local government, handling all matters from PFI to PPP, including contracts for call centres and customer services delivery. The team is supported by solicitors in other relevant disciplines including those dealing with intellectual property rights and licensing.
In addition, the firm has a busy and experienced practice handling and resolving ICT disputes, ranging from full-blown litigation in the construction and technology court to mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution.
Please contact Roseanne Serrelli and Julia Rudin.
While the application of judicial review is no longer confined exclusively to the public sector, it is of increasing importance to our public and local authority clients that their decisions can withstand scrutiny in the Courts.
Sharpe Pritchard has a national reputation for its Administrative Court practice, which is headed by Trevor Griffiths. We cover the full range of the activities of public bodies, particularly local and central government, and the firm has acted for over 90% of local authorities in their major challenges to government decisions. Typical of the judicial reviews and statutory appeals which we deal with are challenges to the decisions of central government, local authorities and planning inspectors.
The new Licensing Act has thrown up one of the most significant challenges for local authorities in recent years. Our team has fast become one of the leading licensing teams in London, having acted in a number of high-profile appeal cases involving public entertainment licences and night café licences in the West End for Westminster City Council. We specialise in acting for local authorities, and have an unrivalled knowledge of how local authorities work in this area. This is particularly important now the Licensing Act 2003 is in force.
We advise local authorities on the 2003 Act and Guidance and we are contributing towards Butterworths' "Licensed Premises: Law and Practice", the major new work on the Act. Alastair Lewis is recognised as a leader in the field in Chambers Directory.
We can assist local authorities in the change over to the new regime and in particular how to deal with applications for new premises' licences and personal licences during the transitional period of the Act. We can also provide unrivalled experience in dealing with appeals to the magistrates' court against licensing authorities' decisions.
We advise and act for clients on a range of matters that come under the broad heading of professional regulation.
We have particular experience in advising and acting for clients in matters relating to the regulation of solicitors.
Please contact Jem Barnecutt
We provide help and advice on all aspects of work relating to the preparation of wills and trusts and probate and in the administration of estates.
We are able to provide an efficient will-drafting service at realistic prices and can advise on how to reduce inheritance tax.
We frequently act in situations where elderly clients require protection or become of unsound mind.
Please contact Jem Barnecutt
We act regularly in child care and adoption matters for local authorities and guardians in the High Court and Principal Registry (a two minute walk from our office) and often conduct appeals in the High Court, Court of Appeal and House of Lords.
We can also offer advice and representation on a range of issues relating to capacity, whether under the Mental Health Acts or other legislation, powers of attorney or the inherent jurisdiction of the Family Division.
Please contact Rosemary Sunter