Our corporate team provides comprehensive legal support for corporate disposals, whether you’re divesting a subsidiary, exiting a market or refocusing on core operations. Our experienced corporate team can work alongside you, your internal teams and financial advisors to manage risk, preserve value and ensure compliance throughout the transaction.
Our expertise includes:
Legal structuring of disposals – advise on efficient legal structures for asset or share sales or group reorganisations
Due diligence and risk management – conduct legal due diligence and identify issues that could impact deal value or timing
Drafting and negotiation of key documentation
Regulatory and compliance advisory – advising on employment, data protection and other regulatory issues
The Employment Rights Bill is shaping up to be one of the most significant reforms in decades. A key change is within clause 26, which in its original form, would ban employers from dismissing staff who refuse to accept variations to their employment contracts. But recent proposed amendments suggest a more flexible approach may be on the horizon.
Bermans’ corporate team along with its specialist colleagues provides corporate advisory services that can assist businesses throughout the life-cycle of their business. Whether you’re a start-up, a growing enterprise or a multinational, we can advise on a broad spectrum of corporate matters.
As well as share acquisitions and disposals, the corporate team also acts for business owners, purchasers and investors in the sale and purchase of businesses and assets. The team has experience in providing legal support on business and asset transactions of various sizes.
Our experience allows us to guide our clients through each stage of the process to make it as seamless as possible. We are involved in deal structuring, preparation of business and asset purchase agreements, contract assignments and novations and TUPE transfers.
We regularly work alongside tax advisors and accounts to ensure that the transaction is being structured in the most effective way possible.
A new clause in the Employment Rights Bill has been proposed, which could mark a major shift in how employers manage allegations of harassment and discrimination.
Saffa joined Bermans in July 2025 and is a Paralegal in our Litigation team in Manchester.
She assists in property disrepair cases, commercial leases and contract disputes. She often helps prepare bundles, take counsel notes and various other tasks.
Saffa studied Law at the University of Leeds, graduating in 2024.
Outside of work, Saffa enjoys reading and going to the gym. She also enjoys playing tennis with friends on a weekend (when the weather is nice!).
The long-running case of Higgs v Farmor’s School appears to have come to an end, after the Supreme Court last month refused permission to appeal. This means that the current legal position is as set out in the Court of Appeal’s judgment in this case from earlier this year.
A recent tribunal ruling against high-street retailer Wilko serves as a costly reminder that even technical breaches of collective consultation law can carry a high price. Following its 2023 collapse, Wilko was found to have failed in its legal duty to properly consult with staff ahead of making large-scale redundancies. The result? Protective awards worth around £2 million across its former workforce.
Staying awake at work is one of the most fundamental requirements of almost every job. However, the recent case of Okoro v Bidvest Noonan (UK) Ltd serves as a reminder to employers that they should not jump to a conclusion that being asleep at work always warrants dismissal. Context must always be taken into account. In this case, Mr Okoro was a CCTV controller.
The Employment Rights Act 1996 lists redundancy as a potentially fair reason for dismissal. But the existence of a genuine redundancy situation or a sound selection process doesn’t guarantee a fair dismissal. Employers also have a duty to explore alternatives – especially the possibility of alternative employment. Too often, this part of the process becomes a ‘tick box’ exercise: pointing to a vacancies list and leaving the rest to the employee. A recent case highlights how this approach could render an otherwise fair redundancy dismissal, unfair.
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Paralegal