Oury Clark Solicitors A new approach to professional services - Offering an integrated range of legal services specifically designed to assist companies looking to invest in the UK or those already established.

Business Immigration

Our Corporate/Commercial department and our strategic alliance with Oury Clark Chartered Accountants enable us to offer a one-stop shop for overseas businesses wishing to establish a presence in the UK.

We provide advice and representation for:

• Newly arriving or start-up business in the UK
• Existing businesses with international operations wishing to bring non-UK nationals into the UK

We advise both companies and individual directors and their dependents on:

• The best visas to apply for
• The initial visa application process
• Visa extension or change of status

The main visas the firm assists with are:

• Sole representative Visas
• Investor Visas
• Work Permit applications

Commercial Property

We assist businesses as well as property investors seeking to enhance their portfolios in the UK.

The main areas of our advice extend to:

• Freehold acquisitions and disposals
• Commercial leasehold transactions
• Site acquisitions and development
• Planning and environmental matters
• Property security lending including close liaison with financial institutions
• Office, retail, industrial, warehouse and IT sectors
• Property-related legal requirements for international businesses and investors in the UK.

Company Commercial

We provide advice on the full range of corporate, commercial and financial matters (both domestic and cross-border), including, but not limited to:

• Establishing businesses (companies, partnerships, limited liability partnerships, etc)
• Joint ventures
• Mergers & acquisitions
• Disposals
• Management buy-outs and buy-ins
• Reorganisations / Demergers
• Commercial contracts and agreements across all areas
• Terms and conditions of sale
• Licences and exploitation agreements
• Shareholder agreements
• E-commerce and IT
• Private equity
• Venture capital
• Inward investment
• Corporate governance
• Company secretarial

Our strategic alliance with Oury Clark Chartered Accountants enables us to offer a comprehensive service to our corporate and commercial clients.

Corporate Responsibility

Our services include:

• Reviewing and where necessary drafting company procedures and policies
• Conducting an audit of compliance matters to identify areas where there is room for improvement
• Drafting a compliance manual and amendments to various contracts where necessary
• Implementation, monitoring and review of your corporate responsibility policy

The highly qualified team is led by James Oury, a dual qualified solicitor and accountant, recognised by Legal Expert 2002 for his work in this area.

We previously produced an in-house guide to Corporate Social Responsibility which can be downloaded free of charge on this website. Since then the British Standards Institution have commissioned and published a second edition of this guide entitled "A Guide to Corporate Social Responsibility" which offers both conceptual explanations and practical advice to managers of companies of all sizes on the integration of socially responsible practices into existing management systems.

For more information contact James Oury, or purchase the book.

Employment

We provide specialist advice on all aspects of employment law, and can advise you not only in relation to the legal situation, but also regarding best practice where applicable.

Owing to our close links with Oury Clark Chartered Accountants and Arlington Recruitment we are able to offer an all-encompassing approach to employment services, ranging from comprehensive legal advice and complex tax issues to the “softer” HR issues, which all businesses face from time to time.

Whilst this is not an exhaustive list, we can provide advice on the following:

• Appointments and severances
• Contracts of employment
• Dismissal procedures
• Employee rights
• Transfer of undertakings repercussions and due diligence
• Executive immigration and international contracts
• Redundancy, manpower planning and change management
• Sex, race and disability discrimination
• Health and safety issues and regulations

We also provide Employment Tribunal advocacy services and advice to employees as to their rights and remedies in the employment relationship. We work closely with our Business Immigration team to overseas companies wishing to set up in the UK.

Intellectual Property

Whilst some intellectual property rights arise automatically, many clients wish to protect their products and goodwill - which is inherent in their name - through the use of registered intellectual property rights such as Patents and Trade Marks.

Our Corporate/Commercial team can advise you on such matters and undertake applications on your behalf where necessary.

International Human Rights

Although only just becoming fashionable with the larger city firms, Pro Bono advice and assistance to the vulnerable, as well as active support for due process, have underpinned our philosophy at for years. Ever since the firm was first founded we have consistently committed a significant proportion of our turnover, in opportunity cost terms, to assist innumerable projects.

We have been nominated on many occasions for the Lawyer’s Pro Bono Firm of the Year Award and historically were awarded the Young Solicitors Group Award for the best small firm undertaking pro bono work.

Oury Clark continues to lead the market in Pro Bono work. We are involved in various projects in the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, the US and the UK. The nature and type of the work is forever changing. As a result of our ‘on-site’ approach we have gained extensive practical experience in these jurisdictions.

The firm now focuses on assisting and setting up restorative and humanitarian projects, from advising governments on the implementation of Legal Aid systems, to acting as a mediator in conflicts between communities and authorities.

Below are examples of the various projects and matters we are involved in:

• As Privy Council agents, Oury Clark represents both non-capital and capital inmates before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London
• Oury Clark coordinates the Jamaican Pro Bono Panel which is responsible for the representation of Jamaican capital prisoners wishing to apply for special leave to appeal to the Privy Council
• Oury Clark regularly adopts a litigation support role on behalf of US trial and appellant counsel teams in the context of the application of international law
• Oury Clark represents individuals before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights based in Washington DC
• Oury Clark represents defendants and victims in the context of serious violations of international human rights before the International Criminal Court and International War Crimes Tribunals
• Oury Clark acts as advisors to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Death Penalty Panel
• Oury Clark is establishing restorative projects in Jamaica
• Oury Clark is actively involved in developing Legal Aid capital litigation trial and appellate units in Sierra Leone

As a result of our extensive humanitarian experience we are also focused on, and committed to, assisting companies with their corporate and social responsibilities. We published “A Guide to Corporate Social Responsibility” in conjunction with British Standards Institution.

Private Client

The main areas of private client work with which we can assist are:

• Tax planning
• Trusts
• General and Enduring Powers of Attorney
• Applications to the Court of Protection
• Wills (including living wills)
• Probate and Letters of Administration
• Post-death Deeds of Variation
• Other Private Client issues

Thanks to our strategic alliance with Oury Clark Chartered Accountants, we are ideally placed to provide clients with a full range of taxation advice

Professional Misconduct

Oury Clark Solicitors is on the Panel that offers advice to members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in the context of disciplinary proceedings.

As a partner of both Oury Clark Solicitors and Oury Clark Chartered Accountants, ACCA.James Oury is ideally qualified to assist you in any actions brought against you by professional regulatory bodies such as the ICAEW or ACCA. He has successfully represented accountants before both the ICAEW and the ACCA.