Skip to content
Thorne & Vance

Practice areas · six

Six areas. We decline work in all the others.

A firm of eleven partners cannot be excellent at everything, and the ones that claim to be are describing their letterhead rather than their capability.

01 Commercial litigation +

High Court and arbitral disputes, from injunctive relief through to enforcement across jurisdictions.

Discuss a matter

Typical instructions

Freezing & search orders
Contractual disputes
Shareholder actions
Enforcement & asset tracing
02 Corporate & M&A +

Acquisitions, disposals and reorganisations for owner-managed businesses and mid-market funds.

Discuss a matter

Typical instructions

Share & asset sales
Management buy-outs
Investment & funding rounds
Group reorganisations
03 Employment +

Board-level exits, restrictive covenants and the tribunal claims that follow them.

Discuss a matter

Typical instructions

Board-level exits
Restrictive covenants
Tribunal defence
TUPE & restructuring
04 Real estate +

Development, institutional investment and landlord-and-tenant disputes on commercial portfolios.

Discuss a matter

Typical instructions

Development agreements
Institutional investment
Dilapidations
Lease renewals & forfeiture
05 Regulatory & investigations +

FCA, HSE and internal investigations where the commercial risk outruns the legal one.

Discuss a matter

Typical instructions

FCA enforcement
HSE prosecutions
Internal investigations
Dawn raid response
06 Private wealth +

Succession, trusts and the contentious probate that families do not plan for.

Discuss a matter

Typical instructions

Succession planning
Trusts & settlements
Contentious probate
Family investment companies

On fees

We will tell you what it costs. Most firms will not.

Corporate transactions are quoted as a fixed fee once we have seen the heads of terms. Litigation is quoted in phases — pre-action, pleadings, disclosure, witness evidence, trial — each with its own estimate and a written warning before any phase is exceeded.

Conditional fee and damages-based arrangements are available on commercial claims above £500,000 where the merits justify it. Third-party funding can be arranged, and we will introduce you to more than one funder rather than the one that pays us.

No charge

Initial assessment

10 days

Written merits opinion

±8%

Estimate accuracy

Tell us what has happened.

Including the parts that do not reflect well on you. It is privileged, and we have heard considerably worse.

Speak to a partner