Wedlake Bell

Located in the heart of the City of London, Wedlake Bell LLP ("WB") is a "UK Top 100" law firm with core strengths across Private Client, Real Estate, Business Services and Dispute Resolution. The firm has 73 partners supported by about 217 other lawyers. Whilst the firm can trace its roots back to 1780, we are a modern and innovative law firm that offers pragmatic and commercial solutions. We are based in one single office near St Paul's.

Our approach is to be commercial and flexible; we work with our clients as business partners and not simply as suppliers of legal services. We are always striving to understand and add value to our clients' businesses. We pride ourselves on developing excellent personal, as well as professional, relationships. We recognise the importance of partner involvement and accessibility where appropriate, but equally we like to think that our junior lawyers are amongst the most capable in the industry as a result of the excellent training that they receive and the responsibility that they are encouraged to take.

We provide a wide range of legal services to UK and international corporate clients, public institutions and entrepreneurs, across all sectors. Our clients range from trade associations, governmental bodies, education establishments, charities and private investors to FTSE 100 companies, major retailers, insurers, banks and financial institutions, pension fund trustees, owner-managed private companies, entrepreneurs and start-ups.

Alongside our UK practice, we have established a highly innovative international business model under the brand iGlobal Law. iGlobal is a specialist subsidiary established in 2013 focusing on international labour and compliance law. iGlobal provides an efficient, driven, single contact point cross-border and country-specific labour law and compliance advice to global businesses in over 60 jurisdictions.

We also have an innovative data protection offering under the brand ProDPO which is a subsidiary of Wedlake Bell. ProDPO was founded in 2017 to provide outsourced data protection officer services to businesses, including requirements to maintain records of personal data and processing activities.

There is a strong international dimension to our practice. Wedlake Bell founded TELFA (Trans European Law firm Alliance) in 1989 and it was born out of the need to serve clients doing business across the jurisdiction of Europe. TELFA now has an affiliation with USLAW giving all TELFA clients privileged access to the same quality of service in the United States. We act regularly for overseas clients from the US, the Middle East, the Far East, South Africa and Europe. We advise on tax and fund structures for all such overseas investors.

The distribution of wealth has changed significantly in recent decades. Fuelled by new technologies and shifting global markets, individual achievement is recognised and well rewarded. With its stable economy and healthy property market, the UK is an attractive place in which to settle. But as personal wealth and property values increase, more families and estates than ever before are caught in the net of inheritance tax and capital gains tax.

We have a strong and deep property practice comprising 25 partners and 35 other fee earners who are focused exclusively on real estate matters. Our Real Estate team works extensively with other specialists within the firm in related practice areas such as construction, planning and environmental, disputes, banking, corporate and tax. Of note, our construction team has experience across the entire real estate industry spectrum with significant experience in transactional matters and a large purchaser client base.

We provide a full range of legal services including mergers and acquisitions in all shapes and sizes, joint ventures, intellectual property and a wide range of commercial services to UK and international clients, public institutions and entrepreneurs across all sectors. In addition we have experts in finance, pensions and tax advice.

We have a dedicated team of experienced data protection lawyers, who can advise on all aspects of data protection law, whether pre-emptive compliance advice, or response to data breaches. Thanks to our international network of foreign lawyers, we can also handle multinational projects.

Our expert Disputes Team is skilled at dealing with commercial disputes and litigation for UK based and international clients of all sizes across a variety of commercial disciplines.

Our lawyers have extensive experience of dealing with disputes both in the UK and internationally and resolving them robustly by negotiation, litigation, arbitration, expert determination, mediation and in combinations of these and other methods of alternative dispute resolution.