Jillingham and CoSolicitors · Glasgow— home
What we do

Practice areas

Ten areas, each led by the partner or associate who works in it continuously. There are no umbrella departments above them.

Every area below is practised under Scots law. Most of it is for businesses rather than consumers; the exception is the succession and wealth work at area ten, which is for individuals and families, generally the owners of companies we already advise. A substantial part of the work has an element outside Scotland, and in those matters we advise on the Scots law position, instruct lawyers qualified in the relevant country for the rest, and co-ordinate their advice with ours.

Alongside the commercial practice, our Managing Partner acts for a small number of private clients on succession, trusts and the structuring of personal wealth. That work is set out at area ten, and is generally taken on for people whose companies the firm already advises.

  1. Corporate & Company Law

    The constitution and governance of private companies registered in Scotland, from incorporation and share structure to directors' duties and shareholder remedies.

    Read moreabout Corporate & Company Law

    Typical work

    • Incorporation and bespoke articles of association
    • Shareholders' agreements and share class structures
    • Share issues, allotments, transfers and buy-backs
    • Directors' duties, decision-making and board procedure
    • Statutory registers, PSC records and Companies House filings
    • Group reorganisations and holding company structures

  2. Commercial Contracts

    The agreements a trading business runs on, drafted, negotiated and reviewed under Scots law and not adapted from an English precedent.

    Read moreabout Commercial Contracts

    Typical work

    • Standard terms and conditions of business
    • Supply, manufacturing and distribution agreements
    • Agency, consultancy and introducer arrangements
    • Confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements
    • Framework agreements and long-term supply arrangements
    • Limitation and exclusion of liability

  3. Business Disputes & Litigation

    Commercial disputes brought and defended in the Scottish courts, with a candid view of cost and recovery given at the outset.

    Read moreabout Business Disputes & Litigation

    Typical work

    • Contract, warranty and misrepresentation claims
    • Shareholder, director and partnership disputes
    • Professional negligence claims brought by businesses
    • Commercial debt recovery and enforcement
    • Interdict and other urgent remedies
    • Pre-action correspondence and negotiated settlement

  4. Commercial Property

    Acquisitions, disposals and leases of commercial property in Scotland, where the conveyancing, the tax and the tenant's position are all distinctly Scottish.

    Read moreabout Commercial Property

    Typical work

    • Purchases and sales of commercial heritable property
    • Commercial leases, for landlords and for occupiers
    • Rent review, assignation, sub-letting and break options
    • Dilapidations and repairing obligations
    • Title conditions, servitudes and access rights
    • Secured lending, standard securities and floating charges

  5. Employment Law for Businesses

    Advice for employers: contracts and policies, difficult departures, restructuring, and the defence of tribunal claims in Scotland.

    Read moreabout Employment Law for Businesses

    Typical work

    • Contracts of employment, handbooks and policies
    • Disciplinary, grievance and performance procedures
    • Restructuring, redundancy and consultation
    • Settlement agreements and negotiated exits
    • Restrictive covenants and confidentiality
    • TUPE and the employment aspects of a business transfer

  6. Intellectual Property for SMEs

    Establishing what a smaller business owns, recording it properly, and deciding on commercial grounds what to do when someone else is using it.

    Read moreabout Intellectual Property for SMEs

    Typical work

    • Trade mark clearance, applications and oppositions
    • Brand, product name and domain name disputes
    • Copyright and design ownership in commissioned work
    • Confidential information and trade secrets
    • Licences, assignations and IP in commercial agreements
    • IP due diligence ahead of a sale or investment

  7. Company Sales, Purchases & Partnerships

    Buying and selling businesses, admitting and retiring partners, and the negotiated documents that determine who carries which risk afterwards.

    Read moreabout Company Sales, Purchases & Partnerships

    Typical work

    • Share purchases and asset purchases
    • Due diligence, disclosure and data rooms
    • Warranties, indemnities and limitation of liability
    • Deferred consideration, earn-outs and retentions
    • Management buy-outs and minority investments
    • Partnership and LLP agreements, admissions and retirals

  8. Insolvency & Restructuring

    Advice for directors, lenders and purchasers when a business is under strain, given by reference to Scottish procedure and not to the English equivalent.

    Read moreabout Insolvency & Restructuring

    Typical work

    • Directors' duties as solvency comes into question
    • Solvent reorganisations and informal restructuring
    • Secured lending, standard securities and floating charges
    • Formal corporate insolvency processes in Scotland
    • Buying a business or assets out of a formal process
    • Sequestration, trust deeds and personal insolvency

  9. International Media Law

    Defamation, privacy and reputation, and the contracts behind publishing and broadcast, for publishers and for the individuals written about.

    Read moreabout International Media Law

    Typical work

    • Pre-publication and pre-broadcast advice
    • Defamation and malicious publication claims, pursuing and defending
    • Privacy, confidence and misuse of private information
    • Interdict and other urgent remedies against publication
    • Reporting restrictions and contempt
    • Publishing, broadcast, production and rights agreements

  10. Private Client & Succession

    Succession, trusts and the structuring of personal wealth for individuals and families of substantial means, generally those whose companies the firm already advises.

    Read moreabout Private Client & Succession

    Typical work

    • Wills, succession planning and executry
    • Legal rights and the limits of testamentary freedom in Scotland
    • Trusts, their creation and their running
    • Family investment companies and holding structures
    • Lifetime giving and the transfer of a business between generations
    • Ownership of heritable property and land

Not sure which of these it is?

Most matters do not arrive neatly labelled. A shareholder falling out with a co-owner is frequently a contract question, an employment question and a valuation question at the same time. Describe the position in ordinary terms and we will tell you what it is.

Describe your matter