Leaders and senior executives

Advised an ex-director on his exit from the Company, as well as to attempt to negotiate a settlement for his departure. 

Advised on the client's acquisition of a hotel, appropriate terms in the Sale & Purchase Agreement to regulate the takeover of the seller's employees, and reviewed and updated the full suite of employment documents.

Represented a former general manager in a wrongful termination claim. 

Representing a global marketing and advertising agency in coming to a mutual termination agreement with its CEO who has been in service for more than 20 years and assisting the company in compiling a master employment contract template for its APAC region. 

Representing a senior executive / co-founder in negotiating a service agreement involving share option plans of the US holding entity. The group hiring the individual is a start-up company designing and manufacturing electric vehicles, which is listed on NASDAQ. 

Representing a worldwide leader in the development of diverse electronics technologies in advising on their intended data transfer as a result of upcoming corporate demerger.

When our client, the MD of a leading recruitment firm, exited as director, employee and minority shareholder, we negotiated bespoke post termination restrictions and share purchase arrangements to ensure he separated on favourable terms.

Succession planning for leading hedge fund and private equity managers with assets in or connections with Italy, France, Switzerland and the US, among other jurisdictions.

We acted for the CEO of an international and award winning pharmaceutical company in relation to her acrimonious exit. As a co-founder of the business and a minority shareholder, we negotiated the terms of her multi-million pound settlement, working closing with one of the top four accountants on valuation issues.

Our client built their business up to their target size for exit and chose us to help them with their management buy-out. We made sure that their exit was as tax efficient as possible and reduced their exposure to any future disputes with the purchaser, while also structuring rewards for the key employees who had contributed to the success of the company.

When director and CEO of the Co-op Bank Plc Barry Tootell stepped down in difficult and controversial circumstances, we demonstrated our in-depth knowledge of difficult situations to advise and negotiate his exit. Futhermore, our team continued to support him on arising issues and enquiries related to his time at the Co-op, after his exit.

When Harriet Green stood down as CEO of Thomas Cook, she turned to Withers' experienced team to help her develop and implement an exit strategy. The situation became more complicated while she was on garden leave, and had to deal with an onslaught of negative press coverage around her alleged handling of the death of two children in Corfu (six years before she joined Thomas Cook). We developed a clear strategy and we closed the matter down to our client's satisfaction.

Withers was called on to act for a well-known managing partner of an international investment firm when his reputation was under threat. Our robust approach to reputation management prevented the filing of false statements in a form U-5 (Uniform Termination Notice for Securities Industry Registration) that would have had a detrimental effect on his future career and earnings.

This well-known speciality brand has annual revenues in excess of $400 million. We advised its chief executive and chief operating officer in a complex transaction to structure the buy-out of their equity interests by a private equity firm and allowing them to rollover their remaining interests into a newly formed holding company. We have developed a particular reputation for our ability to protect successful individuals in negotiations with private equity houses.

This well-known, publicly held brand has more than 1,200 retail outlets throughout the US. We negotiated a new package (valued in excess of $2 million annually) on behalf of the incoming chief executive.

As a firm, we are best known for helping globally successful individuals to protect their interests internationally - in this recent matter we helped secure water-tight contracts for two C-suite directors as they relocated from the United States to the United Kingdom, while our transatlantic team reviewed their changed tax circumstances.