We provide advice in relation to all aspects of your business, including any proposed purchase or sale of business interests.

We can assist you with:

  • Structuring advice for companies, trusts, partnerships, self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFS), and joint-ventures;
  • Business sales and acquisitions;
  • Trading and credit terms;
  • Shareholder, unitholder, partnership and joint venture agreements;
  • Agency, distributor and franchise agreements;
  • Directors’ duties;
  • Asset protection;
  • Loan and security transactions, including borrowings by SMSFs; and
  • Business succession planning.

We can assist you with all aspects of property matters, whether you are a developer, consultant or consumer, including:

  • Acquisitions and sales of retail shopping centres, and commercial and industrial properties;
  • Mining camp and other forms of developments;
  • Due diligence;
  • Ownership issues, including co-ownership and joint venture structures;
  • Body corporate and community titling;
  • Subdivisions and easments;
  • Heads of agreements, option agreements, financing and security agreements; and
  • Residential sales and purchases, including community title or “off the plan” transactions.

For many years we have assisted owners, managers and leasing agents in their dealings with the full range of legal issues arising from the ownership and management of shopping centres and commercial and industrial properties.

We have also acted for clients seeking to lease such premises. We negotiate and draft all types of lease documentation for both landlords and tenants and can assist with the following:

  • Letters of offer and agreements for lease;
  • Retail legislation compliance;
  • Fitout and lease incentive agreements;
  • Licence arrangements;
  • Lease renewals and extensions, assignments, surrenders, and terminations;
  • Management of tenancies, including outgoings and promotions/competitions;
  • Redevelopment and relocations; and
  • Debt recovery, notices to remedy breach and dispute resolution.

We have experience in providing front and back-end legal advice to participants in the building and construction industry and we can assist you with the following:

  • Contract negotiation, drafting and reviews;
  • Security of payment disputes;
  • Restitution claims;
  • Mediations and arbitrations; and
  • Contract administration and dispute resolution, including interpretation, disputes, defect, variation, delay and disruption, prolongation and liquidated damages claims.

Litigation can be expensive, especially if the matter involves complicated issues as it takes time to collate evidence and to provide instructions to and liaise with your lawyers. Litigation also distracts from and impacts upon the profitability of your business, and can result in additional non-financial costs in terms of stress.

For all these reasons, it makes sense to avoid litigation. However, where that it is not possible Birch & Co will pursue, or defend, its clients’ rights comprehensively and fearlessly. We have dispute resolution experience in a wide range of areas, including:

  • Property;
  • Leasing;
  • Building and Construction;
  • Deceased Estates, including family provision claims;
  • Trust, partnership, shareholders’ and joint-venture disputes;
  • Debt collection;
  • Commercial contracts; and
  • Insolvency.

We advise creditors and financially distressed debtors on the various options open to them respectively. We also advise creditors on limiting their exposure to persons with whom they contract by the use of properly drafted terms of trade, credit terms and security arrangements.

We can assist with:

  • Letters of demand, statutory demands, and bankruptcy notices;
  • Court proceedings for debt recovery;
  • Setting aside judgments;
  • Enforcement of judgments, including garnishee and other proceedings;
  • Directors’ duties, including insolvent trading;
  • Insolvency litigation, including winding up and bankruptcy proceedings, and preferential payment and uncommercial transaction disputes; and
  • Personal Property Securities Act registrations and disputes.
Contract

Estate and succession planning is essential to ensure that your assets are passed onto your intended beneficiaries at the right time and in the most tax effective manner. It is not simply about making a Will, but also extends to the orderly transmission of your business interests held in corporate or trust vehicles. Careful and considered estate planning ensures that you and your family are prepared for the future and to achieve this we like to work closely with your Accountants and Financial Advisors to establish your estate plan.
We can provide assistance with:

  • Wills and Estate planning;
  • Testamentary Trusts;
  • Superannuation Death Benefit nominations;
  • Powers of attorney;
  • Applications for Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration; and
  • Estate administration and litigation, including family provision applications and Will interpretation applications.

With an ageing population, issues affecting our elderly are becoming more prevalent. We can provide assistance with:

  • Acquisition of retirement home units; and
  • Guardianship issues.
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