iLaw

Founding partners: Mark Culbert and Justin Ellis

Other directors: 3

Other fee-earners: 19

Offices: London and Cambridge

iLaw was established in 2006 as a boutique commercial law firm in the City of London. Its founders had identified a gap in the market for clients who wanted to use a top-quality City firm that wasn’t restricted by the conservatism of more traditional firms. The firm opened its first office outside London in 2023, in Cambridge.

iLaw is committed to delivering excellent quality (both technical and service standards) and value. Its clients are typically entrepreneurial businesses and individuals, ranging from past and present stars of TV’s Dragons Den, through fast-growing tech companies, to significant business players on the international stage. iLaw has always had a particular focus on the technology sector, although it serves a much broader client-base too. One of the firm’s key areas of innovation is in relation to fees, ensuring that the most appropriate method of charging is tailored to meet the needs of the client and the matter in hand.

Corporate/commercial: iLaw advises on all kinds of corporate and commercial deals. On the corporate side this includes mergers and acquisitions, investments, joint ventures, exits and ongoing corporate advice. Commercial transactions include licensing, development, outsourcing, manufacturing, partnering, agency/distribution, terms of business and public procurement. The team’s ethos is to get the deal done as simply as possible, but without compromising the client’s position.

Dispute resolution: iLaw's disputes team advises on a wide range of matters, from complex international fraud to simple debt claims. It has particular experience in dealing with disputes in the fields of intellectual property and technology, defamation, banking and insolvency. The team acted for nine defendants in one of the largest cases ever to hit the English courts: JSC BTA Bank v Ablyazov. At the core of the team’s philosophy is the need to take a sensible approach to disputes, to fight hard when the situation requires, but also to keep its clients’ commercial considerations to the fore.

Employment: The firm’s employment team advises on a wide range of domestic and cross-border employment issues, including restructuring, outsourcing and TUPE issues, redundancy, disputes and contracts, and has successfully acted for a number of former senior bank employees. The firm also specialises in advising employment agencies and businesses.

Business Crime and Civil Recovery: iLaw's team are recognised specialists in proceeds of crime and asset forfeiture work, with decades of experience advising directors, executives and corporates on a wide range of applications under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA).

Commercial property: iLaw is able to advise on commercial property transactions, so that it can offer the full range of every day legal requirements to its clients. The team advises on property acquisitions and disposals, landlord and tenant issues, secured lending and development.

Regulatory: iLaw advises on a range of regulatory issues that are likely to affect its clients such as data protection/freedom of information, advertising and marketing regulations, e-commerce rules, competition law and procurement regulations.

iLaw was a founder member of the International Commercial Law Alliance (ICLA), giving it international reach. ICLA now has like-minded firms in around 50 jurisdictions around the globe, meaning the firm can call on expert input for its clients in the most important jurisdictions world-wide.

London: Temple Chambers, 3-7 Temple Avenue, London EC4Y 0HP

Cambridge: 50-60 Station Road, Cambridge, CB1 2JH

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.ilaw.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0)203 987 0222