What the Legal 500 say

BTMK has been established to provide the catalyst for a new approach to the provision of legal services focused on meeting the needs of today’s businesses and individuals in Essex and further a field. BTMK is an innovative and progressive full-service law firm for both personal and business matters.

The Firm: This new prominent Essex firm is the result of a merger between two existing Legal 500 entries, namely Bates Travell and TMK. The purpose of the merger is to strengthen the existing litigation and company/commercial practices whilst reinforcing the personal injury, employment, matrimonial and corporate crime divisions.

Types of Work Undertaken: The commercial department advises on a variety of commercial issues, contract reviews and dispute resolutions including partnership agreements, shareholder agreements, company acquisitions, business purchases and sales, standard terms and conditions of sale, supply contracts for goods and services and purchase contracts, as well as joint ventures, franchise agreements, commercial property acquisition and the development, purchasing, selling or leasing of commercial premises and raising finance. The dispute resolution team handles such areas as professional negligence, intellectual property, insolvency disputes and defamation.

Employment law features highly amongst the firm’s practice areas. Main areas of work include unfair and wrongful dismissal claims, redundancy and related matters, breach of employment contracts, working hours and holiday entitlements, stress at work and sickness absence, ill-health and performance issues, discrimination, business transfers and TUPE issues.

The fraud and corporate crime department is highly experienced and the firm is one of the few to meet the criteria for specialist fraud panel membership established by the Legal Services Commission 'Very High-Cost' case unit. Experience includes investigation and prosecution by the Serious Fraud Office and other government agencies.

The firm's family law team has an excellent reputation for its work across a wide range of matters including divorce, separation, cohabitation issues and related property disputes. The firm is also highly regarded for its work in high-value ancillary relief matters. The team boasts accredited members of the Law Society’s Family Law Panel and also features members of the of Resolution (formerly known as the Solicitor’s Family Law Association Panel of Experts) and also the Children Panel. The firm advises regularly on adoption and other complex Children Act issues.

The firm is a regional leader in claimant personal injury litigation and has been successful in a series of catastrophic injury cases. The firm handles a high volume of claims for accident victims of all types and the firm’s commitment to technical excellence in this sensitive area of law ensures that maximising compensation for victims of personal injury always remains the primary objective. The team features members of the Law Society Personal Injury Panel.

The residential conveyancing team offers a dedicated personal service which includes a facility for clients to look at their own file online and monitor progress. The firm has committed to using the latest technology to make the conveyancing transaction proceed as smoothly as possible.

The private client department incorporates probate, tax planning and trust work including offshore trusts. This department continues to expand and is led by two partners, both of whom are members of the STEP panel. The highly experienced trusts team offers specialist legal advice to both private and commercial clients on a variety of tax-efficient schemes and to the maximise the available benefits.

Legal 500 is the essential legal listings guide for the UK, with the top 500 companies included by invitation only.

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