International Corporate Brochure

Bird & Bird is one of Europe's leading technology law firms, uniquely focused on providing the full range of legal services to clients in the communications, e-commerce, IT, life sciences, banking & financial services, aviation & aerospace, media and sport industries. We offer you legal expertise in the context of in-depth knowledge of the markets in which they operate.

Whether your strategy is to raise private or public finance or to expand through merger, acquisition or joint venture, we are able to help realise their objectives.

Our lawyers have experience of handling the widest range of transactions from start-ups to the largest and most complex corporate deals. Clients range from multinationals and major institutions to SME's and entrepreneurs.

Our corporate group is complemented by competition and anti-trust, banking, employment, real estate and tax expertise all of which are focused on advising technology businesses.

Our principal areas of expertise are:

Private equity

Our private equity work includes advising on venture and development capital, buyouts, debt finance and seed funding. The transactions in which we are involved range from initial "friends and family" or angel investments to syndicated VC investments and public to private deals. We regularly advise investors, companies and management of technology oriented businesses and therefore appreciate the differing expectations and concerns of each of the parties involved. We also have an excellent understanding of market practices in the private equity industry and of the key legal issues in funding technology businesses.

Public securities

We have advised clients on IPOs and secondary issues on public markets throughout Europe, including on the London Stock Exchange (particularly techMARK and AIM), Euronext, NASDAQ Europe and also in Hong Kong.  Many technology companies seeking an IPO are at a relatively early stage of their business development. 

Our expertise in those areas which investors consider to be crucial, such as intellectual property, coupled with our understanding of the legal complexities of our clients' markets is critical to our effectiveness in this arena. We frequently act as specialist advisers on IPOs when industry (eg. Life Sciences) expertise is required.

Mergers & acquisitions

We are experienced in handling large and small domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. We have advised a diverse portfolio of clients, from multinationals to small private companies. Our full service capability encompasses areas such as intellectual property, employment, tax and regulatory advice. We aim to guide our clients through the entire process from a legal analysis of the business strengths and weaknesses to conclusion of the deal. We help to identify areas that need to be assessed after completion of the transaction and assist our clients in implementing our recommendations.

Joint ventures

We have advised on a range of groundbreaking joint ventures between hi-technology businesses.  Our experience in this field is significant both in Europe and worldwide. With our unique industry focus we are able to ensure that the underlying commercial arrangements on which such joint ventures are reliant are properly structured and documented.

Restructuring
We are experienced in advising on tax or business-related group restructurings and structured finance transactions, whether cross-border or domestic, including the use of complicated corporate structures and transactions. We deal with prominent investment banks and offshore jurisdications.