Introduction
Charles Crosthwaite Corporate Counsel was established by its principal, Charles Crosthwaite, a veteran “City” lawyer, following his taking early retirement as head of the UK corporate practice of a US law firm in May 2008. Charles remains a consultant to his former firm providing high level M&A and capital markets transactional support.
Charles has identified a gap in the market for experienced and businesslike corporate lawyers to assist companies in managing the legal aspects of their corporate finance needs more cost-effectively and efficiently.
Working both from his London base and in partnership with a competitively priced and first class “M4 corridor” law firm, Clarkslegal LLP (www.clarkslegal.com), with their own satellite offices in Covent Garden, Charles has developed a model for managing the "legals" of mergers and acquisitions and equity capital financing transactions on a full-service basis which is extremely attractive in terms of both delivery and cost. Charles’ own hourly rate is £250 as is that of the lead corporate partner at Clarkslegal. Clients will thus see a saving of upwards of 60 per cent. on their “legal spend” whilst enjoying a comparable, if not better, service when compared to traditional legal sweatshops. Furthermore, unlike most corporate finance practitioners, Charles sees absolutely no reason why a transaction, irrespective of size, cannot be managed and completed expeditiously and efficiently during daylight hours.
To date, Charles has acted on a $25m balance sheet restructuring for a Californian winery quoted on the London AIM market, recently completed the £18m reverse takeover of a leisure business on behalf of another AIM-listed company, a €2m technology company A round equity raise as well as a comparable-sized investment for a steel mill and is currently working on a £5m green energy plant corporate acquisition. Contact details of the CEO/CFO behind each mandate are available on request.
Charles would describe his approach to M&A work and as a negotiator generally as being firm but fair.