Our expertise in healthcare finance
Due to the impressive reach of our law firm, with a network of offices across the UK and US, our healthcare finance team is also perfectly placed to advise across jurisdictions in England, Wales and Scotland, as well as across the Atlantic. Our team of Scottish-qualified lawyers in Edinburgh further our cross-border capabilities, giving healthcare clients working in both England and Scotland the support they need to navigate and avoid the potential pitfalls caused by differences in country-specific law.
Over decades of experience working in every corner of the healthcare industry, our team has developed sector-specific expertise which allows us to competently advise those working with doctors, pharmacists, dentists and consultants, within clinics, residential care and fitness specialisms, and in animal healthcare and veterinary care.
Our key areas of service include:
- Healthcare transactions
- Healthcare restructuring and insolvency
- Medical equipment finance and healthcare asset finance.
Healthcare transactions
An essential component of our healthcare finance service, our lawyers advise on the full spectrum of corporate transactions, utilising their strong technical understanding, and ability to act proactively, to drive and complete transactions in a timely manner.
Working together with our healthcare compliance team, we advise on the following transactions, for both lenders and borrowers in the healthcare sector:
- Corporate acquisition documentation where the bank is providing acquisition finance
- Mergers and acquisitions relating to disposals, restructurings and refinancing
- Share purchase or business purchase agreements
- Due diligence procedures
- Transaction management
- Real estate finance and property portfolio management
- Post-completion matters.
Our teams are dedicated to building strong personal relationships with clients to ensure we have an in-depth understanding of their priorities. This approach not only serves to further improve corporate finance strategies, but also helps to direct additional advisory essentials, including regulatory and compliance matters, employment and compensation issues and a variety of niche real estate, planning and construction matters.
Healthcare restructuring and insolvency
The Womble Bond Dickinson healthcare restructuring service is designed to give clients confidence during troubled times caused by financial distress. Our lawyers have notable experience dealing with businesses in such states, and are well-practised at providing legal counsel to companies ranging from residential and specialist care facilities, to dental practices and cosmetic surgery providers.
Members of our restructuring team work with operators and lenders, including private equity providers, to seek a solvent solution for the underlying business. Where a solvent solution is not possible, we work closely with appointed insolvency practitioners to seek a viable sale of the business, with the aim of causing minimal disruption to the underlying provision of care in cases which relate to elderly and vulnerable residents.
Over time, our healthcare restructuring and insolvency team has made a number of notable achievements which help them to give clients the best service possible. Members of the team have been seconded to the business support teams of UK clearing banks, and have had first hand dealings with failing healthcare operators from a lender's perspective. The team as a whole is also on the legal panel for the CQC, and examples of their work include:
- Wind down of a large multi-operator group in the residential and specialist care sector
- Advising a clearing bank in relation to a failing multi-site dental group
- Providing guidance to the boards of residential care operators that that have faced CQC regulatory issues and the impact on working capital requirements
- Working with a large corporate group of residential homes (c40 homes) that was acquired by a US private equity fund which avoided a large scale administration affecting around 1600 residents
- Assisting the independent specialists that constituted the board and then subsequent administrators on the Castlebeck Group of care homes
- Providing legal counsel regarding the first stage 6 notification given to a Local Authority in relation to a failing care home provider
- Advising investors on a cosmetic surgery business and its options to continue to trade and the prepackaged sale of the business via administration.
Medical equipment finance and healthcare asset finance
Operating with a proven track record of negotiating bespoke and standard medical equipment finance and leasing agreements, the third prong of our healthcare finance service focuses on ensuring businesses have access to, or make the most of, their medical and pharmaceutical assets. Led by years of experience, we provide advice on everything from the initial phases of negotiation and contract drafting, to asset refinancing and end of lease arrangements, to ensure clients have access to consistent support.
Working in collaboration with our tax, financial services regulatory and litigation practice, the medical equipment finance team also provides support and advice in relation to disputed asset claims. This is inclusive of third party title disputes, misrepresentation at point of sale, errors in sale by description, tripartite satisfactory quality disputes and guarantee claims.
If you’re operating in the vast healthcare sector and require assistance from a dedicated healthcare finance lawyer to provide tailored legal counsel, the team at Womble Bond Dickinson can help you. Contact us online by filling out our simple enquiry form or get in touch directly with a member of our team.
