Governance

Organisations face ever-increasing expectations from Government, regulators, customers or service users, and other stakeholders, so scrutiny and demands for transparency drive accountability. In that context, and while organisations face economic pressures, good governance is more important than ever for success as well as enabling compliance with increasing requirements. Our governance team are experts at helping you put good governance at the heart of your organisation.

What we do

Our Governance Advisory Practice (GAP) provides pragmatic, actionable corporate and clinical governance advice and services. The team works closely with our lawyers to provide integrated governance and legal advice so that our clients receive legally-compliant, pragmatic solutions to their governance and regulatory compliance challenges. The team advises on corporate and clinical governance, regulatory compliance, risk, due diligence, strategy and business planning, boardroom effectiveness, succession planning, directors’ duties and a range of related governance products and services. We work with the public and commercial sectors as well as the voluntary and mutual sectors.

What we are known for

The GAP team has a unique set of qualifications and experience derived from extensive personal, board-level experience, allowing them to provide clients with legally sound, pragmatic and actionable solutions to some of the most vexing problems faced by today’s corporate chairs, boards and directors. The GAP team develops solutions specific to our clients' requirements and circumstances.

The GAP team has recently undertaken a number of highly sensitive major governance reviews led by Giles Peel, in the financial services and regulatory sectors. These, which have combined our governance, legal and regulatory compliance expertise, have required operating against the backdrop of senior political involvement, conducting negotiation at the highest levels of regulation and government and development of complex corporate structure and governance solutions. 

Detailed elements of our services

Our work ranges from full board evaluations and corporate governance reviews, through training and mentoring to due diligence for acquisitions. The following is a summary of our services:

• Design and implementation of complex governance models;
• Training for boards on roles, responsibilities and effectiveness;
• Governance reviews of boards and committees, or of governance between organisations;
• Evaluations of board and committee composition, skills and effectiveness;
• Analysis and advice on accountability and reporting arrangements;
• Mentoring, development and support for directors, governing body members, governors and company secretaries;
• Advice on corporate structures – creation, migration, review and reorganisation and subsidiary governance;
• Regulatory and governance due diligence analysis and advice for mergers, acquisitions and disposals;
• Investigations in response to regulatory interventions, service failures or corporate governance challenges;
• Best practice advice on the structure and content of reports and accounts and constitutional documentation;
• Advice on public/private sector integrated delivery;
• Company secretarial support.

Our clients benefit from our service because of our:

• Personal, board-level experience as directors and company secretaries within organisations;
• Legally-sound but pragmatic approach;
• Bespoke approach - no template solutions are used;
• Complete discretion and confidentiality;
• Detailed proposal and specification process and the option of fixed price or day/hourly rate quotes;
• Market-leading experience in the commercial and public sectors.