Services
Corporate Governance
Governance advice for boards, founders and investors of public and private companies where accountability, control and decision-making matter.
Senior corporate governance lawyers
Helping boards, leadership teams and in-house counsel hold the line on directors’ duties, regulatory obligations and risk without losing sight of how the business actually runs.
Good corporate governance is not just a legal or regulatory necessity. It is the foundation for growing and protecting a sustainable, long-term business, in both public and private companies.
Boards are increasingly under scrutiny on their composition, competence, effectiveness and oversight. Strategies for managing risk, meeting legal requirements, communicating with shareholders and preparing for uncertainty evolve constantly, as does the need for proactive relationships with every stakeholder, from regulators and investors to employees, suppliers and the wider community. Founder and investor alignment, and the shareholder tensions that surface around control and decision-making, sit at the centre of this.
We help boards and leadership teams plan, prepare and implement tailored programmes that manage every aspect of legal, reputational and operational risk at all stages of the company life cycle.
What you get when you instruct Arbor on governance
A senior governance lawyer on the file from day one
Corporate governance turns on senior legal judgement: on directors’ duties, on the regulatory perimeter, on board dynamics and on risk. At Arbor Law you work directly with senior lawyers who have advised boards, founders and leadership teams at the highest levels, including as General Counsel, Head of Legal and Group Company Secretary roles at FTSE-listed companies and major international businesses.
That experience matters because governance issues rarely arise in isolation. They unfold inside organisations, often under pressure, where legal analysis must be translated into decisions a board can make and a leadership team can implement. Our advice is grounded not only in what the rulebook says, but in how boards operate, how risks escalate and what decision-makers need to hear in the moment.
Director duties are rarely theoretical: they become material at the moments of pressure that define a business – a fundraise, a contested board decision, a shareholder dispute, a period of financial difficulty – and the advice that matters in those moments comes from lawyers who have been present for them.
Advice calibrated to how your organisation actually runs
A governance framework is only as useful as its implementation, and the implementation depends on the structure, sector and stage of the organisation it is sitting inside. We tailor the work to where you are: whether that is a fast-growing private company writing its first proper framework, a listed business refining what it already has, or a large corporate with complex internal governance to manage across geographies.
A joined-up view across board, compliance, risk and ESG
Governance rarely sits in isolation: board composition, compliance, risk management, ESG obligations and crisis response are all connected, and a legal issue that surfaces in one area almost always has implications for another. We bring a joined-up perspective across those areas and pull in specialist expertise from the wider firm where the matter calls for it.
Senior judgement at the right price point for your matter
Our model gives you access to senior, City-trained governance lawyers through a structure that is lean and proportionate, without the leverage and overhead of a traditional firm: the advice you receive reflects the quality of the lawyer’s judgement, not the size of the team behind them. There is nothing wrong with the bigger firms; it is just that most clients we speak to do not want to pay the Magic Circle premium for every governance review or board paper.
A working pattern that fits your in-house team
We sit alongside your in-house team and your company secretarial function rather than around them: we work in the format and the cadence that suit you, and act as an extension of your function rather than another supplier to manage. Where you want us to lead the framework end-to-end, we do that. Where you want to lead it yourselves and use us for senior input on the points that need it, board papers, contentious points, regulatory engagement, we do that too. The aim is the same either way: to take friction out of how the function works with the rest of the business, not add another layer to it.
What governance support actually looks like
Governance work, run well, looks different from one engagement to the next, but the underlying disciplines tend to be the same: senior eyes on the file early, an honest read of where the framework already does its job and where it does not, and a steady hand when something contentious lands on the chair’s desk.
Most boards and in-house teams arrive with a clear sense of one or two pressure points and a less clear sense of the others, and a fair amount of the value lies in mapping the picture honestly before recommending changes. Where the existing framework is sound, we say so and leave it alone; where it is creaking, we set out what to fix, in what order, and what the cost of leaving it would look like.
When the work is contentious, whether a regulatory inquiry, a boardroom dispute or a governance failure that has gone public, we run it the way an experienced GC would want it run: senior-led, calibrated to the commercial picture, and focused on protecting the organisation and its directors throughout. If the case for a particular course of action ever shifts, we will say so and recommend the alternative: that is the conversation a board chair tends to want, and it is one we are comfortable having.
When you instruct Arbor on governance, you can expect a senior-led view on the position quickly, a clear plan of what we are doing and why, and a single named lawyer accountable for the matter from start to finish.
Our corporate governance legal services to strengthen oversight, compliance and resilience
Governance work covers a wide range of issues, but the underlying need tends to be the same: experienced legal support that helps you define responsibilities clearly, manage risk early and put frameworks in place that stand up under pressure. We advise across the full range of corporate governance matters, working closely with you to shape arrangements that fit the reality of your organisation.
Board support and effectiveness
The legal scaffolding around your board, from its composition and committees to the duties of its members and the terms on which they serve, has a direct bearing on how effectively the board functions and how well your directors are protected. We provide legal support across board and committee structures, terms of reference, board composition and independence, and the appointment and management of non-executive directors.
That includes drafting appointment letters and service contracts, advising on directors’ duties and conflicts of interest, and supporting board induction and training where a more structured approach to governance is needed.
Compliance and regulatory obligations
Keeping pace with the compliance obligations that apply to your organisation is a constant responsibility, and the cost of falling short tends to be significant in financial, regulatory and reputational terms. We help you understand what applies to your business, put the right frameworks in place and stay ahead of regulatory expectations as they develop.
For listed companies, that includes support on the UK Corporate Governance Code, Listing Rules, AIM Rules, Disclosure and Transparency Rules, the Companies Act 2006, the Takeover Code, and related areas such as insider dealing protocols, share dealing codes and anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies. For private companies, we focus on the obligations most relevant to your structure, sector and stage of development.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG)
ESG obligations are moving quickly, both in the range of organisations they apply to and in the depth of what those organisations are expected to do. We help you understand the regulatory requirements relevant to your business, adopt an approach that is proportionate and coherent, and put the governance structures in place to support compliance and reporting over time.
That can include advice on gender pay gap reporting, climate-related financial disclosures, modern slavery obligations and the integration of applicable ESG requirements into your existing governance framework.
Risk management and internal governance
Identifying and managing risk before it crystallises into a problem is one of the most valuable things a well-functioning governance framework does. We work with you to design internal control frameworks, draft governance policies and procedures, and set up the oversight structures that allow the organisation to manage risk proportionately and proactively.
That includes the development of risk registers, internal governance documentation and the systems your board and leadership team need to see clearly where the material risks sit and how they are being managed.
Crisis management and governance under pressure
When something unexpected lands, whether an internal dispute, a regulatory investigation, a reputational challenge or an external event affecting the organisation, the quality of the governance response usually makes a material difference to where the matter ends up. We help you prepare for and manage crises with clear processes, supported decision-making and a focus on protecting the organisation’s position and reputation throughout.
Company secretarial support
Sound company secretarial practice underpins effective governance at every level. We provide day-to-day company secretarial support to both private and listed companies: helping you meet your statutory obligations, keep company records accurate and up to date, and put the administrative foundations of good governance firmly in place.
The regulatory environment around company administration keeps evolving, including identity verification requirements and the recent Companies House reforms, and having reliable, senior-backed support in this area gives boards and in-house teams the confidence that nothing important is being missed.
Related areas we can help in
Corporate Advisory and Transactions
For the transaction and deal work that sits alongside governance, see our Corporate Advisory and Transactions practice.
Fundraising and Investment
For fundraising and investment rounds where governance is a material issue, see Fundraising and Investment.
Risk and Internal Investigations
For matters where governance has failed or is under pressure, see Risk and Internal Investigations.
General Counsel Solutions
Get in touch today
If a governance question is on your desk, the sooner the right lawyer sees it the better. Send us a short note about what you are dealing with and one of us will come back to you personally, often the same day, to talk it through. The first conversation is on us, and if we are not the right firm for the job we will tell you and, where we can, point you to someone who is.
- +44 (0)20 7355 0540
- info@arbor.law
- 20 North Audley Street, London W1K 6WE
