Tim Polding

I have more than 35 years’ experience as a Corporate and Commercial Solicitor acting for owner managed and SME-sized businesses together with other organisations that these days have to run along business lines.  I joined Oliver & Co Solicitors in September 2009 to create and head up the firm’s new Commercial Department. Now firmly established, the department is expanding to meet the need for legal support of its rapidly increasing client base.

My involvement with clients focuses on acquisitions, management buy-outs and buy-ins, disposals, joint ventures, group restructuring and corporate governance, protection and exploitation of intellectual property, contractual frameworks (including franchising and distribution networks) and employment.

I am always looking to provide added value to the businesses for which I act and adopt a practical and pragmatic approach to clients’ commercial problems. My reputation is for working in partnership with my clients over many years to protect them and assist in the growth of their business before ensuring that their desired succession or exit strategy is achieved.

In October 2022, Oliver & Co became a 100% employee-owned business. For me, this has been an interesting and enlightening journey, learning about the cultural as well as the technical legal aspects of the transition. Having made the change to employee ownership and being members of the Employee Ownership Association, we are in a strong position to advise other business owners who are considering the move to employee ownership as their exit strategy.

Throughout my career as a solicitor, advising businesses ranging from start-ups to PLCs, I have specialised in corporate and commercial matters and have developed expertise and experience across a wide range of business sectors, principally: construction, transport, retail, leisure, manufacturing, engineering, care for children and the elderly, healthcare, charities, academies and free schools, financial and professional services, marketing and creative media, e-commerce platforms and ICT.