Get to know ten founders of the corporate law firms behind Britain's mid-market deals: how businesses are really bought and sold, in their own words.
Most owners sell one business in their lifetime. The people on the other side of the table complete deals every month. That imbalance is where every sale begins, and it rarely shows itself in the price.
The ten people in this series run the independent corporate law firms behind Britain's mid-market deals. They have seen what survives due diligence and what does not, and this is the chance to hear them at length. The same questions go to all of them and the answers sit side by side: what kills a deal and what merely delays it, where the real negotiation happens, and which promises turn out to matter. Twelve questions across the year, published in full.
Every question goes to all ten chairs, and every episode sets their answers side by side. One publishes every month. It opens with these.
More questions are published as the series convenes.
The founders of the independent firms that lead corporate law, from private equity to owner-managed sales, each holding an invited chair.
The ten are being convened now, one invitation at a time. The line up is announced in one go, the way a cast always is, and appears here from launch onwards. Until then no contributor is named: we do not trade on one company’s name to fill the next chair.
The ten are found by invitation and by nomination. If there is someone you would put in one of these chairs, tell us who.
Nominations are read by the editorial desk. Chairs remain by invitation.
Each episode as it publishes, with its question and what the ten said. Every episode stays, in full, on the Ten Chairs channel on YouTube.
Chairs are held by invitation, one company to a specialism; while a chair is held, that discipline is closed. If you lead a company in one of our industries and think you should hold one, tell us about your company.
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