Tracey heads the firm’s commercial and corporate finance team.  She is a partner who advises businesses on all aspects of company, partnership and limited liability partnership (LLP) law.​ 

Tracey is a trustee of St Helena Hospice, a former President of Colchester Chamber of Commerce and former Committee member of Women in Business Essex.  She is in conversation here with Sarah Watson from Birkett Long’s marketing team.

What type of work do you and your team do?

We advise businesses on their contractual and corporate arrangements. This includes terms of business, shareholder agreements, buying and selling businesses, advice to employers and employees, dealing with company structures and shareholding arrangements etc.  The team also has a number of specialist areas including partnerships, charities, banking, intellectual property, franchises and education, to name just a few.

How many people are in the team? 

Nine solicitors ranging from trainee to partner (and including the chairman!) and four secretaries (some job-sharing).

What’s the largest deal you’ve ever been involved with in monetary value?

We acted for Red7Marine Group Limited and its shareholders on the sale of an interest in the Group to a private equity investor.  This was linked with a substantial injection of new capital to enable Red7Marine to acquire additional assets to service its clients in the offshore renewables and oil and gas sectors.  The total enterprise value of the transaction was £65 million.

Is it true that you only deal with large businesses?

Absolutely not - we recognise that Essex is comprised of a wealth of small and medium sized businesses and we advise and assist all such businesses.  In fact, we are working on improving our offering for small businesses by the creation of a small business team, which will focus on what legal assistance small businesses need and how we can provide that cost effectively.

Corporate law sounds quite glamorous.  Is it all business lunches and high powered meetings? 

We wish!  It's very demanding.  Turnaround for work is fast paced and the work is hugely varied requiring us to apply and consider very different legal issues and concepts throughout the day.  In everything we do we need to consider the likely risks and provide advice that is commercial and practical.  Most work has tight deadlines, in particular transactions, which can result in negotiations going on in to the early hours - I am not sure the pizza brought in during those would be classed as a "business lunch"!

What’s the most unusual matter that you’ve been involved with? 

My most unusual request was to provide terms and conditions for a swingers club!  I politely declined the invitation to the opening event.

You must visit lots of offices.  Is there one in particular that you envied?! 

We sometimes end up at London law firms for meetings.  On one occasion we attended offices that overlooked St Paul's Cathedral - a view that certainly beats the dual carriageway outside my office window!

Tracey Dickens
01206 217326
tracey.dickens@birkettlong.co.uk