Aly Young Law

14/04/2026

We’re delighted to be presenting 𝗕𝘂𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 – 𝗔 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝟮 𝗗𝗮𝘆𝘀 – 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗠𝗕𝗟.

This practical, in-depth session is designed to guide professionals through every stage of a private company transaction, from initial considerations through to completion.

If you or your colleagues would benefit from a comprehensive, expert-led overview, you can find more details and register here: https://www.mblseminars.com/courses-by-id/23318?CC=SPEAKER26&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SPEAKER26&utm_source=mbl

As a bonus any of my contacts can attend at the MBL member rate by emailing [email protected] and quoting reference 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗥𝟮𝟲.

this 2-day deep dive into business sales and purchase will give participants a complete, end to end understanding of the business sale lifecycle - from pre...

16/03/2026

We’ll be at The Kent Business Show on Thursday (19th March) – come and say hello to Aly Young Law!

The event is free to attend and packed with networking opportunities.

👉 Register now: www.kentbusinessshow.co.uk

24/02/2026

📍 Join Aly Young Law at The Kent Business Show on 19th March.

It’s a great opportunity to connect, ask questions, and learn how we support growing businesses.

✅ Free entry – secure your place today: www.kentbusinessshow.co.uk

12/02/2026

We’re looking forward to exhibiting at The Kent Business Show on 19th March!

Come and meet AY Business Law to chat all things business and legal support.

🎟️ Free to attend – register now: www.kentbusinessshow.co.uk

09/02/2026

There are 2 main things that we focus on when we are selling a business for our clients. 💼

The first is making sure they get all the money the buyer has agreed to pay. 💰
The second is reducing the risk of a claim. ⚖️

When it comes to getting paid, its fairly easy to make sure they get paid what is due on completion. ✅
The challenge comes if there are future payments further down the line. ⏳

These payments might be simply timed to come later – deferred. ⌛ Or they might be tied to targets that the buyer is expecting the business to achieve – often referred to as an earnout. 🎯

For deferred payments, we would look for some sort of security to protect that money for the future. 🔐 Sometimes we will ask for a charge over the business being sold. 🏢 Or maybe a personal guarantee from a buyer. 🤝

For earnouts, we would include provisions in the contract that commit the buyer to doing certain things to ensure that the earnout is achieved e.g. not making significant changes to the business until the earnout is paid. 🚦 Also clauses that give the seller rights to audit the finances up until that point in time. 📊

However, we are always really honest with our clients about the fact that we can’t 𝘎𝘜𝘈𝘙𝘈𝘕𝘛𝘌𝘌 that money will be paid. ❌💸 Even with the best worded contract in the World. 🌍 If the money doesn’t come across, all our clients have is a breach of contract claim, which can expensive to bring, with no certainty on the outcome. ⚠️

I have often joked with my clients about that fact that my job would be easier if I had a crystal ball 🔮 and a magic wand 🪄, to see into the future and make people behave the way they should and honour their contractual commitments.

What tools ⚒️ do you wish you had to make your working life better?

06/02/2026

I have mentioned before how one of my hobbies is singing in a choir. 🎶

This is me at the Church where we held our most recent concert. ⛪

I think I look quite regal in this chair! 👑

02/02/2026

Last week I wrote about the DAZN case that has thrown a bit of a spanner into the works for lawyers and businesses regarding pre-contractual communications and whether they can bind a person, even if they are not formalised into a written agreement. ⚖️

It reminded me of something that happened to me 30 years’ ago when I was applying for a training contract. Getting a training contract was like finding a needle in a haystack. After literally 1000’s of applications, I secured one interview I secured. 😓

At the interview I had to do a presentation on an area law that I found interesting. I chose the subject of how courts make a moral judgement on a parties behaviour that can have an impact on how our legal rules develop, sometimes upsetting long established legal principles, in ways that have unintended consequences. 📚

I spoke about a case (circa 1996), where a wife had contracted asbestosis from ironing her husband’s shirts. The Court of Appeal decided that the employer owed a duty of care to the wife and essentially widened their obligations, which previously had only extended to direct employees. 🏛️

I read the judgements carefully and they commented a lot on the conduct of the employer, who was originally sued by the husband. It was clear their opinion was that the employer should have paid compensation to the employee much earlier. But it had used technicalities to delay proceedings until the individual passed away from the illness. ⚠️

There was definitely a sense that this influenced the way they analysed the facts in the wife’s claim. It was almost as if they wanted to “punish” the employer for the way they had treated her husband and this was the conclusion I reached in my presentation. 🎯

At the end of my pitch one of those interviewing me (the Senior Partner of the law firm), said that what I had said was a load of rubbish. Initially I was gobsmacked and heartbroken. This was my one opportunity and I had blown it! 😔

But after a minute or two, the fighter in me came out and I challenged him to explain why he did not give my thoughts credence. I basically stood up for my theory and gave other cases as examples of situations where “equitable principles” had come into play. 💪

Funnily enough a slight smirk came across his face and he didn’t have much else to say for the rest of the interview. 😏

I went home pretty downtrodden. Getting a training contract was so hard and I had waited so long for this opportunity. 🥀

A week or so letter, a letter came in the post from the practice. Unbelievably I had got the job. ✉️✨
I came across that Senior Partner many times during my 2 years of training. And each time, he used to smile at me with a slightly knowing look. 👀

It was an important lesson to me to stand up for myself and my beliefs. 🌱

Not sure I agree with that interview style though. 🤔

Anyone else have a nightmare experience like that, which turned out to be okay in the end? 💭

30/01/2026

I love my winter walks. ❄️🚶

I saw this little beauty on a tree in the Churchyard near me. 🌳

Anyone know what type of fungus this is? 🍄

26/01/2026

A recent case has delivered a warning sound to business and lawyers alike around how informal communications can create binding contractual obligations. ⚠️

The case involved parties negotiating broadcasting rights for the 2025 FIFA World Cup. ⚽

The court held that the parties had formalised an agreement through a series of communications including WhatsApp’s and emails, even though no formal contract had been produced. 📱📧

Their reasoning included the fact that all the important terms had been agreed and the parties had showed their intention to create legal relations, through the language they had used. 📝

What was interesting is how the case came to court in the first place. What had happened in practice was that a few days after the agreement that was the subject of this dispute had been reached, DAZN received a higher offer and then tried to wriggle out of the deal it had done with Coupang earlier. 👀

In my many years as a lawyer, I have always been fascinated by how a party’s behaviour can influence the way a judge decides. Although cases should be decided on legal principles alone, often other aspects come into play, such as whether those involved have behaved “equitably”, which is a posh legal word for “𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗹𝘆”. ⚖️

Where people have been up to no good, judges will often find a way to fit the legal principles to achieve a particular outcome. 🤔

In this case, that has meant they have arrived at a quite radical conclusion, undoing a quite well established principle that “pre contract negotiations” don’t normally find their way into a contract. 🔄

On a practical level anyone who is responsible for negotiations needs to be aware of the risk of those statements becoming binding on who they represent. 🚨

To make sure this doesn’t happen, I am recommending to all my clients that they clearly state on their emails “𝘚𝘜𝘉𝘑𝘌𝘊𝘛 𝘛𝘖 𝘊𝘖𝘕𝘛𝘙𝘈𝘊𝘛”. Also perhaps avoid more information communications such as Slack or WhatsApp, to make sure they don’t unwittingly create an obligation. 📌

23/01/2026

My Mum lost her dog towards the end of last year. 💔🐕

She’s quite elderly and disabled. Her little Bella was her soulmate and constant companion. 🐾

She is missing her dreadfully.

Take a look at the array of images she received of her at Christmas time. Seems like we all had the same idea. 🎄📸

It did make Mum chuckle. Us too! 😊

19/01/2026

I used to post on LinkedIn quite a bit.

But I wasn’t really getting much from it.

Then I realised why.

I was posting… but not engaging.

This year I made a simple change: I started having conversations.

And it completely shifted the platform for me.

I actually enjoy LinkedIn now because it feels like people, not content.

Conversations lead to more conversations.
Meetings come off platform.
Relationships grow.

Looking at 2026, I’m doubling down on focus.

We’re now very niche as a firm, and it’s made us better.

Better for clients.
Better for the business.
Better for our sanity.

What’s one change you made in 2025 that quietly made everything better?