Seven practices, each with a defined shape.
Every Northbridge service is scoped like a product: a stated method, named deliverables, a turnaround, and a fee basis agreed before work begins.
The structure a business is judged on later.
Corporate advisory at Northbridge is a standing relationship, not a document exercise. We hold the structure of the group, the rights between its owners, and the authority of its board as one connected problem.
Entity & group structure
Holding structures, intra-group agreements, and migrations designed around where value and risk should actually sit.
Shareholder arrangements
Founder, investor, and family shareholdings — drag, tag, reserved matters, and deadlock mechanics that hold under pressure.
Board & delegated authority
Constitutional documents, committee terms of reference, and authority matrices that survive an audit and a dispute.
Engagement
Standing corporate counsel
One partner and one associate assigned for the year, with a quarterly structural review and unmetered access for questions that take under an hour.
- Response time
- Same business day
- Structural review
- Quarterly
- Fee basis
- Fixed annual retainer
- Minimum term
- 12 months
What you receive
- Group structure chart with risk and tax commentary
- Shareholder agreement and articles, reconciled
- Authority matrix and board committee charters
- Annual structural health memorandum
Contracts drafted to be read by the person who disagrees with you.
We build and maintain the paper a business trades on: a controlled suite of positions, a clear negotiation playbook, and a fixed turnaround per instrument.
Every suite ships with a negotiation playbook: the positions we will concede, the ones we will not, and the commercial reason for each — so your commercial team can close without returning to counsel.
Capital decisions, advised with the documents in view.
The same team that models the transaction negotiates it. That is why our recommendation rarely changes between term sheet and completion.
- 01
Mandate
Capital strategy
What to raise, from whom, and on what instrument — modelled against dilution, covenants, and control.
- 02
Preparation
Vehicle & documents
Fund or SPV structuring, LP terms, and the offering documents, drafted in-house alongside the model.
- 03
Process
Diligence & negotiation
Integrated legal, financial, and commercial diligence delivered as one report with one recommendation.
- 04
Post-close
Portfolio & exit
Value-creation planning, secondary options, and exit readiness for sponsors and founder-owned businesses.
Deliverables per mandate
- One integrated diligence report with a single recommendation
- Financial model held and maintained by the deal team
- Full transaction document suite drafted in-house
- Post-completion value and exit plan
- $40bn+
- Mandate value advised
- 14
- Jurisdictions
- 38
- Funds structured
Authorisation, then the discipline of staying authorised.
We take firms through the perimeter question, the application, and the years afterwards — with the same partner accountable at every stage.
- Weeks 1–2
Perimeter
Whether the activity requires authorisation at all — and in which of your operating jurisdictions.
- Weeks 3–10
Application
Business plan, regulatory business model, financials, and governance pack assembled to supervisory standard.
- Weeks 11–26
Supervision
Handling questions, interviews, and conditions through to determination.
- Ongoing
Steady state
Compliance monitoring plan, reporting calendar, and annual attestation support.
Regimes covered
- Payments & e-moneyAuthorisation, agent networks, safeguarding
- Funds & asset managementAIFM, marketing, and delegation
- Credit & lendingConsumer and commercial permissions
- AML & financial crimeFrameworks, reviews, remediation
- Data & privacyCross-border transfers and DPIAs
- Sanctions & tradeScreening, licensing, and disclosures
Track record
- Applications filed
- 63
- Determined in favour
- 58
- Median determination
- 5.5 months
- Jurisdictions
- 9 regulators
Where we believe an application will fail, we say so before it is filed. Five of the above were withdrawn on our advice rather than refused.
A board that can evidence how it decided.
Governance work here is diagnostic before it is documentary. We review how decisions are actually taken, then rebuild the instruments around that reality.
Governance review — scope
- Board composition & independenceReviewed annually
- Committee mandates and minutesReviewed annually
- Delegated authority and limitsReviewed semi-annually
- Conflicts and related-party dealingReviewed semi-annually
- Risk appetite and escalationReviewed quarterly
- Succession and key-person coverReviewed annually
What you receive
- Board effectiveness report with ranked findings
- Rewritten committee terms of reference
- Delegated authority matrix
- Director briefing session
Who instructs this
Chairs preparing for institutional investment, boards absorbing a new regulatory perimeter, and family businesses formalising governance ahead of a generational transfer. The review is deliberately uncomfortable and always confidential.
Three routes. We tell you which one you should take.
Every instruction opens with a route assessment: the realistic recovery, the cost to get there, and the option we would choose if the money were ours.
Negotiated resolution
A commercial settlement reached before positions harden, backed by a written analysis of what a tribunal would likely do.
- Typical duration
- 4–10 weeks
- Cost exposure
- Lowest
- Confidential
- Yes
Best forLive relationships worth preserving
Arbitration
Institutional and ad hoc arbitration across LCIA, ICC, and DIFC rules — including seat, tribunal, and enforceability strategy from the outset.
- Typical duration
- 9–18 months
- Cost exposure
- Moderate
- Confidential
- Yes
Best forCross-border contracts and enforcement
Litigation
Commercial court proceedings, injunctive relief, and contentious regulatory matters, run with the underlying commercial outcome in view.
- Typical duration
- 12–30 months
- Cost exposure
- Highest
- Confidential
- No
Best forPrecedent, urgency, or bad faith
Route assessments are delivered as a fixed-fee written opinion within ten working days, including a recovery range and a recommended position to open on.
One team from first approach to the final condition.
A typical mid-market transaction runs fourteen weeks. We publish the plan at engagement and hold ourselves to it.
Sell-side
Vendor diligence, data room discipline, and a process designed to keep two bidders honest until the end.
Buy-side
Valuation support, integrated diligence, and the risk allocation we would insist on as principal.
Carve-outs
Perimeter definition, transitional services, and standalone-cost analysis before the price is agreed.
Joint ventures
Contribution, control, deadlock, and exit — drafted for the day the partners stop agreeing.
Bring us the transaction before the term sheet, not after.
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