Drawing up a shareholder agreement is often well down the list of priorities when people are setting up in business together.

But Jennifer Bell, partner in corporate and commercial law at Baines Wilson, argues they are a vital tool that can prevent costly and acrimonious fallouts.

Jennifer looks at the benefits of shareholder agreements – setting out procedures for resolving disputes, the sale or transfer of shares and what happens if a shareholder dies, for example – and she considers what can go wrong if there is no agreement in place.

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