Joint venture disputes

What are Joint Venture disputes?

Joint ventures are strategic partnerships where two or more parties collaborate to build or grow a business. These arrangements may involve:

• Start-ups combining resources and expertise
• Established businesses joining forces to expand operations
• One party contributing assets while the other brings intellectual property or market knowledge

Disputes can arise over:

• The interpretation or enforcement of a JVA
• Governance and decision-making authority
• Profit-sharing and ownership rights
• Breach of fiduciary duties or mismanagement

Why Joint Venture disputes are unique

Unlike traditional commercial disputes, joint ventures are often structured informally. Many lack detailed contracts or shareholder agreements, making resolution more challenging. The success of any dispute resolution depends on:

• How the joint venture was structured
• The legal rights and obligations of each party
• The presence (or absence) of formal documentation
• The dynamics and expectations between the parties

Resolving Joint Venture disputes

Our experienced solicitors offer strategic, outcome-focused solutions tailored to your situation. We advise on:

• Disputes over strategic direction and business planning
• Conflicts regarding director authority and governance
• Issues involving the appointment or removal of directors
• Breaches of duty and misuse of confidential information

Whether through negotiation, mediation, or litigation, we aim to resolve disputes with minimal disruption to your business.

Joint venture dynamics

Understanding the crucial dynamics of a joint venture, and particularly the parties’ interest or ability to execute elements of the joint venture, is critical to its successful resolution.

Our corporate dispute lawyers have considerable experience of dealing with these often sensitive, diverse and complex aspects of joint ventures, including financing which can often be a source of friction between parties to a joint venture.

Finally, bringing a joint venture to an end can be difficult.  Often one party wishes to end their involvement whether as funder, director or otherwise while the other party wishes it to continue. Bridging this divide is often particularly difficult but our detailed, carefully considered approach will deliver results.

Case studies

Some examples of our recent experience in resolving joint venture disputes include:

• Advising partners to a joint venture founded to develop and promote new technology
• Acting for the funder of a joint venture in a dispute over when repayments were due under a JV agreement
• Disputes concerning the goodwill existing in a joint venture and its valuation
• Disputes concerning the ownership of assets belonging to a joint venture

Recent experience

Understandably, parties setting out on a joint venture do so in a spirit of optimism. However, unless the joint venture is underpinned by a detailed agreement, there is always the danger that certain details are missed and errors made in its construction that give rise to future disputes.  Our experienced full service team of solicitors are not only able to guide you through a dispute if it arises, we are also able to help you to structure your joint venture in the first place to prevent problems occurring further down the line.