In previous articles in this series we have looked at the importance of partnership agreements and how to ensure you have a robust agreement. But even with an agreement in place, it’s crucial that it is kept up to date in order to protect all parties. There are a number of common situations which should give rise to a review of the agreement:
 

• A new partner joins the practice – the agreement needs to be reviewed to incorporate the terms on which the new partner is joining. And the new partner needs to sign up to the agreement – if not it could lead to future problems and costly disputes.
• A partner leaves the practice – it’s possible to include provisions in a partnership agreement to mitigate the impact of partners leaving, thus lessening the risks of a ‘last partner standing’ scenario.
• Disputes – if there have been disputes between partners it’s worth examining whether the partnership agreement should be updated to avoid similar problems in future.
• Premises issues – if there are changes to the way practice premises are owned or held the partnership agreement should be updated to reflect this.

 
You should always seek professional legal and financial advice in reviewing a partnership agreement. In a future article we’ll be including information on solicitors specialising in partnership agreements.