About Nigel Craig

I qualified as a solicitor in 1981. 

 In 1985 I joined David Oliver to set up Oliver & Co, a firm specialising in corporate and insolvency work.
  
The firm merged to be become Sherwin Oliver in 1989, where I headed the corporate and non-contentious insolvency team.

Sherwin Oliver merged with another firm in 2001. 
I stayed for five years to head the Portsmouth corporate team, before leaving to team up with John Taylor as Hentys LLP.  John decided to retire so we closed Hentys LLP at the end of March 2018.

I decided that I would take the opportunity to reduce the areas of work that I do and limit myself to advising businesses on contracts and commercial matters.  The work that I do is not regulated, so I decided that I would no longer practice as a solicitor.  I work now as a consultant on those matters set out in the website.

Outside of my career in law, I have been involved in a number of different ventures.
In 1989 I joined with a client to build a new Mercedes Benz main dealership, a business which we owned and operated until MB changed their dealership structure in 2000.  

At the end of 2003 I started a new venture with three others, building a care group offering elderly nursing, learning difficulty and domiciliary care.  As Chairman I work with the MD to lead the group strategy and growth.  In five years we took the group from start up to a value in excess of £20million with nearly 400 staff and a turnover approaching £10million.  The growth included purchases of assets and shares.  Unfortunately the majority of our residents are funded by social services, and, as most people will know, local authority budgets are under pressure and it is a challenging time for social care businesses – to say the least!

In 2015 I joined a friend to acquire a franchise business.  This business has grown substantially in the three years since it was acquired and operates very successfully.

In 2016 I launched a new app business.  This involved working out my ideas for the app, working with a developer on the wireframes and design, and then testing.  The app went live on both Apple and Android, but my developer was busy and maintaining the app and its back end proved to be too time-consuming at present.  I hope to bring it back to the market in the future.

Unlike most corporate or commercial advisers, therefore, I can offer a greater insight into business, having started and grown several businesses for myself, as well as spending over 20 years advising clients.