DR Solicitors strengthens corporate healthcare offering with appointment of new partner
Specialist healthcare law firm DR Solicitors has announced the appointment of Paul Edels as a Partner, further enhancing its national corporate healthcare practice and expanding its expertise across the dental, pharmacy, and care home sectors.
With more than 15 years’ experience as a corporate healthcare lawyer, Paul joins from Bermans and acts for both buyers and sellers in a wide range of corporate and asset transactions. His work spans dental practice sales and acquisitions, pharmacy and care home transactions, and corporate restructures, as well as associate dentist contracts, partnership and shareholder disputes, and procurement matters.
Paul’s experience extends beyond healthcare into advising corporate purchasers and sellers across multiple industries, including construction, care homes, opticians and nurseries. He also represents healthcare providers in complex dispute matters, such as procurement challenges and claims against the NHS Business Services Authority.
Drawing on his background in investment and product development, Paul takes a commercially pragmatic approach to legal advice – combining technical precision with real-world understanding.
Paul will lead the firm’s Corporate Healthcare Team, supported by senior corporate paralegal Paul Rabbette, to further strengthen the firm’s capabilities in handling complex transactions and strategic advisory work across all healthcare disciplines.
Daphne Robertson, Founder and Partner at DR Solicitors, said: “Paul’s deep sector knowledge and extensive experience in corporate healthcare make him an exceptional addition to our firm. His appointment reinforces our commitment to providing the highest level of specialist legal advice to healthcare professionals and organisations nationwide. With his expertise across dentistry, pharmacy, and care homes, Paul will play a pivotal role in supporting our clients and expanding our national reach.”
Paul Edels, Partner at DR Solicitors, added: DR Solicitors is a firm recognised for its exceptional focus and reputation in healthcare law. The opportunity to work alongside such a highly respected team allows me to continue supporting clients across the healthcare sector with the commercial insight and legal rigour they need to thrive.”
Headquartered in Guildford, DR Solicitors advises healthcare professionals across the UK. The firm acts for more than 2,500 clinical practices, over 250 Primary Care Networks and numerous healthcare institutions and LMCs nationally.
Paul’s appointment comes after DR Solicitors recently reported its average annual growth of consultants at more than 40 per cent year-on-year, taking the total to 26. DR Solicitors was one of the first legal firms to develop a consultant-based operating model and has also been on of the first to integrate into a multi-disciplinary business advisory group.
DR Solicitors is part of the Dow Schofield Watts Group, following its acquisition in November 2024. The Group supports ambitious owner-managed businesses with deal advisory, tax, investment, business recovery, and legal services.
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Applying for a UMF Grant (Utilisation and Modernisation Fund)? A guide for GP Practices
The NHS Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund (UMF) provides much needed capital investment to improve the standard of GP practice premises. With more than £100 million earmarked for 2025/26, GP practices are successfully applying for UMF Grant money. But from a legal perspective, exercise care! Understanding the terms of these UMF Grant agreements is critical so you know where liability and risk sits, as well as avoiding funding clawbacks or disputes over property rights.
Why Take Legal advice?
UMF Grants come with strict conditions. No money is free! You need to understand what the terms of the Grant are including risk and liability, the position on clawback, and how the UMF Grant sits alongside any existing bank finance you may have taken out on the surgery premises. Misunderstanding or overlooking certain Grant obligations could lead to serious issues, such as breaches of Grant terms, conflicts with existing lease obligations or mortgages, and difficulties when partners change.
Key Details
The 2025/26 funding round requires projects to be fully completed by March 2026, with a focus on refurbishing and reconfiguring existing Surgery premises. Technology-only solutions or entirely new builds will not qualify.
There are 3 UMF Grant scenarios – which of these apply to you?
1. UMF Funding exceeds £144,000 and relates to freehold property
Documentation: Freehold UMF Grant Agreement with a Legal Charge, Certificate of Title and a Deed of Priority will be required if the property is already charged to a bank. Note: This can raise practical challenges for GP practices with existing bank lending arrangements if NHS England takes a legal charge over the premises.
2. UMF Funding exceeds £144,000 and relates to leasehold property
Documentation: Leasehold Grant Agreement and Certificate of Title. GP Practices should check whether lease terms permit structural alterations or upgrades and obtain landlord consent where required. Note: that a Surgery lease must be in place to secure the UMF Grant money.
3. UMF Funding is less than £144,000 and relates to freehold or leasehold property
Documentation: Short Form Grant Agreement
What This Means for GP Practices
UMF Grant agreements are legally binding contracts; not simply administrative formalities. They govern how money can be spent, how changes to projects must be approved, and what protections are in place in the event of changing circumstances.
Practical Steps GP Practices Can Take
- Check Property Ownership – review HM Land Registry entries to confirm all current partners are correctly listed, and update where necessary. Ask your solicitor to expedite any pending HM Land Registry application
- Secure Third-Party Consents – obtain approval from landlords and mortgage lenders before starting works.
- Review Your Partnership Agreement and/or Declaration of Trust Deed – ensure they reflect how capital improvements are to be treated between current and future partners. For example, if improvements enhance the value of a surgery building, your Partnership Agreement or Declaration of Trust Deed should make it clear on how this ‘benefit’ is treated if property –owning partners retire and are bought out, or new partners join the partnership and buy-in. The grant money should be treated in the same way as you have historically documented how NHS improvement grants were treated
- Prepare a Compliant Business Case – align your Project Initiation Document (PID) with ICB priorities and national guidance to avoid rejection.
- Grant Agreement Changes – it might say on the front page that the Grant Agreement is not open to negotiation, but it is, so take professional advice early!
The Utilisation and Modernisation Fund presents a significant opportunity for GP practices. By taking legal advice at the outset, practices can ensure they secure the benefits of the Grant money while avoiding costly pitfalls.
How DR Solicitors can help
If you’re a GP practice looking to benefit from the UMF, contact DR Solicitors today to navigate the Grant terms with expert advice.
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Why I chose to replace big law with consultancy work
Elizabeth Duan, director of legal services at DR Solicitors, shares how stepping away from a career in large law firms and becoming a consultant has enabled her to shape her career with both ambition and flexibility.
After qualifying as a solicitor in 2014 I practiced in commercial real estate for a decade. I trained and worked at a few large corporate firms, advising on everything from care home developments to restaurant chain administrations and film studio deals. The work was complex and rewarding and taught me what it means to be a solicitor.
Despite the experience that came with working in a large corporate, it wasn’t without challenges. At any moment, I was expected to be an expert across multiple sectors which, despite giving me a breadth of knowledge, left me feeling that I was lacking the opportunity to carve out my own specialisms.
The ceiling of big law
When I started my career, I made a goal to reach senior associate. Making partner wasn’t something that particularly appealed to me – it’s no secret that in these firms your work can very quickly take over your life, with early starts, late finishes into the early hours and constant targets all leaving very little time outside of work for anything else.
I made senior associate in between having two children. After returning from maternity leave with my second child and at the end of 2023, I left private practice as I knew that I needed something different, and after doing some research, I found out more about the consultancy model and, subsequently, DR Solicitors. The opportunities this model presented felt like the perfect fit for me and the lifestyle I wanted to shape.
Benefits of consultancy work
I joined DR Solicitors in January 2024 and haven’t looked back since. For the first time in my legal career, I had true flexibility to structure my work. The cases I work on at DR Solicitors are still challenging and nuanced, and as legally complex as the corporate deals that I worked on at the big firms, but they also come with the opportunity to focus on the areas that interest me and hone my specialisms.
The consultancy model gives me stimulating work that I am passionate about, without the rigid structures and sacrifices that come with big law. With two children, this flexibility is invaluable to me, and I no longer feel that I must choose between career progression and quality time with my family.
Progression that you can shape
After starting at DR Solicitors as a consultant solicitor, I am now the director of legal services at the firm and get to oversee the day-to-day operations of the firm with the responsibilities of managing our team of consultant solicitors, client relations, risk and compliance, implementing effective processes and driving new business generation.
Leaving the traditional route sharpened my ambition and made me more determined to create a career that challenged me professionally, while giving me the flexibility to carve out time for other aspects of my life that I value – my family and advocacy work for women’s rights.
I now get to harness the entrepreneurial drive that I’ve always had, channelling it into the running of the business, from management of a team to strategic decisions. In a big firm, these opportunities are traditionally only reserved for partners.
And unlike a large city firm, DR Solicitors provides consultants with a steady workflow and trusts us to focus on delivering expert advice to clients, without the pressures of billable hour targets or bringing in new clients.
Why the consultancy model works
Being a consultant allows experienced lawyers to work independently, shape their working days and have control over their careers. At DR Solicitors, we recruit experienced lawyers and provide a platform for those seeking more autonomy, while still being technically challenged. Most of our consultants don’t join us with experience as a contractor, but the model and framework ensure that they get the support they need to run their own business as a consultant. All of this means that it’s rare our consultants go back to big law after joining us.
Deciding to step away from big law and into consultancy isn’t a step back, but a route to a sustainable, successful and rewarding legal career.
How DR Solicitors can help
For more information or a free, no obligation call with one of the DR Solicitors team, please contact us.