Gym & Fitness Lawyers
Running a fitness brand across multiple locations creates complex challenges, from ensuring equipment safety to managing contracts. Our specialist gym lawyers help you minimise risks, stay legally compliant and drive growth - so you can expand confidently without legal uncertainty holding you back.
- Clear, practical advice from experts in health & fitness law
- Specialists in hospitality and leisure
- Highly ranked in Chambers UK and the Legal 500
- 13 offices across the UK and more than 1,200 colleagues
Experts in gym law
We advise gyms and leisure operators of all sizes, helping you navigate the legal landscape with confidence. Whether you’re opening new sites, updating membership terms or improving compliance, we make the process manageable and specific to your business.
Why choose Freeths for advice and guidance on health & fitness law?
- We understand multi-site challenges: From consistent processes to scalable templates, we help you build an approach that works across your full estate
- We make compliance straightforward: No unnecessary jargon, just clear guidance backed by our sector expertise
- We're award-winning: We've received awards, including Law Firm of the Year at The Legal Business Awards 2024. We're also listed in The Times Best Law Firms 2026
- We're fully authorised: We're regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in England and Wales, and the Law Society of Scotland
"In a competitive fitness market, clarity matters. Gym operators need advice they can act on straight away, especially when managing multiple sites with different operational demands. We work closely with clients to cut through the noise and give them a clear view of their obligations and opportunities.
Our focus is simple: practical, accessible guidance that supports confident decision making and protects your brand at every location. Whether you’re growing your estate or strengthening safety and compliance, we help you build systems that work in the real world – keeping your operations running safely, efficiently and with complete peace of mind."
Matt Stephens
Partner
Key contact
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What can our leisure & fitness lawyers help with?
Our gym solicitors can help with:
- Membership contracts: We deal with all aspects of gym membership contract law and disputes. We can advise on creating clear, fair terms and cancellation processes that suit both your business and your members
- Gym laws and regulations UK: We're experts in issues relating to risk assessments, supplier warranties, maintenance logs and incident reporting. We advise on laws relating to health and safety expectations and equipment checks
- Data protection: We can support with laws around biometric entry systems, CCTV and safe handling of member and employee information
- Marketing and offers: As a health & fitness operator, it's vital to ensure promotional messages, discounts and "before/after" claims meet advertising rules. We can help make sure your business aligns with relevant UK regulations and laws
- Music licensing: Our specialists health & wellbeing lawyers can help you understand what licences you need for classes, workout spaces and general gym areas
- Employment matters: Our gym & fitness lawyers have extensive knowledge of people management law and can advise on staff contracts and issues with PTs, instructors and wider teams
- Property and growth: If you need guidance around leases, acquisitions, planning or anything involved in scaling your estate, our leisure experts can advise you
Fitness & leisure law FAQs
For consumer memberships, ensure your gym membership contract law terms address pre contract information, cooling off rights and clear cancellation and exit routes. Then prepare for the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC) subscription rules (renewal reminders and additional cooling-off periods). Operationally, you should ensure equipment aligns with PUWER and incident reporting with RIDDOR across all your sites. It's also imperative to remain compliant with fire safety laws.
The new DMCC subscription contract rules will introduce clearer pre-contract information, mandatory renewal reminders and additional cooling-off periods for some subscription renewals. Although these rules aren’t expected to take effect until autumn 2026, it’s sensible to start planning now. Make sure to review your gym and fitness contract membership terms, renewal journeys and cancellation processes so everything is ready when the law changes.
As a gym operator, you must ensure promotions, discount claims and any "before and after" imagery are accurate and not misleading. We can help you sense check pricing claims and transformation photos, so they meet ASA and CAP expectations – protecting both your brand and customer trust.
Laws around gym & fitness venue acquisitions involve a mix of commercial and operational checks. Our team supports operators with reviewing leases, financial liabilities, staff arrangements, supplier contracts and regulatory compliance to ensure the site can transition smoothly. We also advise on structuring the deal, due diligence and aligning it with your wider estate growth strategy.
When acquiring another gym or chain, employment considerations are crucial. We can advise on transferring staff under TUPE, clarify personal trainer status and review internal policies. Our fitness lawyers and employment specialists can guide you through obligations and best practices.
Yes. As a gym & leisure operator, you might add EV infrastructure to improve accessibility and meet local authority expectations. We have experience advising gym groups on EV charge point agreements, land use, planning permissions and commercial terms with suppliers.
Our specialist team also focuses on:
Testimonials
MA
“Leo and his team at Freeths act for The Big Table Group. I have had a longstanding relationship with Leo including my present role as Director of...
Matt Ainger, Property Director
Big Table Group
MG
“Freeths LLP have been our long term legal partner providing expertise and professionalism in handling both our everyday needs as well as supportin...
Mark Grunnell, Co-founder and Chief Executive
Red Oak Taverns
KA
“I have worked with Leo since April 2021 and he has provided me with inciteful and commercial support which can only come from someone who understa...
Kamran Aziz, Managing Director
RedCat Pub Company
HS
"Peach Pubs grew through acquiring freeholds and leaseholds (both private and pubco) over 20 years. Freeths became part of our success in the la...
Hamish Stoddart, Co-founder
Peach Pub Company
PD
“Leo and all of the team at Freeths are undoubted leisure sector specialists and are both commercial and pragmatic in their advice. They are able...
Phil Derbyshire, Group Property Director
The Restaurant Group Plc
RM
“Partnering with Freeths has provided us with invaluable support for our property activities. Their expert guidance and seamless service have prove...
Richard Maslin, Property Director
The Liberation Group
JD
“We have worked with Freeths for well over a decade for matters concerning our wine business and wine bars and restaurants, and are consistently im...
James Davy, Chairman
Davy’s
GB
"I have worked with Freeths for over two decades, firstly as an advisor alongside them when acting for a client, and more recently as the principal...
Graeme Bunn, Property & Acquisitions Director
Red Oak Taverns
TD
“Leo and his team at Freeths act for BKUK Group Limited and have done so since the inception of the business in its current form in 2017. I have ha...
Tim Doubleday, CFO
BKUK Group Limited
NB
“Freeths has provided unrivalled legal advice to our portfolio businesses in the pubs sector for many years. Their team regularly goes above and be...
Noah Bulkin, Managing Partner
May Capital
JL
“I have used Freeths for many years now, both on property and transactional matters. There are many reasons that I have used them so much, but top...
John Leslie, Chairman
Oakman Inns
PM
"The Late-Night sector has had some particularly difficult trading conditions over the last year, which meant unfortunately we had to take on board...
Peter Marks, Chairman
Neos Hospitality
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Whatever your legal needs, our wide ranging expertise is here to support you and your business, so let’s start your legal journey today and get you in touch with the right lawyer to get you started.
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