header-logo header-logo

What’s mine is yours

03 January 2019 / Patrick Allen
Issue: 7822 / Categories: Opinion , Legal services
printer mail-detail

Patrick Allen predicts an uplift in the number of law firms converting to co-ownership

Employee-owned businesses and co-operatives have been around for a long time and are supported by the major political parties. The Labour Party published a report on alternative models of ownership in 2017 and its election manifesto committed to doubling the size of the cooperative sector and encouraging more democratic ownership structures.

The co-ownership sector, while significant, is not large—its annual turnover is estimated at £40bn as of 2017. The John Lewis model is the one that everyone has heard of, but it is not typical for the sector, having 83,000 partners and a turnover of over £10bn. However, the sector is growing following legislation which provides tax incentives for businesses to transform themselves into employee owned-businesses (EOBs) by setting up employee ownership trusts (EOTs).

This came about as a result of an initiative from the coalition government, which commissioned research into employee owned businesses. The Nuttall report, published in 2012, found that firms where employees own a stake

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

Blake Morgan managing partner appointed chair of CBI South-East Council

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Commercial dispute resolution team welcomes partner in Cambridge

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Firm strengthens international funds capability with senior hire

NEWS
The proposed £11bn redress scheme following the Supreme Court’s motor finance rulings is analysed in this week’s NLJ by Fred Philpott of Gough Square Chambers
In this week's issue, Stephen Gold, NLJ columnist and former district judge, surveys another eclectic fortnight in procedure. With humour and humanity, he reminds readers that beneath the procedural dust, the law still changes lives
Generative AI isn’t the villain of the courtroom—it’s the misunderstanding of it that’s dangerous, argues Dr Alan Ma of Birmingham City University and the Birmingham Law Society in this week's NLJ
James Naylor of Naylor Solicitors dissects the government’s plan to outlaw upward-only rent review (UORR) clauses in new commercial leases under Schedule 31 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, in this week's NLJ. The reform, he explains, marks a seismic shift in landlord-tenant power dynamics: rents will no longer rise inexorably, and tenants gain statutory caps and procedural rights
Writing in NLJ this week, James Harrison and Jenna Coad of Penningtons Manches Cooper chart the Privy Council’s demolition of the long-standing ‘shareholder rule’ in Jardine Strategic v Oasis Investments
back-to-top-scroll