Owner-managed businesses benefit from many key advantages, such as the owners’ strong vested interest in making the business work. At the same time, however, they face unique challenges, including navigating personal relationships and dealing with succession issues. To ensure the continued growth of your owner-operated business, you need clear, pragmatic legal support. That’s where our expert solicitors come in.
At Ashton’s Legal, we appreciate the diverse challenges faced by owner-managed businesses. Our expert solicitors will provide you with first-class legal advice with a commercial focus.
Our owner-managed business solicitors regularly appear in the leading law directories, including Chambers & Partners, which notes that we ‘handle high–value work with the dexterity of the main players in central London’.
Our Norwich Owner-Managed Business solicitors can help you with:
- Business acquisition or sale
- Business restructuring and reorganisation
- Ownership governance issues and governance documents
- Succession and estate planning, including wills and wealth preservation
- Protecting business from relationship breakdown, including pre-nuptial and post-nuptial arrangements
- Shareholder/partner relations and commercial disputes
- Trust creation and administration
- Commercial contracts
- Property ownership and planning issues
- Employment Issues and HR Consulting
- Regulatory, licensing, health & safety and criminal defence
- Business recovery, insolvency and debt collection
- Debt funding and refinancing
Our legal expertise spans all practice areas relevant to owner-managed businesses, including commercial property, employment, and corporate. We work across various sectors, including engineering, construction, and tech.
Book a consultation with our Owner-Managed Business solicitors in Norwich
Our firm policy is to provide legal support that is both exceptional and affordable.
To find out more, please contact our Norwich office or use our online enquiry form to request a call back.
How we can help with Owner-Managed Business services in Norwich
Business acquisitions and sales
Our expert owner-managed business solicitors will provide expert guidance regarding approaching the acquisition or sale of a company.
Our employment, commercial property, and regulatory and disputes teams will work proactively with our specialist acquisitions and disposals lawyers to support you throughout this process.
Our areas of expertise include:
- Carrying out buyer due diligence
- Assistance with corporate financing
- Help to make the necessary tax considerations
- Support with employment matters
- Advice on licensing and regulatory compliance areas
To find out more about how we can help you with business acquisitions and sales, click here.
Business restructuring and reorganisation
Owner-operated business owners must be responsive, dynamic, and agile to ensure their continued success. In the correct circumstances, restructuring can offer an effective solution to a variety of issues, such as reduced profitability and tax inefficiency.
Our owner-managed business solicitors will assist you in identifying the structure appropriate for your situation and implementing it to achieve your goals.
We can assist with all types of restructuring and reorganisation, including:
- Restructuring or reorganisation strategies
- Mergers and demergers
- Refinancing
- Joint ventures
- Capital reduction
Find out more about how we can help you with restructuring here.
Ownership governance issues and governance documents
Governance is the legal term for the processes through which you run your business, and its importance cannot be overstated. We regularly develop effective governance strategies for clients of all sizes.
Our owner-managed business solicitors advise clients on all matters of governance, including:
- Developing governance processes
- Creating governance policies
- Preparing governance documentation, such as owner-managed company articles of association
Find out more about how we can help you with governance matters here.
Succession and estate planning, including wills and wealth preservation
To secure the future of your owner-managed business, you must put effective succession plans in place long before you hand your business over to your chosen successor.
Our owner managed businesses team includes experts in all relevant disciplines, including estate planning, tax, and corporate. Together, they will develop an efficient succession plan that ensures your owner-managed company’s long-term success.
Our owner-managed business solicitors in Norwich can deal with all succession planning matters, including:
- Tax
- Estate planning
- Business sales
- Wealth management
Find out more about how we can help you with succession, estate planning, and wills and wealth preservation.
Protecting business from relationship breakdown, including pre-nuptial and post-nuptial arrangements
Many owner-managed business owners are keen to keep their businesses separate from the assets they own jointly with their spouse or partner. Measures such as pre-nuptial or post-nuptial agreements can help achieve this goal.
Our owner-managed business solicitors have vast experience in family law and practice. We will advise you on the options available to safeguard owner-managed businesses in the event of a relationship breakdown.
Find out more about how we can help you protect your business, including pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements, here.
Shareholder/partner relations and commercial disputes
Many owner-managed businesses involve family members or friends. As a result, disagreements must be carefully handled to preserve the parties’ relationships and minimise any detrimental impact on the business.
Whilst our owner-managed business solicitors will work hard to protect your interests, we will do so with diplomacy and tact. We will strive for a swift, commercially workable settlement, avoiding the Court’s involvement wherever possible.
If you are involved in a dispute with other shareholders or partners, our owner-managed business solicitors in Norwich can support you from start to finish, including:
- Advising on the merits of your position
- Negotiating a settlement
- Pursuing alternative dispute resolution methods, such as mediation
- Representing you in Court proceedings
Find out more about how we can help you with commercial disputes here.
Trust creation and administration
A trust is a legal arrangement whereby one person (the trustee) holds and manages assets for another person’s benefit (the beneficiary). Owner-operated business owners may consider creating a trust for various reasons, such as to entitle younger family members to receive dividends whilst reserving voting rights for those with more experience.
Trusts are an incredibly complex area of law. Expert legal advice on the effects of any proposed trust is essential to ensure the arrangement fulfils your requirements.
Our owner-managed business solicitors in Norwich provide advice on all matters of trust creation and administration, including:
- The suitability of a trust
- Setting up a trust
- Administering a trust
- Ending a trust
Find out more about how we can help you with trust creation and administration here.
Commercial contracts
Contracts are essential to every business. They govern your relationship with virtually everyone you deal with, including investors, suppliers, and consumers. Your contractual documentation must enable everyone to understand their rights and obligations clearly. Unclear contracts can confuse and lead to time-consuming and costly disputes.
We can assist you with negotiating and drafting all your commercial contracts and achieving a swift resolution of any contractual dispute.
Our owner-managed business solicitors in Norwich are experts in all commercial contract matters, including:
- Joint ventures
- Contracts with consumers
- Supply contracts
- Licensing arrangements
- Resolving contractual disputes
Find out more about how we can help you with commercial contracts here.
Property ownership and planning issues
Property is integral to commercial operations. Business-critical decisions, such as who should own your business premises, require expert legal advice.
Our owner-managed business solicitors are experts in landlord and tenant issues and corporate support work. We can assist with all your commercial property requirements, including:
- Managing your property portfolio
- Landlord and tenant matters
- Planning issues
- Property disputes
- Buying and selling commercial property
Find out more about how we can help you with commercial property and planning matters here.
Employment Issues and HR Consulting
Many owner-managed businesses lack the personnel and expertise to fulfil employment law obligations and deal with HR issues effectively. Our comprehensive HR consultants can fill the void, ensuring your practices are fair, transparent, and legally compliant. When employment law issues, such as tribunal claims, arise, our expert solicitors can provide cost-efficient, effective legal representation.
Examples of the types of work our owner-managed business solicitors in Norwich routinely undertake include:
- Drafting HR policies and documentation, including employment contracts
- Devising succession planning strategies
- Assisting with disciplinary procedures to minimise the risk of unfair dismissal claims
- Ensuring any redundancy processes are fair and legally compliant
- Employment tribunal proceedings
Find out more about our HR consultancy services here and employment law expertise here.
Regulatory, licensing, health & safety and criminal defence
Complying with your regulatory requirements in areas such as the environment and data protection can be an ongoing challenge. Expert legal advice is crucial in ensuring your systems are sound and compliant.
Our owner-managed business solicitors understand the pressure regulatory compliance can place on businesses. We will alleviate the burden by providing straightforward advice on your obligations and helping you implement processes that adhere to them. We have extensive experience assisting clients under investigation for alleged regulatory breaches. We offer decisive advice to avoid criminal prosecution and secure the most lenient penalty possible.
Our owner-managed business solicitors in Norwich advise clients on all aspects of regulatory law, including:
- Trading Standards Investigations
- Health and Safety Investigations
- Planning notices
- Alcohol licensing issues
- Business crime
Find out more about how we can help you with regulatory issues here.
Business recovery, insolvency, and debt collection
Owner-managed businesses often need more time and resources to chase payment of unpaid invoices. We can do that for you. Our debt-recovery services span the entire debt collection process, from the initial letter of claim to enforcing any judgment obtained against the debtor.
If your business is at risk of insolvency, expert legal advice will afford it the best chance of survival. Our owner-managed business team includes solicitors specialising in personal and corporate insolvency, dispute resolution, and corporate law. We will devise an effective recovery plan that allows you time to get your business back on track. If insolvency is unavoidable, we will guide you through the process, including dealing with any disputes and claims brought against the directors.
Our owner-managed business solicitors in Norwich provide complete business recovery, insolvency, and debt collection services, including:
- Restructuring advice
- Administrations and liquidations
- Debt recovery and enforcement of Judgments
Find out more about how we can help you with business recovery and insolvency here and our debt collection services here.
Debt funding and refinancing
Taking on debt is sometimes a good thing. Provided you manage your debt properly, it can facilitate your expansion plans and help you meet customer demand. Effective debt management sometimes requires considering refinancing options to secure optimum repayment terms.
Our owner-managed business solicitors regularly advise clients on all matters relating to debt funding and refinancing. Find out more about how we can help you here.
Why choose our owner-managed business solicitors in Norwich?
Our owner-managed business solicitors team specialises in helping businesses like yours navigate their legal obligations and realise their commercial goals. Our expertise spans all relevant practice areas, facilitating a long-lasting, productive business relationship between us and you.
At Ashtons Legal, our clients’ interests are at the heart of everything we do. The Legal 500 recognises us as having ‘the edge in client care’. We will take the time to get to know you and understand your business so we can provide practical and commercially effective legal advice.
Our owner-managed business solicitors’ fees
We strive to provide legal support to rival central London firms at an affordable rate. We will explain our billing processes at the start of each matter and provide ongoing quotes and breakdowns so you can keep on top of your legal costs.
For more information, you can visit our pricing pages.
Contact our owner-managed business solicitors in Norwich
Our owner-managed business solicitors are ideally placed to provide the legal support your owner-managed business needs. To learn more about how we can help, please call our office in Norwich or complete our contact form on the right of the page, and we will get back to you.