Owner-managed businesses and family businesses can vary from new ventures to evolved, well-established companies operating across borders and family generations.
The common element is that ultimate control rests with one or a few key owners, who often want their business to reflect their values and vision. Such businesses can encounter a multitude of legal issues but often don’t have the bandwidth to separate things out or to align the present need with the long-term direction – they need practical, well-rounded advice to draw attention to the key matters and keep them moving forward.
Your business may already be well-established, yet making the right decisions to safeguard and consolidate that progress or take it to the next level often requires a wider perspective from a joined-up team of experts – this is where we come in.
We recognise the challenges that are presented to committed business owners and will help you overcome them by understanding your values and vision, helping you to reach your desired outcomes. Our multi-disciplinary team’s expertise covers the several relevant areas of law that apply and its insights span many sectors, with particular experience in the tech, construction, agricultural, distribution, manufacturing and engineering sectors.
This means we can help you identify and capitalise on opportunities early on, coordinate parallel legal workstreams involved in progressing your business plans and provide dynamic, practical support. We offer comprehensive and cross-border assistance, including:
- 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, licencing, health & safety and criminal defence
- Business recovery, insolvency and debt collection
- Debt funding and refinancing
What drives you, equally drives us. Our team is here to make sure you receive the right support and advice to take that next step forward.
Meet our Owner-Managed Business & Family Business lawyers
Our senior-led team boasts many decades of combined experience and in-depth expertise across a wide range of niche sectors. Our team consists of:
- Nick Palmer – Corporate & Commercial
- Ross Strowger – Employment Law
- Charlotte Vallins – Commercial Property
- Ayesha Brown – Agriculture & Estates
- Michael Frape – Commercial Dispute Resolution
- Joanna Cotgrove – Family Law
- Louise Cardwell – Private Client
- Alice Trainor – Corporate Recovery & Insolvency
- Tim Ridyard – Regulatory & Crime and Transport Law
- Gemma Helsdon – Private Client
- Zara Bracegirdle – Private Client
Useful links for Owner-Managed & Family Businesses
Articles
- Inheritance Tax: Could your Estate benefit from Business Relief?
- To EOT, or not to EOT
- Diversification key to survival for many family farms
- Change in divorce law looks set to stop the blame game
- 10 reasons why your company should have a Shareholders’ Agreement
- A 6-point health-check for the employer
- Green Leases and how they can help you
- Legal entity and managing your personal risk
- Practical advice for the director of a company in financial difficulty
- Is your business under investigation?
- Short-term leases: Common pitfalls – A tenant’s perspective
- The registration gap: what’s the problem?
- Limited Partnerships – Changes Afoot
- Top tips for preparing for a sale of agricultural land
Guides
Case Studies
- Ashtons has advised Cosworth since 2016. During that period, Ashtons’ lawyers have been on hand as Cosworth’s trusted advisers to provide advice on a wide range of complex commercial arrangements as well as commercial property advice and employment law support.
- Ashtons advised owner Joseph Fogel on the acquisition of his company Vaiopak Limited by the Irish food services and distribution group Zeus Packaging.
- Ashtons Legal advises on Thomas Ridley sale to Bidcorp UK
Contact our specialist Owner-Managed Business & Family Business Solicitors in East Anglia
For practical advice, get in touch with our specialist lawyers in Cambridge, Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich, Norwich and Leeds.
To set up an initial consultation:
- Give us a call on 0330 404 0767; or
- Fill in our simple online enquiry form and we will be in touch shortly.