The Equality and Human Rights Commission (ECHR) has published templates for employers to help...
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Corporate Law Solicitors
Our specialist team have the skills to assist with all aspects of corporate law for all of your business needs.
Company formation
The law that governs how your company should be operated depends upon the structure of the company. Are you a sole trader, in a partnership, a company limited by shares, or a company limited by guarantee? Our team can provide advice regarding company formation and structure.
Articles of association
These are a company’s basic rules which govern all aspects of the management and operation of the company. Whether you own a newly incorporated limited company and require bespoke articles of association to be prepared, or a company that requires their existing articles to be amended to reflect changes within the company, our team can assist.
Share restructuring
Whether you are consolidating, re-designating, subdividing, converting, or re-denominating shares our specialist team can assist to change the ‘look’ of your shares, including the preparation of all ancillary documents.
Employee share incentive schemes
Our specialist team regularly advise clients in relation to employee share incentive schemes, including EMI schemes.
- Shareholder agreements
- Advising company directors on their duties under company law
- Advising company directors on their duties under insolvency law
- Partnerships: partnership agreements and advice on other partnership matters
The way in which a partnership is governed depends upon whether there is a partnership agreement in place. If a partnership does not have a partnership agreement in place the Partnership Act 1890 will determine matters such as dissolution. Our specialist team regularly advise partners in relation to partnership matters, including the preparation of partnership agreements.
Articles of Association are essentially the rule book of a company. The company’s functions must be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the company’s articles of association, whilst also complying with the provisions of the Companies Act 2006.
Shares in a company are owned by shareholders and represent the amount of the company owned by that shareholder. Depending on the rights attaching to specific shares, the shareholders can take dividends from the company, vote at general meetings, and essentially receive funds from company profits.
A dividend is an amount of money that is declared to be paid to the shareholders of a company from the company’s profits. Where a limited company makes a profit it can choose to distribute the profit to shareholders by way of a dividend. Dividends are declared at the discretion of directors and the amount of dividend to be paid will be dependent upon the rights attached to specific shares.
A partnership is the coming together of two or more individuals who share in the management and profit of a business. The Partnership Act 1890 defines a partnership in Section 1 and states “Partnership is the relationship which subsists between persons carrying on a business in common with a view of profit”. Running a business as a partnership is different than running a business as a limited company. Partners of a partnership should consider having a partnership agreement prepared in order to govern the relationship between the partners and also to determine how the partnership will come to an end. If no partnership agreement is in place the partnership will be governed by the provisions of the Partnership Act 1890.
For further information or to speak to one of our experts, please get in touch