Origin

The Business

Origin Limited is a law firm specialising in intellectual property and technology law, and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Founded in 1988 by Peter Langley, Origin helps a range of technology companies, from start ups through to major established and international businesses, navigate the unremittingly complex intellectual property landscape.

Why Employee Ownership (EO)?

After both owning and running Origin for over 30 years, Peter was looking for a succession solution that would be right for the company, foster maximum employee engagement and create a strong platform for further growth.

After extensive research, Peter identified a sale to an employee ownership trust (EOT) as the likely best way to achieve the company’s succession goals. Although companies across a wide range of sectors are adopting this model, it hadn’t been adopted by many law firms, so Peter and his colleagues were keen to evaluate its feasibility in their company.

It quickly became clear that it was perfectly possible for a solicitors practice to become owned by an EOT.

Working With Us

Once engaged, we discussed what Origin wanted to achieve and developed a plan which set out how they would move to EO, the key steps to be undertaken and gave advice on taxation. We separately commissioned advice on a valuation and how to obtain permission from the SRA for this ownership change.

We then arranged legal implementation, tax clearance with HMRC and helped communicate the new ownership to employees and project managing the entire transaction.

How Long Did SRA Approval Take?

Because Origin was already a company, there was one stage to the SRA approval process, which took approximately three months.

How Does it Work?

Origin is now 100% owned by an EOT which has three trustees: two employees and (initially) Peter Langley.

The EOT is paying for its shares over a period of years, funded out of the company’s profits.

Who Runs the Company?

Origin currently has two directors, Peter as managing director and also a non-executive director. Leadership succession is planned.

Looking Forward

Origin’s expertise, reputation and people, put it in a strong position to enjoy further growth in a market full of opportunity. A key role for the EOT is to ensure that Origin has employee owners who are engaged in the business and motivated to work together energetically to achieve, and benefit from, further growth.