Oxford law firm Hedges Law has announced its 40 employees have become part owners of the business through an Employee Ownership Trust.
This means all employees are eligible to become beneficiaries of the trust after six months of employment, with 10% of the company's distributable profits to be shared equally among all staff. The firm said it intends for a further majority shareholding to be sold to the employees in two years’ time.
Hedges Law said it was advised on the legal aspects of employee ownership by law firm Stephens Scown, which is also employee owned. Stephens Scown’s former managing partner Robert Camp, now an independent consultant, also advised Hedges Law on employee ownership.
“When Covid-19 first hit last year, I really feared for the future of the business. However, the new world of lockdown and remote working rapidly became our new normal and before long we were up and at it. We quickly transformed ourselves so that we could continue to look after our clients. The team at Hedges has been absolutely incredible and as we powered through the pandemic, looking after the needs of our clients as they navigated their own crises, I knew the best way to say thank you was to take the step to move to employee ownership,” said managing director Nikki Poole.
“Employee owned businesses promote fairness and economic resilience – things that we need now more than ever as we recover from the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. This will enable employees to share both the responsibility and the rewards of the business. It will increase employee engagement and therefore productivity and profitability, and especially importantly, employee ownership is known to increase the happiness of the company's clients, as they interact with employees who are happy in their work by virtue of being informed, engaged, trusted and well rewarded,” Poole added.
