Johnson Astills, an award-winning law firm based in Leicestershire, has completed its transition to employee ownership by transferring ownership of the firm to an Employee Ownership Trust.
Johnson Astills was created in 2013 through the combination of Emery Johnson – a firm providing invaluable advice and support in childcare, family and criminal defence work – and Astills – a firm specialising in wills, probate and property work.
The nature of the firm’s work means that as well as having outstanding technical skills, understanding the emotional and personal aspects of each case is critical.
This informed the firm’s approach to its own internal culture and values. Employees contribute as real individuals rather than as resources to simply generate fees. There is an understanding that combining life and family commitments with work is okay and having those kind of commitments are not an obstacle to progression and holding senior roles in the business.
Johnson Astills is also proudly part of Leicester and the surrounding area. Safeguarding and securing its roots in the region was key to any future plans for the business.
Helen Johnson, one of the founders of Emery Johnson, has been the majority shareholder and managing director of the business for most of its existence. Helen and her fellow director and shareholder Emma Mitchell have been the leaders and custodians of the business for most of its recent history.
However, Helen and Emma needed a succession plan for what happens when they ultimately step away from the business. As part of this, the leadership team of the firm was invested in and expanded, with more employees being given the opportunity to step up and take on more responsibility.
But there was also a need for an ownership succession plan. The usual succession plan for a law firm is that a new generation of leaders / partners would buy out the previous generation of leaders / partners. This would allow the current owners to exit, but would place the financial burden of funding this on a small number of employees. It also means that any new owners would probably have to be bought out by their successors – creating a repeating cycle of each generation having to buy out the last one.
Johnson Astills wanted a more sustainable model that reflects modern legal practice – where leadership roles are not tied to a need to “buy in” as partners.
They therefore turned to the Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) – an ownership model that is growing in popularity within the English legal sector.
With an EOT, the shares are held in the trust for the benefit of all employees of the business. The trust is controlled by a group of trustee directors who act in the best interests of the employees, but who also provide oversight and good governance for the business as a whole.
As a regulated legal business, Johnston Astills required approval from the Solicitors Regulatory Authority for their transition. The SRA has a process for this approval – they need to review and be comfortable with the new structure. While this can impact on the timetable for an EOT transition, the SRA understands the model and is comfortable with EOT ownership.
Matt Green, Chief Executive Officer, has this to say:
Firstly, can I thank Baxendale’s support and assistance with the EOT conversion. There are many points to consider when entering an EOT structure, and for our owners and the team as a whole, everything was a first. Baxendale’s shared the content in an organised and structured manner that enabled us to understand and follow the process as well as keeping disruption to the day to day running of the business to a minimum.
It has been a busy time at Johnson Astills since we transitioned to becoming employee owned on 31st October 2025. I was appointed as CEO and our Practice manager Vicki has also been appointed as a director. The trust board is very much in place and our ‘employee voice’ team has now met up and some very useful interactions with the board and trust are taking place. I personally attended the EO conference in Telford and I am looking forward to another inspiring event in Birmingham in June along with colleagues from our ‘employee voice’. It was so powerful to hear and learn from other businesses who are at differing stages of their employee-owned journey and I recommend this to any newly transitioned businesses. Finally, I was delighted that we were able to utilise the employee-owned bonus legislation and pay tax-free bonuses company wide.
Our original owners, Helen and Emma currently remain with the company although Emma will be leaving the business at the end of May. Whilst Emma will be missed, the process of becoming employee owned has allowed for this to happen.
Amongst all of the above, we celebrated our 30th Anniversary with both clients and contacts and then as a team and we have moved into a larger space within our existing Leicester office.
Whilst we do realise that we are at the beginning of our employee-owned journey there is no doubt that becoming employee owned was the perfect route for our owners and company and we are excited to move forward into the next 30 years.
With its new ownership model in place, Johnson Astills is well placed to build for the future while allowing its former owners to step back gradually at a time and pace to suit them and the business. We wish them all the best for this next phase of their journey.