Incentives Associate/Senior Associate

Osborne Clarke has steadily built out and deepened its Incentives team and operates a rounded practice representing leading UK and global private and listed companies in all of their needs in this area, whether executive-level incentives or company-wide employee schemes. Our team is dedicated to the area, as well as being able to call on wider support from tax, employment and corporate colleagues with extensive experience. We are a leading two partner practice providing a wide range of work and experience.

You will be joining a successful practice with a very strong collegiate and supportive culture, which makes it a rewarding place to work.

The practice

The team advises on all aspects of employee incentive plans, including the design, implementation and communication of senior executive and employee incentive plans, the establishment and operation of employee benefit trusts (to support share plans and as wealth creation vehicles), executive tax planning (including those who are mobile internationally), as well as corporate governance, regulatory and compliance matters.

You will experience a wide range of experience, ranging across predominantly fast-growing owner-managed companies and venture capital and private equity backed companies. We also advise a number of main market and AIM listed companies on their equity incentives.

Most of our work is stand alone advisory work but a significant aspect of the work is transactional based, and all the team gets involved in both aspects.

The team assists major national and international clients in implementing a substantial number of cross-border schemes for executives and other employees. It also regularly handles the incentives aspects of IPOs, M&A and group restructurings. They have also advised on the establishment of a significant number of Employee Ownership Trusts. 

We have an impressive and growing client base across many industry sectors. These include public listed companies such as Mitie Group plc, Topps Tiles plc Crest Nicholson Holdings plc and Fevertree Group plc.

The team

The strong two partner practice of Michael Carter and Anika Chandra, the chair of the Share Plan Lawyers Group, with Michael leading the team.

In addition to Michael and Anika, the  team comprises 1 Associate Director, 1 Senior Associate, 1 Associate, a dedicated Knowledge Lawyer and a Trainee Solicitor.

"Our experience working with the team has been fantastic. We appreciate the professionalism and expertise demonstrated throughout the process" and "Approachable, on-hand, personable and incredibly knowledgeable" (Legal 500)

The Incentives team forms part of the wider tax group and benefits from an excellent training programme. A strong commitment to individuals' career development and weekly know-how meetings ensures our Lawyers are technically excellent and enjoy a healthy team-working environment.

The work

Recent work examples include:

• Advised BioNTech as regards the complex employee incentive arrangements for over two hundred employees s in the UK, US, France, Tunisia, Nigeria, South Africa and the UAE.
  
  
• Advising Mitie Group plc, the UK outsourcing and facilities management group with over 77,500 employees, on the completion of its £200 million rights issue, with over 93% of shareholders taking up their share with the remainder sold to the market.
  
  
• Supported Jellyfish Digital Group Limited in connection with the sale of its entire share capital to The Brandtech Group LLC.
  
  
• Advising Power Electrics (Holdings) Limited in its sale to an employee ownership trust. Power Electrics is a leading UK generator hire provider delivering reliable power solutions across sectors, from construction to facilities management and utilities.
  
  
• Assisted Farview Equity Partners as part of its investment into Grantify Limited.
  
  
• We advised Focus and its shareholders on all aspects of its secondary private equity process. This deal was market-changing and made Focus Group the latest addition to the ranks of Britain's private company unicorns, with a new $1 billion valuation.
  
  
• Advised Fusebox Games Limited in connection with its sale to Nazara Technologies, an Indian publicly listed gaming and sport media company. The acquisition will allow Nazara and Fusebox to join forces as Nazara builds an IP based global gaming business.
  
  
• We have assisted Crest Nicholson Holdings plc, a UK based residential house builder and FTSE 250 listed company, with the implementation of their Share Incentive Plan. This workstream is key to helping Crest Nicholson offer a tax-advantaged share incentive arrangement to their employees.

 Technical skills and experience

You will have some practical experience of advising on share plan matters, ideally with some transactional and advisory experience, and with such exposure covering a variety of share plans. In particular you should have had some exposure to HM Revenue & Customs approved schemes and unapproved arrangements, such as growth shares. You will be a team player, enthusiastic, proactive and a self-starter. We are open to considering candidates who have had some exposure in a corporate, tax or employment role.

Due to the structure of the team, we are looking to appoint either an Associate or Senior Associate in this area.