Incorporating your Law Firm

When a practice decides to incorporate it faces the same issues that any venture faces.  Issues such as how decisions will be made, classes of shares, how votes are weighted, capital requirements, debt appetite, dividend policy and dispute resolution must all be considered.

How do I know if my law firm should incorporate?

Grant Thornton will guide you through the decision process in a free one-hour consultation to see if incorporation is right for your firm.

How can Grant Thornton assist you to incorporate?

Grant Thornton can help you through this process.  We offer a full range of services to assist with most aspects of the transition from a partnership structure to an incorporated firm.   We will act as the project champion, project-managing the entire process for you. 

In particular, we provide:

• specialised tax advice
• entity structuring
• remuneration strategy
• tax implications of buying and selling
• corporate tax implications
• structuring a sale
• independent valuation
• systems changes
• accounting and compliance
• governance
• we will work with your legal team to develop agreements/constitutions/
  dissolution of partnership agreements.

It will take a significant commitment to get the process and structure right.  The ramifications of getting it wrong are large.

We recommend a systematised considered approach to ensure that the process isn’t rushed and you get the outcome and structure, which will be of benefit to you and your practice.

In addition we can assist you by:

• undertaking a business systems review
• undertaking a Tax Health Check
• reviewing your existing accounting systems
• advising on Governance
• developing succession plans
• strategic and business planning
• managing Inland Revenue Audits
• providing assistance with cashflow management
• advising on how you market the change to your clients and referrers.