Mourant takes first steps as limited company
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Channel Islands professional services group Mourant has scored a first in the legal market by incorporating as a limited company.
The new structure combines Mourant’s three financial and professional service lines, but the law firm Mourant du Feu & Jeune will continue to operate as a partnership. Law firms are not yet able to incorporate under British and Jersey law.
Under the new structure, Mourant has issued shares to senior executives as well as to every employee through an employee share plan. All of Mourant du Feu & Jeune’s equity partners are also shareholders.
The move is intended to aid Mourant’s continued expansion into new jurisdictions as well as offering employees more of a financial incentive.
Mourant chief executive Nicola Davies told The Lawyer that incorporation was preferred over limited liability partnership (LLP) status as it would not have widened the ownership of the business.
She added: "The business has become much more multidisciplinary. The partnership model just becomes increasingly difficult to operate."
