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Mergers and Acquisitions
Investment Rounds
SEIS and EIS Tax Reliefs
Shareholder Agreements and Articles of Association
Shareholder Disputes and Buyouts
Joint Ventures
Founder and Vesting Contracts
Share Option Schemes
Employee and Consultancy Agreements
Technology and Intellectual Property Contracts
Strategic Company Law Advice
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Last updated on May 19th, 2021 at 12:19 pm
Welcome to
‘The Jonathan Lea Network’
We are a firm of solicitors based in Haywards Heath, Mid-Sussex. We work with clients throughout the UK and around the world, adopting a tailored, pragmatic and clear approach to each matter we take on.
Put simply, through our work we aim to increase your profit, protection and free time. We only accept instructions on matters where we know we can add value and will always ensure that clients have the benefit of fee certainty, including a commitment to fixed fees where possible.
Disclosure In Litigation: What You Need To Know
Published 18 days ago
What is Disclosure?
Disclosure is a provision of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (“CPR”), a term given to the process of offering documents within your control and are material to the issues in dispute. The purpose of disclosure is to make available evidence that can either support or undermine the respective parties’ cases.
Our Top 5 Recommendations For EMI Share Option Schemes
Published 74 days ago
Top 5 Tips for EMI Options
1) Separate generic scheme rules (that apply to everyone, e.g. when options lapse on leaving the company before options vested) and then bespoke option certificates that include details specific to each option holder such as exercise conditions (for example every year of employment or with reference to company turnover target or individual metrics such as sales targets).
What are unapproved / non-tax advantaged share option schemes and how are they used?
Published 82 days ago
An unapproved share option scheme (which is now increasingly referred to as a non-tax advantaged share option scheme) provides the right, but not obligation to acquire a given number of shares from a company at a future date for a fixed price.
For the purposes of this article, we will continue to refer to these schemes as “unapproved” schemes because this is how many people still refer to them. Many industrial professionals, however, have adopted the term “non-tax advantaged” in place of “unapproved”.
Changes to HMRC SEIS/EIS Guidance for Film and TV Companies
Published 117 days ago
HMRC updated its Venture Capital Schemes Manual VCM8560 on 15 March 2021.
The update is regarding Example 3 of VCM8560 which presents an example of a qualifying film company.
The new guidance provides further clarity on how the risk-to-capital condition applies to Film and TV production companies that are seeking SEIS/EIS advance assurance approval.
A Guide to Convertible Loan Notes
Published 166 days ago
Convertible Loan Notes (“CLN”) are loan notes which grant the holder a right to subscribe or convert the loan amount into shares in the relevant company. We will explore the potential benefits and drawbacks of using CLNs in more detail below, but they are often used as a form of bridging facility by start-up companies ahead of a future round of venture capital financing.
Where an investor invests in a company via a CLN, unlike a venture capital investment where equity is issued up-front, the investment amount will be treated as a loan to the company and (subject to the terms of the CLN) there will be an option or right to convert that amount into shares in the company at a later point in time. Another key difference when investing via a CLN as opposed to venture capital, is that the share price and most likely the class of share will not be known at the date of the investment.
