The corporate team from Bristol-headquartered national law firm Burges Salmon has advised on the sale of Education Personnel Management (EPM) to national HR, employment law and health & Safety consultancy Citation.
The team, led by corporate partner Richard Spink, pictured, and senior associate Tim Roberts, supported by solicitor Briony Barber, brought in specialists from across the firm to advise EPM’s shareholders on all legal aspects of the deal and the management team on its re-investment in Citation. 
Cambridgeshire-based EPM supplies HR and payroll services to the education sector. Its management team decided to sell to Citation following a highly competitive process and as they believe the partnership will allow the business to further develop and expand its specialised services to support schools, academies and multi-academy trusts around the country.
EPM and Citation both see themselves as service-led and holding client and colleague engagement as a fundamental part of their growth strategy.
Richard Spink said: “We are very pleased to have been involved in this transaction, which is a significant milestone for EPM and a key acquisition in the development of the broader Citation group. We hope to work with EPM in the future and look forward to seeing the ongoing expansion of the Citation business.”
EPM CEO Jennie Elliott said: “We were delighted with the way in which Richard, Tim, Briony and the rest of the team supported us through this transaction. They tuned in to the nuances of our business exceptionally quickly and provided us with pragmatic advice on complex legal issues around the clock to get the deal over the line quickly and efficiently, leaving our management team to concentrate on running the business.”
