Commercial Law

We give businesses practical advice across their commercial activities, helping them negotiate and document transactions and understand the legal risks that come with how they operate. The work runs from day-to-day contracts to the more complex transactions that shape a business.

Businesses signing with customers and suppliers, companies appointing distributors or agents, and any business that has been handed an agreement and asked to sign it by Friday.

What we do

• Commercial contracts: The agreements a business runs on, written so both sides know what was promised.
• Contract drafting and review: A draft from scratch, or a marked-up copy of theirs with a short note on what to push back on and what to accept.
• Contract negotiations: Negotiation alongside you, on the points that carry the money and the risk.
• Business transactions: One-off transactions that need documenting properly, from a sale of assets to a significant order.
• Distribution and supply agreements: Territory, exclusivity, minimum volumes, price changes and how the arrangement can be ended.
• Agency and service agreements: Who acts for whom, on what authority, for what reward, and what happens when the relationship ends.
• Regulatory compliance: The permits, registrations and sector rules that apply to how the business trades.
• Commercial dispute advisory: An early read on a contract that is going wrong, and the options before it becomes a dispute.
• General business legal support: The standing adviser's role: the quick question answered before it becomes an expensive one.

How a matter usually runs

1. The deal in plain terms: What each side is to do, by when, for how much, and what worries you about it.
2. Draft or review: We prepare the agreement, or return theirs marked up with a note in plain language on what matters.
3. Negotiation: We take the points with the other side, or arm you to take them yourself.
4. Signing and afterwards: Execution managed, a clean signed set returned, and a note of the dates the contract will ask you to remember.

What to bring

• The draft agreement, or the last version exchanged
• Any quotation, purchase order or term sheet
• Correspondence recording what was agreed
• Your standard terms, if you have them
• Details of the other party and of the transaction's value

Common questions

Can you review a contract the other side drafted?

Yes. A review comes back as a marked-up copy and a short note in plain language on what to push back on and what to accept.

Do we need a written contract for a regular customer?

Yes, and especially then. Long relationships are where expectations drift and nobody can point to what was agreed.

What makes a contract enforceable?

Clear terms between parties with the authority to agree them, on something the law permits. Most of the trouble we see comes from terms that were never clear, not from a missing signature.

How quickly can you turn a contract around?

Tell us the deadline when you send it. A short review often comes back the same day; a full draft depends on the transaction.