For accountants
Legal work for your clients, without a firm that goes after your fees. We act on what you refer, tell you what happened, and stay out of your service line.
You see the legal problem before anyone else does. The shareholder falling out, the guarantee on the new facility, the client whose will still leaves the shares to a spouse the articles will not let them keep. Referring that on is uncomfortable when the firm you refer to also does tax.
We act for owner-managed businesses and their owners across commercial and corporate work, employment, disputes and debt recovery, property, insolvency, and wills and probate. That is the same client base you already have, which is why the overlap works.
What we do not do is accountancy, tax compliance, audit or financial planning. There is nothing for us to cross-sell into, and the engagement says so.
What we undertake
These go in the engagement. They are the reason the arrangement works at all.
We do not cross-sell into your service line
We will not offer your client accountancy, tax compliance, audit, financial planning or investment advice, and we will not introduce them to anyone who does. If they ask us, we tell them to ask you. The engagement says so, so it binds us.
The client stays yours
We act on the matter you refer and nothing else. Where we notice something outside it that is worth looking at, we tell you, and you decide whether it goes anywhere.
You are told what happened
A short note when we take the matter on, and another when it closes, saying what was done and what the client was advised. Enough for you to pick the conversation up, and never anything covered by privilege that the client has not agreed we can share.
You get a named solicitor
You get a direct line to the solicitor doing the work. Your client is not passed between fee earners, and neither are you.
The cost is agreed before anything starts
Your client gets the scope and the fee in writing before we begin. You are never in the position of having sent someone to an open-ended bill.
What we do for your clients
Shareholder agreements
You see the cap table before anybody else. Where owners have no agreement, or one written for a company that no longer exists, we draft what they should have had. We read it against the articles, because the two conflict more often than people expect.
Buying and selling a business
Share and asset purchases alongside your due diligence and your numbers. We take the heads of terms, the disclosure letter and the completion, and we work to the timetable you and the client have already agreed.
Personal guarantees
Advice before a director signs, on what the guarantee actually covers, whether it is capped, whether it survives a sale, and what happens if they resign. This is the one clients most often sign without reading.
Wills where a business is involved
A will drafted against the shareholder agreement, with Business Relief in mind. Most are drafted in ignorance of both. Where the two documents disagree, the family receives the value of the shares and not the shares.
Settlement agreements and employment
You run the payroll, so you see the exits. Contracts, disciplinaries, redundancies and settlement agreements, including the certification only a solicitor can give.
Debt recovery and directors' duties
The aged debtor report and the cash flow forecast are where this starts. Letters before action through to enforcement, and advice for directors whose company is under real pressure, while there are still options.
How it runs
A conversation
We agree what you would refer and what you would not, and put the undertaking about your service line in writing.
You introduce, we scope
You send an introduction. We speak to the client, set out the scope and the fee in writing, and tell you we have done it.
Done by one solicitor
The same solicitor throughout, with a direct line for you as well as for the client.
You are told
A short closing note on what was done and what was advised, so nothing lands on you as a surprise at the next year end.
Questions partners ask
Will you try to sell our clients tax or accountancy work?
No. We do not offer accountancy, tax compliance, audit or financial planning, and we will not introduce your client to anyone who does. If a client asks us a tax question we tell them to ask you. The engagement says so, so it binds us.
What happens if you spot something outside the matter we referred?
We tell you, and you decide what happens next. We do not approach your client about work you did not refer. The only exception is where we are professionally obliged to advise the client of something directly affecting the matter we are already acting on.
Do you pay for referrals?
Any arrangement of that kind has to be agreed in writing and disclosed to the client under the SRA Code of Conduct, so it is a conversation to have openly at the start. Many accountants prefer no fee passing in either direction, which keeps the disclosure simple.
How quickly do you respond?
We tell you at the outset what a given piece of work realistically takes, and we say so if a deadline is not achievable. What we will not do is accept a referral, go quiet, and leave you explaining the silence to your own client.
What does it cost our client?
The scope and the fee are agreed in writing with your client before any work starts, so you are never in the position of having sent someone to an open-ended bill. Where the work is a defined piece, it is a fixed fee.
Can we introduce a client who is already in difficulty?
Yes, and earlier is better. Directors' duties change once there is no reasonable prospect of avoiding insolvent liquidation, and what happened before that point gets judged afterwards by a court. Advice taken early is recorded and counts.
Arrange a conversation
Half an hour on what you would refer, what you would not, and how the undertakings are written down.