Corporate
Buying or selling a business
Clarify the deal structure, assets, liabilities, information and timetable.
Business
Keep the commercial objective visible in every legal detail.
Clarify the deal, responsibilities, information, risks and timetable before documents become the only focus.
Commercial decisions
Good instructions connect legal risk to business reality.
A contract or acquisition is not an isolated document. It sits inside an operating model, cash flow, customer promise, supply chain and decision-making structure.
A useful first brief explains the parties, objective, value exchange, existing commitments, key dependencies and what must happen if performance falls short.
Business services
Start with the deal or relationship involved.
Property and employment questions often sit alongside the core commercial work.
Commercial
Commercial contracts
Start with the operational deal, responsibilities and consequences of failure.
Connected workstreams
One business decision may require several legal lenses.
A business sale may involve corporate structure, property, employees, data, intellectual property, finance and tax advice. A new commercial contract may also affect insurance, operational procedures and existing customer or supplier commitments.
Identify specialist dependencies early so the project plan and responsibility matrix are realistic.
- Decision-makers and signing authority
- Commercial objective and non-negotiable terms
- Known liabilities, third-party consents and dependencies
- Target dates and what drives them
Choosing support
Ask who will lead and what expertise the deal needs.
Before instructing a provider, ask how work will be staffed, which assumptions sit behind the estimate, which specialist advice is outside scope and how material decisions will be escalated.
A clear written engagement should distinguish legal work from financial, tax, valuation, technical or investment advice.
Questions to clarify
Common questions before the first conversation.
These answers are general orientation for England and Wales, not advice on a particular matter.
Should a headline deal be agreed before legal advice?
Commercial objectives often begin before formal instructions, but early legal input can help identify structure, risk and due-diligence issues before positions harden.
Does a contract template remove the need for review?
No template can confirm that terms match a particular operation, bargaining position, law or risk. The real transaction and intended use must be understood.
Is tax advice included automatically?
It should not be assumed. Legal, accounting and tax work may overlap, but scope and responsibility should be agreed expressly with the appropriate advisers.
Prepare the first conversation
Turn the commercial decision into a concise, useful brief.
Collect the people, dates, documents and practical outcome before contacting a regulated legal provider. Do not include confidential information in this prototype.