Week 0–1
Letter before action, and a costed plan
We read the contract and the paper trail, then send a letter before action. You get a written scope, the fee basis, and a straight read on whether the claim is worth running at all.
Commercial and corporate counsel
Straight answers.
Fees agreed in writing.
We act for owners, founders and landlords on contracts, commercial disputes and property. One attorney owns your file, and the cost is settled before anyone starts a clock.
How we are built
A small firm,
deliberately.
Three attorneys, a paralegal team, and a limit on how many matters we take at once. The attorney you meet in the first meeting is the attorney who runs the file — and the one who answers when the other side calls.
Disputes
Most commercial disputes
never reach a hearing.
They end at a mediation table, which is usually the cheapest place for them to end. The band below sets out each stage, the weeks it takes and what we charge for it, before you commit to anything.
Standing
Where the credentials actually go
Five things a firm like ours would usually turn into a badge wall. Each caption says what the item is, including the two that are small.
How a matter runs
A commercial dispute, week by week
Every fixed fee we quote is priced against stages like these. The weeks are honest averages from our own files, not a promise — and the fifth row is what a lease review looks like instead.
Weeks 2–5
Statements, documents and disclosure
Pleadings are filed and both sides exchange documents. This is the expensive middle, and it is mostly paralegal hours — which is exactly why those hours are billed at a lower rate than partner time.
Weeks 6–10
Mediation — where four in five end
We prepare the position paper and sit in the room with you. Roughly four in five commercial disputes settle here, so a fixed fee quoted for the matter includes this stage rather than treating it as an extra.
Weeks 11–16
Listing, hearing and enforcement
If mediation fails we prepare the hearing bundle and, if you win, the enforcement step. This is the stage we can least predict, and the fee agreement says so in writing instead of pretending otherwise.
5–8 working days
A lease review, for contrast
A retail or office lease comes back marked up within five to eight working days for a fixed fee: rent review, break clauses, repairing liability, permitted use. No hourly meter on a document we have read a hundred times.
How we bill
The fee is agreed before the work starts.
Fixed fee, hourly or on retainer — the table below sets out what each one costs for the same three matters, and where each one is the wrong answer. If the scope changes mid-matter we stop, re-quote, and you decide whether to carry on. No work continues on a number you have not seen.
Sectors
Where we do, and do not, act
The work repeats: the same lease clauses, the same supply terms, the same shareholder rows. Where we have no depth we say so and refer you on.
Haulage and logistics
Owner-driver contracts, subcontract terms, and disputes over damaged or late consignments.
Retail and hospitality
Unit leases, fit-out contracts, licensing, and the occasional stand-off with a landlord over a renewal.
Construction and trades
JCT and bespoke subcontracts, payment terms, retention, and the adjudication clock once someone stops paying.
Software and agencies
Master service agreements, statements of work, IP assignment, and the exit clause nobody reads until they need it.
Farms, land and property
Farm business tenancies, agricultural tie properties, boundaries, and getting a succession plan on paper.
What we decline
Criminal work, family law, personal injury and immigration. We refer those to firms that do them every week.
Fees
Three fee models, the same three matters
Indicative figures for this concept site. The point is not which column wins — it is which one fits the shape of your matter, so each column also says where it is the wrong choice.
Fixed fee$1,450for a lease review A number agreed before we open the file, quoted per matter rather than per hour. | Hourly$340an hour, partner time Associates $260, paralegal time $145, recorded in six-minute units and itemised monthly. | Retainer$2,400a month, drawn down A monthly draw-down for businesses that send work regularly. Unused time rolls over for one month. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lease review, retail or office unit | $1,450 | $1,700–$2,600 | Included, up to 8 hours |
| Commercial dispute through mediation | $6,500 | $9,000–$14,000 | $4,500 a month, drawn down |
| Company formation and founder documents | $1,200 | $850–$1,400 | Included |
| Best when | The scope is knowable and you need a number you can budget against today | The matter is genuinely open-ended and you would rather we stop when it is done | Contracts, employment letters and landlord questions arrive often enough to plan for |
| The honest trade-off | If the scope grows we stop and re-quote, so a badly drafted contract can still cost more | The meter runs while we wait on the other side, and a hostile opponent can spend your money for you | You pay every month, including the quiet ones, so it only pays off above about six hours a month |
| Who carries the risk | Us. A matter that runs long is our problem, not a larger invoice | You, which is why we cap the estimate in writing wherever the matter allows | Shared. Below six hours a month you are buying availability you did not use |
| Ask for a fixed quote | Ask for an estimate | Ask about a retainer |
The team
The three people who do the work
Names, faces and what each one actually handles. No business-development partners and no rotating associates.
Frances Marsh
Managing partner · commercial disputes and contracts
Twenty-two years in commercial litigation, the last nine in mediation-led dispute work. Takes the matters that are likely to settle, and says so when one will not.
Daniel Hale
Partner · real estate, leasing and development
Acts for landlords and tenants on retail and office leases. Marks up a unit lease in five working days and will tell you which of the landlord’s terms are worth a fight.
Amara Okafor
Counsel · corporate, governance and compliance
Formations, shareholder agreements and the unglamorous paperwork that stops a founder argument turning into a dispute. Previously in-house at a logistics group.
Enquiries
Tell us what is actually going on
A paragraph is enough. We will say whether it is our kind of matter, what it is likely to cost and who would run it — before anyone opens a file.