Our Fees

Prior to engaging us you will want to know about our charges. We are very happy to have a detailed discussion with you and to discuss ways in which costs can be managed but this section of our website is intended to give you a general outline.  We will always endeavour to keep your costs down

Legal Services

We do not charge for an initial consultation during which we will discuss the nature of your needs and the various legal and practical options that may be open to you.  We will advise whether we are able to take on the work, the likely costs and timescale involved.  If you decide to work with us you will receive written confirmation of the basis on which we will charge

We usually charge on a time spent basis. Our fees range from £220-£300 plus VAT at 20% per hour.  Most commercial clients should expect to pay £250+VAT per hour.  We may agree a higher fee for unusual complexity or accelerated or prioritised service.

Most of our work is very much bespoke and each case is very different so it is difficult to give a list of prices on a website however by way of guidance you should assume that a fairly standard employment or consultancy contract would take about 1-1.5 hours so around £250-375 +VAT.  A patent licence would depend on the number of parties, the complexity and the level of initial agreement between them but this might range from around 2 -5 hours so £500-1250 + VAT

We do not normally offer fixed price arrangements due to the variation in circumstances but are open to discussing this where the situation is reasonably predictable

In addition to our fees we charge for pre-agreed out of pocket expenses such as travel, and official fees such as those charged by Companies House for registering new companies or the Intellectual Property Office for registering trademarks.  These are charged at cost – we do not charge a mark up.  We do not usually charge for travelling time.

We generally bill at the end of each calendar month unless work has just started a few days before in which case we will carry it over to the end of the following month. Payment is due within 30 days. We do not require payment in advance.  Occasionally such as where we are working on an investment we will agree not to bill until the project is completed. We appreciate that sometimes, especially with start ups cash flow can be an issue so we may be able to offer extended payment terms.  Where this is desired it must be agreed up front and is available entirely at our discretion.

Mediation

Our fees will be agreed with the parties in advance and will depend on the number of parties, the volume of material that requires to be studied ahead of the mediation and the number of mediation days anticipated.  By way of guidance a typical commercial mediation has two parties, requires a half day’s preparation and one full (often quite long) day’s mediation.  The charge for this would £2000 +VAT.  Each additional half day’s preparation would be £500+VAT  and each additional day of mediation £1750 +VAT

Where neither of the parties can provide suitable accommodation for the mediation we will hire a meeting room at a neutral venue and organise refreshments.  These will be added at cost to our fee note.  The costs will be agreed with the parties in advance of booking.

The parties usually agree to split the mediation fees and expenses between them.  We will invoice on conclusion of the mediation whether or not settlement has been reached and payment is due within 30 days.

Notarial Services

Should you wish a document notarised we charge a base fee of £30 +VAT and then £20 +VAT per signature.