How can I help?

On this page, you’ll find information about the scope of the consultancy services I can provide, and some possible different engagement models and costs. Ultimately, I aim work in a way that is flexible, cost-effective, and highly-tailored to your business or organisation and your particular circumstances. So, please do drop me a line by email to chris@techgc.co.uk if you would be interested in having a chat and we can discuss!

If you are a junior to mid-level lawyer interested in the training, coaching, or mentoring that I can provide on an individual or small group basis, please visit my techgc.co.uk Academy page.

And visit my Training materials page for materials on subjects from contract drafting and contract review to GenAI prompt engineering for legal practice.

My expertise

Contracts. I can advise on and draft NDAs, supplier contracts, outsourcing contracts, customer contracts, collaboration agreements, terms of business, software licences, SaaS / PaaS / IaaS / XaaS agreements, agency and distribution agreements, and many other forms of contract… I can make sense of small print and advise on mitigating risk, both contractually and practically. I can prepare new templates for your business, review and advise on third-party contract terms, and negotiate contracts on your behalf. I can help you refine your customer engagement and supplier engagement models and documentation. I am a commercial lawyer by background; contracts are my bread and butter! If you need anything from a quick ‘red flag’ risk review of a proposed new contract, to a detailed review and assistance with negotiation, I can help.

Intellectual property. From brand protection and trade mark registration, to protecting confidential know-how and trade secrets, to patent licensing and technology licence agreements, I can help with both strategic and day-to-day matters relating to intellectual property.

Compliance. I can advise on data protection and other compliance and risk management issues affecting your organisation.

Training. I can develop and provide tailored training on all the above subjects, whether to individuals, teams, or whole organisations. For instance, perhaps you need to provide data protection training to the sales team, IP training to the R&D team, contracts training to the procurement team… but there are only so many hours in the day and days in the week and your ‘urgent’ to-do list is not getting any shorter. If so, drop me a line and I can discuss taking some things off your plate!

Fundraising readiness advice / M&A preparation and assistance. If you are a start-up or scale-up business planning your next investment round, I can help to get your business in the best possible shape from a contracts and compliance perspective. This can include auditing where you are and assisting with implementing recommendations - from drafting new policies to updating your standard contract templates. In addition, in relation to M&A activity, while I am not a corporate lawyer or M&A specialist and I would therefore not replace external corporate lawyers acting for you on such matters, I have been involved in many corporate projects and M&A transactions and working with you on a consultancy basis - as a commercial and IP specialist and an ‘in-house lawyer’ in approach and mindset - I can provide you with a cost-effective extra pair of hands to manage legal workflows and issues, to ensure transactions flow smoothly, and to ensure that external legal costs are controlled (e.g., by assisting with due diligence and disclosure related activities and by assisting you to manage external legal counsel effectively).

Engagement models

Ad hoc consultancy

Think of me as a legal ‘phone a friend’ on contracts and IP matters, able to have a quick chat about something or able to step in and help with a specific contract or project, a review of your customer and supplier engagement processes and documentation, or support for a new third-party collaboration. I can work with businesses who do not have in-house lawyers, and I can also support in-house legal teams on anything from strategic to practical legal matters. I can provide interim cover, cover internal absences, and provide support to in-house teams at times that are particularly busy. I can work on an hourly rate or on a fixed or capped fee basis, depending on the circumstances. Crucially, I will always be transparent on costs.

My fees for ad hoc consultancy work are as follows:

  • Hourly rate - £250 plus VAT. Where I work on an hourly rate, I always provide an upfront time estimate and then keep you regularly updated on time spent. I can work to a cap on a particular matter and not exceed that cap without further approval from you.

  • If providing interim support to cover in-house legal team absences, holidays, and so on, I can work on an hourly rate, half-day or day rate, or a weekly or monthly rate. Please get in touch if you need this kind of support and we can discuss your requirements.

  • Work that can be done on a fixed-fee basis:

    • Fixed-fee contract reviews. If you have been asked to sign a contract on a third-party’s terms, whether an NDA, a supplier contract, a customer contract, a collaboration agreement, or some other form of commercial contract, I can undertake a fixed-fee contract review according to the level of review you would like:

      • ‘Bronze’ review. Red flag review to highlight any substantial risks or deviations from standard market practice.

      • ‘Silver’ review. A ‘bronze’ review plus a summary of key terms and risks, with risk mitigation suggestions.

      • ‘Gold’ review. A ‘bronze’ plus ‘silver’ review plus a mark-up of the contract to reflect the suggested approach. The mark-up can be ‘light touch’, to address significant risks only, ‘middle-path’ to address significant risks and to update key terms where advisable to protect your key interests, or ‘detailed’ to optimise the whole contract.

    • Fixed-fee template contract and policy preparation. I can prepare up-to-date and streamlined template contracts for your business or organisation, ensuring they are appropriately tailored for you, such as: NDAs; terms of business (i.e., terms of sale); terms of purchase; supplier framework agreements; collaboration agreements; project agreements; agency agreements; distribution agreements; software licences; intellectual property licences; privacy policies; terms of website use; compliance statements (e.g., anti-bribery). Whatever the template contract or policy you need, I will discuss with you your requirements and approach to risk that you would like to take, and give a fixed-fee quote to prepare the template for you.

    • Fixed-fee project work. Where there is a project you need to be undertaken and it is possible for us to come up with a reasonably well-defined scope and timeline, it may well be possible for me to undertake the project on a weekly, monthly, or total fixed-fee basis; if that is an approach you would like to explore, let’s discuss.

Fixed number of hours per week or month

There are a number of scenarios where engaging me for a fixed number of hours per week can be valuable. For example, I can provide technical support and supervision, and pick up work to help with workload management, within my areas of expertise. Equally, I can be an ‘extra member of the in-house legal team’ for small, medium-sized, or large organisations where internal resources are stretched and budgets are tight.

For a fixed monthly fee I can provide a fixed number of hours per week or a fixed number of hours per month. The fee will be based on a discounted hourly rate, depending on the number of hours booked. Let’s have a chat about your requirements if this could be of interest!

Fixed number of days per week

For clients who wish to commit to a regular 1-2 days per week, I can work as a fractional General Counsel or simply an extra member of the in-house legal team, whether on a short-term, mid-term, or long-term basis, for a fixed monthly fee or day rate as follows:

  • 1 day (8 hours) per week - £3,950 (plus VAT) per calendar month or £850 (plus VAT) per day

  • 2 days (16 hours) per week - £6,950 (plus VAT) per calendar month or £795 (plus VAT) per day

Structuring my engagements this way, with a fixed price per calendar month or fixed day rate (as the client prefers), is straightforward and gives clients certainty for budgeting purposes.

In addition, a ‘day’ could be spread across two days if that would be preferable for you - i.e., ‘two days’ per week could be four mornings, four afternoons, or a mixture of these in a pattern that is mutually agreed.

And finally…

However you engage me, my aim is to work with you in a way that is cost-efficient and effective for you and your organisation, providing practical and strategic benefits to you in a way that is utterly transparent on costs. If you engage me for a fixed number of hours or days per week then you’ll never get less than that, and I’ll agree a mechanism and cost with you for any additional hours in advance - so you’ll never receive an unexpected invoice.

I will invoice you monthly in arrears in respect of work done, and that’s it. No other costs or charges. No shares or share options, so no equity dilution of your company. No PAYE, no employer’s NIC or pension contributions, no employee benefits. No expenses.

Ultimately, I strive to ensure that my approach is straightforward and flexible. The engagement models described above are not intended to be exhaustive, so if you have ideas about how you would like to engage me and what would work best for you, please drop me a line by email to chris@techgc.co.uk and let’s discuss!