Terms of Service and Engagement

Lawyerly Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales (company number 15697410), with its registered office at 3rd Floor, 45 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4JL. Our VAT number is 474138972 and we trade as Lawyerly.

We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority as a licensed body (SRA number 8010987). We are subject to the SRA Standards and Regulations, available at sra.org.uk.

Our client is the business that signs up, whether a company, partnership, limited liability partnership or sole trader acting for the purposes of its business.

If you instruct us before your company is set up, you do so for the purposes of the business you are starting, and the company becomes our client once it is formed. Until then, the person who instructed us is responsible for our fees.

Directors, shareholders and staff are not our clients personally, even when they instruct us for the business. Where the business asks us to, for example by board resolution, and there is no conflict, we may also advise a director or shareholder on a matter connected with the business. We will confirm this in writing before we start. If someone's own interests differ from the business's, for example on a personal guarantee, we will point this out so that they can take their own advice.

The person who signs up becomes your key representative and confirms that they have authority to bind the business. We may act on their instructions, and on the instructions of anyone they authorise in the Client Hub. Please control who has access to your Client Hub account, and notify us promptly of any change to your key representative or authorised users.

Our agreement with you is made up of your plan details in the Client Hub, or a fixed-fee quote for work outside your subscription, together with the Plan Schedule and these terms. Where they differ, they apply in that order. Our Privacy Notice and Complaints Policy explain how we handle your personal data and any complaint.

You accept these terms when you complete checkout, when you accept a fixed-fee quote, or when you ask us to carry on with work after receiving them. Words with a particular meaning are explained under Words we use, at the end.

Our plans are designed around the stage and size of a business. We agree the right plan with you when you join, and the Plan Schedule sets out what it covers.

Your plan covers the company that signed up. We may agree to extend it to your holding company or subsidiaries. Each must complete our identity and conflict checks before we act for it and, by instructing us, agrees to be bound by these terms. Where we extend your plan, we will quote you a price for the group before we act. Where two of your companies are on opposite sides of an agreement, we act for both only where the SRA's conflict rules allow it and both agree in writing.

If the information you gave us about your business turns out to have been materially incorrect, we may move you to the appropriate plan and charge the difference from the start of your current term.

Your plan starts when you complete checkout and runs for 12 months, or a longer term where agreed in writing.

A plan cannot be cancelled part way through a term, except under our money-back guarantee below or if we seriously breach these terms, as explained under Ending our engagement. Monthly payments are instalments of a fixed term rather than a rolling monthly contract, so all instalments for the term remain payable.

Our 30-day money-back guarantee lets you end your plan within 30 days of completing checkout for a full refund of the subscription fee you have paid, provided we have not yet delivered any formal work to you. Advice you have received in that time does not affect the guarantee. To claim, simply email support@lawyerly.co. The guarantee applies to your first plan only and does not restart when you move up.

We reserve our time for you for the whole term. If your plan ends early, the fees for the rest of the term therefore become payable straight away. This applies if you stop paying, if we end our services for a reason set out under Ending our engagement, or if you close or sell your business.

If you sell your business, we may instead agree to transfer your plan to the buyer, once the buyer has completed our identity and conflict checks. On a longer term, you may instead pay the full price for the current 12 months and repay any discount you received for the longer term.

At the end of its term, your plan renews automatically for a further 12 months. A longer term also renews for 12 months, at the standard price, unless we agree another longer term with you. We will send you a reminder notification before your renewal date.

If you do not wish your plan to renew, please email support@lawyerly.co before your renewal date.

The Plan Schedule in force at the start of your term applies throughout that term.

Your subscription fee increases by 5% on each renewal date.

If we intend to reduce what your plan covers, or to increase your fee by more than 5%, we will notify you in writing before your renewal date. You may then stop your plan renewing by emailing us before that date.

Our Launch plan is designed for start-ups and is available for 12 months only. At the end of that term, your plan moves to Accelerate, with the step-up discount for the first year.

On our other plans, if your business has outgrown its plan, we may recommend a higher plan and will notify you before your renewal date. You remain free not to renew. On a longer term, we review your plan each year and, if your business has outgrown it, you move to the higher plan and keep your longer-term discount.

You may ask to move to a higher or lower plan at any time. We will review the change with you and agree a new term on the new plan. Payments for your previous plan then stop, any unused part of an annual payment is credited against the new plan, and the discounts in clause 5.3 apply.

Our fees

Our fees are your subscription fee and any fixed fees you accept for work outside your subscription. Your subscription fee is the price shown at checkout and in your plan details in the Client Hub. VAT is added at the applicable rate.

Payment

Subscription fees are collected automatically through Stripe, monthly or annually as you chose at checkout. Fixed fees are payable in full before work begins, by card, payment link or bank transfer. We issue an invoice at or before each payment, and we do not accept cash.

Subscription discounts

We offer a step-up discount of 20% for the first 12 months after you move up to a higher plan, including the move from Launch to Accelerate. We also offer an annual discount of 10% when you pay for a 12-month term in advance. Where we agree a longer term, any discount for it is set out in your plan details. Only one discount applies at a time, and you always receive the largest you qualify for.

Fixed-fee work

For work outside your subscription, we agree the scope with you and send a fixed-fee quote before we start, and we begin only once you have accepted it. Your plan's discount on fixed fees, set out in the Plan Schedule, is given in addition to any subscription discount.

Disbursements

Disbursements are payable by you at cost and are not discounted. We will let you know what a disbursement is likely to be before incurring it and, where possible, you will pay the third party directly.

Money held for you

Where money needs to be held for you, such as completion monies or a deposit, it is held in a third-party managed account, as permitted by the SRA Accounts Rules, rather than in an account of ours. Money is paid in and out only on your instructions. Any interest is dealt with under the account provider's terms, and we do not keep any of it.

Late payment

If a payment fails, we may try again. If a payment remains unpaid for 30 days, we may pause work until it is paid. Overdue amounts carry interest at 4% a year above the Bank of England base rate, calculated daily.

Questions about a bill

If you have a concern about an invoice, please raise it with us promptly under our Complaints Policy. You may also have the right to ask the court to assess our bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. Time limits apply.

Identity and conflict checks

The law requires us to verify your business, its owners and controllers, and the people who instruct us, which we do through the Client Hub. We also check for conflicts of interest before acting. We may act for businesses that compete with yours, provided there is no conflict and your confidentiality is protected. We cannot begin work until both checks are complete and, if either means we cannot act for you, we will refund what you have paid in full. If a conflict arises later, we may need to stop acting on that matter.

Each piece of work

When you instruct us on a piece of work, we confirm in the Client Hub what we will do, the next steps and the expected timescale.

Who does the work

Your work is carried out by our legal team, who are competent in the relevant area of English law, and all legal work is supervised within the firm. You will always know the name and status of the person handling your work.

Use of AI

We use AI tools for research, drafting, summarising, document review and administration. We check any substantive work prepared with AI before it is sent to you, and we remain responsible for our advice and work. Our AI providers are listed at lawyerly.co/processors and in our Privacy Notice.

Timescales and order of work

We aim to respond promptly and to meet the timescale we confirm for each piece of work. That timescale runs from when we have everything we need to begin, and is paused while we are waiting for information or instructions from you. If several requests arrive together, we deal with them one after another, in an order agreed with you.

Communication

The Client Hub is our main channel for instructions, documents and updates, and some approvals need to be given there. We also use email, telephone and video calls. Please bear in mind that email is not completely secure. If you need us to communicate in another way, for example because of a disability, just ask.

Completing work

A piece of work is complete once we have delivered it, or once we have been waiting on you for a reasonable time and have let you know we are closing it. If you come back to it during your term, we will pick it up again.

Scope of our legal services

Our legal services cover the law of England and Wales. We do not give tax, accounting or financial advice, or advice on the law of other countries, and we will recommend a specialist where you need one. Once a piece of work is complete, we do not update it for later changes in the law unless you ask us to, and we are not responsible for changes made to our documents by you or others after we deliver them.

We ask you to give us clear instructions and information that is accurate, complete and up to date, and to respond to our questions, review drafts and make decisions promptly.

We rely on the information and instructions you give us, and we are not responsible for loss caused by information that is inaccurate, incomplete or late.

We hold professional indemnity insurance of £3,000,000 for each claim, and our total liability to you for any one matter, or for connected matters arising from the same cause, is limited to that amount. It will never be less than the minimum the SRA requires. Details of our insurance are available on request from support@lawyerly.co.

As an SRA-regulated firm, our clients may also be eligible to apply to the SRA Compensation Fund in some circumstances, such as dishonesty or a failure to account for money held.

We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, opportunity, goodwill, anticipated savings or data. Nor are we liable for the acts of third parties such as other advisers, registries, payment providers and suppliers, for events beyond our reasonable control, for loss caused by your not taking specialist advice we recommended, or for anything we do to comply with our anti-money laundering and financial crime duties.

Where another adviser is also responsible for a loss, our liability is limited to our just and equitable share.

Our directors, employees and consultants have no personal liability to you, and any claim must be brought against Lawyerly Ltd.

We do not accept liability for claims brought under the laws of the United States or Canada.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.

We keep your information confidential. We share it only where we need to in order to provide our services, including with the third parties and providers we use, where the law or a regulator requires it, with the SRA, the Legal Ombudsman or our auditors, with our insurers if a concern arises, or with your agreement.

We are the controller of the personal data we process. Our Privacy Notice explains how we use it, who we share it with, any transfers outside the UK and how long we keep it. If you share personal data about other people with us, please make sure you are entitled to do so.

Our advice is for you alone, and others may not rely on it without our written consent. Sharing it may also waive legal privilege, so please speak to us first.

You may use the documents we prepare for you in your own business, during your plan and after it ends. Our templates, precedents, tools, workflows and know-how remain ours, so please do not resell our documents or distribute them for unrelated use without our written consent.

Documents and information you give us remain yours. You allow us to use them as needed to carry out your work.

You may stop your plan renewing by emailing us before your renewal date, in which case it continues until the end of the current term.

You may end our engagement by written notice if we seriously breach these terms and do not put it right within 14 days of receiving your notice. No further instalments will be due, and we will refund any subscription fee you have paid in advance for the rest of the term.

We may pause or end our services, immediately or on reasonable notice, if you do not complete the required checks, do not provide information or approvals we need, materially breach these terms, give us false or materially incomplete information, do not pay when due, become insolvent or behave abusively towards our team, or if continuing to act would breach our legal, professional or regulatory duties.

Work in progress at the end of your term, or when our engagement ends, stops unless we agree in writing to finish it. Before closing your file, we will do our best to warn you of any urgent deadline or risk we are aware of. After that, we have no further responsibility, and you will need another adviser for any further work. You will continue to have access to completed work and billing records for a reasonable period.

We keep files for seven years after closure and then destroy them securely. The parts of these terms on payment, confidentiality, liability, intellectual property, complaints and governing law continue to apply after our engagement ends.

If you are unhappy with our service or an invoice, please let us know by emailing support@lawyerly.co, marked for the attention of our Legal Service Director. Our Complaints Policy explains how we deal with complaints, and we aim to resolve every complaint within eight weeks.

If you are not satisfied with our final response, or eight weeks have passed, you may be able to complain to the Legal Ombudsman. Eligible complainants include individuals and small businesses with fewer than ten employees and a turnover or balance sheet total of no more than €2 million. You should normally complain within six months of our final response, and within one year of the problem or of when you should reasonably have known of it. The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted at PO Box 6167, Slough SL1 0EH, on 0300 555 0333, at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk or at www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

Concerns about our conduct, such as dishonesty or unfair treatment, may be raised with the Solicitors Regulation Authority at www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems.

Referrals and third parties

We may refer you to barristers, litigators, patent attorneys, accountants or other specialists. Where we engage a third party for you, we do so as your agent and you contract with them on their terms. Where someone introduces you to us, we may pay them a referral fee or other benefit. We will inform you in writing of any referral fee or other interest in a referral, whether to or from us, and it will never increase your cost.

Notices

We send notices to the email address of your key representative in the Client Hub, and you send notices to support@lawyerly.co. An email notice is treated as received on the next working day after it is sent.

Changes to these terms

Changes required by law take effect on notice. Other changes take effect at your next renewal, with at least 30 days' written notice, and if you do not agree with them you may stop your plan renewing. Fixed-fee work is governed by the terms in force when you accept the quote.

Assignment

We may assign or subcontract our rights where this does not materially reduce your protection. You may not do so without our written consent.

Other terms

Only you and we can enforce these terms. Others who see or rely on our work, including any group company we have not agreed to act for, cannot. The one exception is our directors, employees and consultants, who may rely on clause 8.5. If any part of these terms is found to be invalid, the rest remains in force. Not enforcing a right does not mean we have waived it. These documents form our entire agreement.

Law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

Contact

You can reach us at support@lawyerly.co, on 0203 442 8479, or by post at 3rd Floor, 45 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4JL.