01
Commercial disputes
Unpaid invoices, supply agreements that stopped being honoured, shareholder disagreements and contested terminations — assessed for merits and cost before anything is filed.
Independent practice · Commercial & employment
Careful advice before the dispute writes itself.
Linen Verge Legal advises founders, employers and property owners on the decisions that later become evidence — the contract clause, the disciplinary letter, the notice served a week too early. You get one solicitor on the file, start to finish.
Practice index
Five lanes of work, and what sits inside each.
If your question falls outside these areas we will say so at the first call and point you toward a practice that handles it. Declining early is better for you than learning an unfamiliar area at your expense.
02
Employment
Acting for employers through grievances, restructures and exits, and for senior individuals negotiating terms on the way in or out. Process errors are where most employment claims are won.
03
Contracts & commercial terms
Drafting and reviewing the documents a business signs repeatedly: supplier terms, service agreements, licences and the schedules people skip. Written plainly enough that your team can use them unaided.
04
Property & occupation
Commercial leases from heads of terms to completion, plus disputes about repair, service charge and dilapidations. Advice covers what the lease permits and what it will cost you to leave.
05
Regulatory & governance
Responding to regulator correspondence, reviewing internal policies before they are tested, and advising directors on their duties when a decision is contentious.
How a matter runs
Four stages, and what we need from you at each.
Most clients want to know what happens next and who is holding the file. This is the sequence every matter follows, whether it settles in a fortnight or runs a year.
Stage one
Intake call
A short conversation to establish what has happened, what deadline you are facing, and whether this practice is the right one for the matter.
You bring: the dates, and the names of anyone involved.
Stage two
Document review
We read the contract, correspondence or lease in full and write you a note setting out the position, the realistic options and the likely cost of each.
You bring: the signed documents and the full email thread.
Stage three
Agreed plan
You choose a route. Scope, sequence and fee basis go in writing before any further work starts, so nothing arrives as a surprise on the invoice.
You bring: a decision, and one internal point of contact.
Stage four
Resolution
Negotiation, drafting or proceedings, with a plain update at every material step and a closing note recording what to keep on file.
You bring: prompt instructions when a deadline moves.
Practitioner note
One solicitor, reading your file properly.
“Most of the expensive problems I see began as a document nobody wanted to read twice.”
I founded Linen Verge Legal after a decade in commercial and employment teams where the person you met at the pitch was rarely the person drafting your documents. Here the file stays with me. If it needs a barrister or a specialist, I tell you why, what it adds and what it costs before instructing anyone.
I work best with clients who want the unwelcome version of the advice early. That usually means telling you a claim is weak, that a clause you like will not survive challenge, or that settling now is cheaper than being right in eighteen months.
- Practice areasCommercial disputes, employment, commercial contracts, leases, regulatory correspondence.
- Working languagesEnglish and French, including document review.
- Meeting formatVideo or telephone by appointment; in-person for signing and hearings.
- Response standardEnquiries answered within one working day, with deadline matters flagged the same day.
Before we start, you will know the scope, the fee basis and who is doing the work. That agreement is written down and it does not move without your say.
Engagement models
Three ways to instruct this practice.
Which model suits you depends on whether you need an answer, ongoing cover, or someone to carry a dispute. Fees are agreed in writing before work begins in every case.
| Model | Suits you if | What is included | How it is agreed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed-scope review | You have one document or one decision and need a clear position on it. | Full read of the papers, a written note of options and risks, and a follow-up call to work through it. | A single fixed fee for a defined deliverable, quoted after the intake call. |
| Retained counsel | Your team raises legal questions monthly and you want them answered before they escalate. | An agreed block of advisory time each month, contract reviews, policy checks and priority response on deadlines. | A monthly retainer with a stated time allowance, reviewed every quarter. |
| Matter representation | A dispute, claim or transaction needs to be carried through to a conclusion. | Correspondence, negotiation, drafting, instructing counsel where needed, and conduct of proceedings. | Stage-by-stage estimates in writing, with your approval required before each new stage. |
Client questions
What people ask before they instruct.
What should I send with my first enquiry?
Send the key document — the contract, lease, letter or claim form —
along with the dates that matter and any deadline you have been given. You do not need to
organise the file first; a forwarded email thread is genuinely useful because the sequence
often matters more than the wording.
How quickly can a matter with a deadline be picked up?
Tell us the deadline in your first message and it is triaged the
same working day. Where a limitation date, tribunal deadline or notice period is close, we
will tell you immediately whether it can be met here or whether you should instruct
someone with capacity that week.
Will I be told what this is likely to cost?
Yes, in writing, before work starts. Fixed-scope work is quoted as a
single fee. Longer matters are estimated stage by stage, and we come back to you for
approval before moving into a new stage rather than continuing and explaining afterwards.
Do you act for both employers and employees?
Both, but never on opposite sides of the same facts, and never where
acting for you would conflict with an existing client. Conflicts are checked before we
accept instructions, which is one reason the intake call asks for the names of everyone
involved.
Is a case review the same as taking me on as a client?
No. The review is a paid, defined piece of work that ends with a
written note. Many clients stop there because the note answers the question. If you then
want representation, that is a separate engagement with its own scope and fee.
What happens to my documents and information?
Everything you send is treated as confidential and used only to
advise you on the matter you raised. Files are retained for the period required of a legal
practice and are not shared with third parties without your instruction, other than where
the law requires it.
Case review request
Tell us what happened, and when.
Six fields. It goes straight to the solicitor who will read it, and you will hear back with either a proposed review or a referral elsewhere.
- Read and triaged within one working day.
- Deadline matters are flagged and answered first.
- No fee is charged until scope is agreed in writing.