Commercial and corporate law

We provide commercially astute advice to our clients setting out the risks and obligations in contracts and agreements. We can advise you throughout the negotiation process to help achieve a position that better reflects your objectives and business needs.

It is important to start new customer relationships on the right terms. Using generic or outdated trading terms scraped from the internet can cause problems if they are too one-sided or do not provide sufficient protection for your business – often leading to drawn-out negotiations with the customer when ideally, you just want to get down to business. They may also be illegal under the recently expended unfair contracts terms regime. We draft trading terms that are relevant to our client’s businesses, ensuring they are appropriate protections and meet their business needs.

We assist clients in drafting agreements that reflect their specific business and industry to better protect their position and help them manage risks appropriately.

We have worked with clients across a range of industries and understand that one size does not fit all. That’s why we take time to sit down with our clients and identify what really matters. We prepare trading terms that reflect the realities, risks and opportunities their business presents.

Often company founders provide personal loans to assist the business to launch and grow.

Alternatively, there may be a special event that requires an injection of funds to make things happen.

We prepare loan agreements for clients large and small, to reflect the circumstances of the financing arrangement and accurately record the terms of the loan, including appropriate safeguards for the parties.

Setting the terms of use and privacy implications of using your website or e-commerce site doesn’t just make practical sense, it gives customers confidence that you are the ‘real deal’.

We draft website terms and conditions, privacy policies and related policies (eg shipping, retains, complaints, warranties etc) for businesses large and small – all tailored to the specific needs of the business – whether that be public facing or strictly B2B.

Don’t be caught out using the generic terms and policies of your web hosting services (or worse still – copied from the internet). Be confident that your website terms and privacy policies are compliant with Australian law and if required, international obligations, such as the GDPR.

Trade marks, designs, copyright, trade secrets, confidentiality, misleading and deceptive conduct, passing off, infringement and enforcement are all important factors for modern businesses which require professional advice.

We are experienced intellectual property lawyers and registered trade mark attorneys who can advise you on your IP law strategy and progress the necessary registrations, licences, assignments and enforcement actions.

We assist clients with drafting and reviewing licences and agreements for information technology services and related matters.

Our services include:

• SaaS agreements
• IT licence agreements
•  Website terms and privacy policies
• Online payment terms and compliance
• Data breach response and notification plans
• Consultancy and contractor agreements
• Resolving disputes
• Intellectual property law and privacy law issues and compliance

We prepare employment agreements and related policies for clients across a wide range of industries.

We also advise employers on employment-related matters, including:

• Disciplinary matters
• Termination
• Redundancy
• Superannuation
• Long service leave
• Executive service agreements and director deeds of indemnity
• Disputes, including unfair dismissal

We have extensive experience acting for landlords and tenants (separately) in leasing matters, including drafting or reviewing new leases, assisting with renewal and variation of a lease, transfer of lease and disputes.

Unfortunately, from time to time disputes occur that can be disruptive to completing a contract and running your business.

We aim to assist our clients to resolve disputes promptly and amicably without the need for litigation. However, when litigation cannot be avoided, we assist clients with practical and cost-effective legal solutions.

We assist clients with the financial assistance whitewash process by providing advice and preparing the requisite financial assistance forms and formalities documents.

We advise parties as borrowers or guarantors regarding the risks, responsibilities and obligations in obtaining finance.

A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) generally sets out the purpose and conditions around sharing confidential information and may include intellectual property, trade secrets, client data, financial information and other commercially sensitive information.

Confidentiality agreements are typically used in employment and personal settings to protect the parties’ sensitive information.

We promptly assist clients with drafting or reviewing NDAs and confidentiality agreements to help create new opportunities or resolve sensitive matters, as the case may be.

We draft and advise clients regarding shareholder agreements that govern the relationship between the shareholders and set out who controls the company. It provides a framework for managing future legal risks in a company and sets out the roles, responsibilities and processes relating to shareholders and their decision-making processes.

A unitholder agreement is a contract between the unitholders of a unit trust and the trustee and sets out the terms of how the trust is managed.

We carefully tailor shareholder and unitholder agreements to the needs of the specific company/ unit trust to help protect shareholders/ unitholders and assist in avoiding misunderstandings and disputes.

We prepare legally binding share and unit sale agreements to set out the commercial terms and conditions of the sale and the rights and obligations of the parties throughout the transaction, including the preparation of the requisite formality documents.

We also assist our clients with business sale and asset sale matters from the initial negotiations through to settlement.