Solutions
Start-up Legal Advice
Building a business is demanding enough without having to navigate the legal side on your own.
At Arbor Law we work with founders and early-stage businesses to put the right legal foundations in place at every stage of growth. Many of our lawyers have worked in, or alongside, fast-growth start-ups and scale-ups, so we understand both the pressures and the priorities of building a business from the ground up.
That means advice that is practical, proportionate and genuinely useful: not over-engineered legal work that consumes more time and money than the situation warrants.
What you get when you instruct Arbor as a founder
A senior lawyer on the file from day one
You work directly with a senior lawyer who has done this kind of work at scale before, often inside a Magic Circle or City firm. No paralegal triage, no associate-and-partner ladder to climb to get a straight answer. The person on the call is the person on the file.
A bill you can defend to your board and your bank balance
Advice that fits the commercial decision, not just the legal one
Founders need to know what to do, not just what the law says. We will tell you which decisions need making now, which can wait, and where the actual risk sits. If a clause is standard and not worth negotiating, we will say so. If a clause could hurt you in eighteen months, we will say that too. We advise you on today, and protect you tomorrow.
Sector context already on the page
Many of our lawyers have worked in or alongside start-ups and scale-ups, so the context is already there. You will not be paying for someone to learn what a SAFE looks like or why your CAC matters.
A straight answer on whether you need this now
Some legal work is urgent, sometimes it’s not. Founders are routinely sold templates, schemes and structures they do not need yet. We will tell you on the first call what is worth doing now, what to revisit at the next funding round and what to leave alone entirely.
A working pattern that fits how a founding team actually operates
We sit alongside the founding team rather than around it. Where you want us to handle a piece of work end-to-end, we do that. Where you want to lead and use us for senior input on the points that matter, we do that too. We brief in plain English, by email or call, in the formats founders actually use, and we do not bill for thinking about whether to bill. The aim is the same either way: to take legal off your plate as a source of friction and put it back as a tool you can use.
The right legal support at the right stage
What makes the difference is access to legal advisers who understand the start-up context: who know which things need doing now, which can wait, and how to give clear, direct advice without burying you in complexity you do not need. Too often, founders either go without proper legal support in the early stages and leave gaps that surface later, or engage firms calibrated to much larger businesses, with costs and processes to match.
Arbor sits in a different place. We bring City-grade expertise to start-up and early-stage legal work, delivered in a way that is proportionate, accessible and focused on what the business needs at each stage. Our fixed-fee packages give you senior legal advice and the essential documents every growing business needs, with the certainty of knowing what you will pay before the work begins.
Our start-up legal packages
Founders' agreement
Great start-ups are built by people with a shared vision. Even the most aligned founding teams need a written agreement that sets out how the business will be run and what happens when things change. A founders’ agreement is one of the most important documents a new business can have, and one of the most commonly overlooked.
This package includes a consultation session with your founding team, together with a customised founders’ agreement covering shareholder rights and minority protections, vesting of shares and what happens if a founder departs, assignment of intellectual property to ensure the company properly owns what its founders create, and the governance arrangements that will guide how decisions are made as the business develops.
Get investor ready
Raising early-stage funding is a significant milestone. Investors will expect a suite of legal documents in good order before they commit, and being prepared on the legal side signals seriousness and reduces friction at a moment when momentum matters.
This package prepares the documentation you need to approach investors with confidence: shareholder agreements, articles of association, a deed of adherence, investor certification, board minutes and shareholder resolutions. A solid legal foundation for early-stage fundraising conversations.
Directors' service agreement
As your business takes on directors, properly drafted service agreements are both a legal requirement and a practical protection. A well-structured directors’ service agreement sets clear expectations, protects confidential information and gives you a sound basis for managing the relationship if it changes.
This package includes a consultation with a senior specialist employment lawyer and the creation of a tailored directors’ service agreement: duties and responsibilities, salary and benefits, limits on authority and conflicts of interest, confidentiality and non-competition provisions, and notice and termination arrangements, adapted to your business’ specific requirements.
Get employment ready
Bringing your first employees on board is an exciting milestone, and it brings legal responsibilities that need managing carefully from the outset. The right employment documentation, in place early, protects the business and sets clear expectations for everyone involved.
This package includes a consultation with a senior specialist employment lawyer, a discussion of the key employment issues relevant to your business, and the creation of a suite of customised employment documents: a template offer of employment letter, a template employment contract for general use and a staff handbook covering the key policies and procedures your business needs.
Independent contractors agreement
Getting a business off the ground often means bringing in individual contractors and consultants to fill gaps quickly. Without a clear written agreement, misunderstandings about fees, intellectual property, confidentiality and employment status can create problems disproportionate to the size of the engagement: the cost of an argument with a contractor is rarely the cost of the contract.
This package includes a consultation with a senior employment lawyer and the creation of a bespoke independent contractors agreement covering fees, intellectual property ownership, confidentiality and competitive activities, notice and termination, and employment status: contractor relationships clearly documented, your business protected.
EMI option scheme
As a start-up grows, retaining the people who have contributed to its success becomes increasingly important. An Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) option scheme gives employees the right to buy shares in the company in a tax-efficient way: aligning their interests with the business and providing a meaningful incentive to stay and contribute as it continues to develop.
This package covers the design and documentation of an EMI option scheme tailored to your business: a straightforward and cost-effective route to putting a share incentive arrangement in place.
Virtual General Counsel
For start-ups going through funding rounds or periods of rapid growth, our Virtual General Counsel service provides a more sustained form of legal support: a senior Arbor lawyer embedded in your business to provide ongoing advice, manage your legal needs across multiple areas and help you build the in-house legal capability your business will need as it scales.
This service is offered on a cost-effective fixed monthly fee.
Get in touch today
- +44 (0)20 7355 0540
- info@arbor.law
- 20 North Audley Street, London W1K 6WE
