Business Legal Services
Terms of Business
Create certainty and reduce litigation risk by tailoring your venture’s terms of business.
Putting in place considered, bespoke terms of business will not only reduce the risk of disputes and potential litigation but will also limit your liability, create certainty, and enhance your business’ reputation. Take advantage of these benefits by utilising our commercial contract specialists’ business acumen and technical knowledge.
Experts in commercial law
In addition to drafting, negotiating and reviewing terms of business, our team can assist you across all areas of commercial law, including:
Comprehensive, enforceable, bespoke terms of business
Our team of experienced commercial solicitors can support you with:
Advice on specific terms of business for your venture for your venture.
Amending or varying standardised terms of business for specific transactions or projects.
Compliance with any applicable generic or industry-specific legislation or regulations.
Dispute resolution in the event of disagreement with a third party.
Drafting standardised terms of business for use with third parties.
Enforceability of your terms of business.
Fairness of terms to reduce the risk of future disputes.
Harmonisation between terms of business and other commercial contracts, such as supply or distribution agreements.
Interpretation of terms of business for compliance purposes.
Negotiating specific amendments or variations required for particular transactions or projects.
Preventing substitution of third parties’ terms of business.
Reviewing terms of business provided by third parties and summarising key terms and obligations.
Suggesting relevant updates to your terms of business as your business evolves.
Ensure your terms of business work specifically for you
Having the correct terms of business in place is critical and investing in them at an early stage can save you time, money, and stress in the future. Standardising your terms of business and ensuring that they work for your specific venture creates certainty both for you and the third parties with who you are contracting. It also limits your liability, preserves cashflow and increases your business’ efficiency.
Businesses which recycle other organisations’ terms of business rather than creating their own, run the risk of entering into contracts which don’t adequately reflect their way of dealing, fail to provide proper protection or aren’t legally enforceable. Taking legal advice will eradicate these risks and result in terms of business which work for you and your venture.
Terms of business require careful consideration and may throw up unexpected questions or issues. Factors include:
- Product or service description
- Logistics and practicalities
- Boilerplate clauses
- Payment terms
- Termination events
- Liability limitations
- Guarantees, warranties and indemnities
- Intellectual property protections
- Confidentiality terms
- Assignment
- Implications of Brexit
What are the benefits of putting terms of business in place?
Protect your business
Future-proof your business from disputes and legal claims by including enforceable protections and limiting your liability in your terms of business.
Standardising your contracting terms
Ensure certainty across all your third-party contractual relationships by creating standard terms of business.
Increase business efficiencies
By having standard terms of business in place, your business can create streamlined and efficient processes which reflect those terms and minimises the risk of staff error.
Preserve cashflow
A clear payment process in your terms of business can assist with your cashflow. It will ensure that third parties do not take advantage of relaxed payment terms and reduce the risk of you having to expend cash, for example on materials, before payment.
Save time and money
Reduce management time and costs spent on collecting debts and dealing with future disputes by putting comprehensive written terms with third parties in place.
Build your reputation
Contracting on fair, reasonable, and professional terms of business will increase your reputation with third parties, a particularly important consideration for start-ups and new business relationships.
Clarity as to which terms of business apply
Uncertainty can arise as to which organisation’s terms of business apply and substitution by one party of their terms of business is possible. By understanding these risks and what you can do about them, your business is less likely to face unexpected liabilities and costs.
Ability to vary specific terms
On occasion, it may be beneficial to amend or vary specific terms for particular projects or in relation to certain third-party relationships. If done correctly, this can be a fairly simply process where standard terms of business are already in effect.
Who we help: Ambitious, high growth businesses
Harper James Solicitors is purpose-built to support ambitious businesses from start-up to scale up. As entrepreneurs ourselves, we understand that getting legal support is vital at each stage in your growth. But at the start when the purse strings are tight, it’s not always that easy. Our aim is to make is simple. By offering you a legal subscription plan, you can get the legal advice you need at a more affordable cost than traditional law firms and a continued relationship with our solicitors, so you have experts to hand as and when you need them.
Finding the right legal partner
Why work with Harper James
Choose a legal partner you can trust: we’ll help protect your goals, your business and your people so you can move forward with confidence and focus on growing your business.
Affordable, transparent and predictable pricing
Clear itemised invoices, subscription plans with up to 50% discount, and fixed fee products help you plan and manage legal spend – with no nasty surprises.
Proven track record and measurable results
We’ve supported over 8,000 businesses since 2014, with an ‘Excellent’ rating on Trustpilot and a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 60+ from monthly client surveys.
Straight-talking, responsive advice
We’re here to make things easier, not add complexity. That means fast response times, practical expert legal advice delivered in plain English, and dedicated client service and account management support.
Risk and compliance assured
We’re an SRA regulated firm, but more importantly, we build quality, data, and compliance best practice into everything we do.
Appointing a legal partner is a big decision. That’s why we’re open about our values, culture and model, so you can see what makes us tick. And because a productive partnership starts with understanding, we always begin with a conversation – listening to your goals, pressures and plans, then tailoring our support to fit.
Testimonials
What our clients say
Why choose Harper James Solicitors?
As a law firm for entrepreneurial businesses, we understand that each business is unique and that the risks it faces depends on its size, structure, industry, and objectives. Our commercial solicitors have the technical knowledge and business insight to understand your business and advise accordingly.
We can support you at all stages of your business’ lifecycle, from start-up to established national company, advising on the optimum terms of business for your venture and minimising the risks that your business may face. And because we understand that the legal support you require will not just end at producing terms of business, we can also provide you with integrated business legal services. Whether you require specialist intellectual property advice, corporate governance support, data protection audits or employment law guidance, we can help.
Plus, many of the team here at Harper James Solicitors has worked in-house at major international businesses or at partner level in top 100 firms, and you get to access their wealth of experience starting from just £159 per hour. Discover more about the commercial team here:
Top ranked SME focused firm
"Harper James is a one-stop shop for anything legal. It has excellent breadth, with experience on a large number of deals and multiple departments for different legal areas."
Chambers and Partners 2026
Pricing and service plans
Legal support designed
to fit your business needs
Our three transparent service plans are designed to give you the widest possible access to high-quality legal advice, whatever the size and nature of your business:
Engage
Flexible access to senior solicitors at highly competitive rates
An alternative to our subscription plans, offering access to full service legal expertise on a project-by-project basis.
Enable
Purpose built legal support for start-ups and smaller businesses
Monthly subscription plan for £239 per month, with £159 monthly credit and access to all legal services at 50% discount on our Standard Rates.
Extend
Comprehensive legal partnership for established businesses
Fully account managed and scalable annual subscription plan with support from a curated team of partners and senior solicitors, with up to 33% discount on our Standard Rates.
