How can we help?
To access legal support from just £149 per hour arrange your no-obligation initial consultation to discuss your business requirements.
We offer a wide range of legal services for businesses of all sizes, with pricing plans designed for start-up, small and venture-backed businesses and medium to large businesses.
We advise businesses, entrepreneurs, investors and educational establishments on all aspects of UK immigration law, from recruiting overseas staff to ensuring ongoing compliance obligations are being met with the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI).
We understand your world and are on-hand to equip you with practical, real-world advice, so you can tackle obstacles, seize competitive advantages, and move forward with confidence. Whether it’s scaling your business, managing teams, or navigating new legal terrain, our support can help you unlock your organisation’s full potential.
See how our expert team help leaders like you navigate risk, scale operations, and strengthen commercial relationships.
As a CFO, you’re often the de facto legal lead but this can eat into your time and energy. Let us help you manage your legal requirements, handle compliance, and drive sustainable growth.
Focus on leading your business with confidence. From governance to commercial growth, our expert legal support empowers founders to make informed decisions and drive success.
Employment law is constantly changing – don’t let your business fall behind. Let us help you stay compliant, reduce risk, and protect your workforce.
We act as an extension of your team, picking up overflow work and providing specialist expertise, helping free up your time and elevate your impact.
We’ve reimagined the way law firms work with businesses to put you in control.
We offer three ways of working together to suit your needs, and thanks to our clever use of technology and remote operating model, they all deliver partner-level expertise with significant savings on ‘city’ law firm prices.
Our Engage plan gives you flexible access to our experienced solicitors, with no fixed monthly cost and low hourly rates, typically £298 per hour. Whatever legal assistance you need, we can support you, and the cost of using our experienced solicitors will provide a significant saving compared to those associated with traditional law firms.
Our Enable plan is a 12-month subscription, costing £219 per month. Included in the subscription is £149 of credit each month, plus access to our Standard Rates at 50% discount, providing consistently great savings on each project we assist you with.
Our Extend plan is a smarter way for high-growth and established businesses to get legal advice. A legal subscription service with dedicated account management, it gives you priority access to a curated team of highly experienced solicitors, whenever you need them, at a budget set by you.
Solve common issues with our suite of fixed fee products, giving you clarity on costs and deliverables.
Harper James is a new breed of commercial law firm – a national law firm designed exclusively to champion ambitious and entrepreneurial businesses, enabling them to access expert legal advice at an affordable cost when they need it most. We work with start-ups through to established businesses that have been running for years or looking to scale, futurecorns and unicorns as well as those ready to sell and often build their next business.
Work with like-minded individuals and free from the bureaucracy of traditional law firms in a truly flexible workplace. We offer career opportunities for solicitors and business support professionals that meet your needs and evolve as you evolve.
Our solicitors are well-positioned to provide commentary on all manner of commercial legal issue and regularly contribute to both national, sector and industry press.
The latest news and insights from Harper James including our ‘Meet the client’ interview series, case studies, legal updates, events and webinars, podcasts, videos and spotlights on our solicitors.
Examples of some of the exciting work and waves our clients are making as well as in-depth client interviews and stories.
Providing practical insights and Q&A opportunities based on common legal challenges.
Watch and listen to our latest podcasts and videos featuring client and Harper James interviews and stories.
Our free resource designed to help your business overcome challenges and realise its potential. Written by lawyers and business experts, these resources will help you decipher legal terminology and tackle key milestones from securing funding and growing your team, to protecting your ideas and expanding to new markets.
Please leave us your details and we’ll contact you to discuss your situation and legal requirements. There’s no charge for your consultation, and no obligation to instruct us. We aim to respond to all messages received within 24 hours.
Careful planning and expert legal advice are essential to ensure your employee share scheme aligns with your company’s commercial objectives, adapts to future changes in the business and workforce, maximises available tax efficiencies and reliefs, minimises tax risks and safeguards the company and its shareholders.
Incentives that give staff and service providers a real stake in the company they’re working to build offers tangible benefits to both growing and established businesses. Our team can design and create a bespoke share scheme tailored to align seamlessly with your business goals.
As experts in employee share schemes, we have the skills and experience to help you design a share scheme that works for your company, whether for employees, non-executive directors, or, where appropriate, contractors.
We can create a range of share schemes tailored to your needs, with EMI schemes being the most popular option due to their tax efficiency and flexibility.
Share scheme awards granted at an early stage are often the most tax-efficient, and for start-ups and growth companies, these awards can become highly valuable in the future, such as during an exit or investment round. Getting the structure right from the start is essential to maximise benefits and ensure long-term success.
Our team can support you with:
Designing a share plan that meets the company’s commercial objectives
Advising on how your company’s constitution may need to be adapted to facilitate the incentive strategy and protect the company and shareholders in the short-, medium- and long-term
Assisting with The Board level and shareholder level steps needed to put your plan in place
Advising on any regulations that relate to the employee share scheme plan
Drafting equity plan documents and template and/or individual award agreements
Advising on any employment law aspects of introducing and operating an employee share schemes plan
Obtaining any necessary clearances from HMRC and/or drafting share valuation submissions
Mitigating potential dilution and other impacts for founders, investors and other stakeholders
Advising on Directors’ remuneration and other corporate governance issues
We can also help you navigate complex employment tax rules related to equity awards, ensuring compliance and timely tax reporting to HMRC, avoiding penalties and interest. Our support extends to managing the tax implications of changes to employee share rights, employee exits, and equity sales during corporate events. Additionally, we can help structure employee rewards tax-efficiently to maximise financial gains and reduce employer National Insurance costs, which will rise to 15% in April 2025.
Senior leaders of ambitious businesses often tell us that attracting and retaining top talent during periods of scaling is one of their biggest challenges. Balancing the priorities of founders, investors, and employees, all while safeguarding cash flow and protecting working capital, is especially critical when implementing an employee share scheme.
That’s why they turn to us. We have the expertise to strike the right balance, creating an employee share scheme that aligns with your business strategy both now and in the future.
We also work with consultants to ensure that their interests are aligned with the business, helping you extend the benefits of your share scheme to key external contributors.
Making informed decisions
We can assist your company with both HMRC tax-advantaged schemes and non-tax advantaged schemes.
We’ll guide you through tax-advantaged mechanisms such as EMI, CSOP, SAYE, SIP, and EOT, including assessing your eligibility, obtaining HMRC share valuation agreements, drafting incentive plan documents, and managing your dealings with HMRC.
For non-tax advantaged schemes, such as ordinary and preferred share structures, employee share classes, growth shares, share options, RSUs, SARs, and phantom share schemes, we offer tailored advice to help you design and implement plans that align with your objectives. While these schemes don’t need to meet HMRC’s strict legal requirements, careful structuring is essential to maximise tax benefits and limit tax risks. Our lawyers can help with everything from determining the right approach to structuring, setting up, and administering your scheme effectively.
Our clients have confidence in our services because we offer bespoke solutions rather than generic, one-size-fits-all approaches. For further reassurance that you’re making the right choice, hear directly from our clients about their positive experiences with us.
Meet our team
At the heart of our work is a commitment to helping businesses tackle challenges and grow. We can leverage the expertise of our colleagues in employment, business immigration, and corporate law to provide the legal backbone your business needs to succeed.
Many of us have not only worked for some of the most highly regarded law firms in the UK but have also served as in-house legal counsel or senior leaders in businesses. This diverse experience allows us to offer practical and insightful legal advice tailored to your needs.
Find out more about who you’ll be working with:
Pricing and service plans
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:
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.
Purpose built legal support for start-ups and smaller businesses
Monthly subscription plan for £219 per month, with £149 monthly credit and access to all legal services at 50% discount on our Standard Rates.
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 36% discount on our Standard Rates.
Please leave us your details and we’ll contact you to discuss your situation and legal requirements. There’s no charge for your initial consultation, and no-obligation to instruct us. We aim to respond to all messages received within 24 hours.
Your data will only be used by Harper James. We will never sell your data and promise to keep it secure. You can find further information in our Privacy Policy.
Our commercial lawyers are based in or close to major cities across the UK, providing expert legal advice to clients both locally and nationally.
We mainly work remotely, so we can work with you wherever you are. But we can arrange face-to-face meeting at our offices or a location of your choosing.
To access legal support from just £149 per hour arrange your no-obligation initial consultation to discuss your business requirements.