Business Legal Services
Employment Contracts
Precise and legally compliant employment contracts drafted by experts that offer robust protection for your business.
Well drafted employment contracts across your team, from juniors and managers to executives and directors, will provide you with a clear framework when dealing with employment issues. Our employment contract lawyers will provide you with thoroughly drafted contracts, advise you on clauses that may need to be negotiated, and ensure that contracts complement other staff policies and procedures you may already have in place.
Experts in employment law
In addition to reviewing, editing and drafting employment contracts, our team can assist you across all areas of employment law, including:
Future-proofing your business with tailored employment contracts
Our team of employment law solicitors will support you with:
Creating bespoke employment contracts
Although standard contract templates may be an attractive option in the beginning, they often have the potential to cost you more at a later date when your business is not properly protected. We understand that one size does not fit all, which is why we’ll get to know your requirements, and adapt the terms accordingly to effectively minimise risk and reflect your business requirements
Reviewing and updating your employment contracts
Not keeping your contracts of employment and other staff policies and procedures up to date could be costly in respect of potential employment claims. We can inform you of upcoming changes to employment law which might impact your documents, advising you on how to update them to best comply and protect your business.
Restrictive covenants
We’ll ensure you have relevant post-termination clauses as part of your contracts of employment to prevent anti-competitive behaviour once an employee has left the business. This might include, non-compete clauses, non-solicitation clauses and non-poaching clauses, for example. By including restrictive covenants at the outset of a relationship, both parties will have a clear picture of what exactly is restricted, and for how long, so that sensitive business information, existing client base and current workforce is protected, no matter what happens down the line.
Employees’ duty of confidentiality clauses
We’ll put enforceable confidentiality restrictions in place to prevent an employee from using your company’s confidential information in any way that could damage your business. A clear-cut clause stating what sensitive information the employee cannot disclose will help reduce the risk and stress of any potential breaches of employee confidentiality arising in the future.
Protection of your intellectual property or trade secrets
Any intellectual property created for a business is usually automatically assigned in the company itself, even if it’s created by an employee. But this is not the case for casual workers or freelancers for example. We can review or create such contracts for you so that you know your IP assets are robustly protected, and that any intellectual property created by non-employees is assigned to the company as part of their contract conditions.
Bespoke directors or directors’ service agreements
Detailed provisions are likely to be required in order to set expectations for the more complex role of a director. If required, we can help you put together a director’s service agreement, so that the elements of a director’s role can be clearly established, and boundaries met, just in case a disagreement arises at a later date.
Other employment policies and procedures or staff handbooks
As your team grows, so too does the requirement for more detailed policies and procedures that help set expectations for your employees and keep you compliant. We’ll help you set standards for your employees with professionally drafted policy documents and staff handbooks.
Why seek help from our experienced employment contract solicitors?
Save time and money
Reduce time spent on trying to draft and update employment contracts yourself when you could be concentrating on running your business. In employment law, change can be fast paced. Failing to update a contract or getting things wrong subject you to risk and could be costly later down the line. We’ll advise you on your business’ employment contracts in a timely manner to ensure you have the correct foundations in place to protect your business.
Specific expertise
Working with one of our employment contract lawyers will provide you with confidence – rest assured that the contract will be robust and adapted for your specific requirements. Unlike downloading a standardised template from the internet, an employment contract created by us will include terms that are tailored to your business and help you protect what is most vital to it, whether that’s aspects of IP or the business as a whole by drafting restrictive covenants regarding staff exiting your business.
Clarity and understanding
We have drafted employment contracts for a wide range of employers, each with their own varying needs, but what each contract has in common is that they are comprehensive, yet succinct and in plain English. Plus, our service doesn’t just stop at drafting a contract. We’ll make sure you’re confident in how to correctly apply and explain the clauses to your staff, supported by practical training to help you communicate and implement them effectively across your organisation.
Who we help: Employers with growing teams across the UK
At Harper James Solicitors, we champion ambitious businesses, and are able to support them at each stage of their development. So as your team starts to grow and you need to get your HR policies off the ground, we’ll be there to support you, getting to know your requirements and aligning your employment documents with your longer term, commercial goals. By plugging any gaps in your legal knowledge or supporting you where you don’t yet have the resource, we can help you successfully build your team. We’ll help you put the legal fundamentals in place so that you know, right from the off, that you’re compliant with current legislation and not putting your business at risk.
Why choose Harper James Solicitors?
We have an experienced employment team who are well versed in dealing with contentious and non-contentious matters before, during, at the end of and after employment. While we take a proactive approach to protecting our clients, our team are also particularly skilled at understanding and dealing with complex legal situations promptly and providing advice in a friendly and down to earth way. Our lawyers also have particular expertise in dealing with TUPE transfers, employment matters linked to sales and acquisitions of companies, collective redundancies, and large-scale restructures. Find out more about the team here:
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.