Senior legal support for ambitious employers
Whether you need ongoing counsel, a one-off project, or expert input when something lands on your desk, I work the way you need me to.
The difference this makes
Underneath everything I do across employment, commercial and HR, the same outcome is what clients actually pay for:
Founders and CEOs get their time back. You stop being the bottleneck on contracts, exits, and people decisions. You get on with running your business.
Management gains confidence. Your managers and HR team stop hesitating on tricky people issues because they know they have senior, commercial advice on call. Decision-making speeds up.
Stress drops. Grievances, performance issues, sensitive exits, the things that disrupt your week get handled properly the first time.
Your team learns. I mentor your managers through the reasoning, not just the answer. Next time the same issue lands, they already know how to handle it so your reliance on legal advice goes down over time, not up.
Employment Law
Your people are your single biggest asset and, if mishandled, your biggest source of risk. I support founders, HR leaders and management teams through the full sweep of employment law issues, from day-one contracts to senior exits, restructures, and tribunal claims.
Where I help
Contracts and documentation. Employment contracts, consultant and contractor agreements, director service agreements, restrictive covenants, IP and confidentiality clauses, staff handbooks and policies.
Day-to-day advisory. Grievances, disciplinaries, performance management, sickness absence, family leave, flexible working, workplace investigations.
Difficult exits. Senior departures, settlement agreements, protected conversations, garden leave, post-termination restrictions and enforcement.
Restructures and change. Redundancy programmes, TUPE transfers, terms-and-conditions changes, collective consultation.
Disputes and tribunals. Pre-claim resolution, ACAS early conciliation, tribunal strategy, and working with chosen counsel where formal proceedings escalate.
Reward and incentives. Bonus and commission schemes, equity and option arrangements, long-term incentive plans.
General Commercial
The contracts that run your business — and the legal questions that come with launching, scaling, and selling. I cut through the legalese and give you robust, commercial agreements your team can actually use.
Where I help
Contracts. Customer and supplier agreements, terms of business, NDAs, services agreements, framework contracts, SaaS and technology contracts, partnership and reseller arrangements.
Negotiation support. Sitting alongside your team on key deals knowing where to push, where to concede, and what to walk away from.
Contract playbooks and process. Standardised templates, fall-back positions, and contract management tooling so your team can move fast without re-inventing the wheel each time.
Compliance and governance. GDPR and data protection, anti-bribery, modern slavery, board governance, policy frameworks, and risk registers - all proportionate to your stage.
Corporate and growth. Investment readiness, due diligence preparation, founder and shareholder arrangements, working alongside your corporate lawyers on transactions.
Legal health checks. A structured review of your contracts, policies and risk exposure telling you where the real gaps are, prioritised by what matters most.
HR Advisory
With a CIPD Level 7 qualification alongside my legal background, I bring a genuinely integrated view of legal and people strategy. I work both directly with leadership teams on people issues, and as a trusted legal sounding board for in-house HR teams and external HR consultants who want senior employment law input on call.
Where I help
Support for HR teams and consultants. Acting as your go-to employment law adviser so you can give your clients (or your business) a clear answer fast, with the legal angle covered.
Strategic people work. Reward strategy, performance frameworks, culture and conduct, succession planning, and equity and incentive design.
Manager training. Practical sessions on managing performance, handling difficult conversations, conducting investigations, and avoiding the common employment-law traps.
Mentoring. For early- and mid-career in-house lawyers and HR professionals navigating the transition into more senior, commercially-facing roles.
“Katie cuts through complexity, focuses on outcomes and delivers advice that balances legal risk with commercial reality. She has become a trusted advisor to my business and someone I would not hesitate to recommend.”
Kate, HR Consultant
How we work together
Three engagement models, designed around how you actually need to use me:
Retained: a set number of hours or days each month for ongoing advice and projects. Predictable cost, a partner who already knows your business, no minimum-engagement friction.
Project: defined scope with a defined fee suitable for restructures, investment rounds, contract refreshes, or any discrete piece of work.
Ad-hoc: expert input when you need it, no retainer required.
Let’s talk about your business
Tell me what's on your plate. A 30-minute call is usually enough to work out whether and how I can help.