Terms of Business

Thank you for choosing to work with Pillar Advisory Ltd (Pillar). Together with your current order forms (each, an Order Form), this page sets out the terms on which we'll work together (together with the Order Form, the Terms). If there is any inconsistency between your Order Form and these terms, the Order Form will prevail.

1. Core Team

You're retaining Pillar as your legal team. You will be assigned at least one senior Pillar Team Lead, who will be assisted by other members of the team from time to time to make sure that you are always well served.
Pillar is on call for day-to-day issues and accountable for finding answers, even when they fall outside what we deliver ourselves. These are the things we will generally be able to deliver ourselves, as part of your retainer:
1. Commercial contracts - customers, suppliers, partners
2. Governance — board, shareholder, and company structure matters
3. Employment — hiring, firing and incentives
4. IP fundamentals - TM registration, IP licensing
5. Term-sheet review and fundraising preparation

2. Networked Approach

Sometimes, something falls outside what we do best or what we are regulated to do for you. When that happens, we don't hand you off. Instead, we offer to scope the work, find the right specialist, brief them, and manage them on your behalf.
Examples of work where we may leverage our networked approach to problem-solving include: complex restructurings, regulatory authorisation, large financings, multi-jurisdictional or local-law advice (outside the UK), litigation, immigration, patent registration, or M&A.
When you ask us to bring in another specialist, you will engage them directly and be responsible for paying their fees, and we will manage the engagement and make sure those fees are agreed with you in writing before they start.

3. Cost of Capacity

Each month, you pay a flat fee for a fixed amount of our capacity. No hourly billing, no surprise invoices. We track that as a simple running balance that we share with you. There's no separate onboarding fee. Getting to know your business happens inside your retainer from day one.
Occasionally you'll have a larger, one-off need - a full fundraising round, for example - that doesn't make sense to draw from your monthly capacity. We can handle this as a fixed project fee instead. We'll always scope and agree the fee with you in writing in an Order Form before we start.

Capacity that goes unused rolls forward for up to two months, so a quiet month doesn't cost you. We review your usage together every 3 months. If you're consistently needing more than your tier covers, we'll talk about moving you up a tier. You can move up a tier at any time, but you can only move down a tier with 30 days’ advance notice.

Tier	Core	Growth	Expansion
Capacity	Half day (4hrs) per week	Full day (8hrs) per week	6 full days (8hrs) per month
Monthly fee (excl. VAT)	£3,500	£6,000	£8,500

4. Billing

We invoice monthly in advance for your retainer fee. Project fees are invoiced as agreed in the relevant Order Form. Payment is due within 14 days of the invoice date.
With your prior consent, we will arrange to collect your fees via monthly direct debit on or around the first day of each month. You agree not to cancel a direct debit mandate in our favour without giving us at least 30 days' prior written notice and agreeing an alternative payment method with us.

5. Mutual Commitments

We'll perform our services with reasonable care and skill and in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. We will keep you properly informed of progress and aim to acknowledge everything you send us within one working day, even if the full answer takes longer. Any timelines we give you are estimates, made in good faith, and we'll tell you as soon as we think we won't meet one.
You agree to cooperate with us throughout this arrangement and to comply with all applicable laws and regulations. You agree to provide us with accurate information and to keep us informed of relevant developments to help us give you the best advice.
In order for us to comply with applicable money laundering and anti-terrorism legislation, we are required to obtain evidence of the identity of all our clients. You agree to provide us with the documents that we request to meet this obligation without delay.

6. Other Interests

We may work for or be involved in other businesses without asking your permission first, as long as doing so doesn't create a conflict of interest that we can’t appropriately resolve.

7. Termination

The initial term of this engagement is 2 months from the date of your first Order Form (the Initial Term). After the Initial Term, either of us can end this arrangement at any time by giving 30 days' written notice to the other.
Either of us can also end this arrangement immediately by written notice if the other:
1. commits a serious or repeated breach of these terms;
2. is dishonest, or acts in a way that seriously damages the other's reputation; or
3. becomes insolvent, or anything similar happens to them.
If you end our relationship partway through a month using the notice mechanism in (a), then you still owe the retainer fee for the month in which it ends. We won't invoice you for any month starting after the effective end date.

8. Data and Information

Building rich context about your business is one way in which Pillar can advise you better. Anything that you tell us about your business that isn't already public, we will keep confidential during our relationship and after it ends. We'll only use or share it: to do the work you've asked us to do; with your written permission; or if the law, a regulator, or a court requires it. We won't refer to you publicly or use your name or logo in any marketing or case study, without your permission.
We will comply with applicable data protection law in how we handle personal data connected with our work together and you agree to do the same. You understand and agree that, subject to the terms of any data processing agreement we have signed with you, if applicable, we may obtain, use, process and disclose personal data to enable us to perform this arrangement, and for other related purposes, including updating and enhancing client records, analysis for management purposes and statutory returns, and legal and regulatory compliance.
We may use generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to support certain aspects of our service delivery. AI generated content will always be checked to ensure that all information is accurate. We only use AI platforms that make commitments that customer data is not used for model training or shared with third parties, and we maintain strict controls to safeguard sensitive information.
We put appropriate technical and organisational measures in place to keep your data secure. If we act as a processor of your data, we won't bring in a sub-processor without your prior written consent. If you ask us to, we'll return or destroy anything confidential of yours that we hold, except where we're required to keep it by law, or under our own reasonable internal record-keeping policies.
We will retain for a period of no less than seven years any of our files concerning this arrangement (unless applicable law requires otherwise). At that time, we reserve the right to delete them without further notice.

9. Liability

Neither of us is liable to the other for indirect or consequential losses. Those include any loss or corruption of any data, database or software, and any loss of business, contracts or commercial opportunities.
Our total liability to you in any 12-month period is capped at three times the fees you've paid us in that period. Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or anything else the law doesn't allow us to limit.
We aim to ground all our advice in the rich context we build about your business and to be proactive in how we serve you. However, we will not be responsible for any failure to advise or comment on any matter that falls outside the scope of your specific instructions.
Pillar is a limited company. It is not authorised or regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). The people who advise you may be solicitors authorised and regulated by the SRA in their own individual capacity, but Pillar Advisory Ltd itself is not, and it isn't required to hold professional indemnity insurance that meets SRA requirements. This means you aren't entitled to make a claim on the SRA Compensation Fund in connection with this agreement. On request, we'll give you reasonable information about the insurance we do hold.
If you’re unhappy with our service, please tell us first because we want the chance to put it right. Where the person advising you is personally a solicitor authorised and regulated by the SRA, you're also entitled to complain to the Legal Ombudsman: by telephone on 0300 555 0333, or by email at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.

10. General

We may be required to amend these terms from time to time. If we do, then we will advise you of the proposed changes in advance. If we do not hear from you to the contrary within 10 days of that notification, the revised terms shall take effect from that point onwards.
No third party has the right to enforce or rely on any provision of these Terms under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
Notices should be sent by email to the addresses we usually use to communicate with one another, unless either of us advises otherwise in writing.
This agreement is governed by the law of England and Wales, and the English courts have exclusive jurisdiction over anything arising from it.