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Commercial · Employment · Estates
Halbrook & Vance handles disputes and advisory work for owner-run companies, senior employees and families. Every matter is read by the lawyer who will run it.
Where we act
We take matters we can staff properly. If a question sits outside these lanes we will say so in the first conversation rather than after an engagement letter.
01
Contract failures, supplier and distribution breakdowns, shareholder disagreements and debt recovery for trading companies. We write the demand letter with the trial in mind, because the first three pages of a dispute usually decide how the last three months go.
02
Exits, restructures and disciplinary processes, acting for employers on one side and senior employees on the other — never both in the same sector at the same time. Restrictive covenant advice is handled before a resignation letter goes in, not after.
03
Wills, estate administration and contested succession, including business interests that have to keep trading while an estate is settled. Family matters are slow by nature; we keep the correspondence short and the timeline written down.
04
Drafting and review for companies without in-house counsel: terms of trade, service agreements, leases and partnership documents. Available as single pieces of work or as a retained arrangement with an agreed monthly allowance of hours.
How we work
So we front-load the decisions. After the first review you receive a written assessment: the strong points, the weak ones, the realistic range of outcomes, and what the next stage will cost. You choose the route from there, and we revisit that assessment whenever the facts move.
You will always know which lawyer holds your file, what the next step is, and when it is due. Correspondence is answered within one working day, even when the answer is that there is nothing new to report.
Written assessment · fixed next-stage cost · one named lawyer
How a matter runs
Most matters close at stage three. The timeline below is what you can expect from the day you send the first message.
01
A 30-minute call to hear the facts and confirm we are the right practice for the matter. No charge, no obligation.
What you doSend a short summary and any deadline you are already facing.
02
We read the documents and return a written assessment of position, risk and realistic outcomes, with the cost of the next stage fixed in advance.
What you doShare contracts, correspondence and dates — originals where you have them.
03
We set out your position to the other side and negotiate. A large share of matters resolve here, before any filing.
What you doAgree the outcome you would accept, and the one you would not.
04
If negotiation stalls, we file and run the matter through directions, disclosure and hearings, reporting on a fixed schedule.
What you doStay available for witness statements and disclosure requests.
05
Settlement or judgment, then enforcement or implementation. We close with a written note of what was agreed and what it obliges you to do.
What you doKeep the closing note — it governs the years that follow.
Engagement & fees
We quote the next stage, not the whole matter, because nobody can price a dispute they have not read. Every stage is agreed in writing before it starts.
| Matter type | Fee basis | What the first stage covers |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial dispute | Fixed per stage | Document review, written assessment of position and risk, and a letter of claim or response drafted for your approval. |
| Employment exit | Fixed fee | Review of contract and covenants, a negotiating position on terms, and one round of correspondence with the other side. |
| Estate administration | Hourly, capped | Asset and liability schedule, confirmation of the steps required, and a cap agreed before work begins. |
| Contract drafting | Fixed fee | A drafting brief, the first full draft, and one revision round against your comments. |
| Standing advice | Monthly retainer | An agreed monthly allowance of advisory hours, with unused hours carried for one month and overruns quoted separately. |
Court fees, expert reports and other third-party costs are charged at cost and always flagged before they are incurred. Where a stage runs beyond its estimate, we tell you before the work is done, not on the invoice.
Counsel
Principal · Dispute resolution & employment
Marren founded the practice after a decade running commercial matters inside a larger firm, where the files she cared about were the ones a client could actually follow. The practice was built around that: small caseloads, written assessments, and a preference for resolving a dispute at the letter stage where the facts allow it.
She works alongside a consulting solicitor on estates and a paralegal who handles disclosure, so a matter always has a second person who knows the file.
Before you call
The contract or letter at the centre of the problem, the email chain around it, and any dates that are already fixed — a deadline to respond, a notice period, a hearing date. A one-page summary in your own words is worth more than a full box of paper.
Matters resolved through correspondence and negotiation often close within a few months. Once proceedings are filed, the court timetable takes over and a year or more is normal. We give you a stage-by-stage timeline in the written assessment and update it whenever the facts change.
Not honestly, not at the start — the cost depends on how the other side behaves. What we can do is fix the price of each stage before it begins, so you decide whether to continue with the number in front of you rather than after the fact.
Yes. Everything discussed in the first conversation is treated as confidential, whether or not you go on to instruct us. If we identify a conflict with an existing client we will stop the conversation immediately and tell you why.
That is a commercial decision as much as a legal one, and it belongs to you. Our job is to give you the realistic range of outcomes, the cost and time of pursuing each, and the risks of both — and to negotiate hard enough that settlement is a genuine choice rather than a retreat.
Usually, yes. We review the file as it stands, tell you honestly whether a change of firm helps at this point, and handle the transfer with your current solicitors. Mid-proceedings transfers need care around deadlines, so raise it as early as you can.
We act for both, but never on opposite sides of the same sector at the same time, and never where a conflict exists. If you are an employer with a standing arrangement, we will decline employee work that could sit across from you.
Request a consultation
Send a short summary and we will confirm a 30-minute call within two working days. There is no charge for the first conversation.