Even though you work just down the road you may have come across our site through the internet.  This website – although in its early stages having launched in 2009 – does just that: Local Solicitor.co.uk

Using a local solicitor can be very convenient.  We act for businesses from all over the country, but some of our best clients are those just around the corner.  Swapping notes over a coffee or pint is often helpful and means our client gets some “free” help and we get to reinforce our reputation with the client.

Now you’ve arrived here, ask us any questions using Ask a Solicitor enquiry form or just pickup the phone. Hey, if you are really that local just pop down the road and look us up. We’re next to Lloyds Bank…

This is an Insider’s Guide written by Martin Truman, a solicitor who has worked in the legal sector for 15 years.  Here’s the contents page to give you a flavour of what he has to tell you:

Introduction

When should you use a business lawyer?

Finding the right lawyer
# Tip 1 Where to look?
# Tip 2 What to consider?

Questions to ask
# Tip 3 Preparation for the first meeting
# Tip 4 Expertise and Experience – Honesty and straight-forwardness
# Tip 5 Costs
# Tip 6 Agree a timescale
# Tip 7 Communication
# Tip 8 Technology
# Tip 9 Risk and analysis
# Tip 10 People
# Tip 11 Lawyer’s or Law firm’s style and personality
# Tip 12 Scope of work, assistance and advice
# Tip 13 Confidentiality, legal privilege and conflicts of interest
# Tip 14 Complaints and client satisfaction
# Tip 15 Balance, perspective, perfection and the bigger picture

Download Now… To download your free copy of “How to find the right solicitor”:  Click Here.

What type of solicitor and size firm is right for you?

Who are we? The team at Truelegal is a happy blend of generalist-specialist solicitors, lawyers with experience of running their own businesses. Commercial and entrepreneurial business people, but with legal training and qualifications.

Truelegal’s lawyers aspire to give balanced advice, that’s to say: specialist business legal advice without losing sight of the bigger picture. If one can be critical of mainstream law firms too often the over-specialisation of their lawyers means that the lawyer’s advice misses the obvious commercial angle having immersed him or herself in the detail and not communicated with other specialists in the firm. And we haven’t even talked about the departmental “turf wars”…

We’ve heard it said that:

“A generalist is one who knows less and less about more and more, until he knows nothing about everything…

A specialist is one who knows more and more about less and less, until he knows everything about nothing.”

As a commercial legal practice to entrepreneurs and business owners Truelegal offers advice and commercial solutions in the following areas of business law:

• commercial (eg contracts, intellectual property, supply, distribution and agency agreements)
• commercial property: commercial leases (including lease assignments, lease surrenders) and freehold
• corporate (eg buying and selling companies, mergers, acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, restructuring, due diligence)
• business start ups/business migration/path to IPO (eg company formation, company secretarial, shareholder agreements, share options)
• internet, web and e-law (eg website terms and conditions, branding, hosting, licensing, partnering, e-commerce, staff email policy, data protection/privacy, payment gateway, security)
• employment/consultancy/contractor law

Have you found the area of commercial law you were looking for? No law firm can (should?) specialise in every subject. The above are examples. If we cannot advise you directly, we will find you a suitable expert, manage your relationship with that firm and ensure that any language and cultural barriers are broken down.

Truelegal.co.uk (.biz  .com .tv and .info) are trading tools of Truelegal Solicitors, a law firm regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Our main office is at 76 Fore Street, Topsham, Exeter EX3 0HQ England. We are VAT registered: GB/754820913.  The proprietor and principal solicitor is Martin Truman.

The use of this website and the information contained within it, including the free downloads and free guidance, are provided on a no liability basis and do not constitute specific legal advice. No lawyer-client relationship is created. We believe the information contained on our site is correct; however, we do not accept responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies, loss or damage unless we have given you, personally, specific advice relating to a matter about which you have given us full background details. The information supplied on this website is based on English law. Aspects of this information may become out-of-date due to changes in the law or how the courts interpret the law since the date of first publication on our website.

Truelegal is a firm of solicitors offering commercial legal advice. If your issue is not within our commercial expertise we will endeavour to source advice from third party law firms who specialise in the area of law you require. When we do this you will be notified and receive from us the name of the partner firm responding to your question. No matter who is dealing with your question these terms and conditions will apply. If you subsequently choose to appoint a solicitor (Truelegal or a third party law firm) you will receive an engagement letter from that firm setting out the basis on which you are engaging them.

The website contents, its format and the free guidance are Copyright © Truelegal Solicitors 2000-2010. As authors of the material we reserve full moral rights. All rights reserved. You may print out or use copies of our materials for your own use or for non-commercial purposes. Any other use requires our express written permission.

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We dislike spam and unsolicited mail and contact as much as you! At Truelegal we are committed to safeguarding the privacy and confidentiality of our customer data when you visit or submit requests. We are registered under the Data Protection Act 1998 (registered number Z5345790), and all your data is held, collected and used in compliance. More information on privacy can be found at www.dataprotection.gov.uk.

All customer data – including the problems you ask for guidance on – is held in strictest confidence. Unless you have provided us with express consent to do so, we never provide your personally identifiable data to any third party, other than where we release it to a third party for the purposes of providing you with legal information, guidance or advice, or for credit control purposes. Like any business we may contact you to tell you about any special offers, initiatives or promotions which Truelegal thinks you might be interested in. If you want to be taken off this mailing list just let us know by contacting us by any of the methods listed on our contact page.

Anonymous information may be collected from visitors to our website, for example, the number of visitors, which pages they visited and for how long.