Our approach
What we cover
We draft bespoke employment contracts for every level of staff: senior employees, standard roles, and simpler arrangements for part-time or casual workers. We'll make sure your contracts include the protection you need: IP assignment to make sure anything created in the course of employment belongs to you, restrictive covenants to protect your client relationships and confidential information when people leave and provisions for garden leave and payment in lieu of notice (PILON) where these are relevant.
We also write and update staff handbooks and standalone policies: disciplinary and grievance procedures, equality and diversity, flexible working, data protection (including your obligations as an employer under UK GDPR), and sickness absence. These are part of the legal framework governing your employment relationships, and they need to be current, consistent, and reflective of how your business actually works.
How we work with you
We start by understanding your business before we write anything. The right contract for a ten-person agency isn't the same as the right contract for a fifty-person tech company, and the clauses that protect a software business aren't the same as those protecting a consultancy. We ask the questions that let us get this right.
Restrictive covenants deserve particular attention. Courts won't enforce a restriction that's broader than necessary to protect a legitimate business interest. Too wide and it's worthless; correctly calibrated and it does the job. We draft these with care. Where you have existing contracts with covenants that have never been properly tested, we can review them and tell you honestly what you have.
If your contracts or policies haven't been updated recently, that's a common problem. Employment law changes regularly, and documentation that was fit for purpose three years ago may not be now. We'll review your current contracts and policies and advise on whether it will be better to amend what you already have or start again from scratch.
Who we work with
We act for employers: founder-led agencies, tech businesses and high-growth companies that are building out their teams and want their employment documentation to grow with them. Many clients come to us because they've been using the same template contract for years and something has happened: a dispute, a departing employee, a new hire raising questions, and they've realised it's not good enough.
We act for employers, not employees, on this service. If you're an employee with questions about your own contract, we're not the right fit here. If you're an employee who has been offered a settlement agreement and need independent advice, our sister service Check My Settlement may be able to help.
Pricing
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Fixed-fee project
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Available via subscription
Case Studies
Meet the team
Whether it's putting in place the right documents for your staff, handling tricky processes or dealing with employment disputes, Georgiana will calmly navigate your business through employment law requirements.
Georgiana has acted for clients ranging from start-ups and SMEs across a host of different industries working at both a Legal 500 firm and boutique west end London law firm gaining experience and knowledge from a broad spectrum of clients and cases. She enjoys working with clients as their businesses grow and providing the employment law support, they need at each stage of those journeys.
Having worked on both the employer and employee sides, she has a real insight into how each party is likely to approach a matter. She delivers clear, pragmatic advice and practical solutions in a friendly, no-nonsense manner.
When not crafting bespoke employment solutions, Georgiana can be found running early in the morning, enjoying ballet performances and art exhibitions, going on long walks and being by the sea.
Alistair co-founded Tend Legal with Shona on a simple idea: that small and medium-sized businesses deserve the same quality of legal advice as large companies, without the large firm experience.
As a solicitor with a broad commercial practice, he advises business owners on the full range of issues that come with running and growing a company. That means employment law: advising on settlement agreements, workforce decisions and the day-to-day employment questions that land on founders' desks. It means commercial work: negotiating and reviewing contracts, supplier agreements, and the commercial arrangements that keep a business running. And it means corporate transactions: from business sales and acquisitions to investment rounds, share structures and restructures.
Before co-founding Tend Legal, Alistair was a partner at Woodfords Solicitors in South West London, where he spent over a decade building a reputation for clear, commercial advice to SMEs. He is known for his calm approach, his ability to cut through complexity, and his willingness to give a straight answer.
When not working or acting as taxi driver to his three children, Alistair can be found riding bikes or skateboards, playing various instruments, or at church.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can, but there are real risks. Many templates have unenforceable clauses (particularly around restrictive covenants), miss sector-specific provisions, or simply don't reflect how your business operates. The problem with a bad contract is that you often don't find out it's bad until you need to rely on it. A bespoke contract costs more upfront and is considerably cheaper in the long run.
Both serve different purposes. Your contract sets out the legally binding terms of employment. Your handbook explains how things work in practice: your disciplinary process, your approach to absence, your flexible working policy. You need both, and they need to be consistent with each other.
A full review every two to three years is sensible as a baseline, but you should also review when the law changes in a way that affects you, when your business changes significantly (new roles, new ways of working, hybrid arrangements), or when something happens that exposes a gap. If you're on our employment subscription, we'll flag when updates are needed.
That's normal and we handle it routinely. Most businesses need at least two or three variants: something more detailed for senior hires with stronger protections and longer notice periods, a standard form for core employees, and something simpler for part-time or flexible workers. We'll advise on what you need and draft accordingly.