Our approach
What we cover
The GC Subscription is Tend's flagship service: ongoing legal support across corporate, commercial and employment law for a fixed monthly fee. Commercial contracts reviewed and negotiated. Employment situations handled promptly. Shareholder matters, board decisions, investment documents, regulatory questions. Whatever comes up, you have a solicitor who already knows the business and can turn around advice quickly.
You access a solicitor who knows your business, through a dedicated Slack or Teams channel, by phone or email, with regular check-ins built in so we stay current on what's happening in your business. The relationship is proactive as well as reactive: we flag issues before they become problems, not just after you bring them to us.
How we work with you
The value of a General Counsel isn't just knowing the law. It's knowing your business well enough to give advice that's actually useful: fast, contextual, and calibrated to your risk appetite. A GC who has to be briefed from scratch every time you call isn't a GC, they're an expensive helpline. The subscription is designed around continuity. We learn your contracts, your team, your agreements, your shareholders, and your history. When something needs a quick view, we can give one.
At the start of the subscription we do a legal audit: existing contracts, employment documentation, company structure, any outstanding issues. We can then schedule projects over the coming weeks and months, as well as being available to deal with ad hoc queries, contract reviews and negotiations. For anything that's a larger project (a full round of investment documents, a business acquisition), we scope that separately and quote accordingly.
The subscription also includes regular check-ins, usually monthly, to stay current on what's happening and flag anything on the horizon that has legal implications. Many clients find this the most valuable part: having a legal perspective built into how they run the business rather than bolted on when things go wrong.
Who we work with
The GC Subscription is for businesses that have legal needs across more than one area and want a single firm that knows them well. In practice that means businesses that are scaling, have taken or are seeking investment, are managing a growing employee headcount, and are dealing with increasing commercial and contractual complexity. Founder-led agencies, tech businesses and high-growth companies make up the majority of our GC clients.
For many of these businesses, the question isn't whether they need legal support, it's whether to hire in-house or use an external firm. The GC Subscription is the answer for businesses that aren't yet at the scale where a full-time in-house hire is justified, but have outgrown the model of calling a solicitor reactively when something goes wrong. You get the relationship, the continuity, and the proactive support of an in-house GC at a fraction of the cost.
Case Studies
Hear from our clients
Meet the team
Craig is a corporate and commercial solicitor at Tend Legal, working with founders, business owners and leadership teams as they build, grow and protect their businesses.
He advises on a wide range of matters: mergers and acquisitions, shareholder agreements, company structures, governance and commercial contracts of all kinds. Craig also has a particular interest in intellectual property, and regularly advises on trademark and copyright matters. His IP work has included a matter involving a Premier League and England international footballer, and advising on a copyright assignment connected to a well-known album cover.
Down-to-earth and easy to work with, Craig places a strong emphasis on clear communication and making sure clients feel confident about the decisions they're making. He works closely with agency and commercial clients, acting as an accessible part of their wider advisory team.
Outside of work, Craig is a keen football fan and enjoys spending time with his family.
Neelam is a corporate and commercial solicitor with a practical, no-fuss approach to helping businesses get things done.
On the commercial side, she works with agencies, tech companies and growing businesses on the contracts that underpin their operations: drafting, reviewing and negotiating agreements across a wide range of commercial arrangements. On the corporate side, she assists overseas businesses setting up in the UK and forming UK subsidiaries, and has experience of M&A transactions and investment rounds.
Before qualifying as a solicitor, Neelam had a career in legal technology, including as Director of Global Product at LegalZoom. She brings that perspective to everything she does: a deep understanding of what good legal service looks like from the client's side, and how to deliver it.
She's also unfailingly cheerful. Even on Mondays.
When Neelam isn't at her desk, she can often be found upcycling old furniture in her shed, discovering new eateries or testing out recipes on friends and family.
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.
From the moment she got involved in her parents' businesses at a young age, Nicole knew she had a passion for helping businesses thrive.
A corporate and commercial solicitor, Nicole focuses on the work that matters most to growing businesses: M&A transactions, investment rounds, shareholder agreements and company secretarial support. She also helps clients navigate the commercial side: negotiating and reviewing contracts, advising on joint ventures, and being a steady pair of hands through transactions of all sizes.
Nicole is also working towards an MBA, which tells you something about her character and her love of business. Her advice is grounded in commercial reality, not just legal theory.
When she's not taking care of business, Nicole likes to read, run, play tennis and attend church.
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
The subscription covers ongoing advice across corporate, commercial and employment matters: contract reviews and negotiation, employment questions, company law matters, regulatory queries, and general commercial advice. It includes your dedicated channel, regular check-ins, and the legal audit at the start. Larger projects (investment rounds, acquisitions, major litigation) are scoped and quoted separately. We'll always be clear about what is and isn't in scope.
For routine questions, same or next working day. For urgent matters, we'll turn things around as quickly as we can. Because we know your business, we can give useful answers fast without needing a lengthy briefing. The channel means you can reach us without scheduling a call every time.
No minimum term. The subscription runs month to month and you can cancel on one month's notice. We set it up this way because we think the service should be worth staying for, not something you feel trapped by. In practice, most clients stay because having a solicitor who knows the business is genuinely useful and hard to replicate once you have it.
We scale with you. If your needs outgrow the subscription model, we'll have an honest conversation about what the right arrangement looks like. Some clients at a certain stage move to a heavier retainer or bring us in for a specific period of intensive support. We'll tell you what makes sense rather than keeping you in a structure that isn't right.
The difference is continuity and context. On a project basis, you instruct a solicitor for a specific piece of work, brief them each time, pay by the hour or the project, and manage the relationship yourself. With the subscription, the solicitor knows your business, your contracts, your team, and your history. They can advise in context, flag issues proactively, and give you fast, informed responses rather than measured, cautious ones. It's a fundamentally different kind of legal relationship.
No. The GC Subscription is the most variable of all our subscription services, because it spans corporate, commercial and employment. The right shape of the subscription depends on where your business is and where it's heading.
Before we agree anything, we'll talk to you about your business and make sure we understand it properly. We'll then agree a bespoke scope and an appropriate fee based on that, which means you're not paying for things you don't need.