One case a month,for founders under 25.
Every month we take on one matter free of charge for a founder or business owner under twenty-five. One, because one is what we can do properly alongside the work that pays — and a promise of unlimited free help is a promise nobody keeps.
Tell us what has happened →
Why we do this
The decisions that cost the most are taken by the people who can least afford advice.
Sam started his first business at twenty-two and could not afford a lawyer. The lease got signed unread, the shareholder agreement never got written, and both cost more to unpick later than proper advice would have cost at the outset. That is the ordinary experience of starting something young, and it has not improved.
It is also the point in a business where good advice does the most work. The ownership you set up in year one decides what happens in year five. The lease you sign at twenty-three is still there at twenty-eight. The supplier who is not paying you now will still not be paying you next quarter unless somebody writes the right letter.
We cannot fix that at scale. We can take one of them a month and do it as carefully as we would for a client paying a full retainer.
Who this is for
Under twenty-five, and building something real.
That is the whole eligibility test. It does not matter whether you have incorporated, whether you have revenue, or whether anyone has heard of you — only that you are under twenty-five, the business is genuinely yours, and paying for this help is not realistic right now.
- You are under 25 at the date you write in.
- You own, or are starting, the business the matter concerns — as founder, co-founder or sole trader.
- It is a real venture rather than a hypothetical one: trading, about to trade, or a matter arising from having traded.
- Paying for commercial legal help is not realistic for you at the moment.
- Anywhere in the UK or UAE. A student business, a side project that has outgrown the side, and a second attempt after a first one failed all count.
What we take on
The matters below are the kind we can genuinely move for a young founder. If yours is not on the list but feels like it belongs here, write anyway — the list describes the pattern, not the boundary.
Starting up, done properly
Incorporation, who owns what, and the articles and share structure suited to what you are actually building. Half an hour at the beginning routinely saves years of expensive unpicking.
Your first premises lease
Read in full before you sign, with the clauses that will matter in year three explained in plain English — the break clause you will want to use, the repair obligation nobody mentions, the guarantee you are being asked to give personally.
Founder terms
What happens between you and whoever you are building it with: who owns what, what happens if one of you leaves, and who keeps the idea. Written while you still agree, which is the only time it is easy.
Money you are owed
An unpaid invoice, a customer gone quiet, a deposit being held. Most of these are settled by the quality of the first letter rather than by anything that follows it.
Contracts already signed
A supplier agreement that has quietly become one-sided, terms you accepted before you understood them, a platform contract nobody negotiated. Telling you where you actually stand is often the whole job.
Bills, rates and penalties
An energy bill that trebled without explanation, a rateable value assessed on the wrong floor area, an enforcement notice issued on a template. Each follows a process that rewards whoever knows it exists.
Where we are not the answer
What this is not, said plainly.
Being clear about the boundary matters more here than anywhere else on this site. Somebody who cannot afford a lawyer is exactly the person harmed by a vague promise, so this is what we will not be able to do, whatever the merits.
- We do not undertake reserved legal activities. We do not conduct litigation or appear in court, and where a matter needs that, a regulated firm does it.
- Criminal matters, immigration, family and personal injury are outside what we do at all — for clients and pro bono alike.
- We do not give regulated tax or financial advice.
- This is for under-25s only. If you are over twenty-five and stuck, write to us anyway and we will point you somewhere useful — we simply cannot take it on this way.
- We take one matter a month, chosen on where we can genuinely make a difference rather than on who wrote first. If we cannot take yours, we will say so quickly rather than leave you waiting.
- Free means free. There is no obligation, no follow-up sales call, and no expectation that you become a client.
How to ask
Write in your own words.
No forms and no legal language. Tell us how old you are, what you are building, what has happened, and any deadline you are working to. If there is a date that matters, put it in the first line — deadlines decide most of these.
Tell us what has happened →- 01You write in. Anything you send is confidential, whether or not we take it on.
- 02We read it properly. If it is urgent, we will say so the same day.
- 03If we can help, we tell you what we would do and get started. If we cannot, we say why and point you at who can — a clinic, an ombudsman, a specialist.
- 04If the month is already taken, we will tell you that plainly, and whether it is worth coming back.