Solicitor Reviews
Backs are Covered
Tech arena
For me legal stuff is a bit scary, dry and boring. These guys are approachable and make the legal
matters bearable, even bringing some humour to proceedings.
I've worked with them on a number of IT disputes; they are very professional & the advice is spot on. Often disputes just dissolve.
When our disputes have escalated, I know our backs are covered - I know we're not taking a toothpick to a gunfight. After they advise us on the approach, we can get on with what we do & don't give the dispute much more thought. I'm not concerened about a rear-guard action.
They just get intellectual property in the tech arena, I would recommend them at the drop of a hat.
Atlassian Marketplace Apps
Technical solicitors for technical businesses
We're the developer of some popular software on the Atlassian ecommerce Platform. We tried using more generic lawyers. It wasn't working for us. They didn't understand what we were talking about , and didn't understand the way online marketplaces like Atlassian work.
We needed a specialist IT lawyer that knew about cloud delivery systems, intellectual property licensing and online marketplaces, to understand where our software sat within that space and where our reseller arrangements sat within that.
We wanted solicitors that could handle the detail of IT law at the enterprise level help us with and data privacy and security. We needed to know what we needed to pay attention to: what was important and what wasn't.
We'd been doing or own legals for many years. The time came to update them for new technologies and changing conditions in the market. That has moved into data security and data privacy in the global enterprise market. Technical issues we have relate what we need solicitors to do.
Hall Ellis gives us the analysis we need in legal situations. We didn't know so much where the problems were before. Now we pick the priorities to work and from the options. They've been resolved.
The legal side of our business has been straightened up, and we're headed in the direction we need to be going.
They give us what we need to know in language we understand as technical people.
IT Contracts - 50% performance improvement
Reduced effort for new business
We’re in the high-end enterprise retail market selling multi-year software as a service (SaaS) subscriptions and we had unnecessary delays in closing deals after getting commercial agreement. We had a collection of complicated and outdated contract documents which were causing us all sorts of problems.
We asked Hall Ellis to redraft them. We wanted to reduce the number of documents that had to mesh together to make the contract, simplify them and streamline our contracting process.
We’ve found that our new contracts are clearer to understand for our clients and therefore do not attract so many redlines or change requests. Negotiations are way more structured with fewer strands in negotiations. It’s not soaking up the time and effort which it did. We’re turning around new business with fewer rounds of negotiations. Our sales pipeline is faster, so we’re starting new business faster and getting revenue in sooner. The hours spent on the entire contracting process is down more than 50%, saving weeks of internal effort.
Software Development Dispute
Claims of liability for augmented reality development
Our software company consulted Hall Ellis to help us deal with a complex contractual situation on a
project.
In short, we were subcontracted to build a next-gen 30 app for tourists at a World Heritage site. Things started pretty well. Then the end client became more demanding. Our client started promising things to the end client that weren't technically possible. They started saying that we were in breach of contract here, there and everywhere. The conversation descended into nonsense. Our client blamed us in conversations with the end client when the requirements were not met.
We contacted Hall Ellis to tell us what our position was, help us push back to the client and to undermine what our client was alleging.
Thanks to Leigh at Hall Ellis, and his very specialised knowledge of this type of situation, we've shored up our legal position. If our former client ever want to sue us, we're confident that we're in a good place to defend their ridiculous claims.
I wouldn't hesitate to contact Hall Ellis straight away for any similar disputes in future.
Restrictive Covenants
We're hardened IT security consultants here at Oppidum. We contract out to companies around the world to companies which take their security seriously. Sometimes that involves working with adverse managed seivices contracts, working our way around them and sometimes through them.
In one of them, it was not going well with the recruitment consultant. We faced issues with payments and restrictive covenants. When the recruitment consultant fell out with the client, our relationship with the client was at risk.
We took legal advice on how we could move foiwards with the client directly, without the recruitment consultant. After a few steps we worked through the situation. There were a few grounds which seemed to justify it, but it wasn't really clear. The lawyers helped us work through the process in a way we were comfortable with, to help us get the new business.
We haven't heard back from the recruiter, and now don't expect to. If they had something to say, they would have said it by now. We're working direct with the client. We're on the right track and that's a good outcome for us.
Dispute with Business Partner
Resolved
I had a historic disagreement with a former business partner that needed dealing with quickly.
If I handled it myself, it would have soaked up my time thinking about how to handle it. I needed to know my options for handling it and get back to what I need to be doing with my end goal in mind.
If you want upfront legal advice from someone that does not waffle using legal speak , give Leigh a call. He’s succinct and blunt in a good way. You’ll get it laid it out warts and all.
With that I could make a decision on how to proceed. Maybe I would have never got the approach right. I also found out that commercial common sense does not always work well in the legal environment.
No problem recommending him.
Giles Gibson
Recruitment
Software Licensing
We are a small, high technology, design led company and were shocked and dismayed to be
contacted by a solicitors firm alleging we were in breach of a software licence. After a brief study of the
internet we realised this matter required professional guidance as there seemed to be a lot of horror
stories out there, we knew it needed to be taken seriously, so we sought assistance from Leigh at Hall
Ellis. Within a short time he had guided us through the response required and helped us to draft a
suitable answer. Wrth Leighs guidance he was able give us some insight into the process, as they are
specialist technology and intellectual property solicitors and know their subject intimately. Worth the
responses crafted by Leigh we were able to resolve the situation amicably with no further action
required.
In short don't gamble, go to the experts and use their breadth of experience to resolve your business
software issues quickly and efficiently.
Dispute Resolution
Superb simple straight down the line advice on a complicated civil appeal matter that other solicitors were unable to help with. We were panicking until Leigh explained the facts and guided our next move.
Kate Day
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