Our Fees

No hourly estimate, just fixed fees for every piece of work, agreed before we start. We set our fixed fee based on our experience of how long the work takes to do. You get the certainty that if it takes us longer than we expected, the fee stays the same. The only time a fee will change is where work outside of the original scope is requested.

Fixed fees for popular work

We set out below fee details for work that we are asked for most often. Each line links to the specific services page where we explain in detail what is involved.

The work	Fee	What it includes
EMI share option scheme, set-up	£2,000 to £3,000	Depends on the number of participants.
HMRC valuation for the scheme	£1,500	Fixed fee charged by our valuation partner. Covers the valuation and agreeing it with HMRC.
Company share option plan (CSOP)	From £2,250	Scheme rules, plan adoption and the first batch of grants.
Growth shares	From £2,250	Setting up the share class and the first grants.
Unapproved share options	From £1,350	The option plan and the first grants.
Shareholders’ agreement	£1,500 to £2,500	Includes updating the articles and the board approvals.
Phantom share scheme	From £1,950	Setting up the plan and the first grants.
Founders’ agreement	£1,250 to £1,550	A standard founders’ agreement with vesting and leaver rules.
Contract review	From £500	Review of a single contract, with our comments.
Business terms and conditions	From £650	Standalone terms for services or supply. SaaS terms with a data processing agreement from £950.
Website terms, privacy notice and cookies policy	From £750	All three documents.
Employment contract or consultancy agreement	From £350	A standard early-stage contract. Consultancy agreements include the IP assignment.
Company secretarial	From £495 a year	Annual package.
Annual HMRC return for a share scheme	From £350	Registration and the annual return.

Forward Law is not currently VAT registered, so VAT is not added to our fees. If this changes, VAT will be charged at the then applicable rate.

Bespoke Fee Quotes

Many of our services are offered as fixed-fee packages, with prices published on our website.

For anything outside these packages, we will discuss your requirements, assess the work involved and provide a fixed quote based on our standard hourly rate of £325.

You will know exactly what the work will cost before we start, with no hourly billing or unexpected charges.

Legal Desk: a lawyer on call each month

For businesses that need regular legal support but do not require a full-time in-house lawyer, we offer a monthly retainer.

For £1,200 a month, you receive six hours of legal support at an effective rate of £200 per hour, compared with our standard rate of £325. Additional hours are also charged at £200 per hour. Any unused hours carry over to the following month.

You can read more about how it works on our General Counsel page.

Early-stage rate

For early-stage businesses that have not yet secured external investment or become profitable, we offer a reduced hourly rate of £200.

This applies to bespoke legal work and our Legal Desk service. Our published fixed-fee packages remain unchanged.

We will review the rate with you once your business raises investment or becomes profitable.

What the fee does not cover

• Third-party costs, such as Companies House filing fees. Forward Law does not hold client money, so third-party costs are paid by you directly.
• Share scheme valuations. Our valuation partner charges a fixed fee of £1,500 for this work, which is payable separately.
• Work outside the agreed scope. If your requirements change, we will provide a revised fixed quote for your approval before carrying out any additional work.

Further details are set out in our Terms of Business.

Questions about our fees

If you would like a fee for your own work, book a free 45-minute discovery call, or ring us on 0207 458 4790.