Services

Mercurae offers Corporate and Commercial legal advisory services, agnostic of industry type. The diversity of our clients’ industries brings a rich variety to our work that we are very fortunate to have: fintech, fashion, defence, property, professional services, sport, healthcare, and more.

For clients who require regular access to legal counsel, we offer Retained In-house Counsel via a monthly retainer model. Each retainer is specific to each client based on an agreed level of support and service required. Each retainer is regularly monitored and adjusted to ensure fair usage.

Additionally we take on project work as required for tasks that sit outside of a defined retainer.

Off the Clock

Fees - a different approach. We recognise that the hourly rate, the six-minute unit, is not fit for purpose.

The six-minute unit creates an immediate tension between the interests of the adviser and the client, and seemingly rewards inefficiency and imposes the majority of the cost risk on to you. We have all received the line by line time-itemised bill and been left with Hobson’s choice - call the lawyers inefficient or worse and so sour the relationship, or pay the bill which one considers didn't represent good value.

We believe that there is a better way, a fairer and more collaborative approach. One which recognises the cost and value of good legal advice, and the fact that transactions rarely work out as anticipated at the outset.

Not good for you, not good for us

We also recognise that asking bright, motivated people to count their lives out in ‘coffee spoons’ (T.S. Eliot), six-minute units, is dehumanising in and of itself.

Rather than have our lawyers and other professionals spend an hour a day counting how much to charge you, we would rather they spent that time working to your benefit.

We are therefore about what has been achieved for you, not how long it took to get there.

So let’s forget about counting spoons, and just enjoy the coffee.

How does it work?

Relationship

  1. We start with a legal audit of your business

  2. We agree a baseline scope of services to begin with, depending on how much legal support you wish your business to have

  3. We work flexibly and grow with you from there

Simple and agreed pricing

(i) Monthly Retainer

  1. Provides certainty on costs

  2. Allows you to pick up the phone at any time

  3. Your selected range of legal services all within fixed cost of the retainer

  4. You have the flexibility to increase or reduce the services you receive from us 

(ii) Projects 

For all our clients, whether on a retainer or not, larger projects which fall outside the retainer will be charged at a simple half day or day rate

We will make an upfront commitment to the number of days required to complete a project to provide certainty on costs

Rethink

So what can we change?

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

NOT Albert Einstein, but good advice nonetheless.

Technology

  1. We use state-of-the art communications, messaging and project management platforms, to help streamline communications with you (cutting back on email) and to allow you to monitor the progress of matters and to work along side us in a more collaborative way

  2. Online client portal accessed via our website to a personalised data store of all the documents and contracts which form part of your business – securing your legal ‘corporate memory’

  3. For retainer clients who wish it, we will adopt your in-house styles and integrate with your in-house systems, underlining our commitment to you to be your outsourced in-house lawyers