I was just thinking this week about the way in which my business clients ask for my help. Here are some examples from the last few days. Can I sign this contract? Should we embark on this joint venture with another company and how do we do that? We’ve worked on a ‘handshake’ with a firm in Holland for ten years but our new owners want something more solid, can you help? Can you “do” an EMI scheme?

These queries are framed as business objectives. They are not requests for a distributorship agreement, a JV agreement, resolutions, minutes, scheme rules and option agreements. Such documents record the intentions but we help with advice on the structure and means to deliver what the client wants and don’t only produce a nice suite of documents. We try to answer clients’ questions in clients’ language, the language of business.