Insights
Short, practical notes our partners write for clients: what we would tell you across the table, without forecasts or sales talk.
The first week of a dispute decides more than the last.
When a commercial relationship turns, the instinct is to write: to the other side, to colleagues, to anyone who will listen. Most of what is written in that first week is later read aloud by someone else.
Three things help. Keep every document, including drafts and messages you would rather not see again. Stop discussing the dispute in writing with the other side until you have advice. And write down, privately and once, what happened and when, while you still remember it clearly.
None of this decides the case. It does decide how much room you will have to settle it on terms you can live with.
Short notes for clients and their advisers.
Written by our partners from the questions clients ask most. They describe general principles only and are not advice on any particular matter.
Ask about a note
Receive the notes by email.
A short note every month or so, never more. Tell us which topics matter to you and we will send only those.
One email a month at most. Unsubscribe by replying to any note.
Tell us what is at stake. A partner replies within one working day.
A short note is enough to begin. We run a conflict check first, then call you to talk it through, without charge and without commitment.
- 01 A few lines on what happened and when
- 02 The names of the other parties, for the conflict check
- 03 Any date that cannot move: a hearing, a closing, a deadline