Commercial & Contracts
Agreements that define how your business trades, hires and shares risk — drafted, reviewed or renegotiated.
- Supplier and client terms
- Shareholder agreements
- Licensing and IP assignment
- Sale and purchase of a business
Counsel for considered decisions
Careful legal work, explained in language you can act on.
Halloway & Reeve is a small practice advising individuals and owner-led businesses on the agreements, property and obligations that shape their year. Every matter begins with a conversation and a written scope — never a surprise.
- Fixed, written scopes
- You approve the work and the fee basis before anything is drafted or filed.
- One named solicitor
- The person you first speak with stays responsible for your matter throughout.
- Plain-language advice
- Positions, risks and options set out in writing, without unnecessary formality.
The practice
A deliberately small firm, so your matter is never one of many.
We take on a limited number of matters at a time. That constraint is the point: it lets us read the whole file, understand what you are actually trying to achieve, and give advice that fits the decision in front of you rather than a template.
Most of our work is preventative — reviewing an agreement before it is signed, sorting a boundary before it becomes a dispute, putting an estate in order while there is time. When a matter does become contentious, we say so early and set out what resolution will cost.
Practice areas
Four areas we know well enough to advise on quickly.
If your question sits outside these, tell us anyway — we will say so plainly and point you toward the right kind of specialist.
Property & Land
Residential and commercial transactions, together with the boundary and title questions that surface alongside them.
- Purchase and sale
- Commercial leases
- Easements and rights of way
- Title and boundary review
Employment
Advice for employers and individuals at the points where a working relationship is formed, changed or ended.
- Contracts and handbooks
- Restrictive covenants
- Grievance and exit processes
- Settlement agreements
Wills, Trusts & Probate
Putting personal affairs in order, and administering an estate for families who would rather not do it alone.
- Wills and codicils
- Lasting powers of attorney
- Trust formation
- Estate administration
How we work
Three steps, and you know the cost before the second one.
The process is the same whether the matter takes a fortnight or a year.
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I
A first conversation
Thirty minutes, no charge, to hear what has happened and what you want the outcome to be. If we are not the right practice for it, we will tell you in that call.
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II
A written scope and fee basis
You receive a short letter setting out the work, who will do it, how it will be billed and what is expressly not included. Nothing begins until you agree to it.
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III
Acting on the matter
We do the work and keep you current with brief written updates at each real milestone — not a running commentary, and not silence for weeks either.
Counsel
You will work with the person who took your first call.
Eleanor Halloway advises on commercial and employment matters; Rhys Reeve handles property, wills and estate administration. Between them they take the whole of the practice's work, supported by a paralegal team that keeps files moving.
Neither of them hands a matter down the corridor once the engagement letter is signed. If your question is about a document one of them drafted, that is who answers it.
- We answer the question you asked. Advice starts with your position, then explains the law that affects it — not the other way round.
- We flag cost before it is spent. If a matter is about to move beyond the agreed scope, you hear about it before the work is done.
- We prefer resolution to correspondence. Letters are written to settle things, not to build a file. Where a call will do, we call.
Common questions
The things most people ask before they get in touch.
How are your fees structured?
Most work is quoted as a fixed fee once we have seen the documents, because by then we know the shape of the job. Where a matter genuinely cannot be scoped in advance — contested estates, for example — we bill hourly against an agreed ceiling and tell you when we approach it.
How long will my matter take?
A contract review is usually days. A property transaction moves at the pace of the slowest party in the chain, and an estate depends on how quickly third parties respond. Your scope letter gives a realistic range rather than a best case, and we update it if the picture changes.
Is my first conversation confidential?
Yes. Everything you tell us — before, during and after an engagement — is treated as confidential, including matters we do not go on to act in. We will only ever raise a conflict check internally before agreeing to take work on.
What should I have ready?
Whatever exists in writing: the agreement, the title documents, the correspondence, the will. Nothing needs to be organised or complete. A rough chronology of what happened and when is more useful to us than a tidy folder.
Do you work with clients remotely?
Routinely. Documents are exchanged securely, identity checks are done electronically where the matter allows, and meetings happen by video unless a signature needs witnessing in person.
Enquiry
Tell us what has happened.
A short outline is enough to start. We read every enquiry ourselves and reply with either a first conversation or an honest referral.
What happens next: we confirm receipt, run a conflict check, and come back to you within two working days to arrange the initial call.
Please do not send original documents or confidential attachments with a first enquiry — we will tell you how to share them securely.