Who This is for
It worked. The company, the customers, the bank account and the licence are in one name, and neither of you has ever written down what was agreed.
Drafted by them, for them, with a signature block and a deadline.
Money, shares or both are moving, and the terms exist so far only in conversation.
Employees, contractors and consultants — with different documentation, different obligations and different consequences if the classification is wrong.
A signature block naming an individual where it should name an entity, or an entity that is not the one whose licence covers the work.
A bank, auditor or registry asks for a shareholders’ agreement or a board resolution, and there is nothing in the file.
What's Included
How it Works
Understand the transaction, then draft it
We ask what the commercial arrangement actually is — who does what, who pays when, who owns what at the end, and what each side fears. Templates filled in without that conversation are the reason so many contracts fail to describe the deal they govern.
Check who is contracting
The correct legal entity, the licensed activity that covers the work, the person with authority to bind it, and how the signature block should read. This takes minutes at drafting stage and is unfixable afterwards.
Draft, or review and mark up
New documents are drafted from the transaction. Documents sent to you are marked up with a short note on what matters, in order of importance, rather than a list of every change we could theoretically request.
Negotiate
We can deal with the counterparty or their advisers directly, or brief you to do it. Which is better depends on the relationship and on whether the negotiation is commercial or technical.
Execution
Signature, entity details, authority, stamping, notarisation and attestation where the document or the registry requires it, and bilingual versions where they are needed.
Filing and follow-through
Copies held, resolutions recorded, registry filings made where a change requires one, and a note of the dates that will need attention — renewals, notice windows, review points.
What We Need from You
Where there is nothing in writing at all, that is the normal starting point for founder arrangements. Reconstructing what was agreed is part of the work.
Timeline and Cost
A review is quick. Drafting depends on how settled the commercial terms are — a shareholders’ agreement between founders who have not yet agreed what happens on a deadlock takes longer than any drafting exercise, and the delay is not legal. Negotiation runs to the counterparty’s pace. Attestation and legalisation of documents executed abroad add time that is outside anyone’s control.
Our fee is fixed and agreed in writing against a defined scope: a review with a written note, a drafted agreement, a founder arrangement documented in full, or a set of employment documents. It is anchored to the work, never to the value of the contract or the transaction.
Notarisation, translation, attestation and registry fees are payable to the relevant body and shown to you separately, at cost.
Get a Fixed QuoteWhere it Goes Wrong
The single most damaging omission in this market. Everything sits in one name because that was administratively convenient at set-up — the licence, the bank mandate, the customer relationships, sometimes the shares themselves. It works while both parties agree, and the point at which it matters is the point at which they do not. By then the party holding the register holds the argument.
An individual’s name in the signature block, or a personal email address and personal bank details on a company’s agreement. The person who signed may be the person liable, the company may not be able to enforce a contract it is not party to, and limited liability becomes an idea rather than a fact.
A company contracts for services outside its licensed activity, or the work is delivered by a group entity that was never the contracting party. It affects invoicing, enforceability, banking and the position with the authorities, and it is very hard to unwind once a stream of invoices exists.
“Payment on completion” without a definition of completion, or milestones with no acceptance mechanism. The dispute is then about whether the work was finished, which is a question of evidence nobody thought to create.
Software, designs, content and processes produced by a contractor default to whatever the contract says — and if it says nothing, the client’s assumption that they own the output may be wrong. This surfaces during a sale or an investment, when someone asks to see the chain of title.
Notice periods, exit mechanics, treatment of work in progress and outstanding payments, and what happens to data, keys and accounts. Everyone drafts the start of a relationship carefully and the end of it in one sentence.
An internal offer letter or side agreement inconsistent with the contract lodged with the relevant authority creates two versions of the truth. It emerges in a dispute, at inspection, or during a visa process.
Governing law and forum are frequently left as whatever the template said. Where a dispute is heard, and under which law, can matter more than most of the commercial terms — and it is settled by a clause that took seconds to accept.
Questions
We have been operating for years without a shareholders’ agreement. Is it too late?
No. Documenting the arrangement now is straightforward while both parties still agree. It becomes difficult only once one of them has stopped agreeing — which is exactly when people finally look for the document.
Can you review a contract someone has sent me?
Yes. You receive a plain-language note on what it obliges you to do, what it fails to oblige the other side to do, and the small number of terms worth negotiating. Review before signature is materially cheaper than argument afterwards.
Does the contract need to be in Arabic?
It depends on where it will be used and who will need to rely on it. Documents intended for proceedings before the UAE courts generally require legal translation, and some registries and authorities require Arabic or bilingual versions. We advise on the specific document rather than by rule.
I signed in my own name. Can that be fixed?
Sometimes, by novation, replacement or a documented assignment, if the counterparty cooperates. It is worth attempting early. If a claim has already arisen, the position is largely set.
What is the difference between an employee and a contractor here?
Practically: who controls the work, who provides the tools, whether there is a sponsorship relationship, and how the person is paid and documented. Getting the classification wrong has consequences for visas, end-of-service entitlements and tax. We look at the actual arrangement rather than the label on the document.
Can you use our existing template?
Yes, and we will tell you what it does badly. Most templates in circulation were drafted for a different transaction in a different jurisdiction, then amended by successive people who were not lawyers.
Will you tell me if a deal is a bad idea?
We will tell you what the document does and where it exposes you, in plain terms. The commercial decision is yours; the risks should not be a surprise later.