Role and authority
Reporting lines, decision rights, external appointments, fiduciary or regulatory responsibilities and any conditions attached to the appointment.
Senior and executive contracts
Protect what matters without filling the contract with theatre.
Senior roles often carry broader authority, valuable information, complicated reward and a difficult exit profile. The contract should reflect the real exposure rather than inherit every restriction a precedent happens to contain.
The useful starting point
Start with the assets, decisions and relationships at risk.
A senior title alone does not justify a heavily restrictive contract. The drafting should respond to what the person can actually access or influence: customers, staff, strategy, pricing, systems, confidential material, intellectual property and key commercial relationships. That produces a more coherent document and a clearer management position later.
This route may fit when
Start here if any of this sounds familiar.
- 01The role has access to confidential strategy, pricing, customer or workforce information.
- 02Bonus, commission, equity, allowances or benefits need careful alignment with separate schemes.
- 03The person will create or control commercially valuable intellectual property.
- 04A long notice period, garden leave or post-termination restriction is being considered.
- 05The role includes directorship, regulatory accountability or substantial delegated authority.
What I examine
The decisions behind the document.
A useful contract service joins the wording to the operating reality. These are the questions that make the document usable.
Reward architecture
Salary, review wording, bonus or commission rules, benefits, expenses and the relationship between the contract and separate plan documents.
Information and ownership
Confidential information, intellectual property, data, company property and the practical controls that support the written obligations.
Exit and restrictions
Notice, pay in lieu, garden leave and any targeted post-termination restrictions, with specialist legal input where enforceability is central.
What you receive
Something you can actually implement.
Exact deliverables are confirmed in writing so the boundary is visible before you instruct me.
- A role and risk scoping discussion
- A tailored senior employment document or focused review
- Alignment prompts for bonus, equity or benefits documentation
- Practical implementation and issue notes
- Referral for regulated legal advice where restrictions or corporate issues require it
Important boundary
A longer contract is not automatically a stronger contract.
Restrictions are fact-sensitive and their enforceability can be central to a future dispute. I can help identify the business interest, organise the employment terms and avoid generic excess. Where the legal strength of a restriction must be relied upon, specialist employment-law advice is the proper boundary.
Practical questions
Straight answers before you enquire.
Do all senior employees need restrictive covenants?+
No. The starting question is what legitimate business interest needs protection and whether existing confidentiality, notice, garden leave and operational controls already address it. Restrictions should be role-specific, not ceremonial.
Can bonus terms sit in the contract?+
Sometimes, but the interaction with a separate scheme, discretion, targets, leaver status and timing needs to be deliberate. A stray promise in the contract can undermine the flexibility intended elsewhere.
Do you replace a solicitor?+
No. I provide employment-law-informed HR support and know where the boundary sits. If enforceability, equity, corporate office or a live dispute requires regulated legal advice, I will say so plainly.
Not sure which route fits?
Tell me the situation, not the legal label.
I'll point you to the sensible next step.
Describe the real situation without including names, health information or other sensitive employee details. I’ll tell you the proportionate next step before any paid work begins.