Technology startups, e-commerce, software and SaaS

Russell-Cooke's technology solicitors provide expert legal support to businesses in the tech, e-commerce, software, SaaS, and IT sectors. We have helped numerous startups and established companies navigate complex legal landscapes, from brand protection to regulatory compliance.

Tech businesses face unique challenges, including intellectual property registration and protection, online trading regulations, international jurisdictions, data security, and contractual agreements. We offer a one-stop-shop for legal advice, covering brand protection (trademarks, domain names, and copyright), commercial issues (page ranking and search engine optimisation), consumer protection regulations, data protection laws, and contract law.

Our team also provides specialist guidance on employment law for businesses, shareholder agreements, and joint ventures, ensuring startups and scale-ups have a solid legal foundation. We understand that keeping control of costs is critical, and our tailored legal packages offer fixed-fee solutions for startups and growing businesses.

Russell-Cooke's tech startup legal pack includes:

• an initial no-obligation telephone consultation to discuss the services we can provide to your business and how we are able to assist you
• advice on the legal requirements of your business (what you need to do or to get started)
• as many (or as few) of our deliverables as you need at a competitive fixed price.

The deliverables may include the following:

• company formation
• terms of use and terms and conditions for e-commerce
• privacy policy and data protection policies
• non-disclosure agreements (NDAs)
• shareholders, co-founder or partnership agreements
• data processing and data hosting agreements
• software licence terms
• security documents (debenture or legal charge) 'software as a service' subscription agreements
• domain name and trade mark advice and registrations
• self-employed consultant contract
• employment contracts
• employee handbook
• articles of association/constitution
• loan agreements

We will discuss your business plan with you and advise you on the legal requirements of your business on a free, no-obligation basis. If you have a limited budget we can help to prioritise your legal requirements. We will break down your requirements into individual fixed-price deliverables. We will liaise with our specialist employment law team to deal with particular employment law deliverables.

You will have the peace of mind of having obtained professional advice while controlling your costs.

We offer a fixed price package designed for cost conscious startups and growing technology businesses offering specialist advice, documents and registrations. Many law firms are reluctant to offer a fixed price for legal work and this uncertainty means many businesses do not get legal advice at the outset, which can lead to issues later on.

Members of Russell-Cooke's technology and growth team regularly provide training to founders and entrepreneurs on the legal fundamentals of operating a tech business in the UK.

Industry expertise

Examples of our work include:

• Entrepreneur training: Guy Wilmot regularly gives training sessions to startup entrepreneurs to teach the legal fundamentals of operating a tech business in the UK. Please contact Guy Wilmot for details of the training or a copy of training materials.
• Fundraising: the team has helped numerous businesses with equity fundraising. This has included institutional rounds and raising funds from individual investors claiming SEIS and EIS relief. Businesses advised on fundraising include Bitposter and Address Intelligence and Phrasee.
• Terms of use/commercial agreements: we frequently advise businesses with novel concepts on their terms of use and commercial agreements. Examples include Ruuby (a booking app for beauty treatments and therapies), JustPark (a peer to peer parking service), Surge Corp (a peer to peer short term rentals business introducing the concept of surge pricing) and Onefinestay.

Key services offered

We draft and prepare software licences, SaaS subscription agreements, terms of business, reseller agreements, master services agreements (MSAs) and other contracts for numerous software and IT businesses.
We also assist organisations with IT and outsourcing requirements.

Our experience includes:

• commercial contracts and terms of business
• terms of business
• intellectual property registration and protection
• data GDPR confidentiality information 
• corporate affairs

Our technology solicitors frequently comment in the press on issues relating to the tech sector. 

Industry expertise

We have advised web-based businesses across a wide range of fields including retail, gaming, online publications, dating, social networking, business services and rental accommodation.

Examples of our work include:

• advising on the development of terms and legal models in the UK for 'sharing economy' businesses including onefinestay, JustPark and BlaBlaCar
• developing software licences and SaaS subscription agreements for software businesses in the financial services sector
• advising ad-tech businesses on corporate and commercial affairs
• providing training to start-up entrepreneurs on data protection, consumer regulation, commercial contracts and corporate affairs
• providing webinar training for in-house counsel on developments in technology law

Whether you are a startup founder, a growing tech company, or an established e-commerce platform, our technology startup solicitors, software solicitors, and e-commerce solicitors are here to support your legal needs. Contact us today to discuss how we can help your business thrive.

Russell-Cooke offers a 30-minute initial consultation (free of charge) to discuss the legal services we can provide for your business. While we will offer constructive guidance, please note that we cannot provide legal advice that you can rely on until you have been set up as a client of the firm.

Our charges are typically based on hourly rates plus administrative charges and disbursements. We will provide an initial estimate of your likely legal costs and update this as your requirements evolve.

For startups and growing businesses, we offer a fixed-fee technology startup legal pack that includes essential legal documents and applications, helping you manage costs effectively. We may also be able to offer fixed-price options depending on the size, type, and complexity of the work involved.

We are pleased to discuss your requirements free of charge and tailor a costs proposal accordingly.