BOS Legal is a Sydney CBD firm led by a commercial litigator. Most of the disputes we run trace back to a document that was never signed, never drafted, or never read. Our advisory work exists to stop that happening to you. Contracts and agreements written for how businesses actually fall out, not how they hope to get along.
Fixed fees on most documents. Quoted before we start.
If one of these is on your desk right now - each one is a point where the right document saves you a dispute later. Tap the one that's yours.
Two names on the company and nothing in writing. The agreement you need is the one about how you'll split up.
The contract decides who wears the debts, the staff, the lease and the warranties after settlement.
Someone else's terms, drafted for them. Twenty minutes of review beats two years of dispute.
Terms of trade that actually let you charge interest, retain title and recover your costs.
Business lawyers for the documents that decide who wins later
Every commercial relationship ends one day. The business is sold, a partner leaves, a supplier fails, a customer stops paying. The document you signed at the start decides whether that ending costs you a conversation or a court case. That’s the lens we draft through. We act for business owners, directors, shareholders and investors across New South Wales, from first company to sale.
Decision-making, deadlock, exits, valuation, drag and tag, restraints, and what happens on death or divorce.
Pty Ltd, trusts, holding companies, constitutions and director arrangements, built around your accountant's tax advice.
Heads of agreement, due diligence, sale contracts, lease assignment, employee transfer, restraints and completion.
Supply, services, distribution, licensing, consultancy, subcontractor and joint venture agreements. Drafted, or reviewed before you sign.
Terms that survive a dispute: interest, retention of title, PPSR registration, personal guarantees and costs recovery.
Duties, conflicts, related-party dealings, minority protection, appointing and removing directors, share transfers and buy-backs.
Non-competes and NDAs a court will actually enforce, for employees, contractors and outgoing owners.
Reviewing and negotiating leases, assignments, options, make-good and Retail Leases Act obligations.
Reviewing franchise agreements and disclosure documents before you commit, and licensing your brand or product to others.
Consumer guarantees, unfair contract terms, advertising and pricing claims, and terms that hold up under the ACL.
Give us a call or send us a message, and we'll let you know how we can help. There's no charge for an initial conversation about your matter.
Most owners get these in the wrong order, usually after something has gone wrong. This is the order that avoids the dispute.
“Each document is cheapest at the stage it belongs to. A shareholders agreement at incorporation is a fixed-fee job. The same agreement negotiated after a falling-out is a mediation.
The one everyone skips.
Most disputes start hereThe documents that decide whether you get paid.
New money and new partners need new paper.
Warranties and adjustments decide the real price.
Most money is lost hereHow you leave is set by what you signed at stage 1.
Skipped a stage? It's usually fixable, and always cheaper now than after the falling-out.
Get these right and you may never see us as litigators. Every one of these has produced a Supreme Court matter.
Two 50% shareholders, no casting vote, no mechanism. The company can't act and neither can they. A deadlock clause with a forced-sale or shotgun mechanism ends it in weeks instead of years.
A partner wants out and nobody agreed how to price the shares. Every dollar of the valuation becomes a fight. Agree the formula while everyone is still friends.
A non-compete written too wide is a non-compete that doesn't exist. Courts read them down or refuse them. A restraint has to be tailored to what is actually being protected.
The buyer inherits a tax debt, a lease that can't be assigned, or staff entitlements nobody adjusted for. What the seller warranted, and for how long, decides who pays.
Your terms sit on your website and nowhere else, so the customer never agreed to them. The interest clause, the retention of title and the costs clause are worth nothing. Terms have to be accepted in writing before the first invoice.
A good agreement is one you never have to read again. That's the standard.
Advisory work suits fixed fees, so that’s how most of it is priced.
Shareholders agreements, terms of trade, contract reviews, company setup and sale of business contracts. You get a written fixed-fee quote after the first call and it doesn't move unless the scope does.
Negotiations, due diligence and bespoke deal work are quoted as a stage estimate, with a cap you approve before we start. Nothing runs past the cap without your say-so.
Hourly rate: $350 plus GSTTwenty minutes, no charge. Tell us what you're doing and we'll tell you which document you actually need, roughly what it costs, and whether you need us at all.
A defended shareholder dispute in the Supreme Court commonly costs each side $50,000 to $150,000 and runs 12 to 24 months. A shareholders agreement costs a fraction of that and takes about two weeks.
A guide only. Your quote comes in writing after the first call, once we know the scope.
Book the 20-minute call. You’ll have a fixed fee in writing the same day.
Erica is a commercial litigator and the principal of BOS Legal. She leads the firm's advisory work because she has spent her career at the other end of it: the shareholders agreement that didn't cover the exit, the sale contract with the warranty nobody read, the restraint that didn't hold. Every document she drafts is written against that experience.
With nearly twenty years in civil and commercial law, Erica has acted for corporations, business owners, builders and private clients in matters ranging from breach of contract and insolvency through to large group proceedings. She cuts through legal complexity and explains what actually matters, so clients can make confident decisions about their commercial position.
Her test for every clause is the same. If this goes wrong in three years, what does a judge do with it? If the answer isn't clear, the clause gets rewritten.
Built for the fight you’d rather not have
The person writing your agreement has run the dispute it is designed to prevent.
Most documents on a fixed fee, in writing, before any work starts.
Structures and business sales are tax decisions too. We work with your accountant, not around them.
Grosvenor Place. Most advisory work runs by phone, video and email, wherever you are in the state.
When it has already gone wrong
If the agreement was never signed, or it was and the other side has ignored it, that is a dispute rather than a drafting job. Same firm, same principal, different page.
No charge for the first conversation. Confidential.
Yes, and two-person companies need one most. Without an agreement you're governed by the company's constitution and the Corporations Act's replaceable rules, which say almost nothing useful about deadlock, exits, valuation or what happens when one of you wants out. Fifty-fifty with no agreement is the single most common way a business ends up in the Supreme Court.
The constitution is the company's rulebook and binds the company and its members. A shareholders agreement is a private contract between the shareholders and can cover things a constitution can't, or shouldn't, be public about: exit prices, restraints, funding obligations, dispute mechanisms. You want both, and they need to agree with each other.
You can, and it'll be fine right up until you need it. Templates are written for nobody, so the clauses that matter in a dispute (what happens on breach, how termination works, who wears which risk) are generic or missing. A reviewed template is a reasonable middle path. An unreviewed one is a gamble you find out about later.
For a small business purchase, legal fees are commonly a few thousand dollars for the contract and completion, more if due diligence is substantial or the lease is complicated. We quote a fixed fee after the first call. The cost of not doing due diligence is usually a liability you inherit at settlement: unpaid tax, staff entitlements, or a lease that can't be assigned.
Payment terms and interest on late payment, retention of title until you're paid, a right to register on the PPSR, personal guarantees from directors of company customers, a costs recovery clause, limitation of liability, and a clear acceptance mechanism so the customer has actually agreed to them. Terms that live only on your website usually fail the last test.
Only if they're reasonable. NSW courts will enforce a restraint that protects a legitimate interest (client relationships, confidential information, goodwill on a sale) for no longer and no wider than necessary. NSW has the Restraints of Trade Act, which lets a court read a restraint down rather than strike it out entirely, which helps, but a restraint written as wide as possible is still the one most likely to fail.
Before the heads of agreement, not after. The heads of agreement locks in price, structure and the big commercial terms. Once they're signed, the lawyer's job becomes damage control instead of negotiation.
Yes, and for structures and business sales we insist on it. Whether you buy assets or shares, whether the entity is a company or a trust, and how the price is apportioned are tax decisions with legal consequences. We work with your accountant so the legal documents match the tax advice.
Sydney and regional NSW court appearances for interstate and out-of-town solicitors. Fixed fee, same-day confirmation, court-by-court pricing.
Contract, shareholder, debt and business disputes in every NSW court. A written view on prospects and cost before you commit to a fight.
Local Court through to appeal. Charges, bail, drink and drug driving, licence suspension appeals and disqualification removal. Urgent matters answered the same day.
Unfair dismissal, general protections, redundancy and restraints of trade. Acting for employees and employers. Strict 21-day deadlines apply.
Separation, property settlement, parenting arrangements and de facto claims. Clear advice at a difficult time, without inflaming it.
Wills, powers of attorney, probate and estate administration, and contesting a will in NSW. Structured properly the first time, so your family isn't left arguing.
Leave your name and number. A lawyer calls you back, tells you where you stand and what happens next. No charge, no obligation.
Twenty minutes with a lawyer. You'll leave the call knowing where you stand, what your options are, and what the first step costs.
