Cerebral Valley’s Attorney is a legal consultancy providing commercial advisory services. These terms and conditions set out the basis on which we provide our services to you.
Our headquarter is 124 Goswell Road, EC1V 7DP, London, United-Kingdom, company number is 15586525.
Please note that all queries will be processed within 48 hours of being received. For any legal queries and documents, kindly send them directly to our Headquarters. For all other inquiries, due to a large volume of requests, we are doing our best to respond in due time. Your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated as we work to serve you better.
So what is a legal consultancy? A ‘legal consultancy’ is a new, innovative model of legal practice which has been available in the UK since 25 November 2019 stemming from changes introduced under the SRA Standards and Regulations 2019. The SRA’s stated intention in introducing this model was to “expand the ways in which solicitors can work in unregulated entities to promote increased opportunities for innovation, greater competition and a raising of standards and protections in the unregulated sector“.
Given our broad operational scope across several jurisdictions, we have strategically chosen not to have our headquarters regulated. This allows us the flexibility to operate more freely across borders. However, for any regulated activity, such as legal facilitation or litigation, we engage through partnered regulated entity.
By utilizing our services, you agree to adhere to these terms and conditions. Our services are rendered within specific common law jurisdictions influenced by British heritage, including the United Kingdom, the United States (excluding Louisiana), Canada (excluding Quebec), Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Cyprus, Malta, Fiji, The Bahamas, and Belize.
All services related to these jurisdictions are conducted solely from our London office. Our legal professionals, including attorneys, barristers, and solicitors based in London, provide commercial advisory services to clients from these jurisdictions. It is important to emphasize that we do not engage in unauthorized or illegal practice of law in these regions, as we lack physical presence or legal standing there.
Our activities are strictly limited to commercial advisory services, conducted entirely from our London office, in full compliance with the legal frameworks governing our operations under British law. All services are provided from London, by our team based in London.
This dual structure ensures compliance and adherence to legal standards within specific jurisdictions, while maintaining our global operational efficiency and innovation-driven approach. For more information, please feel free to reach out, and we will be pleased to provide further details about our legal structure and how we manage regulated activities.
The reason why we emphasize our role as a legal consultancy is because our operations span several jurisdictions and our work is primarily focused on advice, consultancy, and brokering deals between VCs and startups. This approach aligns with the SRA’s intention to “expand the ways in which solicitors can work in unregulated entities to promote increased opportunities for innovation, greater competition, and a raising of standards and protections in the unregulated sector.”
Operating from our London headquarters for our regular day-to-day business allows us to utilize this model effectively. If we need to intervene in regulated activity in specific jurisdictions, we operate through different legal entities. This flexibility enables us to manage a mix of regulated Barristers, Solicitors in England and Wales, as well as American Attorneys, who provide legal services to our clients in all respective jurisdictions.
As part of our legal consultancy model, Cerebral Valley’s Attorney manages a mix of regulated Barristers, regulated Solicitors in England and Wales as well as regulated American Attorneys who provide legal services to our clients in all respective jurisdiction.
Because we’re not SRA-regulated, it means we have a lower compliance burden and we’re able to significantly reduce our overhead costs when performing legal work. We are then able to pass on these cost savings to our clients, allowing us to provide high quality legal services to clients at a fraction of the cost of traditional firms.
Services
1.1 Our services are limited to commercial advisory services. We do not offer legal services in certain reserved areas, including appearing in court, conducting litigation, lodging certain property documents, conducting probate, administering oaths, and notarial activities. As such, Cerebral Valley’s Attorney does not operate in these areas. We find these areas are rarely applicable to our business clients seeking commercial advisory services.
Client must be aware that we are not regulated Chambers (but our Barrister, Solicitors and Attorneys are all regulated in their respective jurisdiction) and neither do we intend to present ourselves as such. We do not have insurance regarding court appearance as we don’t do any litigation, and we want to make sure all of our client are well aversed in that as we do not appear in court and do not specialise in it.
1.2 We will use reasonable care and skill in providing our services to you.
1.3 However, if requested and required to conduct reserved legal activities, we will engage third-party service providers with full PI insurance coverage, subject to our confidentiality obligations to you.
Fees
2.1 We will provide you with a fee estimate for our services, which will be based on the scope of work and complexity of the matter.
2.2 We will charge our fees on a time-spent basis, unless otherwise agreed in writing.
2.3 We may request a deposit or interim payment for our services.
Confidentiality and Privilege
3.1 We will keep confidential all information and documents provided to us by you, subject to our professional and legal obligations.
3.2 We may disclose your confidential information if required by law or if necessary to provide our services to you.
3.3 When working with traditional law firms, advice provided is considered “privileged”, meaning that correspondence between a client and solicitor can be withheld from a court or third party in connection with litigation proceedings. As a legal consultancy, certain advice we provide may not be privileged. However, this does not affect our confidentiality obligations to you, and our engagement letter confirms that any advice or discussions we have will be kept confidential. Given that Cerebral Valley’s Attorney do not operate in court-related or litigious matters, privilege is rarely an issue relevant to our kind of legal work.
Insurance and SRA CF
4.1 Cerebral Valley’s Attorney is not required to have professional indemnity insurance that meets the SRA’s minimum terms and conditions (MTCs) set out here.
4.2 Cerebral Valley’s Attorney clients will not be eligible to make a claim under the SRA Compensation Fund or the BSB’s equivalent compensation schemes, which is available to clients of regulated firms where their money has been stolen, misappropriated, or otherwise not properly accounted for; or in certain other limited circumstances. Considering we do not hold funds in escrow for clients in any transactional matters, this is not a pertinent risk to our clients.
4.3 Despite the exemptions, Cerebral Valley’s Attorney has voluntarily secured insurance coverage, albeit at different levels from those typically required by the SRA. This includes:
- Public Liability Insurance: The firm maintains public liability insurance up to 1,000,000$ for legal services.
- Professional Indemnity Insurance for Commercial Advisory Services: The firm also has professional indemnity insurance up to 500,000$ specifically for its commercial advisory services.
These voluntary insurance measures demonstrate a commitment to client protection and risk management, albeit within the context of the firm’s specific operational model and regulatory status. Clients should be aware of these tailored insurance provisions and understand how they differ from standard practices under the Solicitors Regulation Authority (England and Wales), Bar Standards Board (England and Wales) or American Bar Association (USA) regulations.
Intellectual Property
5.1 Any intellectual property created by us in the course of providing our services to you will remain the property of Cerebral Valley’s Attorney Legal Services.
5.2 You may use any intellectual property created by us for the purposes of your business.
Limitation of Liability
6.1 Our liability to you in connection with our services will be limited to the amount of our fees paid by you.
6.2 We will not be liable for any loss or damage that is not reasonably foreseeable or is outside of our control.
6.3 We will not be liable for any indirect, consequential, or special loss or damage, including loss of profit or business interruption.
6.4 Nothing in these terms and conditions excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, fraud, or fraudulent misrepresentation.
Termination
7.1 Either party may terminate our engagement by giving written notice to the other party.
7.2 Upon termination, we will provide you with a final invoice for our services rendered
Governing Law and Jurisdiction
8.1 These terms and conditions will be governed by and construed in accordance with English law.
8.2 Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these terms and conditions will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
Conclusion
By engaging our services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to these terms and conditions. These terms and conditions will supersede any prior agreements between us relating to the subject matter of our engagement.