General Consultancy Agreements
In certain situations, it may not be practical or even desirable to take on a full-time employee; particularly if specialist knowledge or experience is only required for a limited period. A consultant is often the answer.
A General Consultancy Agreement will clearly define the services that are to be provided by the individual self-employed consultant or the consultancy company.
General Consultancy Agreements protect the interests of both parties, ensuring that the consultant or consultancy business is paid; and safeguarding valuable business information and intellectual property belonging to the client. Additional protection may come from the inclusion of non-competition and non-solicitation measures, limiting consultants’ freedom to provide services for competitors and to “poach” staff.
Whilst reasonable limits should be observed, a balanced General Consultancy Agreement will ensure the maximum benefit for all concerned, providing a clear structure for an efficient and effective business relationship.
We have provided a number of forms of Agreement for use by professionals. Some of them provide for an individual consultant, working as a self-employed sole trader, to contract personally with the client, and some of them provide for the client to contract with a consultancy business (a company) which engages the professionals to provide the services on its behalf.
As applicable, the information pages accompanying these templates highlight any risk that HMRC or employment law might regard the individual consultant as an employee rather than as a self-employed sole trader or that IR35, agency worker, employment law, or other legislation might have an adverse impact on the individual and/or the consultant company.