Penn · Covenant Arrange a first meetingFirst meeting
Leather-bound volumes on a dark wooden shelf, lamps reflected in the glass
Penn Covenant · Solicitors · Est. 1987

Three things every matter is made of.We read all of the first, watch all of the second, and take the third seriously enough to slow you down before it.

Arrange a first meeting

A firm of eleven. Contracts, disputes, property, and the people behind them. No department you'll never meet.

Practice

Four things we do. Nothing we don't.

If your matter isn't on this list, we'll say so in the first ten minutes and give you two names who do it well.

01Commercial contractsSupply, services, licensing, shareholders' agreements. Drafted to be read, not to be long.
02DisputesWe settle most of them. We've tried the rest. You'll know which yours is by the second meeting.
03PropertyCommercial leases, purchases, the things landlords put in clause 14. We read clause 14.
04Private clientWills, trusts, powers of attorney. Written so the people who inherit them can understand them.
01 · Paper

We read the whole thing. Then we cut.

Every word left in a contract is a word that can be used later. The draft we send back is shorter than the one we received. Always.

0words removed from a 42-page draft
Services Agreement · Draft 3
1"Reasonable endeavours" deleted. Replaced with "shall".
2Liability cap inserted: 12 months' fees. Was uncapped.
3Auto-renewal struck. Term ends when it ends.
4Governing law: England and Wales. Was silent.
A long library aisle lit by a line of hanging bulbs
02 · Time

Every matter has a clock. We put it on the wall.

Day 01
of nineteen · one contract, start to signature
09 Jan · 09:12
Instruction received. Conflict check started before the call ended.
09 Jan · 15:40
Conflict cleared. Engagement letter sent. Fixed fee stated in it. It doesn't change.
14 Jan
First draft. 42 pages, nine of them ours. Sent to you first, with a page of what matters.
21 Jan
Their redline back. 31 comments. 27 accepted the same day. Four fought.
27 Jan
The four settled by phone. Fifty minutes. Their counsel, ours, you listening in.
28 Jan · 16:40
Signed. Counterparts exchanged. Clock stops. Invoice matches the letter from 09 Jan.
A hand signing a document with a pen on a dark desk
03 · Consequence

A signature is the one step that can't be undone.

So it is the last thing you do here, not the first. Nothing is signed in a first meeting. Nothing is signed on the day it's read. If someone is rushing you, that is the first thing we want to know about.

Fees

The number is in the letter, and the letter comes first.

Defined matters get a fixed fee, written down before we start. Everything else is hourly, billed to the minute, with a statement every Friday so nothing arrives as a surprise.

First meetingForty-five minutes, in person or by phone. You leave knowing whether we're the right firm and roughly what it costs.
No charge
Fixed-fee mattersLeases, standard agreements, wills, powers of attorney. Quoted in writing. If it takes us longer, that's ours.
From £900
Hourly workDisputes, bespoke drafting, negotiations. Partner and associate rates stated separately. Six-minute units, never rounded up.
£260–£340 /hr
No success fees. No "disbursements" you didn't ask about. No engagement letter longer than two pages.
Partner · ContractsEleanor Penn

Founded the firm in 1987 with one client and a typewriter. Still reads every draft that goes out under the name.

Partner · DisputesMarcus Oyelaran

Twenty-two years in commercial litigation. Settles eighty per cent of what he's given. Enjoys the other twenty.

Partner · Property & private clientRuth Halloran

Leases, wills, trusts. Writes them for the person who'll have to read them in a bad week, years from now.

Begin

Arrange a first meeting.

Forty-five minutes, no charge, no obligation. Bring the paper. We'll tell you what's in it.

Arrange a first meeting