Prepare the first solicitor briefing for a business closure

A useful row contains the question, the parties involved, the document location, the current factual position and any event creating urgency. Keep proposed actions clearly marked.

Examples of questions to prepare include:

• Which agreement governs leaving the premises, and what correspondence has already been exchanged?
• Who can authorise the proposed equipment instruction for the relevant business?
• What needs checking before dealing with disputed property or an unfinished customer obligation?
• Does a proposed transfer or continued activity require other specialist advice?

These are prompts for a brief, not answers about your rights. The entity reference sheet helps stop contracts for different businesses being treated as one legal position.

Provide relevant side letters, variations and messages, not only the document that appears to support the preferred outcome. Explain any verbal discussion as a recollection and identify who participated. Do not turn a recollection into a confirmed contractual term.

If you have already given an instruction or made a promise, say so. The solicitor needs the actual sequence to advise on the next step. The decision evidence record can help assemble that chronology.

Keep original material and ask about an appropriate way to share it. Avoid altering documents to make a pack tidier or forwarding sensitive advice indiscriminately. Seek guidance about confidentiality and who should receive the response.

Ask what additional facts are needed and what remains unconfirmed. Agree who will obtain each item and which decision depends on the answer. Adviser scope and fees should make the commissioned work clear enough that neither side assumes a broader review has occurred.

The solicitor may identify a need for employment, tax, insolvency or other specialist input. Record that referral as an open dependency rather than treating the first meeting as approval of the whole closure.

For UK Auction Group, extract the relevant confirmed instruction and constraints once the proper advice and authority are established. The disposal brief should explain what can proceed and what is still being checked, without requiring the auctioneer to interpret a bundle of legal documents or resolve an unclear ownership dispute.

Explore advisers and sale authority.