One phrase, two products
The confusion is not the buyer's fault. Both products are legitimately described as an employment law retainer, both are sold on a fixed monthly fee, and both promise ongoing access to employment expertise. The difference only becomes obvious once something happens.
Broadly: one is built around process and volume - the day-to-day machinery of employing people, with legal cover wrapped around it. The other is built around judgement on specific questions, usually as part of a wider commercial relationship.
If the phrase you would naturally use is "we need HR support", you almost certainly want the first. If it is "we need a lawyer we can ask", you want the second.
The HR outsourcing version
This is the larger market, and the providers in it are specialists at scale. A typical package includes an advice line staffed through the working day and often around the clock, a set of employment contracts and a staff handbook kept current with the law, support through disciplinaries, grievances and redundancies, and representation or insurance if a claim reaches a tribunal.
For a business employing thirty people without anyone whose actual job is HR, this is good value and hard to replicate. The volume of process an employer generates - probation reviews, absence management, flexible working requests, right-to-work checks - is real work, and it is not work a commercial solicitor should be doing at solicitor rates.
What to look at before buying: the length of the minimum term, which are frequently three to five years and rather longer than people notice; whether tribunal cover is insurance or a service, and what it excludes; and whether the advice comes from qualified lawyers or trained advisers, both of which can be fine but are not the same thing.
The solicitor version
The other version is narrower and deeper. It is access to a commercial lawyer for the employment questions which carry real consequence - a senior exit, a settlement agreement, a TUPE issue on an acquisition, whether a contractor is genuinely self-employed, a restrictive covenant somebody wants to enforce or escape.
It does not come with a helpline, a handbook or a tribunal seat. It comes with somebody who knows the business and can tell you what the actual exposure is, which is a different service from telling you what the process is.
At Silva this is not sold as a standalone employment retainer, and the reason is practical: employment questions almost never arrive on their own. They come mixed in with the supplier contract, the acquisition, the shareholder falling out. So employment advice sits inside the general retainer rather than in a separate arrangement, and the retainer guide covers how the scoping works.
Which one you actually need
Three situations, and the honest answer in each.
- You employ people and have no HR function. Buy the HR package. It will handle the volume, the templates and the process, and it will cost less than having a solicitor do any of that. This is the most common case and it is not us.
- You have HR, or few enough employees that process is not the problem, but decisions carry weight. A solicitor's retainer fits, and it should sit alongside your commercial work rather than beside it in a separate contract.
- Both. Larger businesses frequently run an HR provider for process and a commercial adviser for judgement, and the two do not conflict. If anything they work better together, because the HR provider handles what it is good at and the lawyer is not being asked about absence policies.
We would rather send you to the right kind of provider than sell you a retainer which quietly does not cover what you were worried about. If you are unsure which situation you are in, the conversation costs nothing and takes about ten minutes.
Frequently asked questions
What is an employment law retainer?
A fixed monthly or annual fee giving a business ongoing access to employment law advice, rather than paying per matter. In practice the term covers two different products: HR outsourcing packages which bundle a helpline, handbooks, process support and often tribunal cover; and solicitors' retainers which provide advice on specific employment questions without the administrative layer.
How much does an employment law retainer cost?
HR outsourcing packages are commonly priced per employee per month and typically involve a multi-year minimum term, so the headline monthly figure and the total commitment can differ substantially. A solicitor's retainer is usually a flat monthly fee set by scope rather than headcount. Silva's general retainer, which includes employment advice, starts at £775 + VAT a month.
Does a retainer cover employment tribunal representation?
Not usually, and this is the most important thing to check. Tribunal cover is often a separate insurance product or an add-on with its own exclusions, even where it appears in the same brochure. Silva does not provide tribunal representation at all, and would refer you to a specialist employment practice or your HR provider where a claim is in prospect.
Can one adviser cover both HR and commercial legal work?
Rarely well. The HR side is high-volume process work, and the commercial side is lower-volume judgement work, and the economics of doing both properly do not usually sit in one provider at SME scale. Many businesses run an HR provider alongside a commercial adviser, which tends to work better than asking either to stretch.
Not sure which you need?
If the answer is an HR provider we will tell you, and point you at the kind of thing to look for. If it is a commercial solicitor who can handle the employment questions alongside everything else, that is what Silva does.