Free check · about two minutes

Is a Discovery Day right for you?

A Legal Discovery Day maps your whole legal position in a day and hands you a written report. It suits some businesses very well and is the wrong purchase for others. Seven questions, an honest answer, and if the answer is no we will say which thing to look at instead. No email needed to see your result.

The questions are listed in full below. With JavaScript enabled they come one at a time and add up to a result.

  1. What is prompting you to look at this?

    The honest answer changes the recommendation more than anything else here.

    1. Something specific has gone wrong, or I have one clear question
    2. Nothing is wrong, but I do not know where we stand
    3. Something significant is coming up
    4. Someone suggested we should
  2. When did anyone last look at your legal position as a whole?

    Not one contract - the whole picture. Most businesses have never done it.

    1. Never
    2. More than two years ago
    3. Within the last year
    4. We have ongoing legal support
  3. How many people do you employ or engage?

    Headcount is a decent proxy for how much paperwork has quietly accumulated.

    1. None yet
    2. 1 to 10
    3. 11 to 50
    4. More than 50
  4. Your customer contracts - which is closest?

    Where most of the risk in a growing business actually sits.

    1. Our own terms, reviewed by a lawyer
    2. Our own terms, never properly reviewed
    3. We mostly sign the customer's paperwork
    4. Nothing written down
  5. In the next twelve months, do you expect to raise investment, sell, buy, expand abroad, or make a major hire?

    These are the events which turn an untidy legal position into a priced problem.

    1. Yes, one or more
    2. Possibly
    3. No, steady as we go
  6. Is anything actively in dispute right now?

    A live dispute needs handling on its own terms, not folding into a health check.

    1. Yes, something is live
    2. No
  7. If the report listed fifteen things worth fixing, who would act on them?

    The question nobody asks, and the one which decides whether the day is worth the money.

    1. Me, and I would make the time
    2. We have someone who would
    3. Honestly, probably nobody

What your answers point to

    Want this in writing?

    Send yourself the summary. I will read the answers before we speak, and if a Discovery Day is not the right purchase I will tell you that rather than book one.

    Or just get in touch

    Your answers travel with the summary so we are not starting from scratch. Nothing is sent anywhere until you press the button, and this will not add you to a mailing list - the sign-up for that is in the footer and is a separate thing.

    This is a guide to a decision, not advice. It works from seven answers and cannot see your contracts, your sector or what is actually keeping you awake, so treat it as the questions worth asking rather than a verdict. Silva Lex Ltd is a legal advisory business, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice.

    How the check reaches an answer

    Seven questions, each weighted, added up. A Discovery Day is a fixed-fee review of your whole legal position, so what decides whether it fits is not any single fault - it is how much there is to look at, whether something is coming that will expose it, and whether anyone will act on what comes back.

    Three positions come out of it, and one of them is a recommendation not to buy.

    Green

    A Discovery Day is the right instrument for you.

    There is enough accumulated to be worth mapping, a reason to do it now rather than eventually, and someone who will act on the report. That is the combination the day is built for. It is a fixed fee agreed before anything starts - from £2,250 + VAT - covering the discovery call, the review, the workshop, the written report and a follow-up.

    Amber

    The need is real. A full day may be more than it warrants.

    Something here is worth looking at, but not necessarily across a whole day and a whole report. A short conversation will establish whether the answer is a Discovery Day, a single piece of work, or nothing at all. That conversation is free and takes about ten minutes.

    Red

    A Discovery Day is not what you need right now.

    That is a real answer rather than a polite one. Either there is a specific thing to deal with which a health check would only delay, or there is not yet enough in place to be worth reviewing. What your answers point to is listed below, and it is a better use of your money than a day with us.

    What the answers point to

    Each answer can raise one of these. They are listed in the order the check prioritises them, and the result shows the ones your answers actually raised.

    1. Something is live right now

      A dispute in progress needs handling on its own terms. A health check would map around it and cost you a fortnight you may not have. Deal with the live matter first; the wider review keeps.

      When a contract goes wrong
    2. Nobody would act on the report

      This is the honest one. A Discovery Day produces a prioritised list of things to fix, and a list nobody works through is an expensive document. If that is where you are, the money is better spent on the single thing which worries you most, done properly.

      Day-to-day legal support
    3. Nothing written down

      Every deal runs on whatever was said in the emails. You still have contracts - English law does not require a signed document - but nobody knows what is in them. That is a piece of drafting, and it is worth doing before anyone reviews anything.

      A commercial contract, start to finish
    4. You have one clear question

      A whole-position review is the wrong shape for a specific problem. Ask the question directly and get it answered, which is faster and considerably cheaper. Come back to the wider picture when nothing is on fire.

      Day-to-day legal support
    5. Not much to review yet

      With no people engaged and little paperwork, there is not enough accumulated for a day to earn its fee. Get the foundations in - terms, a contract you are happy to send out - and the review becomes worth having a year from now.

      Check your terms first
    6. You already have ongoing support

      If someone is already looking at this continuously, a one-off review duplicates work you are paying for. Ask them for the whole-position view instead. If you are not getting it, that is a conversation about the retainer rather than a reason to buy a day.

      A legal retainer, and how to make it pay
    7. Something significant is coming

      Raising, selling, buying, expanding abroad or a step change in headcount all turn an untidy legal position into a priced problem. This is the strongest single reason to map it beforehand rather than during diligence, when someone else is doing the finding.

      Due diligence, before you buy
    8. You mostly sign the customer's paperwork

      Every deal is on someone else's terms, which means your risk position differs by customer and nobody has the whole picture. That is exactly the kind of thing a review is good at surfacing.

      A commercial contract, start to finish
    9. Your terms have never been reviewed

      Terms which have never been looked at tend to be silent in the places which matter and heavy in places which do not. Worth a check on its own, and worth including if a wider review goes ahead.

      Are your terms doing their job?
    10. Nobody has ever looked at the whole picture

      Individual documents get attention when they are signed. The position they add up to usually does not, and that is where the surprises live.

      What a Discovery Day covers
    11. The last look was over two years ago

      Two years is long enough for the business to have changed shape - new products, bigger contracts, more people - while the paperwork stayed where it was.

      What a Discovery Day covers

    Frequently asked questions

    What is a Legal Discovery Day?

    A fixed-fee review of a business's whole legal position, run over five steps: a discovery call to scope it, a review of the documents you share, an on-site workshop of half a day to a day, a written report within five days, and a follow-up session. The output is a prioritised list of what to fix, costed sensibly, which you can act on yourself or with help.

    How much does a Legal Discovery Day cost?

    From £2,250 + VAT, agreed before anything starts and fixed. That covers the whole process including the report and the follow-up. Current figures for this and everything else are on the pricing page.

    Do I need to give my email to use this check?

    No. The result appears on screen and you can close the page. There is an option to have the summary emailed to you if you want it in writing, and a separate sign-up in the footer if you want occasional updates - the two are deliberately not the same thing.

    What if the check says a Discovery Day is not for me?

    Then it is not, and it will say which thing to look at instead - a specific piece of advice, your terms, a live dispute, or simply waiting until there is more to review. A day sold to someone who does not need one is a bad outcome for both sides.

    Rather just ask?

    If you would sooner describe the situation than answer questions about it, that works too. A short conversation costs nothing and we will tell you honestly whether a Discovery Day fits.