The honest answer first
I've reviewed a lot of contracts over twenty years, and the uncomfortable truth is most of them didn't need me. A routine supplier agreement on familiar terms, from a counterparty you trust, at a value that wouldn't sink you if it went wrong, is usually fine to sign as it stands.
What I'm looking for isn't "is this a contract", it's "does this contract have teeth I can't see from here". That's a different question, and it's the one worth asking before you decide whether to pay for a review.
The cost of a review should never be your only test. The cost of getting it wrong is the one that matters.
When you genuinely need a solicitor
These are the situations where I'd tell a client to stop and get proper eyes on it, no exceptions:
- The value is material. If the contract, over its life, represents a meaningful chunk of your annual revenue, the cost of a review is trivial next to the exposure.
- The other side is significantly bigger than you. Larger counterparties draft in their own favour, reasonably enough. Their standard terms are rarely neutral.
- There's an indemnity you don't fully understand. An indemnity is a promise to cover a specific loss, and it doesn't work like a normal damages claim. If you can't explain what you'd actually be on the hook for, that's the answer.
- It restricts what you can do after the relationship ends. Non-competes, exclusivity, post-termination restrictions - these often reach further than they look on first read.
- Intellectual property matters to the relationship. If you're commissioning work and the output is genuinely important to your business, get the assignment wording checked.
- Something in it makes you pause. Not a legal reason. A real one. If a clause makes you re-read it twice, that instinct is usually right.
When you probably don't
Equally, I'd say don't bother, for these:
- Low-value, low-risk supplier agreements on standard market terms.
- Anything you've signed before from the same counterparty with no material changes.
- Internal agreements between connected parties where the commercial relationship, not the paper, is doing the real work.
Paying a solicitor to review every contract that crosses your desk isn't caution, it's just an expensive habit. The skill is knowing which pile a contract belongs in.
What a proper review actually looks like
A good contract review isn't a read-through with a red pen. It's a short, structured piece of work:
- Read the whole thing once for shape, before marking anything up.
- Identify where the real risk sits, usually four or five clauses, not forty.
- Flag what to push back on, and what's standard enough to accept.
- Give you a plain-English summary you can act on, not a marked-up document you have to interpret yourself.
Done properly, this is an hour or two of work, not a week. It's also almost always cheaper than the dispute you'd have had without it.
A short review that changes one clause has usually paid for itself before you've even signed.
Where Silva fits
You don't need a full-service law firm on retainer to get this right. What most businesses actually need is someone to call when a contract lands that feels different from the last one, who can turn a review round quickly and tell you plainly what matters and what doesn't.
That's the day-to-day work Silva does, fixed fee, senior review, no drama.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a solicitor to review every contract?
No - most routine contracts on familiar terms, from a counterparty you trust, at a value that wouldn't sink you if it went wrong, are fine to sign as they stand. Paying for a review of every contract that crosses your desk isn't caution, it's just an expensive habit.
When do you genuinely need a solicitor for a contract?
Get proper eyes on it when the value is material to your annual revenue, the other side is significantly bigger than you, there's an indemnity you don't fully understand, it restricts what you can do after the relationship ends, or something in it makes you pause for a reason you can't quite name.
What does a proper contract review actually involve?
A good review reads the whole document once for shape before marking anything up, identifies where the real risk sits - usually four or five clauses rather than forty - flags what to push back on, and gives you a plain-English summary you can act on. Done properly, it's an hour or two of work, not a week.
Is a contract review worth the cost?
Almost always, yes. A short review that changes one clause has usually paid for itself before you've even signed, and it's almost always cheaper than the dispute you'd have had without it.
Got a contract that needs a proper look?
Silva's day-to-day legal service covers contract review and drafting for businesses of all sizes. Fixed fees, senior lawyers, plain answers.