Instructing us
How to instruct Devol Legal
Process
The process, step by step
- 01
Get in touch
A short email or call is enough to begin. Describe the issue in outline, the decision or deadline it relates to, and who else is involved.
- 02
Initial discussion
We speak for thirty minutes or so, without charge and without obligation. The purpose is to establish whether there is a problem worth addressing, whether we are the right practice for it, and what a proportionate response looks like.
- 03
Conflict check
Before any work begins we check the parties and subject matter against existing and previous engagements. Where a conflict exists we say so immediately and decline.
- 04
Scope and fee proposal
You receive a short written proposal setting out what will be delivered, the fee basis, the timetable and any assumptions. Nothing starts until you have confirmed it.
- 05
The work
The engagement is handled personally. Where additional capacity or a specialism outside the core practice is required, that is discussed with you and the individual is named before they begin.
- 06
Delivery and follow-through
Advice is delivered in a form your organisation can use, whether that is a written opinion, a redrafted framework, a report to members or a working session with the team. Where implementation support is useful, it is available.
Fees
Fee basis
We do not operate a six-minute unit. Fees are agreed in advance on whichever of the following bases suits the work, and we will tell you if we think a different basis would serve you better.
Fixed fee
Preferred for defined pieces of work: a policy review, a framework redraft, a training programme or a governance assessment. You know the cost before the work begins.
Day rate
Suited to advisory support of uncertain length, review work and workshop facilitation. Agreed in advance with an estimate of days and a checkpoint before that estimate is exceeded.
Retained advisory support
A defined allocation of time each month for organisations that want a regular route to advice without raising a new instruction each time.
Programme support
For longer transformation or modernisation work, priced against agreed phases with defined deliverables at each stage.
You can ask for a quotation for any of the work on this site, whether you are the public body itself or its legal adviser. Once we have enough information about the matter, we will send one in writing, in plain terms and within a reasonable time.
What affects timescales
- The scale of the issue and the volume of material to review
- Any fixed committee, hearing or decision date
- How quickly documents and information can be provided
- How many people need to be consulted or interviewed
- Whether formal consultation or member approval is needed
Procurement
Routes to instruction
Direct instruction
Most instructions come directly from the client organisation, usually through legal services, the monitoring officer or the responsible service lead.
Below-threshold and light-touch routes
Many advisory instructions fall below the relevant threshold under the Procurement Act 2023, and can be awarded under the authority's own contract procedure rules. We are glad to supply whatever the authority's process requires.
Frameworks and dynamic markets
We can be engaged through frameworks and dynamic markets where the authority prefers that route. Tell us which arrangements you use and we will confirm whether we can be accessed through them.
Through your legal advisers
We are frequently instructed alongside an in-house team or an external firm, providing specialist input on a defined question rather than taking carriage of the matter.
Supplier details
For procurement teams
The details most supplier forms ask for. If your process needs anything else, ask and we will provide it.
- Supplier
- Devol Legal Limited
- Company number
- 16562571, registered in England and Wales
- VAT number
- GB 499 7797 80
- Registered office
- Unit 53c, Unimix House, Abbey Road, London NW10 7TR
- Regulation
- Lee Vallender is a barrister regulated by the Bar Standards Board
- Professional indemnity insurance
- Arranged through Lockton. Certificate available on request.
Preparation
What is useful to send
None of this is required in order to make contact, and an initial discussion can happen without any of it. It simply speeds matters up.
- A short description of the issue and the outcome you need
- Any deadline, committee date or decision point that governs the timetable
- The current policy, framework or documentation in question
- Relevant correspondence, audit findings or scrutiny reports
- Who else is involved internally, and who the decision ultimately sits with
Please do not send confidential or highly sensitive material before we have confirmed there is no conflict.
Once the conflict check is complete we will provide a secure route for exchanging documents.
How engagements are delivered
Devol Legal works remotely across England and Wales. Advice, workshops, committee support and training are delivered by secure video conference and structured written work, with documents exchanged through a secure channel agreed at the outset.
This is a deliberate model rather than a limitation. It keeps overheads out of the fee, it makes short-notice availability realistic, and it means an authority in Cornwall receives the same responsiveness as one in Greater Manchester.
Initial discussion
Ready to talk it through?
The first conversation is confidential, carries no obligation, and often resolves the immediate question on its own.