Start-up Lawyer
Expert Legal Advice for Start-ups and New Businesses
Dedicated Lawyers for Start-up Businesses
Starting a small business is exciting—but getting the legal foundations right is critical.
Gladwin Legal helps start-ups and new businesses launch with confidence. From day one, our lawyers who are experienced with business start-ups put the right structures, documents, and protections in place so you can focus on growth, not risk.
We handle the legal essentials—business structures, contracts, trademarks, privacy policies, shareholder agreements, intellectual property, and more—removing uncertainty and mitigating costly mistakes before they happen.
Gladwin Legal works with new businesses at every stage—before launch, during growth, and as operations scale—providing clear, practical legal advice to help your new business operate efficiently, compliantly, and with confidence.
Build it right from the start. Speak to Gladwin Legal’s start-up lawyers today.
An Award-Winning Lawyer for Start-ups
Why Choose Us As Your Start-up Business Lawyer?
Cost-Effective Solutions & Flexible Fee Structures
We offer smart, affordable legal solutions tailored to your budget—plus flexible fee options, including fixed fees and payment plans, to give you clarity and control throughout the legal process. No more legal fee shock!
Award-Winning Legal Advice on Call
We set the standard in retail legal advice—earning industry awards and the trust of retailers nationwide—with clear, timely, and efficient service. You can be confident you’ll get the right legal support when and where you need it.
Specialist Start-up Lawyers
Our experienced start-up lawyers are specialists in the retail sector, serving a range of commercial industries and offering in-depth expertise and practical guidance every step of the way.
Putting Your New Business on the Path to Success
Trusted Legal Services for Start-up Businesses
Ready to kickstart your business? As award-winning lawyers for start-ups in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and beyond, we offer all of the expert legal advice and high-quality legal services you need to set your new business up for success.
We’ve built a reputation as a leading start-up lawyer in Australia because we:
- Deliver real results with a no-fluff approach
- Are experts in retail law
- Provide holistic legal support, from one-off issues to ongoing business growth
- Prioritise your business and put your needs first
Manage Your New Business Legal Needs With Ease
Simple, Reliable and Affordable Legal Services for Start-ups
Gladwin Legal’s start-up legal services include:
- Choosing the right business structure and entity setup
- Drafting founders’ or shareholders’ agreements
- Preparing client, supplier, and contractor contracts
- Protecting intellectual property, branding and trademarks
- Creating privacy policies and website terms
- Ensuring compliance with Australian business and consumer laws
- Providing ongoing legal advice and dispute prevention
- Running trade promotions
- Reviewing leases and property sale & purchase contracts
Managing legal risk as the business grows and scales
- Reviews -
What Our Clients Say About Us
Rosalyn and Megan helped me get my online business ready to launch 3 years ago and I'm so very grateful that I reached out to them.Three years on we're still going strong and just had both legal documents updated by Rosalyn & Megan. Both times the whole process was super transparent, effortless (on my end), and very professional.
It is refreshing to find great service and communication in the corporate world.Gladwin Legal are just that but more specifically Roslyn Gladwin, the actual person behind the name brings these qualities to the table coupled with a deep knowledge of retail law and matched expertise
I had the opportunity to experience the expertise of Gladwin legal; they assisted our business with contract agreements and provided us with valuable advice.The process was professional and always responsive to our needs. Thank you, Rosalyn and all the team at Gladwin Legal.
Gladwin Legal is a firm that understands retail. Their advice is prompt and pragmatic, and they take a proactive approach to contract negotiations. It allows us to focus on what we do best, designing, brand building and retailing, while they look after the legal issues.
Gladwin Legal is an exceptional law firm which has worked closely with our business in a range of legal matters including corporate restructure, IT agreements, privacy policy and trade mark applications. They understand the technicality of agreements and can draft, explain and negotiate these in plain English. We look forward to the continuing assistance from the team at Gladwin Legal in developing and growing our business.
- Meet Our Start-up Lawyers -
Your Start-up Business Legal Experts
Rosalyn Gladwin
Principal
Josh Gladwin
Practice Leader | Disputes and Litigation
Alessandra Dela Cruz
Lawyer
More Than Just Start-up Legal Advice
Other Legal Services
THE RETAILERS CHOICE
Best Legal Firm – NORA
Excellence Awards
2018 & 2019
Rosalyn Gladwin, Principal
- FAQs
Start-up Business Frequently Asked Questions
It is a legal requirement that you have a registered business name if you are trading as any other name other than your Pty Ltd company name (or other registered organisation name) or your personal name. This allows consumers to be confident that they can ultimately determine with whom they are doing business. Fines can apply if you are trading under a name that is not your personal name, company name or registered business name.
It’s important to ensure that your employment terms and conditions are consistent with the Australian workplace laws, which may include specific Awards applicable to the roles. Additionally, depending on the size of your business, you may wish to have policies such as social media policies; more recently, businesses have included AI policies and, of course, codes of conduct that outline acceptable behaviour.
We like to use this analogy – you could possibly learn how to do a tooth filling on YouTube, but you go to a dentist. You also have an accountant who does your taxes. So, by the same token, it is recommended that if you are not an expert in legal matters, you consult a lawyer to ensure that you are set up and protected right from the start. Sometimes saving money in the short term can cost you significantly more down the track. For example, if you don’t register your trade mark correctly, you could have a copycat steal your brand from under you, resulting in the need to rebrand, or if you don’t register your design for your product, you may lose the ability to do so in the future. Additionally, we often see shareholder disputes arise when businesses don’t address the corporate governance matters at the beginning of their relationship.
The best way is to speak with a lawyer to confirm what rights you need to register. Often, clients are not aware of the correct mode of IP protection required for their intellectual property. For example, a drawing or photograph is automatically protected by copyright laws, but this may not provide sufficient protection as a trade mark if someone were to create their own independent but similar logo for a competing business.
Having a documented agreement with both your suppliers and customers minimises the risks of misunderstandings, can protect your rights and also limit your liability. For example, you may wish to include a clause in your manufacturing agreement as to how the rejected stock is dealt with – for example, is your supplier free to sell rejected items on AliExpress, or if they include your brand or are a bespoke product do you require that they are handed over or destroyed? These types of matters, and more, are dealt with in documented agreements. If they are not documented, then matters may be missed, or it will be a case of ‘he said/she said’ if a dispute arises.