From a Senior Lawyer who has run her own bricks and mortar business, so you get Commercial Law advice from someone who has signed the lease, negotiated with the landlord, and worked through the commercial issues herself.
Blaze Business & Legal provides Commercial Law services to construction businesses, business owners and SMEs in Brisbane and around Australia. Commercial Law covers the commercial, property, corporate and transactional legal work a business deals with alongside its project work and its day-to-day operations, including commercial contracts, commercial leases, employment contracts, shareholder agreements, joint ventures and Teaming Agreements, mergers and acquisitions, business restructuring, corporate governance, and the Business Legals every operating business needs in place.
Every Commercial Law matter is led personally by Rachelle Hare, a Senior Construction and Commercial Lawyer with 25+ years of legal experience. Alongside her legal career Rachelle has owned and run her own bricks and mortar businesses, which means Commercial Law advice at Blaze Business & Legal is delivered by someone who has lived the practical consequences of a badly-drafted commercial lease, an under-specified supply agreement, or a shareholder arrangement that nobody thought through before the business started making money.
Rachelle has owned and run her own bricks and mortar businesses and understands how commercial documents operate when the business is live and the cash is moving. Commercial Law advice is delivered with the perspective of a business owner, not just a lawyer reading the document in the abstract.
For construction businesses, commercial and construction issues rarely sit in separate boxes. A commercial lease on a new yard connects to the existing Project pipeline. A joint venture ties into the construction contract structure. Keeping both practice areas with one Senior Lawyer means advice accounts for the full picture, not just the document in front of you.
Rachelle's private practice experience at Corrs Chambers Westgarth and McCullough Robertson provides the technical legal foundation that sits beneath her commercial and in-house experience. Commercial Law advice is technically sound, drafted to top-tier private practice standards, and commercially practical.
Commercial Law matters for an SME look different to the same matters for a large ASX-listed corporate. Advice is scoped for the business in front of you, with fixed-price quotes before work starts, so SME owners and directors know exactly what they are paying for before they commit.
For construction business Clients, Commercial Law matters look different to the same matters for a hospitality operator or retail franchise. Lease reviews consider the yard and storage requirements. Supply agreements deal with material escalation and Principal flow-down. Employment contracts cover site-based work and KPI structures that match project delivery.
No junior handles substantive review, drafting or legal advice on any Commercial Law matter Blaze Business & Legal is engaged on. The experienced Commercial Lawyer Clients engage is the same person who reads the document, writes the advice, drafts the changes and supports the negotiations.
Commercial Law at Blaze Business & Legal is organised into five practice clusters. Each cluster brings together the services most often engaged together by Clients, so business owners dealing with (say) a new commercial lease can find the lease review alongside the related supply agreements, employment contracts and shareholder arrangements that typically come with growing a business.
Commercial contract drafting, review and negotiation across the full range of commercial documentation a business works with, including commercial contracts, supply and services agreements, distribution and agency agreements, employment contracts, confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, and the Business Legals documentation every business needs in place to operate compliantly online and at the point of sale.
Commercial and retail leasing is one of the areas where the difference between a Commercial Lawyer who has signed a lease themselves and one who has not is most obvious. Lease terms that look reasonable on paper can turn into significant liabilities once the business is operating in the premises. Blaze Business & Legal provides commercial lease review, negotiation, assignment and surrender work for construction businesses, SMEs and business owners taking on yards, offices, workshops, retail premises and storage facilities.
The commercial and corporate legal work that underpins how a construction business, SME or family-run operation is owned, governed and run. Shareholder agreements and director arrangements, corporate governance frameworks, joint ventures and Teaming Agreements, and business formation work, in close coordination with Shannon Drew's Construction Business Structuring service on the Business Advisory side of the practice.
Pre-litigation commercial dispute resolution, regulatory compliance across the commercial framework Australian businesses operate within, and the risk-focused legal work that prevents disputes from escalating. Where matters need formal litigation, Blaze Business & Legal works with trusted litigation partners and stays involved as the Client's commercial and strategic adviser throughout the process.
The commercial legal work involved in selling, buying, restructuring or exiting a business. Mergers and acquisitions, business and share sale and purchase transactions, due diligence, business restructuring, and exit strategy planning. Typically delivered alongside Business Advisory input from Shannon Drew on the financial, commercial and structural side.
The Commercial Law practice is designed for construction businesses with annual revenue between $5M and $100M, SMEs across residential, commercial, civil, infrastructure, mining services and defence sectors, and business owners and directors navigating the commercial decisions that sit around running and eventually exiting their business. Clients sit across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT and other Australian jurisdictions.
Every Commercial Law engagement follows the same structured process. Clients know what they are getting, what it costs, and who is doing the work, before anything starts.
Clients send the documents, describe the transaction or commercial arrangement, and set out any specific concerns. Rachelle reviews the enquiry personally and confirms the scope and approach before anything else happens.
Rachelle provides a fixed-price quote for the scope agreed. No legal work begins until the quote is accepted. Pricing is set per matter rather than hourly, so Clients know their legal spend upfront rather than watching a bill build against a timesheet.
Blaze Business & Legal issues a Disclosure Notice and Costs Agreement for signature, as required under Queensland Law Society rules. Scope, fees and deliverables are fully documented before the engagement formally begins.
Rachelle reviews the documents, prepares the drafting, or provides the advice personally. No junior handles substantive legal work. On review engagements, the output is a detailed email with dot-point advice and recommendations, prioritised by materiality and tied to concrete action points.
Where the engagement involves negotiation, Rachelle supports the negotiation phase directly, drafting amendments, responding to counter-proposals, and coordinating with the other party's lawyer. Clients always see the strategy before a position is put to the other side.
For businesses that engage Blaze Business & Legal on multiple Commercial Law matters over time, the External General Counsel service provides a retained legal function on a fixed monthly scope, covering both Commercial Law and Construction Law as required.
When I signed my first commercial lease on one of my own businesses, I thought I knew everything I needed to know. I was wrong. The make good provisions at the end of the lease were significantly more onerous than I had understood at signing, the outgoings and operating expenses were structured in a way that allowed the landlord to pass through costs I had not anticipated, and the assignment restrictions made it difficult to exit the lease cleanly when the time came. The legal review I had relied on was technically correct, but nobody had told me what the clauses meant for me as the tenant running the business.
That experience is one of the reasons I draft and review commercial leases differently to many Commercial Lawyers. Commercial Law advice at Blaze Business & Legal is written the way I would have wanted to receive it when I was signing the lease myself, priority-ranked around what will hurt the business if the commercial arrangement runs into trouble, rather than what looks tidy in a legal memo.
Blaze Business & Legal is based in Brisbane (Wavell Heights) and provides Commercial Law Brisbane services to construction businesses, business owners and SMEs across Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria and other Australian jurisdictions. The Brisbane base means Rachelle is familiar with Queensland-specific legislation, including the Retail Shop Leases Act 1994, the Fair Trading Act 1989, the Property Law Act 1974 (Qld), the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991, and the regulatory frameworks that apply to Brisbane businesses day to day. Clients looking for their Brisbane-based Lawyer can follow the link below.
For Brisbane-based Clients looking for local context on Queensland commercial legislation, retail leasing, Personal Property Securities Register registration, and the commercial documentation Brisbane businesses deal with day to day.
For Clients who also need Construction Law advice, covering QBCC licensing, the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017, Minimum Financial Requirements compliance, and Brisbane construction market conditions.
Rachelle is a Senior Construction and Commercial Lawyer, Business Adviser and Commercial Manager with 25+ years of experience across Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 construction contractors, top-tier private practice, and six years as a Commercial Manager for Defence and a Tier 2 Construction and Technology provider.
Her top-tier private practice experience at Corrs Chambers Westgarth and McCullough Robertson provides the formal commercial legal training that sits alongside her in-house and Commercial Manager experience. Her senior in-house roles include Acting General Counsel at Thiess, Senior Legal Counsel at Laing O'Rourke and Senior Legal Counsel at Acciona, with further in-house and advisory work at UGL, Golding and Airservices, and through the Australian Government Solicitor, Defence Housing Australia and the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group.
Alongside her legal career Rachelle has owned and run her own bricks and mortar businesses, which informs her approach to Commercial Law advice for business owners and SMEs navigating commercial leases, supply arrangements, shareholder matters, employment contracts and the commercial decisions that sit around their day-to-day operations. She has advised on commercial contracts and commercial transactions across Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria and other Australian jurisdictions.
Every Commercial Law matter is led personally by Rachelle, with a fixed-price quote before work starts, direct access and no junior handover, and advice reflecting 25+ years of legal practice and a career running businesses.
Blaze Business & Legal provides Commercial Law services across five practice clusters: Contracts and Agreements (commercial contracts, supply agreements, terms of trade, employment contracts, NDAs, Business Legals); Commercial Leasing and Property (commercial lease review, negotiation, retail lease advice, assignment and surrender); Corporate and Structuring (shareholder agreements, joint ventures, corporate governance, business formation); Commercial Disputes and Compliance (commercial dispute resolution, regulatory compliance, Privacy and Data Protection); and Exit and Transactions (mergers and acquisitions, business restructuring, exit strategy planning).
Yes. The primary Client base is construction businesses, SMEs and business owners, with most Commercial Law work delivered alongside related Construction Law work for construction Clients. Blaze Business & Legal also advises SMEs and businesses in related industries, and acts for non-construction businesses on a case-by-case basis, particularly where the matter involves commercial leasing, shareholder agreements, business sale and purchase, or employment contracts. Enquiries from outside construction are welcome.
Every Commercial Law matter is quoted on a fixed-price basis before work starts, so Clients know the cost upfront. Fixed pricing covers commercial lease reviews, commercial contract drafting and review, shareholder agreement preparation, joint venture documentation, mergers and acquisitions work, and standalone commercial legal advice. Retained External General Counsel arrangements are available on a fixed monthly retainer scoped to the business. There are no published dollar prices for Commercial Law services because pricing depends on the scope and complexity of the matter.
Yes. Blaze Business & Legal is based in Brisbane and provides Commercial Law services to businesses across Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria and other Australian jurisdictions. Rachelle is familiar with the commercial and regulatory frameworks applying in each state and territory, including retail shop lease legislation, Personal Property Securities Register requirements, privacy legislation, Unfair Contract Terms legislation, and Corporations Act 2001 requirements that apply nationally.
Commercial Law at Blaze Business & Legal covers employment contracts, independent contractor agreements, KPI frameworks, role descriptions, restraint of trade clauses, and the policies and procedures governing staff performance, roles and responsibilities. Blaze Business & Legal does not provide broader workplace relations, industrial relations, or Fair Work Act advisory work, which is typically handled by a dedicated employment law practice. For workplace relations matters Clients are referred to trusted employment law partners.
Blaze Business & Legal handles pre-litigation commercial disputes, early-stage negotiation, and alternative dispute resolution including mediation support. The focus is commercial resolution, rather than litigation. Where a dispute escalates to formal court proceedings, Blaze Business & Legal works with trusted litigation partners and stays involved as the Client's commercial and strategic adviser throughout.
Business Formation under Commercial Law covers the legal work involved in setting up a business, including incorporation, trust establishment, partnership formation, and the founding legal documentation. Construction Business Structuring on the Business Advisory side of the practice (delivered by Shannon Drew) covers the management accounting and tax-efficiency analysis that drives the choice of structure. Most businesses engaging Blaze Business & Legal on structuring receive both services together so the legal and commercial analysis are aligned.
Yes, and for construction business Clients that is typically how the engagement works. Rachelle is a Senior Construction and Commercial Lawyer and most matters pull in both disciplines, whether that is a commercial lease on a yard connected to the Project pipeline, a joint venture tied to a construction contract, or a business sale that requires review of the existing construction contracts alongside the corporate documentation. Keeping both practice areas with a single Senior Lawyer means advice accounts for the full picture.
Queensland Law Society rules require a Disclosure Notice and Costs Agreement at the start of every legal matter where fees are expected to exceed a prescribed threshold. The Disclosure Notice sets out scope, fees and deliverables, and the Costs Agreement is the formal engagement document between the Client and Blaze Business & Legal. Both are issued before substantive legal work begins, so Clients are never billed for work they did not agree to.
Yes. Alongside Commercial Law, Blaze Business & Legal provides Construction Law services (contracts, projects, disputes, compliance, risk, governance, External General Counsel), and a separate Business Advisory practice covering management accounting, fractional CFO services, construction business structuring, commercial advisory, operational advisory and Brisbane 2032 Olympics contractor readiness. More detail is on the Legal Services and Business Advisory pages.
