How do I engage Blaze Business & Legal?
To engage Blaze Business & Legal for Legal Services, call Rachelle Hare on (07) 3063 3373 for a free chat about how we can help. We’ll send a fixed-price Quotation by email for the services we discussed, carry out a conflict search, send you Onboarding forms to complete, carry out any required Due Diligence and then send you a Disclosure and Costs Agreement to sign. Our firm is engaged as your Lawyer when you sign and return that agreement. For Business Advisory Services, speak with Rachelle Hare or Shannon Drew, complete and return the Onboarding forms sent with our fixed-price Quotation, then reply to our email to accept the Quotation and its terms for our consulting engagement.
Making an enquiry, discussing possible work or receiving a Quotation is free and confidential and does not engage Blaze Business & Legal as your Lawyer or Consultant. It’s completely up to you whether you engage us.
How Would You Engage Blaze Business & Legal for Our Legal Services?
To engage us for our Legal Services, you would follow the steps below. Your enquiry would be free, confidential and without any obligation to proceed.
How to Work With Rachelle Hare for Construction Law and Commercial Law Services
1 Have a Preliminary Chat With Rachelle Hare at No Cost
Speak Directly With Rachelle
Call Rachelle Hare directly on (07) 3063 3373 for a free chat about your Construction Contract, your Commercial Contract, your Construction Project Delivery or other legal needs and how Blaze Business & Legal may help. We do not have reception staff or an intake team, so you get through directly to Rachelle when you call.
Work With an Experienced Construction and Commercial Lawyer
Rachelle is the Legal Practitioner Director of our Law Firm. She is the Senior Construction Lawyer in Brisbane and Senior Commercial Lawyer in Brisbane who would carry out your Legal Services. Rachelle has more than 25 years of legal, commercial and construction industry experience. For most enquiries, she will be able to tell you whether Blaze Business & Legal may be able to help and explain the next steps.
What Can You Discuss During Your Preliminary Chat?
Your preliminary chat with Rachelle does not involve her providing Legal Services to you. It gives you an opportunity to:
- tell Rachelle about your business;
- describe the type of Legal Services you need;
- tell her who the other parties are;
- let her know if you have any deadlines;
- ask about her hourly rate and indicative pricing; and
- ask for Rachelle’s preliminary opinion about the type of advice we could provide after we are engaged.
Please tell us if you have any deadlines, as Rachelle will need to consider the available time when deciding whether Blaze Business & Legal may be able to help.
2 Send the Documents Rachelle Needs
What Documents May Rachelle Ask You to Send?
Rachelle may ask you to send the relevant contract, correspondence or background documents. For a Construction Law enquiry, this could include a tender, Construction Contract, subcontract, variation, payment claim, notice or Project correspondence. For a Commercial Law enquiry, this could include a proposed Commercial Contract, existing agreement, company document or correspondence about the transaction.
Why Would Rachelle Review These Documents?
Rachelle would review the documents at a high level so she could understand the work involved, scope our proposed Legal Services and prepare your fixed-price Quotation. This preliminary review would not be a full legal review or Legal Advice.
Please ask Rachelle what she needs before sending a large number of documents.
3 Rachelle Would Email Your Fixed-Price Quotation
What Would Your Quotation Cover?
Rachelle would send your fixed-price Quotation by email for the scoped Legal Services discussed with you. Your Quotation would identify the work we propose to carry out and the fixed fee for that work.
Do You Have to Proceed After Receiving Your Quotation?
We would provide your Quotation at no cost. You could review it and decide whether you want to proceed, without any obligation to engage us.
4 We Would Carry Out a Conflict Search
Why Do We Need the Names of the Other Parties?
We would carry out a conflict search to check whether Blaze Business & Legal could provide the proposed Legal Services to you. We would need the correct legal names of your business, the other parties and any related entities to complete the search properly.
What Happens if We Identify a Conflict?
If we identify an actual or potential conflict, Rachelle would consider whether our professional obligations allow us to act. She would let you know if Blaze Business & Legal could not accept your proposed Legal Services.
5 We Would Send You Our Onboarding Forms
What Information Would Our Onboarding Forms Request?
We would send you our Onboarding forms to complete. The forms would ask for information about you, your business, the proposed Legal Services, the people authorised to instruct us and the person who would sign our Disclosure and Costs Agreement.
Why Do We Need Accurate Business Details?
Accurate legal names, Australian Company Numbers, Australian Business Numbers, registered addresses and contact details help us identify the correct person or entity engaging our firm. This is particularly important where a business operates under a trading name or forms part of a company or trust structure.
6 You Would Complete and Return Our Onboarding Forms
What Would You Need to Return?
You would complete our Onboarding forms and return them to us. Depending on your business structure and the proposed Legal Services, we may also ask you for identification, company, trust, ownership or authority documents.
Who Can Give Us Instructions?
Your Onboarding forms would identify the people authorised to give us instructions for your business. If someone other than a Director would give instructions or sign our documents, we may ask them to complete our Authority Form, which we will send to you for free, or provide other evidence of their authority.
7 We Would Carry Out Any Required Due Diligence
Why Would We Carry Out Due Diligence?
We would carry out any Due Diligence required by law for your business, instructions and proposed Legal Services. This may require us to identify and verify your business, its beneficial owners, the people who control it and anyone authorised to act on its behalf.
When Could Additional Checks Be Required?
The information and documents we require would depend on your business structure and the type of Legal Services involved. Additional checks may apply to designated services covered by the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006. The AUSTRAC guidance on initial customer due diligence explains the identification and verification requirements that may apply.
We may ask you for more information or documents before we can complete our Due Diligence. Please provide complete and accurate information to help us avoid unnecessary delays.
8 We Would Send You Our Disclosure and Costs Agreement
When Would We Send Our Agreement?
After completing our conflict search, Onboarding and any required Due Diligence, we would send you our Disclosure and Costs Agreement.
What Should You Check?
Please read our Disclosure and Costs Agreement and check that your business details and the proposed Legal Services are correct. You can ask Rachelle about anything you do not understand before your Director or authorised officer signs it.
9 Your Director or Authorised Officer Would Sign Our Agreement
Who Would Sign Our Disclosure and Costs Agreement?
Your Director or authorised officer would sign our Disclosure and Costs Agreement. The person signing it would need authority to engage Blaze Business & Legal on behalf of your business.
What if the Person Signing Is Not a Director?
If an authorised officer signs our Disclosure and Costs Agreement, we may ask them to complete our Authority Form, which we will send to you for free, or provide other evidence confirming their authority to act for your business.
10 You Would Return Our Signed Agreement to Us
How Would You Return Our Agreement?
You would return our Disclosure and Costs Agreement to us after your Director or authorised officer has signed it. Please return the complete signed agreement so we can confirm that we have received all required pages and information.
11 Blaze Business & Legal Would Be Engaged as Your Lawyer
When Would Our Legal Services Engagement Begin?
Blaze Business & Legal would be engaged as your Lawyer once we receive our Disclosure and Costs Agreement signed by your Director or authorised officer.
Your preliminary chat, our conflict search, our Onboarding process and our Due Diligence would not engage Blaze Business & Legal as your Lawyer before we receive the signed agreement.
12 Rachelle Would Start Your Legal Services
What Would Happen After We Are Engaged?
Rachelle would confirm the next steps and work with you to carry out the agreed Legal Services for the agreed fixed fee. You would work directly with Rachelle throughout your Legal Services engagement.
Your Preliminary Enquiry Would Not Engage Us as Your Lawyer
Blaze Business & Legal would be engaged once we receive our Disclosure and Costs Agreement signed by your Director or authorised officer.
Why Does Blaze Business & Legal Carry Out Due Diligence?
Due Diligence helps us confirm who would engage Blaze Business & Legal, who owns or controls the relevant entity, who may give us instructions and whether we could provide the proposed Legal Services. The information required would depend on your business structure, your instructions and the work involved.
When Would AML/CTF Requirements Apply to Legal Services?
The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 applies to Lawyers providing specified designated services from 1 July 2026. These include certain transactions involving real estate, companies, trusts, business ownership, financing, restructuring and the management of property. These requirements do not apply to every Legal Service.
Where the requirements apply, AUSTRAC requires initial customer due diligence before the designated service begins, unless a limited exception permits delay. We may need to identify and verify the client, beneficial owners, controllers, Directors, trustees, partners, agents or authorised representatives. We may also require information about the purpose of the work, source of funds or source of wealth.
Why Would Different Businesses Receive Different Requests?
Customer due diligence is risk-based. An Australian company with direct ownership will generally require different information from a trust, overseas entity or company with several ownership layers. AUSTRAC provides different Legal Profession Onboarding forms according to the type of client and service.
Could Due Diligence Delay the Start of Your Legal Services?
Due Diligence could delay the start of your Legal Services if required information is missing, incomplete or inconsistent. We may need to delay, suspend or refuse Legal Services while completing identity, authority, conflict, sanctions or AML/CTF checks.
We cannot start a designated service if the required Due Diligence has not been completed and no exception applies. Please tell Rachelle about every contractual, statutory or commercial deadline during your first call. An urgent deadline does not remove checks required by law.
Is Information Provided During an Enquiry Confidential?
We handle information provided during an enquiry according to our professional and legal obligations. Legal Professional Privilege may protect qualifying confidential communications made for the dominant purpose of obtaining Legal Advice or use in existing or anticipated litigation. It does not attach to every document or communication sent to a Lawyer.
The law may require information to be collected, retained or reported and may restrict what we can tell a person about a report. We therefore cannot promise that every preliminary communication will remain strictly confidential in every circumstance.
Ask About Our Construction Law or Commercial Law Services
Call Rachelle directly to discuss the Legal Services your business needs. Your preliminary enquiry is free and there is no obligation to engage Blaze Business & Legal if we are not the right fit.
How to Engage Us for Business Advisory or Construction Business Improvement Services
The engagement process for our Business Advisory Services and Construction Business Improvement Services is simpler than our Legal Services process. It does not engage Blaze Business & Legal as your Lawyer or create a solicitor-client relationship.
1 Have a Preliminary Chat With Rachelle or Shannon at No Cost
Who Would You Speak With?
You would speak directly with Rachelle Hare or Shannon Drew about your business, the problems you want to work through and the outcome you need. Call (07) 3063 3373 or send us an enquiry.
Would You Work With Rachelle, Shannon or Both?
Rachelle provides higher-level business, commercial, risk, governance and contracting advice. Shannon is a Management Accountant, Costs Accountant, Fractional CFO and Business Adviser whose work covers financial performance, cash flow, costing, systems and business operations. Depending on your business and the services required, you may work with Rachelle, Shannon or both.
What Should You Tell Us?
- what your business does and where it operates;
- the problem or decision you need help with;
- what you want to achieve;
- whether the work relates to a specific Project, contract or part of your business;
- who needs to be involved; and
- whether you have any deadlines.
2 Send the Information We Need to Scope the Services
What Information May We Request?
We may ask you to send financial reports, contracts, Project information, organisation charts, management reports or other business records. We would only ask for the information needed to understand the proposed work and prepare your fixed-price Quotation.
Why May We Need to Review Your Records?
Reviewing the relevant information helps us work out whether you need business, commercial, financial or operational support and whether Rachelle, Shannon or both should carry out the work.
3 We Would Email Your Fixed-Price Quotation and Our Onboarding Forms
What Would We Send You?
Rachelle or Shannon would send your fixed-price Quotation and our Onboarding forms by email. Your Quotation would identify the proposed Business Advisory Services or Construction Business Improvement Services and the fixed fee for that work.
Would You Have to Proceed?
We would provide your Quotation at no cost. You could consider the proposed services and decide whether you want to engage us, without any obligation to proceed.
4 You Would Complete and Return Our Onboarding Forms
What Information Would We Need?
You would complete our Onboarding forms and return them to us. The forms would ask for the details we need about your business, the people authorised to give us instructions and the services you want us to provide.
5 You Would Reply to Our Email to Accept Your Quotation
How Would You Tell Us You Want to Proceed?
You would reply to the email containing your fixed-price Quotation and confirm that you accept your Quotation and its terms. You would also return your completed copies of our Onboarding forms.
6 We Would Confirm Your Consulting Engagement
When Would We Be Engaged as Your Business Adviser?
After you return our Onboarding forms and accept your Quotation and its terms, we would write back confirming our Business Advisory or Construction Business Improvement engagement.
Would This Engage Blaze Business & Legal as Your Lawyer?
Our confirmation would only apply to the consulting services identified in your Quotation. It would not engage Blaze Business & Legal as your Lawyer, and Rachelle would not provide Legal Advice through your consulting engagement.
7 Rachelle, Shannon or Both Would Start Your Services
What Would Happen After We Confirm Your Engagement?
Rachelle, Shannon or both would contact you about the first steps, the information they need and any meetings required. They would then start your agreed Business Advisory Services or Construction Business Improvement Services for the agreed fixed fee.
Our Consulting Engagement Would Not Engage Us as Your Lawyer
We would confirm your Business Advisory or Construction Business Improvement engagement by email after you return our Onboarding forms and accept your Quotation and its terms.
Can I Engage Blaze Business & Legal as My Lawyer and Business Adviser?
It is possible to engage Blaze Business & Legal as the Lawyer and Business Adviser for your business. Please be aware that these engagements would need to be separate.
If you engage Blaze Business & Legal as your Business Adviser and then would like Rachelle Hare to carry out Legal Services for your business, Rachelle would need to Onboard your business and have you separately engage Blaze Business & Legal as your Lawyer. You can review our Legal Services engagement process above.
The same requirement would apply if you first engage us for Legal Services and later want Rachelle, Shannon or both to provide Business Advisory Services or Construction Business Improvement Services. We would send you a separate Quotation and Onboarding forms for the consulting services and confirm that engagement separately.
Questions About Engaging Blaze Business & Legal
1. Does a Preliminary Call Engage Blaze Business & Legal as My Lawyer?
A preliminary call does not engage Blaze Business & Legal as your Lawyer. We would first send your fixed-price Quotation, complete our conflict search and Onboarding, carry out any required Due Diligence and send you our Disclosure and Costs Agreement. Blaze Business & Legal would be engaged as your Lawyer once we receive that agreement signed by your Director or authorised officer.
2. Does Blaze Business & Legal Charge for a Fixed-Price Quotation?
Blaze Business & Legal provides your fixed-price Quotation at no cost after receiving enough information to identify and scope the proposed services. Receiving your Quotation does not oblige you to engage us.
3. Can Blaze Business & Legal Start Urgent Legal Work Immediately?
Blaze Business & Legal can only start urgent Legal Services after completing our conflict search, Onboarding and any required Due Diligence and receiving our Disclosure and Costs Agreement signed by your Director or authorised officer. Please tell Rachelle about every deadline during your first call so she can consider whether there is enough time to complete our process and carry out the required work.
4. Why Does Blaze Business & Legal Carry Out Due Diligence?
Blaze Business & Legal carries out Due Diligence to confirm who is engaging our firm, who owns or controls the relevant entity, who can give us instructions and whether any additional legal requirements apply. The information and documents required would depend on your business structure and the proposed Legal Services.
5. Will I Work Directly With Rachelle Hare or Shannon Drew?
You will work directly with the person identified in your Quotation. Rachelle would provide your Legal Services. Rachelle, Shannon or both may provide your Business Advisory Services or Construction Business Improvement Services, depending on the agreed work.
6. Can I Engage Blaze Business & Legal as My Lawyer and Business Adviser?
You can engage Blaze Business & Legal as the Lawyer and Business Adviser for your business, but the engagements would need to be separate. If you first engage us as your Business Adviser and later want Rachelle to provide Legal Services, you would need to complete our separate Legal Services engagement process.
7. Does Engaging Rachelle for Business Advisory Services Make Her My Lawyer?
Engaging Rachelle for Business Advisory Services or Construction Business Improvement Services does not engage Blaze Business & Legal as your Lawyer. Rachelle would provide Business Advice through that engagement, not Legal Advice. You would need to complete our separate Legal Services engagement process before she could provide Legal Services to your business.
8. Does Blaze Business & Legal Work With Businesses Outside Brisbane?
Blaze Business & Legal works with businesses in Brisbane, throughout Queensland and across Australia where we can lawfully and effectively provide the required services. Rachelle and Shannon can meet with you by video if you are outside Brisbane.
9. What Should I Send With My First Enquiry?
Your first enquiry should identify your business, the services you need, the other parties involved and any deadline. Please ask Rachelle or Shannon what documents they need before sending a large file or a large number of documents.
Find Out How Blaze Business & Legal Can Help Your Business
Call Rachelle Hare directly for Legal Services, or speak with Rachelle or Shannon Drew about Business Advisory Services and Construction Business Improvement Services. Your preliminary enquiry is free, confidential and there is no obligation to engage us if we are not the right fit.
