Sharing the adventure?

There's no guarantee that we'll catch every opportunity, just as there's no guarantee that you would. We take professional care in interpreting your brief and applying it to inbound enquiries. We then review what came through in our regular meeting (regularity defined by your plan level), so that's another opportunity to look at what didn't make the cut.

It's not an ironclad guarantee that we'll catch every opportunity, but we don't think such a guarantee is available.

Definitely not, but we like this type of critical thinking.

First, we properly vet opportunities that meet your brief, which means actually responding to organisations that you might partner with to make sure a genuine opportunity exists. That goes beyond just reading emails.

Second, we've found AI doesn't exercise very good judgment, and at the end of the day the value in the service is all about cutting through the noise and identifying and qualifying opportunities. You'd notice pretty quickly if AI was in the driver's seat, because it wouldn't critically assess opportunities beyond its training.

Third, it's a fundamental breach of our mantra as an organisation. We're for the ethical use of new technologies, and we won't compromise our beliefs just because it can sort of do a task. The day AI can actually do this well is the day we'll launch an AI service to replace this one. Don't take it from us; take it from Anthropic, whose Project Vend test showed the technology (perhaps hilariously) isn't quite there yet.

Our use of AI is limited: intelligent junk-mail filtering (tuned in consultation with you), and drafting assistance for messages, but we don't send anything unless a human reads it first.

Outbound enquiries are not included, but responses to inbound enquiries are. By purchasing the service, you're agreeing to let us put a reasonable counter-position to any inquirers in order to assess whether they're serious about partnering with you on terms that fit your commercial brief. That does entail us contacting organisations on your behalf, but searching for or instigating contact is a marketing service we don't offer.

Because we don't work that way with any of our services, so we didn't propose to change that here either. Artificer is a firm of modern multidisciplinary lawyers and technology consultants. We sell our services for fair market value on a by-the-hour basis, and we do so profitably without relying on taking percentages of your well-earned profits.

When we act as lawyers in a court case, we are legislatively prohibited from charging by way of a percentage of the winnings. We're quite used to operating on a model that doesn't rely on percentages.

If you think an agent will be more motivated if they take a percentage of the deal value, hire an agent. If you're concerned an agent might take too much of your earned deal value, hire us.

No, the service is not a legal retainer. It is an administrative service that applies a reasonable interpretation of your commercial judgment as you express it in the commercial brief. If convenient, you can move on to a separate legal retainer with us in relation to any opportunity that arises. We'll furnish a separate, digital Statement of Work clearly marked as creating a legal retainer and governed by a Retainer and Costs Agreement.

We can still present as a representative of your business when responding to enquiries, but your communications with us relating to the administration and vetting of business opportunities are unlikely to attract legal professional privilege unless you retain us separately as lawyers.

Yes. You can use us wherever you are as long as you do business in English and are happy to pay in Australian Dollars ($AUD). We offer this service for export to citizens of the globe.

You can also retain us as your lawyers to handle contracting or negotiation using our add-on service, provided you understand the nature of advice each practitioner is licensed to give. We're predominantly staffed with Australian legal practitioners, but we routinely produce contracts that work in an international context. Some jurisdictions, including England and Wales and New Zealand, recognise a right for Australian lawyers to give advice on their laws.

If your deal requires international advice, we can retain other lawyers around the world on your behalf and integrate their advice into our work.

Not as part of the standard service.

An agent has authority to bind its principal (which would be you) to the terms of a negotiated deal, which is outside the scope of the service.

You can retain us to act for your organisation or you personally as lawyers to negotiate a deal through to conclusion, and in that case agency is inherent in the lawyer/client relationship. That relationship is governed by a Retainer and Costs Agreement, separately to the standard inclusions in the service.