Book a consultation
A scheduled slot means I read what you send before we speak, and you get a fixed time instead of a callback.
- Three formats. Ten minutes on the phone, twenty five minutes in conference, or an hour and a quarter at the office.
- Prepared in advance. Send your documents when you book and I read them before the meeting.
- Encrypted routes available. PGP email, Matrix and Session, for anything you would rather not send in plain text.
Pick a date and time
Choose the format first, then an available slot. Confirmation arrives by email.
Consultation formats
Pick the one that fits the question, not the one that fits the diary.
Brief call
A single question, a first read on whether you have a case, or a short point on a file that is already running.
Standard conference
For a new matter, time to go through the facts in order and agree on a next step with dates attached to it. For a file already open, to go over developments, read a document that has just arrived, or prepare for what comes next.
Extended meeting
For matters with documents we need to read together, contracts to mark up, and decisions that take longer than a call.
Why book in advance
What a fixed slot buys you, compared with calling and hoping.
The time is held for you
The slot is blocked in my diary and nothing is scheduled over it. No hearing, no client walking in, no interruption halfway through.
I prepare first
Send your documents when you book and I read them before we speak, rather than reading them in front of you while the clock runs.
Everything is recorded
Each consultation is filed with what was discussed and what was agreed, so the second meeting starts where the first one ended.
No back and forth
A confirmed slot saves the exchange of messages it usually takes to find one, which in a busy week can cost several days.
After you book
You will receive a confirmation email with the meeting details and, where it helps, a short list of what to bring or send in advance.
Anything you send ahead reaches me before we speak, so the time goes on your question rather than on the background to it.
A first appointment is a consultation, not an engagement. It does not by itself make me your lawyer, and I take no step on your behalf until we have agreed what I am being asked to do.
The protections that attach to the relationship in full, the duty of confidentiality and the privilege that covers our correspondence and my file, are settled once a letter of engagement or a retainer is signed.
Communication platforms
Beyond the office, you can reach me on any of these.
Three routes with stronger encryption
For anything you would rather not put in ordinary email. I read all three myself.
PGP encrypted mail
PGP locks the body of a message with a key that I hold the matching half of. Anyone who reads the message in transit, my mail provider and yours included, sees a block of characters and nothing else.
What to do: import my public key into your mail client, Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, Proton Mail and most others handle this, then write to the address below. The subject line travels unencrypted, so keep it neutral.
Matrix
Matrix works the way email works, as a network of independent servers that talk to each other, rather than as one company holding every account. Messages are encrypted end to end, so whoever runs the servers in between cannot read them. My account is hosted by Unredacted, a privacy organisation that keeps no more data than it needs to deliver a message.
What to do: install Element, or any other Matrix application, and open an account wherever you prefer. Yours does not have to sit with the same provider as mine. Then start a conversation with the address below.
@pyannakas:unredacted.org
Session
Session leaves no account trail to begin with. Registration asks for no telephone number and no email address: the long identifier below is the account, generated on the device itself. Messages travel across a distributed network of nodes, so no single operator holds a record of who wrote to whom, or when.
What to do: install Session, create an account, and add the identifier below as a contact. Store the recovery phrase the application gives you somewhere safe, because the account cannot be restored without it.
0527a209ad78ad80c4658c63cd058ee62e22d0d19d22bb03fab3d305f8a2ef3353