Senior exits fail in a predictable way: the executive treats the draft agreement as the process, takes the required advice on it, and signs — never asking the prior question the whole playbook turns on: should the agreement have been better? Employers budget for well-advised senior exits; arriving without advice doesn’t read as loyalty, it reads as an opportunity.
The Sequence: Signals, Calendar, Levers
Read the signals early: the agenda-less invitation, the restructure that orphans your role, the new reporting line — the moment for the quiet, confidential call, before anything is said in a room, because conduct in the first conversations decides leverage. Build the calendar before positions: every vesting date, bonus period, benefit and service threshold in one document — scheme letters and award statements gathered — because the termination date is a lever only visible against it. Then the levers, worked deliberately: notice at its full value (salary, benefits, pension through the period); bonus and commission through the earned/discretionary sorting; equity timing against the cliffs; garden leave’s length and terms; covenants restated versus newly demanded — fresh restraints priced or struck, never swallowed; and the narrative — reference, announcements, LinkedIn choreography — because half of senior exit value is reputational and it compounds longer than the money.
The Conduct: Discretion, Credibility, Sequencing
Discretion is designed in: strategy from the adviser’s side with you fronting conversations on coaching, or solicitor-to-solicitor where formality serves; the without-prejudice framework used properly so exploratory positions never become exhibits; the endgame documented so your network receives nothing but a smooth transition. Credibility changes the employer’s arithmetic silently: exit pricing is risk pricing, and a counterparty advised by a practice that also runs employment litigation is priced differently without a threat being made. The tax question is sequenced, not skipped: your accountant in the loop before terms finalise, structure discussed while it can still shape drafting — the choreography on the tax page. The engagement itself is bounded — typically a day or two of concentrated work, fees agreed in writing before it begins, the enhanced contribution customary at this tier sought as standard — and the full approach lives on the executive severance page.
The three unforced errors that spend six-figure leverage: resigning with dignity before advice (converts a negotiable exit into a completed one), agreeing figures verbally in the room (creates disputes exactly where you want clean leverage), and improvising about levers unvalued (negotiating against yourself). All three are prevented by one early, confidential conversation.
Signals started, stakes significant? The quiet call comes first: 01 5827148.