We help those who are starting or already running a business together understand where they stand and set clear terms for their partnership, before the things left unsaid start to cost them.
We work with partners at the moments that matter most — before a deal is signed, or once things have started to drift — and we help them turn quiet assumptions into terms everyone can genuinely stand behind.
Partnership Architect was founded by Tatyana Anisimova.
For more than 20 years she was a senior in-house lawyer in real estate investment and development across Ukraine and Eastern Europe, working for private investors. She was in charge of assets' legal due diligence, deal structuring, shareholders' agreements, joint ventures, and the negotiations that produced them.
A large part of that work was representing investors inside the businesses they'd put money into: sitting on corporate boards, holding the shareholder record, and being in the room while partners worked out control, contribution, and exit. What she learned there is which questions never get asked — because they sit outside what a lawyer is instructed to do — and how much the partnership depends on them anyway.
She later chose to follow her interest in the psychology of partnerships and completed several programs in executive coaching and business psychology.
Today she works with co-founders and family businesses, helping them build clear communication and negotiate the terms of their partnership — combining an understanding of the psychology of entrepreneurship and business relationships with an understanding of the legal consequences of the agreements and decisions they make.
The diagnostic gives you an honest picture of the partnership as it is today. The Review checks your documents and understandings against reality. The Charter is where you and your partners shape what the partnership becomes.
A structured way of seeing where partners genuinely agree, where they only assume they agree, and where friction is already quietly building. It begins with a short quiz and moves into a focused conversation about what the results mean for your particular situation.
We read your existing company documents — the shareholders' agreement, the articles, or we establish that there aren't any — and run one structured session with both partners. Together we look at where understandings no longer match reality and decide which directions need attention. I highlight and recommend; you decide. The fee is fixed.
Facilitated sessions where partners negotiate and agree the terms of how they'll work together — finalized in a partnership charter. It's not a legal document. It's a wider, flexible agreement that can be revisited as the partnership changes, and can be used to draft and formalize the legal documents that follow. The fee is fixed.
The hardest step isn't booking a Review — it's raising it with your partner without it sounding like an accusation. Here's a message you can simply forward:
“I came across this — a fixed-fee review of our shareholders' agreement by a former M&A lawyer, to check it still matches how we actually run things. It's not about renegotiating anything; it's a check-up. Seems like sensible housekeeping. Worth an hour?”
The Review is a joint process: both partners are in the session, and both receive the same findings.
a single day of commercial mediation for two partners (from £1,200 each) — before anyone's solicitor sends an invoice
a contested dispute between partners in an English court, in legal fees alone
months of deadlock and distraction — many partner disputes end not in a ruling but in a forced sale or closure
The Review costs less than the first hour of a dispute.
paper the deal you've already reached — typically £3,000–£15,000 for a solicitor-drafted shareholders' agreement. If there's no agreement underneath, there's nothing for them to draft.
arrive once the agreement has broken down and the two of you are in open dispute.
we work on the agreement itself — before either is needed. Discussing the partnership terms is an important part of that work: it brings a great deal of insight, and it can be transformative for both partners. The goal is not only to draft the agreement; the process itself is the goal. Afterwards your solicitor has something to formalise, and it costs less because you arrive with decisions made.
Every partnership needs a place to be built — we create the room where that happens.
Articles, shorter posts, and the occasional photo, mostly mirrored from what I share on LinkedIn.
A founder wanted to end her partnership. The real problem wasn't conflict — it was roles and contribution that were never agreed at the start.
Read →The chemistry, the 3am conversations, then the slow drift around year two. 65% of startups fail not on the market, but on the partnership.
Read →Two partners can look at the same deal and reach opposite conclusions — because they're weighing different things. Neither is wrong. They've just never talked about it.
Read →No. Partnership Architect is a consultancy, not a law firm. Tanya is a lawyer by training and experience — which is exactly why she knows where the line sits: the Review and the sessions are not legal services. For formal legal documents we'll point you to an independent solicitor, and you'll arrive with the decisions already made. We have partners — law firms in the UK, Ukraine, Austria and other EU jurisdictions.
The first call is often booked by one partner — that's normal. The Review session itself happens with both of you in the room: that's the point. To make raising it easier, there's a message on this page you can simply forward.
It's more common than you'd think. The Review works with whatever exists: articles, emails, verbal understandings, habits. The absence of a document is itself an important finding — and we'll tell you exactly what's worth putting in writing.
We walk you through the written findings on a call. From there, three paths: work on a Partnership Charter, an annual check, or nothing at all if things are genuinely sound. There's no pressure — the findings speak for themselves.
Completely.
Not ready for a call? Start with the free diagnostic: a short quiz, then we go through the results together and work out what your partnership actually needs.
Start a diagnosticIf you'd like to talk through your situation first, we're happy to. Email us, or book a short call — many Reviews begin exactly there.
