The Bundle | Sept 2021 | The IPO special 🚀

In 2021 alone, we’ve seen a number of hugely impressive tech scaleups become public companies. How does legal prepare for, execute, and handle the aftermath of the most important stage of a company's journey? Find out in this issue.

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In this issue ...

Legal leaders at some of the world's fastest-growing companies share their experience and lessons learned from taking their companies public. Legal leaders at UiPath, Wise, Trustpilot, Trainline and more explore how legal can best prepare for an IPO, the IPO process, and how legal's role transforms post-IPO.

Introduction

The mother of all exits

The Juro team introduces why the IPO has been the main topic of conversation amongst the scaleup lawyer community, and how legal plays a pivotal role in the ultimate exit.

Tom Bangay is the Senior Director of Content & Community at Juro, bringing over 15 years of experience in legal content strategy and community building. With a BA in Law and European Law from the University of Nottingham and an MA in Human Values and Contemporary Global Ethics from King’s College London, Tom has built a career around supporting and engaging the legal sector. Since joining Juro in 2018, Tom has developed and led content initiatives that highlight the transformative power of Juro’s contract automation platform for legal teams, building a trusted community of over 1,000 lawyers from high-growth companies worldwide.

Tom’s background includes a wealth of editorial roles with a focus on legal content. He was Deputy Editor at Chambers & Partners, and then Managing Editor at the International Bar Association, where he covered global legal issues and trends in a range of publications and multimedia. He then initiated and managed Thomson Reuters Legal’s thought leadership programme, overseeing strategic content at the home of Westlaw and Practical Law.

Tom’s leadership in content and community at Juro is rooted in his deep understanding of the legal profession, which enables him to connect with in-house legal teams on issues that matter most.

Chapter 1

How legal can prepare for an IPO

Legal undertakes a mountain of work to help a company go public. How can lawyers plan ahead for this project? Neil Murrin, who led Trainline's legal team through the second largest UK listing in 2019, provides eight steps for success in an IPO.

Neil Murrin is the Chief Legal Officer at CUBE, a global RegTech provider that empowers financial institutions to adhere to cross-boarder compliance requirements. Before joining CUBE, Neil held roles as General Counsel at Smart Pension and Trainline, where he was also recognized in the Legal 500 GC Powerlist in 2019.

Chapter 2

The IPO sprint: going public in three months

With a deliberately aggressive timetable to go public, the legal team at LendInvest needed to rapidly execute a vast amount of work in a short amount of time. Ruth Pearson details the five lessons she learned during LendInvest's July 2021 IPO.

Ruth Pearson is the General Counsel at NLC where she brings extensive experience in legal and compliance. Before joining NLC, Ruth was the General Counsel and Company Secretary at LendInvest. Ruth originally joined LendInvest as their first lawyer but went on to build the company's legal, risk and compliance functions from scratch. Ruth has a wealth of experience in capital raising and debt financing.

Chapter 3

Leading the UK's first ever direct listing

How did Wise, formerly TransferWise, successfully complete the UK's first ever direct listing? And how did the experience reshape legal's profile in the business? Jessica Winter, Head of Corporate Legal at Wise, shares her experiences.

Jessica Winter is General Counsel at Wise, a FinTech company focussed on facilitating global money transfers. Before being promoted to GC, Jessica held the role of Head of Corporate at Wise.

Jessica also has extensive experience in private practice, spending over seven years as an Associate at Herbert Smith Freehills where she delivered extensive legal advice to companies, investment banks, investment funds, and other financial institutions.

Chapter 4

Post-IPO: legal's changing responsibilities

Your company has just gone public - what's next? UiPath's Global Corporate VP, Ioana Vieru, details the changes in her role and the challenges ahead for the legal team as UiPath began life as a public company in April 2021.

Ioana Vieru is General Counsel at MultiversX, and she previously held the role of Global Corporate Lead Counsel for four years. Ioana also worked as a Senior Associate Lawyer at NNDKP where she delivered domestic and international M&A support.

Ioana has more than 15 years of experience, specializing in contracts, commercial law, M&A, and emerging technologies.

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