Scaling your legal team: who to hire, how and why

Chapter 1

Who to hire: the intern

If you land in a company with a huge volume of work, your first hire might be neither permanent nor a qualified professional. Natalie Salunke, VP Head of Legal, UK, Europe & ANZ at Fleetcor, shares her experiences employing interns to help legal achieve its goals.

Natalie Salunke is the General Counsel at Likezero, and a Fractional General Counsel. Previously, Natalie was the Head of Legal at IT SaaS provider Venda and she has since held senior legal roles across companies including NetSuite, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Fleetcor, Havn, RVU, and Zilch.

Natalie has broad experience advising in multiple jurisdictions and serving as a lead adviser to boards and company secretaries. She is also a thought leader, sharing knowledge as a mentor, speaker, and lecturer.

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Chapter 2

Who to hire: the paralegal

The first step for many when it comes to expanding their team is to take on a paralegal. Rohan Paramesh, VP Head of Legal at Habito, explains how to find and interview high-performing paralegals.

Rohan Paramesh is the General Counsel at Pixel United, a world-leading mobile-first video game publisher and developer, where he leads a legal team of 25 people, spread over three continents. Before joining Pixel United, Rohan was the General Counsel at Habito, where he was also a Juro customer. Rohan has a strong background in corporate and M&A private practice, with plenty of experience as a commercially focused general counsel in the high-growth technology sector.

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Chapter 3

Who to hire: the legal counsel

Depending on the complexity of your workload, you might need someone with genuine post-qualification experience behind them. Tom Luk, General Counsel at Peakon, explores the benefits and challenges of hiring a generalist.

Tom Luk is the Chief Legal Officer at Forecast and has previously held roles as a General Counsel in businesses like TechGC, Peakon, and Ogury. Throughout his career, Tom has been responsible for advising on corporate governance matters and advising internally on legal affairs. He is is certified by both the Solicitors Regulation Authority and The Law Society.

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Chapter 4

Who to hire: the data/IP specialist

If you're at a high-growth tech company, it’s disproportionately likely that you’ll be dealing with complex IP and data matters. Ned Staple, General Counsel at Cazoo, explains how to recruit a specialist - and keep them happy.

Ned Staple is the General Counsel and Company Secretary at Pepco Group. Before joining Pepco, Ned held similar roles at Cazoo and Zoopla, and he first qualified as a Solicitor at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where he joined the Corporate department. During his legal career, Ned has achieved various milestones, including several high-profile funding rounds.

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Chapter 5

Who to hire: the operations manager

For some legal teams, the right hire isn’t a lawyer at all. Find out why Dean Nash, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel at Monzo, turned to operations managers when it came time to scale his legal function along with the business.

Dean Nash is the Global Chief Operations Officer (Legal) at Santander, a British bank. Before starting this role, Dean was the Chief Legal Officer at PagoNxt, which is a Santander company, and he has previously held several other legal roles at financial institutions like Wise, Monzo, Barclays, and Lloyds. He specializes in risk, compliance, legal and governance in innovative financial services. Dean is also a trustee at Beam, an award-winning Tech for Good startup.

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Chapter 6

How to run the hiring process

Once you’ve decided what kind of role to hire, there’s just the small matter of actually hiring them. HR guru Ben Gateley, COO and co-founder at CharlieHR, sets out the key principles to running a hiring process without ruining your life.