Commercial law firm Browne Jacobson is launching a new service for startups. It is targeting startups that it believes have high-growth potential with its new Grow service. Grow launches on Thursday 23rd February at the NewFinance FinTech Open Mic event. Browne Jacobson will provide a dedicated lawyer, below partner level, to work with qualifying startups.
A statement in the press release from Partner Declan Cushley, who leads Browne Jacobson’s Startups and Emerging Companies team, said: “We are taking a long-term approach by supporting founders of promising pre-revenue, and often pre-seed, businesses which otherwise might have no access to the quality legal advisers they need. The firm has always been well suited to helping early-stage startups due to our business culture being relationship-led, pragmatic and approachable.
“Grow is all about capturing and codifying what we already do well for our startup clients and perfecting the art of providing maximum value to founders by ensuring our firm always has a human face – the Grow adviser. It’s funny but the more we move to having a high-tech economy, the more value founders seem to place in just having a sensible person they can speak to and get a quick straight answer.”
What will Grow provide?
The service will ensure startups have solid legal foundations early in the life-cycle of their business. The lawyer assigned to the start-up will act as a remote in-house council. This is good news for a lot of startups. They often find themselves making serious mistakes when setting up their business. For example, they may not have a proper Founders Agreement. This can cause problems if there is a falling out and the founders part ways.
Other common problems come with negotiating contracts and ensuring that they do not disadvantage the business. This can include checking things like terms and conditions as well as who will own any intellectual property. Many startups buy boilerplate documents off the web and don’t know what they should and should not change. This can leave them vulnerable, something Grow is designed to prevent.
Grow is a two-way deal
Interestingly, this is not just about providing help for startups. Grow sees this as providing a route for them to grow their own staff. The press release says that this will help in: “developing its junior lawyers into future partners.”
The ability for the lawyers to grow with the startups is a smart move. If it works well, the lawyer will secure a fee earning opportunity for themselves as the relationship grows. As they progress to partner status it means that they are able to reap the rewards from mentoring the startups.
Conclusion
There are a lot of pitfalls for startups when it comes to legal issues. This announcement from Browne Jacobson is a sign of how times are changing. It also demonstrates a growing recognition that the UK has become a start-up culture. 99% of UK companies have less than 250 employees. Lawyers and accountants establishing an early relationship with startups as a trusted advisor, not only pays off for them but also delivers benefits to emerging businesses.
Browne Jacobson are not the only firm offering such services. A City Law Firm Limited specialises in advising startups and entrepreneurs. With the growing number of startup hubs expect more firms to start these hubs.
