Project Puffin

Lead Participant: STEPHENSON LAW LIMITED

Abstract

Alice is the Founder & CEO of Stephenson Law, a UK law firm which is doing things differently. Founded in 2017, their unique, human-centric approach has resulted in an impressive client roster and significant growth which shows no sign of slowing down.

As a junior lawyer, Alice struggled to find her place in the legal industry. She was ambitious, creative and reluctant to fall in line with the archaic views and traditional ways of working the industry had to offer. Gender inequality is prevalent in the industry and she was frustrated by the barriers preventing her advancement. So she decided to pave her own path and build a law firm that embraces individuality, creativity and allows people to fulfil their potential.

Stephenson Law is an agile, meritocracy which stands out against the male-dominated, lumbering, beige, glass-ceiling-filled corporates. Tackling each stereotype head-on, Alice is on a mission to build a forward-thinking, innovative law firm which puts people at the heart of everything it does.

Alice and her team specialise in working with fast-growth, entrepreneurial businesses. They often see how a failure to get legal advice in the very early stages presents problems further down the line, which are more expensive and time-consuming to fix than addressing the problem correctly at the outset.

Entrepreneurs have a number of legal questions that they don't know the answer to. When you're starting a business, making informed decisions is critical to mitigating risk. However, for a number of reasons, founders are reluctant to approach a law firm, so they typically resort to using Google or asking their peers, where they are presented with a wealth of conflicting and unreliable answers. There is a gap that exists between using a search engine or 'crowdsourcing' advice and the provision of legal advice by regulated law firms.

Alice is seeking to close that gap by identifying and tackling the barriers that exist between lawyers and those that need legal advice. The legal industry is in desperate need of innovation and Alice and her team are uniquely placed to drive such innovation.

Lead Participant

Project Cost

Grant Offer

STEPHENSON LAW LIMITED £50,000 £ 50,000

Publications

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