Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based CEO’ operating in the Legal space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Dan Garrett
Founder and CEO of Farewill
Follow Dan Garrett:
About Farewill: Farewill is a provider of an all-in-one financial and legal services platform used to deal with all paperwork after death.
_______
Vinay Gupta
CEO of Mattereum
Vinay Gupta is a technologist and policy analyst with a particular interest in how specific technologies can close or create new avenues for decision makers. This interest has taken him through cryptography, energy policy, defence, security, resilience and disaster management arenas. He is the founder of Hexayurt.Capital, a fund which invests in creating the Internet of Agreements™.Mattereum is the first Internet of Agreements infrastructure project, bringing legally-enforceable smart contracts, and enabling the sale, lease, and transfer of physical property and legal rights. He is known for his work on the hexayurt, a public domain disaster relief shelter designed to be build from commonly-available materials, and with Ethereum, a distributed network designed to handle smart contracts.
Follow Vinay Gupta:
About Mattereum: Mattereum is a provider of legally-enforceable smart contracts.
Ludwig Bull
CEO of CourtCorrect
As Elexirr’s Managing Director, Ludwig develops the software, oversees the team and builds the company’s strategy. He is fascinated by the way information flows – especially online – and how that changes what we think about. Born in Germany, he was raised in seven different countries and speaks six languages. Although the majority of his time is devoted to developing software tools to help professionals and ordinary people solve legal problems, in his spare time, Ludwig practices martial arts and competes in marathons.
Follow Ludwig Bull:
About CourtCorrect, Elexirr: CourtCorrect offers an AI-powered online legal system. We make it easy and affordable for people and companies to resolve legal disputes.
Sam Enrico Williams
Founder & CEO of DocTailor
Having built intelligent systems for the past 10 years, that have been implemented into corporate structures and organisations, Sam Enrico Williams brings a deep level and understanding of System Architecture. Sam has strong experience in Cryptocurrency, blockchain technology and economy markets; needed to drive DocTailor to unprecedented levels.
Follow Sam Enrico Williams:
About Crypt2, DocTailor, LiveFor Class: DocTailor is a unique legal document platform.
Richard Mabey
Cofounder, CEO of Juro
Follow Richard Mabey:
About Juro: Juro is a contract automation platform that allows legal and business teams to execute and monitor contracts from one unified workspace.
Ajay Patel
Founder & CEO of HighQ
Ajay Patel As Founder of HighQ, Ajay continues to deliver on his vision of enabling a new, modern, highly efficient and ‘best in class’ secure platform of collaborative engagement and transaction for security, compliance and regulatory minded enterprises. As Chief Executive Officer, he leads the company growth strategy, product direction and senior management team. Ajay graduated with a first-class degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Manchester University and later completed a Master’s degree in Information Systems at LSE. He qualified as a chartered accountant at PwC in London and later occupied roles in leading investment banks Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. After spending several years in the City, he realised the corporate environment didn’t fulfil his creative, professional or personal ambitions and subsequently started HighQ.The idea was simple: to create a dynamic, fun and successful company that puts its employees and clients at the centre of everything it does.
Follow Ajay Patel:
About HighQ: HighQ empowers leading law firms and corporate legal teams to transform the way they work and deliver legal services.
Mustafa Al-Bassam
Co-Founder and CEO of LazyLedger
Follow Mustafa Al-Bassam:
About LazyLedger: LazyLedger is a blockchain distributed ledger.
Rémy Astié
Founder & CEO of Vauban
Rémy Astié is the Founder and CEO of Vauban.
Follow Rémy Astié:
About Vauban: Vauban is the easiest way to pool & deploy capital to invest in private companies.
Ulric Musset
Founder & CEO of Vauban
Ulric Musset is the Founder and CEO of Vauban.
Follow Ulric Musset:
About Vauban: Vauban is the easiest way to pool & deploy capital to invest in private companies.
Pip Wilson
Co-Founder and CEO of amicable
A successful entrepreneur, director, angel investor and start-up mentor, Pip is passionate about empowering women in tech and disrupting traditional business models. Pip Wilson is co-founder and CEO of amicable apps: the faster, fairer, fixed-price way to an amicable divorce. In 2002 Pip co-founded Bluefin Solutions, a SAP consultancy and a full SAP Services Partner, which she exited last year to Mindtree. Pip is also a trustee and board member of The Girls’ Network, a foundation that matches girls from low socio-economic backgrounds with inspirational female mentors. She believes in the power of teams, the importance of diversity, and that the best businesses help employees balance life with work. In her view, successful start-ups of the future will combine a sustainable business model with a clear social purpose and diverse teams. This view drives her investment decisions.
Follow Pip Wilson:
About amicable: Amicable offers a divorce service that works with couples to help them reach fairer agreements.
Mathias Strasser
Chief Executive Officer of Scissero
Mathias Strasser is the Chief Executive Officer of Scissero Ltd and WallStreetDocs Ltd.
Follow Mathias Strasser:
About Scissero, Wallstreetdocs: Scissero is a cloud-based legal AI platform that can draft, mark, analyze, review contracts from human lawyers.
Lauren Riley
Founder & CEO of The Link App
Lauren Riley is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at The Link App.
Follow Lauren Riley:
About The Link App: The Link App is an easy-to-use platform that reinvents a law firm’s client experience.
Enrico Faccioli
CEO & Co-Founder of Seedata.io
Enrico Faccioli is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Seedata.
Follow Enrico Faccioli:
About Seedata.io: Seedata.io is a cybersecurity platform that helps companies mitigate data leak incidents and crime threats.
Paul Zuckerman
Chair and CEO of Zuckerman & Associates
Paul Zuckerman is the Chair and CEO of Zuckerman & Associates LLC. His expertise is in Finance and Economics. He retired from full time investment banking in 1998, having been Managing Director and Founding Director of Caspian Securities, Ltd (1995-98); and before that Executive Director, S G Warburg & Co Ltd, London; Vice Chair, S G Warburg International; Chair S G Warburg Latin America Ltd (1981-95). He spent six years at the World Bank as Senior Economist (1974-80); and before that was Research Associate at IITA (1970-72) and Training Associate, Ford Foundation (1968-70) based at IITA (a member of the CGIAR Consortium). Since 1998 he has been on the Board of a number of international companies and is now on the board of, amongst others: ArcelorMittal Ltd Brazil; and JMFinancial Ltd and Great Eastern Energy Company Ltd in India. He was Chair of the Intermediate Technology Group (1990-95), Treasurer of the International Women’s Health Coalition in New York (2000-10) and on the board of The African Medical Research Foundation in Nairobi (2002-10). He is presently Treasurer of the National Art Collections Fund in the UK and a Trustee of the Foundling Museum in London. He is a Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of King’s College London. He has a BA & MA in Economics, Trinity College, Cambridge University (1964-67), a Higher National Diploma in Agricultural Economics, Trinity College, Cambridge University (1967-68), and a PhD in Agricultural Economics, Reading University (1970-74).
Follow Paul Zuckerman:
About Zuckerman & Associates: We offer a wide range of services to our individual and business clients.
Steve Timmins
Chief Executive Officer of THE GROOVY GROUP
Follow Steve Timmins:
About SHOPWITHUSNOW.COM, SOUNDS-MIXES.COM, THE GROOVY GROUP, THE GROOVY GROUP, THEGROOVYGROUP.COM: THE GROOVY GROUP is an online company providing users with the tools to publish multimedia.
Graeme Johnston
CEO of Juralio Ltd
Graeme Johnston worked as a litigation/arbitration/investigations lawyer in London and Asia for 17 years, where he was a partner in a leading global law firm.
Follow Graeme Johnston:
About Juralio Ltd: Juralio Ltd is the creator of Juralio: software to help lawyers and their clients organize and carry out legal work more effectively.
Ronald DeKoven
Founder & CEO of myBarrister
Ronald DeKoven was called to the bar of Illinois and New York in 1968 and 1980 respectively. In 1980 Mr DeKoven became a partner of Shearman & Sterling, New York. He ran several of the firm’s practices, including Insolvency and Leasing. After moving to London in 2003, Mr DeKoven became an Associate Member of South Square Chambers, and was permitted by the Bar Council to practice New York and U.S. Federal Law in chambers. In 2008 Mr DeKoven applied to the Bar Council for a waiver of examination and pupillage as a condition to becoming a barrister. The waiver was granted in full and Mr DeKoven was called to the Bar of England and Wales by Lincoln’s Inn in March, 2009. Although he continues his association with South Square, Mr DeKoven has created his own chambers at 8 Stone Buildings, Lincoln’s Inn, where he continues his practice as a New York lawyer and English barrister involved in dispute resolution in large, complex cross-border transactions.
Follow Ronald DeKoven:
About ereorg, myBarrister: myBarrister is an online portal that provides direct access to legal advice barristers.
Danae Shell
Co-founder and CEO of Valla
Danae Shell is the co-founder and CEO of Valla, a technology company who want to make legal decisions fairer and faster for everyone. Danae is a software developer-turned marketer, and a Tennessean who has worked in Scotland’s startup scene for over 17 years. She was an early employee at both FreeAgent and Care Sourcer and her latest venture Valla is co-founded with product and data specialist Dr. Kate Ho.
Follow Danae Shell:
About Valla: Data-driven tools for the legal industry
Daniel van Binsbergen
CEO and Co-Founder of Lexoo
Daniel van Binsbergen Before founding Lexoo, Daniel worked for over 5 years as a lawyer at an international law firm (De Brauw), first in Amsterdam, then in London. He’s always up for a game of squash, and is easily excited.
Follow Daniel van Binsbergen:
About Lexoo: Lexoo is a lawyer comparison marketplace that helps businesses choose a lawyer with confidence.
Andrew Burke
Chief Executive Officer of DAS UK Group
Follow Andrew Burke:
About DAS UK Group: DAS UK Group has been helping businesses and individuals get access to justice.
Eli Luzac
CEO and Founder of Tagdox
Eli Luzac is the CEO and Founder of TagDox.
Follow Eli Luzac:
About Tagdox: Tagdox is a document analysis company developing a game changing technology in the document space for professional services.
Julia Salasky
CEO and Founder of Legl
Julia Salasky is the Founder and CEO of Legl and CrowdJustice , is a non-practising solicitor who was an associate at Linklaters in London, before working as a lawyer for the United Nations in Vienna and the Hague. She has also worked at a legal aid clinic in London
Follow Julia Salasky:
About CrowdJustice, Legl: Legl provides cloud-based solutions bringing law firms into the digital-first world.
Rafie Faruq
Co-founder and CEO of Genie AI
Rafie Faruq is Co-founder and CEO at Ginie AI.
Follow Rafie Faruq:
About Genie AI: Automatic legal contract drafting platform for anyone.
Gavin Snell
Chief Executive Officer of Ellis Whittam
Follow Gavin Snell:
About Ellis Whittam: Ellis Whittam is an Employment Law, HR and Health & Safety support for UK employers.
Phil Westcott
Founder & co-CEO of Filament AI
Phil is a former Director at IBM, and a specialist in applied Artificial Intelligence. Phil previously ran the IBM Watson Ecosystem in Europe, led their Smarter Cities business in Southeast Asia and launched IBM’s global IoT practice.
Follow Phil Westcott:
About Filament AI: Filament helps clients to build proprietary AI capability within their organisation, through consultancy, solutions and tooling
Andrew Thornton
Chief Executive Officer of FromCounsel
Andrew is CEO of FromCounsel in addition to his role as a contributor from Erskine Chambers.
Follow Andrew Thornton:
About FromCounsel, Sparqa Legal: FromCounsel is an innovative online corporate law knowledge service.
Sanchit Vir Gogia
Chief Futurist, Founder & CEO of Greyhound Knowledge Group
Sanchit is the Chief Futurist, Founder & CEO of Greyhound Knowledge Group, a Global, Award-Winning, Digital Transformation Research & Advisory Group. He also serves as Chief Analyst & CEO of Greyhound Research, an Award-Winning, Global, Independent Technology Transformation Research & Advisory firm. Given his expertise and passion for Digital Transformation, Sanchit also doubles up as the CIO for Greyhound Knowledge Group companies. In his another avatar, Sanchit is an Advisor To The Board (for Digital Transformation decisions) of a US$100 Million+ organisation in the Metal Industry. Sanchit is a globally recognised and reputed IT analyst, consultant and advisor. Known for his passion for Digital Transformation, Sanchit has gained repute by authoring numerous thought-provoking reports that have been rated in Global Top 5. He is also the author of the famous Digital Transformation insights portal, As Disruptive As IT Gets, that has readership from over 150,000 CXOs and 15 million+ individuals from across 125 countries. The portal has been rated at number 10 in the top 20 global resources for Business IT leaders in 2014 and as one of the 50 Must-Read IT Blogs of 2013 across the globe.
Follow Sanchit Vir Gogia:
About Greyhound Knowledge Group: Greyhound Knowledge Group is a Global, Award-Winning, Digital Transformation Research & Advisory Group.
David Brown
Founder & CEO of Poweredbypie
Follow David Brown:
About Poweredbypie: poweredbypie is a provider of technology to the property market in the UK. Our business process solutions.
Nnamdi Emelifeonwu
Founder, CEO of Definely
Nnamdi Emelifeonwu Founder at Definely.
Follow Nnamdi Emelifeonwu:
About Definely: Definely is a legal technology startup.
Toby Harper
Founder and CEO of Harper James Solicitors
Toby Harper is the CEO & founder of Harper James Solicitors, as well as a corporate and commercial solicitor. He trained and qualified at a boutique corporate and commercial law firm, whose clients consisted primarily of SMEs who operated almost exclusively within the advanced manufacturing and technology sectors. Toby was exposed to a wide range of corporate and commercial matters in this role and gained a great deal of experience dealing with large volumes of corporate mergers and acquisitions. He’s also previously worked within both the corporate and commercial teams of a UK top 50 law firm. Prior to founding Harper James Solicitors, Toby was most recently the sole legal counsel at a leading venture capital company.
Follow Toby Harper:
About Harper James Solicitors: Full service national commercial law firm
Tom Ladds
Founder & CEO of Hired By Startups
Follow Tom Ladds:
About Hired By Startups: Hired By Startups provides onsite and external talent acquisition solutions to some of the UK’s fastest growing startups & scale-ups.
Nicholas d’Adhemar
Founder & CEO of Apperio
Follow Nicholas d’Adhemar:
About Apperio: Apperio’s legal spend management software helps in-house legal teams stay in control of their spend and build trust with external counsel.
Ifty Nasir
Co-founder and CEO of Vestd
Follow Ifty Nasir:
About Vestd: Vestd is a secure online platform that makes giving shares to your team, customers or partners simple, affordable, and fast.
John Zai
Founder and CEO of China-Europe Networks of Technology and Innovation
Follow John Zai:
About China-Europe Networks of Technology and Innovation: CENTI is a cross border platform facilitating business between China and Europe
Dr. Constantina Katsari-Muston
CoFounder and CEO of Startdoms
Tech Entrepreneur, Agile and Lean products, currently running Startdoms, a virtual accelerator for startups
Follow Dr. Constantina Katsari-Muston:
About Keyping, Startdoms: A community of startups, mentors, business advisors, investors and enthusiasts who support entrepreneurs in their new ventures.
Alex Bligh
CEO of Silverscale Associates
Follow Alex Bligh:
About Silverscale Associates: Silverscale Associates provides business and technology consultancy services to the internet, telecommunications and technology sectors.
Luke Webster
CEO of Eight International
Luke Webster is a well travelled, educated, professional with many different business interests. A Nottingham University law graduate, Webster moved onto the College of Law, Guildford, Surrey, where he received his LPC with a commendation before qualifying as a solicitor with Nabarro in the City of London. Luke has built a large network in Hong Kong, Beijing and London and has extensive “on the ground” experience of completing deals in Asia and advising on cross border transactions – advising both foreign investors(UK/Middle East) and Chinese nationals. Luke has become a trusted adviser to several family offices looking to make direct investments into businesses/assets across sectors where they may not have the necessary skills in house. Luke has been retained by several family offices / entrepreneurs to deliver projects/solve issues and manage those investments going forward.
Follow Luke Webster:
About Eight International: Eight International is a family office advisory firm based in London and Hong Kong.
Ian Gosling
Founder & CEO of AUTTO
AUTTO co-founder, Ian Gosling is an experienced Manager in product development and management in SaaS, e-commerce and media. Interested in the transformative power of technology for professional services, legal tech and business development, he noticed that technology is often unnecessarily complex. He founded AUTTO to bring aneasy-to-use office automation platform to regulated industries, legal and professional services.
Follow Ian Gosling:
About AUTTO: Autto is the simplified automation provider
Tom Dunlop
Founder & CEO of Summize
As an accomplished commercial and technology lawyer, Tom’s experience with reviewing contracts was the catalyst that led to Summize. Prior to this, he worked as a Global Legal Director for several fast-growth technology companies.
Follow Tom Dunlop:
About Summize: Summize is the lightweight platform for contracts that provides bridges the gap between legal and technology.
Tony Heappey
CEO & Senior Consultant of Cloud Systems Group
Tony has been providing IT Services to businesses for 30 years and has seen the industry completely transform as a result. Starting his IT Career at the dawn of personal desktop computing he worked tirelessly to learn every aspect of these new devices before beginning the journey into servers, networking and business solutions. Over time, Tony’s Consultancy business grew into a self-perpetuating IT Support business which looked after both large enterprises and small businesses alike and took great pride in delivering exceptional service to all of its Clients. As the industry continued to progress, Tony quickly identified the shift towards more proactive services and implemented advanced monitoring and management technologies to further boost service levels which transformed the business into an early provider of Managed Services. In 2010, after having spent many prior years working with businesses to implement Private Cloud strategies, Tony once again identified the need for change and the requirement to embrace Cloud Technologies which resulted in the birth of CLOUD SYSTEMS. Tony grew up in Birmingham and spent much of his childhood travelling the world with his family. Today, he still has a passion for travel and enjoys touring the world with his wife Liz and the rest of their family. Tony’s other hobbies include Reading, Swimming, Golf and Walking his Dog!
Follow Tony Heappey:
About Cloud Systems Group: Cloud Systems Group providing IT Services to a wide variety of Clients located around the globe.
Josh Harris
Founder & CEO of Doc2
Follow Josh Harris:
About Doc2: Allowing SMEs to create, send and eSign their contracts in seconds.
Rohit Talwar
CEO of Fast Future Research
Profiled by the Independent Newspaper as a top 10 global future thinker. Rohit is a global futurist, strategist and award winning speaker noted for his humour, inspirational style and provocative content. Rohit helps clients understand how mega trends, emerging ideas, new business models, and disruptive developments in science and technology could impact individuals, society, business, industries and government. He advises global firms, industries and governments on ‘fast insights into alternative futures’ and how to survive, thrive, spot and manage emerging risks and develop innovative growth strategies… in the decade ahead. Worked in over 60 countries on six continents.
Follow Rohit Talwar:
About Fast Future Research: Fast Future Research is a research and consulting company that offers trend analysis, scenario planning and strategy creation.
Nigel Botterill
Owner, CEO of Entrepreneurs Circle
Nigel Botterill is a straight-talking UK entrepreneur and bestselling author who has built eight separate £million+ businesses from scratch. Nigel is passionate about business/marketing; he now devotes a big chunk of his time to helping other entrepreneurs.
Follow Nigel Botterill:
About Entrepreneurs Circle: Entrepreneurs Circle exist to educate, motivate, help and inspire business owners to achieve more than they ever thought possible.
Stacy-Ann Sinclair
Founder, CEO of CodeREG
Jamaican born Londoner – Computer Scientist Investment Banker
Follow Stacy-Ann Sinclair:
About CodeREG, PinaPay: CodeREG is a financial compliance reinvented for the digital era.
Callum Murray
Founder and CEO of Amiqus Resolution
Follow Callum Murray:
About Amiqus Resolution: Amiqus Resolution is an online service to quickly and affordably resolve commercial disputes without appearing in court or tribunal.
Adam Phillips
CEO of Hipla
Follow Adam Phillips:
About Hipla: Hipla is the smarter way to buy and sell property.
Mark Holmes
CEO, Founder of Waymark Tech
Follow Mark Holmes:
About Waymark Tech: Waymark Tech supplies regulatory and legal intelligence to the financial services sector and uses techniques in collaboration with GCHQ.
Jon Topper
CTO/CEO of The Scale Factory
DevOps, Linux, cloud infrastructure and automation specialist.
Follow Jon Topper:
About The Scale Factory: DevOps & Cloud Infrastructure Consultancy
Alan Moore
Founder & CEO of Taxworld
Alan Moore is a Founder & CEO at Taxworld.
Follow Alan Moore:
About Taxworld: Taxworld Ltd. is a highly innovative publishing company that is a leading supplier of tax legislation and commentary.
Antonio Ferreira
CEO of Tech HQ
Follow Antonio Ferreira:
About Tech HQ: TechHQ is a dynamic consultancy purposefully built for Innovation & Technology.
Mike Oaten
CEO of Regulation Technologies
Follow Mike Oaten:
About Regulation Technologies: We transform open data into meaningful networks, overlay client or 3rd party data and then query to surface high-value insights.
Erkut Evirgen
CEO, Principal Consultant of Wisen
Erkut Evirgen is the founder and principal consultant at Wisen.
Follow Erkut Evirgen:
About Wisen: Wisely Crafted Software Solutions
Dana Denis-Smith
CEO of Obelisk Support
Follow Dana Denis-Smith:
About Obelisk Support: Obelisk Support is a global 1,000-consultant alternative legal services firm based in London, serving 35 of FTSE 100 companies.
Dana Denis-Smith
CEO of Obelisk Support
Follow Dana Denis-Smith:
About Obelisk Support: Obelisk Support is a global 1,000-consultant alternative legal services firm based in London, serving 35 of FTSE 100 companies.
Marc-Henri Chamay
CEO of Aosphere
Follow Marc-Henri Chamay:
About Aosphere: Aosphere delivers high quality online legal risk management products which help you operate more efficiently.
Marc-Henri Chamay
CEO of Aosphere
Follow Marc-Henri Chamay:
About Aosphere: Aosphere delivers high quality online legal risk management products which help you operate more efficiently.
Ruth Daniel
Chief Executive Officer of The Access to Justice Foundation
Follow Ruth Daniel:
About The Access to Justice Foundation: The result of collaboration between the Bar Council, Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, Law Society and the voluntary sector.
Ruth Daniel
Chief Executive Officer of The Access to Justice Foundation
Follow Ruth Daniel:
About The Access to Justice Foundation: The result of collaboration between the Bar Council, Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, Law Society and the voluntary sector.
Martin Burke
CEO of Primary Opinion
Follow Martin Burke:
About Primary Opinion: Primary Opinion delivers the latest insights, direct from professional advisors worldwide.
