A Legal Start-up Story: How Gazelle Law Found its Feet
Gazelle Law is a dynamic legal business supporting start-ups and scale-ups whilst on its own start-up journey. We sat down with founder Katie Cosgrove to find out about its business story, purpose and plans.
So Katie, what motivated you to start Gazelle Law?
I wanted to find a better way to practise law. I worked in private practice at the start of my legal career, and whilst I loved practising law in a global law firm, I didn’t love the demands it placed on your personal life. So, I moved in-house and worked in various start-ups and became a General Counsel. And whilst I really enjoyed working in-house, I started to feel like I had reached the limits of what I could do. I wanted the diversity of work I had back in a law firm, working across different companies and with the variety of clients, but to be able to practise as an in-house lawyer. I had always made flexibility a core pillar in my career, but the global pandemic also took this up several notches and I saw an opportunity to combine all of this with a fully remote approach – and this led to Gazelle Law formally setting up in 2020.
What did you learn from working in a law firm and then from your time as a General Counsel and how have you brought this over to Gazelle Law?
When you work in a big City law firm, you receive first rate legal training. Magic Circle firms are renowned for their excellence and you are trained to be responsive, a perfectionist and to be able to work quickly under pressure. They teach you the law inside out. Then you move in-house and find out that kind of legal advice is not always what stakeholders want: they want someone to tell them how to get things done. And you learn that that’s also the role of an in-house lawyer: to help the business close deals and succeed. As I became more senior and moved around the start-up world, I became increasingly commercial in my approach. Being the first lawyer in some start-ups, I saw first-hand that most people in the business had little interest in the law. What they wanted was to be able to sign a contract with a customer within a week without spending a fortune and having lengthy calls and meetings to get that done.
So, we combine all these things at Gazelle Law. We provide excellent client service, commitment and responsiveness. We also think about how customers want to receive their legal advice, and ensure they receive something that is accessible for the business.
Our clients say that working with Gazelle Law provides that same City law firm client experience, but for a fraction of the price.
What have been the challenges and the successes of starting and growing your own legal services business?
The challenge for me as a lawyer has been learning to think and operate as a business owner rather than a legal adviser. It’s much easier to give someone advice and then sit back and watch them make a decision, than to analyse information and work out what to do. So that’s been a growth journey, learning to take decisions and be responsible for things.
The biggest success is the total joy I feel about my job! At Gazelle Law we can all combine meaningful legal work and life in a way that is fundamental to happiness and well-being. A fellow lawyer told me the other day that it was rare to meet a lawyer who enjoys my job as much as I do. Whilst this is a huge personal success, it’s now about rolling this out to more and more lawyers and seeing the impact it has on their lives. Brilliant lawyers being able to balance work and life is what Gazelle Law is all about.
And then there’s the impact on clients as well. Clients are genuinely delighted at the level of service and responsiveness combined with cost effective pricing. We often inherit clients who have been disillusioned working with bigger firms on fundraising rounds and it is great to change their perceptions on what it is like to work with lawyers and provide a more straightforward, cost effective and enjoyable experience. It is really satisfying to be able to provide founders with accessible support and to provide them with that feeling of safety from someone who has seen it all before. I also really like working with new GCs. It’s a huge task to come into a start-up, there is a massive pressure to perform and fix historical issues with the company and it’s hard to find time to do that. I can empathise with this and enjoy being able to provide the right support from Gazelle Law to release that pressure valve.
Finally, what do you think the future holds for newer models such as Gazelle Law when it comes to legal services?
It seems like the pandemic has been a pivotal moment in so many ways, in terms of everyone realising that so much can be delivered online and in terms of the need for increased flexibility post pandemic. There are so many interesting ways now for lawyers to practise law and the challenge is for legal talent. So, there has to be a fundamental change in the way big firms operate. Whilst FTSE 250 firms and City law firms are a match made in heaven, there are many different layers to our economy, including a vast entrepreneurial layer. And the start-up ecosystem is a loyal one. Start-ups love to work with other start-ups who have a similar culture. So – this becomes almost a virtuous circle of start-ups using legal businesses that operate like fast, nimble start-ups themselves. Which is the whole inspiration behind the naming of Gazelle Law!
If you are looking to work with a legal services business that “gets” start-ups, do get in touch. Similarly, if you are a legal consultant looking for the fast-pace of the start-up work but with flexibility and balance, we’d love to chat. Get in touch at info@gazellelaw.co.uk.
