Hi and welcome to 43 Legal

Having worked as a solicitor and in private practice for over 20 years and assisted in-house legal counsel of larger Corporates, I have found the provision of legal services in private practice to be frustrating, largely dis-jointed, issue specific and fragmented.  Often, fee earners are target-driven having to manage excessive caseloads with little or no time or inclination to learn about a client’s business. As a result, the fee-earner ends up being reactive as opposed to proactive in terms of providing legal advice.

In contrast, the legal advice provided to larger corporates who can afford to hire in-house legal teams is entirely different.  Firstly, they are in-house and thus able to provide legal advice as and when needed.  Therefore, it’s not surprising that it is becoming more commonplace for larger corporates to hire in-house lawyers, rather than incur the hourly rates of private practice law firms.

Issues for smaller companies and businesses

Often for those companies that cannot afford to hire in-house legal support, they are left to identify the risks posed and to then engage a law firm to provide the required advice.

It goes without saying that business owners or the Board of a company know the business inside out. However, businesses often do not have the legal expertise in-house to identify the potential problems that may arise.  For instance, the varying different legal issues that manifest within companies until it is either too late; becomes problematic; expensive to fix; or more complicated than it would otherwise have been.  In short, as the saying goes ‘you don’t know, what you don’t know, until you find out you don’t know it’!

Therefore, without the legal knowledge or experience, it is often difficult for businesses to seek the proactive solutions necessary to avoid things going wrong.  In other words, being able to place the business in the strongest legal position possible.  It is for this reason that I decided to form 43Legal, to offer an alternative and affordable way in which to engage and seek legal advice and support (without the faff), to achieve growth, stability and longevity for all business, no matter what the size or need.

Melissa Danks

Founder – 43 Legal