- What is your name and what is the name of your business?
I am Chris from Tacit Legal – I am the COO and one of the Co-Founders here. There are 4 of us and together we broke away from one of the big legal firms about three years ago and created our own.
- What does the business do and who are your customers?
We are a firm of lawyers and there are two parts to our business: We have the boutique technology and media law firm which does non-contentious work for both big corporates as well as clients in the media. This now tends to be more podcast producers, Youtubers and influencers. For the tech side, our work mostly revolves around helping big firms buy IT and the legals surrounding it, and on the media side, it is more about protecting brand rights, buying/selling intellectual property and influencer deals. Aurelia, one of our co-founders does most of our work on the media side. She actually started in film and music but is now a specialist in this area.
The second part of the business is quite exciting; we are one of the first AI native regulated legal services in the country. Effectively, 90% of the work is done by AI and 10% is done by us checking it’s all OK. It is a very specific niche service; it does one thing: It reviews contracts for big corporates. This tends to be for big clients who have 20-30 contracts a month that need checking, but they want to avoid the cost of an in-house lawyer. This way it takes us a fraction of the time and consequently is a fraction of the cost for them. It cut costs by about 90%.
- What’s the history of the business & what’s your role within the business?
We started three years ago but we have all worked together for about ten years. It was actually Covid that did it – we realised in Covid that we could operate without an office. It somehow made the jump to our own business less scary. Ironically, we have ended up with an office again though! We realised, once we were a bit established, that we needed to see each other more.
- How long have you had an office here at Freshmill and why were you looking for a space like this?
We moved in just over a year ago but before that we were using Freshmill for meeting rooms quite regularly. We looked for an office that wasn’t too far from anyone and Haywards Heath was the central point between all of us (and just happens to be where I live!). We wanted a base where we could all be in the same room, perhaps just 2-3 days a week. I think one of the biggest issues, especially for small businesses that only get together once a month, is that things that wouldn’t be a problem if you talked about them right away end up turning into bigger issues after waiting so long! So being together every week stops this from happening and secondly, when you are working together in the same space, it gives you a chance to have some of those creative conversations that would not happen if you were working from home.
- Why does Freshmill work well for you and your business?
It works particularly well for me because I live in Haywards Heath!! But really, it is an incredible space for the cost compared to going to Brighton or Crawley. It has meeting rooms/concierge, everything we need, and it is not so expensive that we have to be sticklers about people being in the office every day, we are very flexible.
- What is the most important lesson you have gained from your career so far?
Selling a product is incredibly difficult compared to selling a consultancy service. We have found this particularly in the last couple of years trying to sell in our AI tool. When you are selling a consultancy service it is very relationship-based, which as lawyers, we can all do, we are used to it. Selling a product is completely different! Sales becomes more of a science rather than an art. Just trying to cut through the noise is tough! We are getting there thankfully, but it takes time and it’s hard work!
- Where do you hope to be in 5 years’ time?
On a yacht in the Caribbean! No, more realistically, I would love to get to the point where our AI product is the larger part of the business – that is where we think the future lies. I don’t think lawyers will be redundant at all, I just think that the jobs that lawyers are going to do will be different.
- What advice would you give your younger self just starting out?
I would say follow your passion and don’t listen to other people! If I had stuck to my guns I would have ended up in tech (and I have really, in a round about way), but back in the day there was quite a stigma surrounding tech. In the noughties it was considered really geeky and that definitely influenced my choices.
- What is your favourite quote/mantra?
This is my favourite quote of the moment. No-one realises this is the full thing:
‘Jack of all trades, master of none, but often times better than a master of one.’
Everyone forgets that last bit! I think going into the next ten years where it is likely that AI will be prevalent, someone who can lend themselves to multiple disciplines is far more valuable than someone who is laser focussed on one.
- If you could, who would you switch places with for the day, and why?
Honestly, I don’t think I would. I think we often look at other people and think, wouldn’t life be better being them, but mostly it isn’t. We tend to think the grass is always greener, but it rarely is.