About

Team size: 15
Major law firms used: Fieldfisher, Penningtons Manches, Simmons & Simmons

Karen Kerrigan has been at the front line for crowdfunder Seedrs since its conception in 2012. Her three-year run as chief legal officer has taken her to new heights as chief operating officer at the company, which gives investors across Europe an online platform for investing in start-ups and later-stage businesses.

Last year saw £195m worth of investment pass through Seedrs, with German sustainable energy start-up Sono Motors raising €6.1m from over 760 investors – the largest EU-funded deal of 2018. ‘We’ve got a 65-75% success rate of raising funds for businesses, which we are pretty happy with,’ she says. ‘My role is pretty atypical and has evolved in the last couple of months to reflect my growing involvement in ensuring the sustainability of the businesses.’

GCs having involvement in operations and their companies’ growth plans is becoming increasingly common and is ‘symptomatic of the expectations that are put on lawyers’. When Kerrigan joined as legal and financial director in 2013, Seedrs employed around five people, but the legal team has since grown to 15 lawyers working across legal, financial, compliance and HR affairs.

According to the former Simmons & Simmons associate, there are compelling reasons for lawyers to work for companies in the fintech space. ‘Our business is run on contracts – you buy shares and you sell them, yes… but there are huge opportunities for lawyers at Seedrs because we’re all about finding ways of using legal technologies to streamline processes.’

The London-headquartered company was the first equity crowdfunding platform to have gained authorisation by the Financial Conduct Authority. Kerrigan is less interested in looking elsewhere for tech support for processes and has been growing the company’s own capabilities. She spends time lobbying regulatory and legislative bodies on developments, particularly in Europe, regarding crowdfunding regulation.

‘The great thing about being a GC is that you don’t always have to look at things from a legal perspective. I’ve become better at my job through the lobbying and that’s something I wouldn’t usually have done as a private practice lawyer.’