‘Use it or lose it’ no longer cuts it according to court ruling! We look at why you need to remind your staff to take their holiday.
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Ask a Lawyer’ is away for the festive break, returning on 4 January 2022. Submit your query and we’ll respond as soon as possible when we return. X
Hema Marshall
Chief Revenue Officer
An accomplished CRO with over two decades of experience and a track record of driving major growth via motivational leadership, astute strategic development and robust operational management to deliver best in class customer experience. Previously Hema was at Cisco where she was MD for the SME Market and has held various positions during her 14 year tenure. She is also an advocate for women in tech and leadership.
Hema Marshall
Chief Revenue Officer
Accomplished CRO with over two decades of experience and a track record of driving major growth via motivational leadership, astute strategic development and robust operational management to deliver best in class customer experience.
Frankie Mundy
Senior Legal Editor and Lawyer
Before joining Sparqa in 2017, I spent five years training and practising as a corporate investigations and disputes lawyer at Hogan Lovells. I was also actively involved in the firm’s pro bono programmes and studied for an LLM in Human Rights alongside the day job. I’ve gained experience advising a wide range of clients, from multinational corporations to start-ups and individuals. I like that Sparqa Legal is using technology to help make the law more accessible to its users, whatever their size. When I’m not writing legal content, you’ll find me planning my next trip in search of some sunshine!
Michael Fernandez
UI Engineer
Michael graduated from Royal Holloway with a degree in Computer Science before joining the Sparqa Legal team. The first junior developer in the company's history, he managed to bribe his way in with snacks and his mad ping pong skills. Fun fact: He didn't know his name was Michael until he was 12 years old.
Mike Bell
UI Engineer
Hello, I'm Mike.
I've a BSc in 'Computing Science' and a MSc in 'Computing for Financial Markets' from the University of Stirling.
I've previously worked as a Software Developer, coding in C & Java. However my current passion is for all things JavaScript and the Web. I've also worked in the music industry as an Events Producer/Organizer and then as a Financial Markets Trader, each for approximately ten years.
Michael Fernandez
UI Engineer
Michael graduated from Royal Holloway with a degree in Computer Science before joining the Sparqa Legal team. The first junior developer in the company's history, he managed to bribe his way in with snacks and his mad ping pong skills. Fun fact: He didn't know his name was Michael until he was 12 years old.
Jordan Milton
UI Engineer
Jordan has been working as an allegedly professional developer for the last 6 years, though that was really just a natural progression from a childhood that largely revolved around playing computer games. Jordan is pretty confident this bio won't be read so he feels safe buffing the character count with this sentence that can be ignored. The main difference is that he now gets paid to spend all day at a computer.
Beth Allchurch
UI Engineer
Beth left academic philosophy to become a software developer. Before joining Sparqa Legal she spent 3 years at a London-based marketing agency and 6 months freelancing as an app developer.
Tom Gould
Server-Side Engineer
Prior to joining Sparqa Legal, Tom worked as a software engineer in the music publishing industry. He has experience with a broad range of languages, specialising in the JVM. Tom graduated from the University of York with an MEng in Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence.
Mesfin Mebrate
Server-Side Engineer
Mesfin is a software developer for Sparqa Legal. Prior to joining the company, he worked in the healthcare publishing industry for 3 years, focussing on developing and maintaining content pipelines for the British National Formulary. Mesfin holds a BSc in Computer Science from the Queen Mary University of London.
Piotr Dorobisz
Server-Side Engineer
Piotr moved to London in 2014. Before joining Sparqa Legal he worked as a back-end developer for various companies including Gumtree UK. His experience is mainly in JVM-based environment but he has also worked with many other technologies and languages. Piotr graduated from University of Science and Technology in Kraków, Poland with an MSc in Computer Science.
Gonzalo Fernandez-Victorio
Platform Engineer
In tech since the late 1990s, he's also been in Sparqa for quite some time.
These days, he tries to help with anything platform related. Which usually include words like AWS (Amazon's servers), Kubernetes (a funny name for easier deployments) and SAML2 (a monster that helps with user management). He gets excited when he hears about Serverless.
He's Spaniard (but he doesn't like paella), Forestry Engineer (I kid you not) and father of twins (yup).
Adam Coales
Lead Engineer
Prior to joining Sparqa Legal, Adam worked as a senior software engineer in the music publishing industry. He has experience with a broad range of languages, specialising in the JVM. Adam graduated from the University of Bristol with an MEng in Computer Science.
Aiden Shaw
Product Owner
Aiden spent time working at several start-ups as well as working for NGO Greenpeace prior to joining Sparqa Legal. Aiden works collaboratively with both the Product and Content teams on many aspects of product development and fine-tuning, often relating to the template automation aspect of Sparqa Legal. He enjoys working on a range of projects and graduated with a 2.1 degree in Management (BSc) from the University of East Anglia.
Gianna Rechichi
Head of Product
My background is quite diverse, from international commercial law studies to business development and product management roles.
I enjoy working with mission-driven teams, where we embrace the vision and bring to the market products people love. Before joining Sparqa Legal, I led the development of SaaS solutions for Commodity Trade companies.
I am interested in psychology and users’ interaction, outside work I like spending time in the outdoors: snorkelling is my favourite activity
My career started accidentally when I fell into launching a design festival. The clash of creativity and science involved in marketing had me hooked and the rest is history.
Career highlight: Creating a Social Media Marketing course and lecturing at University. Favourite thing about Sparqa Legal: It's a product I wish I’d had 10 years ago! Special Skill: Emoji Translation
Dan Mitchell
Head of Commercial Partnerships
Dan is our Commercial lead. He's responsible for growing Sparqa Legal and managing our strategic partnerships. Prior to Sparqa Legal Dan founded a SaaS startup and was a strategy consultant at Oliver Wyman and Accenture.
Anna Simmonds
Head of Commercial
Before joining SparqaLegal, I worked as a Barrister (2009 call) both in a leading London chambers and an international law firm. I also worked as a Publisher for Informa Law, engaging in the strategic and commercial management of a multi-million pound portfolio of publications and lawtech products. I helped to found SparqaLegal in 2016 because I passionately believe that the traditional legal model is ripe for innovation. I love that Sparqa helps to protect businesses from costly, or even terminal, mistakes and leaves them free to focus on growth and success! In my spare time you’ll find me running through the streets of South London or making the most of my National Trust membership in South Devon.
Harry Birmingham
General Counsel & Company Secretary
Harry is General Counsel and Company Secretary at Sparqa. Previously, Harry was a senior legal editor at Sparqa for over 4 years, having practised as a corporate solicitor for 6 years at Farrer & Co. Harry has broad experience advising on a range of transactional and advisory corporate matters, focusing in particular on private M&A, investments and joint ventures. Harry also maintains responsibility for Sparqa’s company law content.
Marion Kennedy
Senior Legal Editor
Marion grew up in New Zealand and moved to London for her 'big OE' (a Kiwi term for an extended overseas experience). She has been a corporate/commercial lawyer for six years, working for a large law firm in New Zealand and a fast-growing tech company in London before starting at Sparqa Legal in 2018. In her previous life Marion was a competitive ballet dancer, less competitive jazz dancer and last chosen for team sports.
Frankie Mundy
Senior Legal Editor and Lawyer
Before joining Sparqa in 2017, I spent five years training and practising as a corporate investigations and disputes lawyer at Hogan Lovells. I was also actively involved in the firm’s pro bono programmes and studied for an LLM in Human Rights alongside the day job. I’ve gained experience advising a wide range of clients, from multinational corporations to start-ups and individuals. I like that Sparqa Legal is using technology to help make the law more accessible to its users, whatever their size. When I’m not writing legal content, you’ll find me planning my next trip in search of some sunshine!
Claire Woolf
Managing Editor and Lawyer
Before joining Sparqa Legal, I spent just under 10 years practising as a solicitor, specialising in commercial disputes. These ranged from whether a gun fired accurately enough, to whether a bank's employee was insider trading, to whether a golfing product infringed a trademark. I like that Sparqa Legal helps its users avoid disputes in the first place.
In my spare time I love to run, when I'm not running around after my little boy.
Helen Turnbull
Head of Content and Lawyer
I am a barrister and before coming to Sparqa Legal in 2016 I spent 12 years practising commercial and property law. I argued everything from multi-million pound contractual disputes to the right for a burger van to pitch in a car park.
Sparqa Legal allows me to help lots of businesses all at once, rather than only one case at a time. Efficiency is one of my favourite things!
My other favourite things include portrait painting, overly ambitious baking and ill-advised DIY projects.
Alison Walters
Financial Controller
My professional journey began in London in accountancy and audit, specialising in working with SMEs across sectors at Deloitte’s, and from there, heading up finance in successful organisations like Econsultancy Ltd, Teddington Studios and The Future Cities Catapult. I’ve been fortunate to work as a consultant with startups focused on positive environmental and social impact, most recently supporting The Open Data Institute and The Provenance Project with strategic planning, financial modelling, fundraising and mentoring.
One of my most memorable jobs was far removed from finance, leading wine-tasting horseback rides in Tuscany!
Richard Brennan
Board Advisor
Part of the Founding Exec Mgt Team for Orange plc. Held Board positions with Mobistar, GSMA CEO Board, and was Chair for Wildfire and investor in SwiftKey. Chairman of Viewranger. Seasoned Angel Investor across Europe.
Michael Todd QC
Board Advisor
Michael is head of Erskine Chambers and former Chair of the Bar of England & Wales.
Mark Paterson
Chair
Former General Counsel of Orange plc and Chair of SwiftKey, Mark Paterson, is Chair of Sparqa Legal, Blink and FromCounsel. Mark is excited about the rapid modernisation of the legal industry and the opportunity Sparqa Legal offers both to in-house legal teams and business owners and managers to access legal resources from expert lawyers at a fraction of the cost of the traditional legal model.
Rob Hinds
Chief Technical Officer
Before joining, Rob spent 4 years working as a senior engineer at an investment management start-up in London, building a cutting edge trading platform and market place for money managers. Prior to that, Rob spent 6 years working as a technical consultant at Accenture, working on a range of technology-driven, client-facing projects based across Europe. Rob holds a BSc in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science from the University of Birmingham.
Involved in several technology startups, George is COO of Sparqa Legal, FromCounsel and Juriosity. Previously the Project Operations Manager for a mobile advertising tracking application for Somo Global and Director of Operations for CPDcast, a legal training platform acquired by Informa plc. George champions the democratisation of law and empowering businesses to fulfil their own legal needs.
Andrew Thornton
Chief Executive Officer
Andrew Thornton, CEO of Sparqa Legal and barrister at Erskine Chambers is a serial entrepreneur dedicated to using technology to change legal services. Andrew passionately believes that armed with the right tools and resources, smart business managers can produce simple legal documents they require and ascertain their rights, obligations and best course to take without the need to interact with a human lawyer.