Exceptional Female Role Models - Mary Bonsor

Mary Bonsor is the CEO and co-founder of Flex Legal – a bespoke online platform created to connect law students with law firms and in-house legal teams on a flexible on demand basis. Mary is passionate about using technology to help law students build their work experience in the legal sector, and breaking down barriers to entry. Flex Legal now also supports qualified lawyers to develop a more flexible career.

Previously, a Property Litigation lawyer at a City firm, Mary was named in Management Today’s 35 under 35 for 2020, won Entrepreneur of the Year at the Women in Law Awards 2020 and also was an Entrepreneurship category winner at the European Women of Legal Tech Awards 2020.

Flex Legal has so far been recognised as: Legal Supplier Innovation winner at the LexisNexis Legal Awards 2018; Legal Innovator of the Year winner at the Legal Business Awards 2018; Resource Management winner at the Legal Week Innovation Awards 2019, and was Best Technology Product runner up at The Lawyer Awards 2019.

#ExceptionalFemaleRoleModels

Can we start by understanding more about your background?

I was a Property Litigation lawyer at a City firm, before I got to my firm it took me quite a while to build up my experience as I didn’t have any contacts in the legal sector.

I remember walking around the city whilst I was doing the GDL and the LPC, desperate for work. Eventually, I managed to find work experience as a secretary for a shipping arbitrator, but it wasn’t easy to get there.

Fast forward a few years when I was a qualified solicitor, I was staring in the face of an imminent court deadline with forty huge bundles to make. I was sitting at my desk and looking out of the window I could see a group of Kaplan law students exactly where I had been a few years earlier, and I knew from experience that those students would have jumped at the chance to get legal work experience, whilst I also knew that legal associates like me were desperate for help.

That’s how the idea came about and then it took another 3-4 years before I actually took the plunge and was brave enough to set up the company.

I hadn’t fallen out of love with law, I was still really enjoying being a lawyer, but I also realised that this was the perfect time to do something entrepreneurial as I didn’t have kids nor many overheads, so it felt like a good moment to be able to take a risk.

I also had the mentality ‘what is the worst that can happen?’, if it fails it fails and I’ll go back to being a lawyer - but perhaps I’d go back as an even better lawyer because I would have gained some more commercial awareness.

I decided I was going to test the idea before jumping ship, I did a lot of work on weekends and in the evenings. Eventually I approached just one firm and explained that I was representing 10 amazing law students and if you need help let me know – I also explained I wouldn’t make any money from this, I just wanted to prove the concept worked. I managed to get 4 Paralegals placed with that firm to help on a litigation matter.

Shortly after that I met James, my co-founder, who is an experienced software developer and the real wizard who has built the platform and managed to make the idea of connecting law students to law firms and in-house teams become a reality.

Also, a big part for me of having the confidence to take the jump was getting investment – I got in touch with Tony Williams, the ex-Managing Partner of Clifford Chance who is very passionate about legal education and helping the younger generations to enter the profession.

So there was an element of good luck, some perseverance and then plenty of networking as people opened doors at more firms for us to work with them.

We raised ￡120k initially to get started, and then we raised a further ￡650k in November 2018. Since then we have been able to grow through generating our own profits.

We’ve now expanded our offering beyond just Paralegals to also offer flexible qualified lawyers on demand, we’re also developing a digital SQE diary so people will be able to record their qualifying work experience. More recently, law firms have told us how much they like our tech and so we have now started licensing our platform out for them to use as a way to manage flexible resources through their own networks.

We have arranged literally thousands of work experience placements, and we have got 350 training contracts for law students.

What do you wish you had learned earlier in life?

I really wish I had learned more Excel spreadsheet skills! It sounds like a small thing, but it really is such a key skill – which I find that most lawyers, in particular, don’t learn. I think being able to understand a P&L and become more commercial is really useful.

I also would say have the confidence to have a go at things that you haven’t done before. As a lawyer you are normally a high achiever and you put a lot of pressure on yourself, so often when somebody asks you to do something you have never done before your automatic reaction is no.

I’ve noticed that in some other careers, jumping into the unknown is relished and is seen as a great way to learn. So I wish I had learned to not be quite so risk averse as a natural instinct. Fortune favours the brave.

Can you remember the best piece of advice you have ever been given?

Approach life by thinking about how you want to be remembered by people – almost along the lines of what would you want written on your gravestone.

For me this means that we all tend to remember more about how someone treats you, rather than how much money they made during their life. So it is thinking about your personal touch as you go along your journey.

I work hard to really care about other people’s interests and to really listen to them. In this day and age there is just so much noise, and people get so easily distracted that we have lost the ability to really listen to other people’s stories.

As an example, one thing I really love is that I leave hundreds of blank postcards around London – on buses, on park benches, in restaurants, on the underground – they are addressed back to me and have a stamp on them. I will write on the top something like ‘Please share with me something positive that has happened to you today’ or ‘Please tell me a piece of advice that you would give yourself’ or ‘Please tell me something brave you did in your life’.

So far I’ve got almost 500 replies, and they are really amazing – it actually has become the highlight of my day, receiving these messages from strangers who share a part of their life stories.

What are the biggest life lessons you have learned so far?

You never know what somebody else is going through – I think this is such an important message, especially nowadays.

Always check in with how people are doing, and remember that behind everybody you interact with there are real people with real lives and real ups and downs.

One of the most challenging times in my business – actually in my life – was when one of our paralegals committed suicide. It was such a tragedy.

He was somebody that I had got to know fairly well, and he was always one of the loudest and most confidents guys that we worked with. He was away from his family in London as he had come over from Austria, and I was the one who called his family to tell them what had happened.

You just never know what is going on inside people, and the struggles they are facing in their personal lives – so the lesson I have learned is to always be kind. I think we need to look out for each other more.

How important have mentors have been to you?

Incredibly important, I have had numerous mentors and coaches and I have absolutely loved the time I’ve spent with them. I think, irrespective of your career, everyone should find a mentor or a coach.

It’s so valuable to take time to talk through any issue you want – it’s a bit like having a therapist – it’s really helpful.

It’s so rare now to give time back to your own mental health, and setting aside time in your busy work schedule to do this is really invaluable.

Quite a nice personal story is that one of my mentors now actually works with me at Flex Legal. She helped me greatly for about 2 years, and then in one of our sessions she actually said to me that she felt she could use some mentoring, so we flipped into some reverse mentoring, and now she works with us!

What strategies have you developed for overcoming challenges & staying positive?

It started with my upbringing, particularly my Dad is just an incredibly positive person – so it starts with maintaining your positive attitude and controlling your outlook. We are all going to face challenges in various forms, but how you frame these to yourself becomes very important.

I also am a big believer in exercise – I absolutely love spinning! In lockdown this might just be getting outside and going for a walk, but definitely physical exercise contributes to our mental health.

At Flex Legal we spend a lot of time chatting with each other on Slack, but also every week we have arranged a one-to-one with somebody in the business that we don’t normally work with. We also do ‘elevensies’ on a Friday where we all jump on Zoom and play a random game together!

I think we need to redefine the way we look at careers, I am a big fan of thinking about ‘Life/Work Balance’ instead of ‘Work/Life Balance’. We need to look at flexibility through technology, and your career doesn’t have to just be a linear experience, there is the opportunity to do more than one thing and even more than one thing at once.

My other tip for overcoming challenges is to take your ego out of it – admit where you have made mistakes, admit that you don’t know all the answers - be prepared to show your vulnerability and your honesty will gain people’s respect.

Also put a great team of people around you with a wide range of skills, especially ones that might be development areas for you.

I definitely believe in the power of networks and communities and the importance of learning from each other. One of my mentors taught me not to begrudge other people’s success and that in any market there is always room for many people to succeed. So believe that the more people who are doing what you are doing is a great thing, and approach this with a good attitude.

I’m a member of many communities – I was one of the earliest to join Legal Geek, I’m also a part of Legal Tech, Women In Law and Female Founders. This has brought me so many connections and so much help.

I’m a believer that anyone can set up a business, and anyone can ask for help – I’ve found that many people are actually really generous with their time, so never be scared to reach out and ask a question.

What does success mean to you now?

Well firstly, I am just about to take a few months off on maternity leave – I am expecting my first child on 18th December, so running a business whilst having a baby will be a whole new chapter for me.

Initially, I wanted to start my business and just hoped it would cover it’s costs, and then as time goes on you start thinking more deeply about what success actually is.

I think it is continuing with our mission to help people and to grow the business in a way where our employees and clients are happy - that is success.

In the future, my hope would be that we can collaborate with companies that are doing similar things to allow us to have an even bigger mission to help lawyers and make the industry a different and better place.