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[Tom Dunlop](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-dunlop/) is CEO of [Summize](https://www.summize.com/), a cutting-edge lawtech company specialising in automated contract review. Tom is a fascinating and multi-talented individual, and was a semi-professional badminton player before qualifying as a lawyer and founding legal tech companies. The competitive streak and burning need to win that Tom developed in sport have entirely informed his entrepreneurial mindset. Despite his young age, Tom's determination to to reach continuously greater accomplishments is infectious.  
  
Tom's life and mindset make for insightful discussion on today's Humans of Law episode. He and [Louise Anderson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/louiseanderson2/) discuss Tom's sporting history, and blend it into the lessons that Tom carried into professional life from his badminton days. They then move onto the lightbulb moment that led to Summize being founded, and how Tom keeps the Summize team aligned with the company's mission.

**Additional Resources:**

* [All Humans of Law episodes](https://flex.legal/blog/categories/humans-of-law-podcast) - if you enjoyed this episode, we have loads more than you’d love! Click here to see every episode we’ve released to date.
* [Flex Legal on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/flex-legal-limited/) - we post new content and thoughts onto our LinkedIn page near constantly, and it’s a great place to hear the latest things we’re up to.
* [Flex Legal on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/flexondemand/) - our instagram is filled with fresh original content suitable for a more junior legal audience. If you use Instagram, why not get our posts in your feed?

Tom Dunlop

Humans of Law S2E9 - Tom Dunlop - blog banner

From competitive sport to lawtech with Tom Dunlop

After overcoming the challenges of 2020, Flex Legal has come back with a bang in 2021. From winning prestigious awards, to launching a brand new social mobility training scheme, it’s been a big year for the team at Flex HQ, so we wanted to take a moment to look back on our favourite highlights from the year.

## Flex turned 5!

We were super excited to celebrate our 5th birthday this year with our wonderful team and clients. We’re so proud of how far we've come in that time, from our co-founders, Mary and James, first meeting on a hay bale with a simple idea to connect busy legal teams to law graduates. Fast forward five years, and now we have a fabulous team of 39, over 6,000 paralegals and lawyers on our platform, lots of new ideas, and most importantly, we made it through the pandemic as a team and came out of it stronger than ever.

## **The Lawyer Awards: Law Company of the Year**

Once we’d recovered from celebrating our 5th birthday, just around the corner in November we were absolutely over the moon to be crowned ‘Law Company of the Year’ in [The Lawyer Awards](https://www.thelawyer.com/event/the-lawyer-awards/). Thank you to The Lawyer Awards for this incredible recognition, and to all our candidates and clients for helping us get to where we are today.

## **The launch of Flex Trainee - our brand new social mobility training scheme**

When Mary and James founded Flex, they did so with a mission to make the legal industry more diverse, inclusive, and flexible for all. This year, they wanted to go further than they ever have before with the launch of [Flex Trainee](/hire/flex-trainee) - a brand new social mobility training scheme, which allows legal teams to take on diverse, capable legal professionals and give them the opportunity to pursue a career in the legal industry, through the new SQE route to qualification.

Our first cohort of 6 trainees has been a great success, thanks to our wonderful clients: ASOS, Vodafone, Trussle Group, The Crown Estate, Next15 Communications and The Phoenix Group; and plans are already underway for our next cohort in Spring 2022.

[Click here](https://www.thelawyer.com/vodafone-and-crown-estate-among-in-housers-taking-diverse-trainees-as-part-of-new-sqe-scheme/) to see Flex Trainee featured in The Lawyer, and [here](/hire/flex-trainee) to find out more about taking a Flex Trainee into your business.

## **We opened two new offices**

To mark the return to the office in April 2021, we were delighted to open our own new space in Work Life, Bermondsey, London - big enough for our ever growing team. Our second opening was of our brand new Manchester office to support our rapid growth in the North, headed up by [Louise Anderson](/team-members/louise-anderson), Head of the Northern Hub, alongside her team of Mancunian Flexers.

## **We invested in our tech**

**The Flex Legal QWE Journal**

As part of the brand new SQE (Solicitors Qualifying Examination) route to qualification, aspiring lawyers are required to complete 2 years of Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) in up to 4 organisations; and all that experience has to relate to the SRA’s statement of solicitor competence and be confirmed by a solicitor. That’s a lot of competencies to cross check and confirmations to manage, and so to make this process as smooth as possible, back in April we launched the brand new [Flex Legal Journal](/sqe-qwe-journal) - the first digital system in the industry for tracking QWE.

The Flex Journal lets you record your experience, manage approvals and track your progress online against the SRA’s competency framework. [Head here](/sqe-qwe-journal) to start recording your journal entries today.

## **We launched our brand new podcast - Humans of Law**

Back in June this year, we launched our new podcast ‘[Humans of Law](https://humansoflaw.buzzsprout.com/)’ with the mission of uncovering the real human stories behind life in the law. We’ve gone beyond brands, titles, and news headlines, and really drilled into the positives and negatives of the legal industry. We’ve had guest speakers from all walks of life, from CEO’s of law firms, partners, and legal influencers, all the way to trainee solicitors and university graduates trying to find their career footing during Covid.

Want to get 2022 off to an insightful start?   
Then give Humans of Law a [listen here on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/5kJ6LDnSew0TzDxmLr4zpm?si=5e22a6ff149f4280), or [here on Apple podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/humans-of-law/id1572322390).

## **Events, events and more events!!!**

2021 has seen the well-overdue return of in-person events once again, but we’ve also had our fair share of virtual gatherings this year. Here are just some of [Flex’s events](/events) over the past year:

* **[Our very own Junior Lawyer Lunches, hosted in collaboration with LexisNexis](/events):** **After launching our Virtual Lunch events in the first lockdown of 2020, they have continued to be a great success throughout this year, with a host of incredible speakers, from [Dominique Ashby](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominiqueashby/) to [Christopher Tart-Roberts](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-tart-roberts-858696118/), talking on an array of topics such as: mental health in law, in-house vs private practice, legal tech and much more! Keep your eyes peeled to book on to our next Junior Lawyer Virtual Lunch, taking place in February 2022.**
* [Our very first Northern In-house Event](/blog/flex-legal-s-northern-in-house-community): At the start of November, we were delighted to host our first ever Northern In-house Event, in collaboration with LexisNexis. Thank you to all our wonderful speakers: [Mary Bonsor](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-bonsor-8a270859/), [Louise Anderson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/louiseanderson2/), [Gemma Farina](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemma-farina/), [Susan Lamb](https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-lamb-80b5794/), [Dan Kayne](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-kayne-b784b435/) and [Katie Barker](https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-barker-970334101/); and for those of you who couldn't make it, keep an eye out for our next Northern event!
* **[LexisNexis’ Senior Counsel Events, hosted by our Head of Learning & Development, Sophie Gould](https://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/event/flying-solo.html):** **2021 has seen a continuation of LexisNexis’ Senior Counsel Virtual Sessions, held in collaboration with ourselves at Flex Legal, Crafty Counsel and Radius Law. If you’re senior counsel, these events are not to be missed - sign up to January’s session on ‘[The effective leader: How to lead amid disruption and complexity](https://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/event/flying-solo.html)’ now.**
* Northern GC Powerhouse Forum/Midlands Forum/Hub Leaders Events/SQE Steering: **Through various forums throughout the year, we’ve been delighted to bring the legal community together and give lawyers a space to network/collaborate.**
* University Roadshow: **Flex have been on tour! Over Autumn, we’ve had virtual visits with universities up and down the country, from BPP, Legal Cheek, Barbri and The University of Law, to King’s College London, The University of Leeds, Newcastle University, and The University of Bristol, plus many more. Where shall we head next? Look out for us at your law fairs and careers talks next Spring!**

As well as hosting plenty of our own fantastic virtual events, we’ve been lucky enough to sponsor some exciting in-person and virtual events led by our friends and partners in the industry, including: Crafty Counsel’s Community Lunch Event; The Annual SMMT Automotive In-house Lawyers' Seminar; and Retail Week’s GC Summit. Here’s to many more in-person meet-ups in 2022!

## **The Flex HQ Team: new starters, promotions, weddings and babies!**

With bigger ambitions has come the need for a bigger team, and we’re delighted to have welcomed 24 new starters through the year. Take a peek at the people behind our success [here](/team-members/)!

As well as many new starters, there’s been plenty of progression within our existing team. We’re delighted to congratulate [Jessica Rivett](/team-members/jessica-rivett) on her promotion to General Manager, and [Harry Mellor](/team-members/harry-mellor) on his promotion to Client Development Manager of our Sales Team, along with [Jennifer Ofodile](/team-members/jennifer) and [Amy Weir-Simmons](/team-members/amy-weir-simmons) on their promotion to the brand new role of Senior Associates within our Client Services Team. They are all great ambassadors of the Flex values of being positive, human and responsive throughout their work, and really deserve their new roles.

Lastly, we’re over the moon to congratulate Client Services Associate, [Yusuf Ogretici](/team-members/yusuf-ogretici), on his marriage this Summer, and Chief Operating Officer, [Sam Gunn](/team-members/sam-gunn), on the birth of her beautiful baby Ivo. But Sam’s not the only team member to become a parent this year… a massive congratulations to [Ben Harris](/team-members/ben-harris) and Zaia Ndokera (both wonderful Client Services Managers in the Lawyers Team) on becoming puppy parents to their fluffy children, Alfie and Arthur.

## **Plenty of happy candidates**

At Flex, we aim to give our clients and candidates as much of a friendly, positive and human service as we can, and so we’re incredibly pleased to see that 100% of our Google Reviews are 5 stars. Here’s just a taster of some of the amazing feedback we’ve received this year:

Over the last year, we’ve had 3,081 new candidates accepted onto our platform, meaning we have a total of 6,145 talented lawyers and paralegals currently available for interim work. [Head here](/hire/) to find out how to hire from our pool of candidates today.

## **And lots of happy clients!**

We’d like to wish a warm welcome to all our new clients for this year, and a big thank you to all our clients who have been kind enough to complete a case study: [Trustpilot Group PLC](/blog/trustpilot-and-flex-legal), [RSG Consulting](/blog/rsg-consulting-and-flex-legal), [Lenovo,](/blog/lenovo-and-flex-legal) [Gowling WLG](/blog/flex-legal-and-gowling-wlg), [Kraft Heinz](/blog/how-flex-legal-helped-kraft-heinz-meet-their-internal-targets), [Runnymede Law](/blog/flex-legal-and-runnymede-law) and [Aston University](/blog/how-flex-legal-helped-aston-university-fill-a-brand-new-role).

In just 5 years, we’re proud to now work with an array of top clients, from magic circle law firms, to prestigious in-house legal teams all across the UK. We look forward to continuing to support you all over the coming years! 

It has to be said it’s been a whopper of a year for Flex, and we’re so excited to see where 2022 takes us next. A very Merry Christmas to all our wonderful clients and candidates, and our best wishes for the New Year!

**Additional Resources:**

* [2020: a big year for Flex Legal](/blog/2020-a-big-year) - take a look at our wrap-up blog post from 2020 to see how far we’ve really come in two years, even through the infamous Covid-19 pandemic.
* [Hire a Flex Lawyer or Paralegal](/hire/) - keen to get some valuable support during busy peaks of work? Click here to find out how interim resourcing can really help you.
* [Apply to be a Flex Lawyer or Paralegal](/apply/why-join) - are you a lawyer who craves a better work/life balance or a paralegal who’s looking for that valuable legal experience to get into the industry? If so, then head here to apply to Flex today!

Flex Legal's 2021 Christmas Gif

Flex Legal's 2021 Wrap-up

<p>flexy is a new app designed to help you manage, discover and switch between subscriptions on the go. It is at a very exciting stage and about to launch it’s MVP. You can&nbsp;<a href="https://flexyapp.uk/" target="_blank">register with flexy&nbsp;</a>here for early access!</p><p>flexy (not to be confused with F-LEX) was recommended to speak to F-LEX as they needed some help with reviewing 50-100 contracts of various subscription providers. They were cost sensitive as they are a start up and needed the review turned around fairly quickly. </p><p>F-LEX decided that the most cost effective solution would be to provide a paralegal to do the first review, to ensure costs were kept to a minimum, with a junior lawyer then reviewing the work and adding any comments. To kick things off, it was agreed that the paralegal would do 40 hours and the lawyer would do 20 hours.</p><p>This worked really well, and was a great opportunity for our paralegal, Stephanie, and our lawyer, Elise, to work together on a remote basis. Elise is actually based in Italy and it was great to see how our paralegals and lawyers could work together on a project without having ever met!</p><p>Mary Bonsor, CEO of F-LEX said “<em>It was great to help a start up and provide a really cost effective solution which worked well for their needs. Often start ups can’t afford to go to a law firm and just need some pragmatic, sensible advice. I look forward to seeing how successful flexy will be, and am certainly going to sign up to it”.</em></p><p>Jame Cuss, CEO  of flexy said: “<em>From a client perspective, I highly recommend F-LEX; they’re responsive, knowledgable and super efficient. I recall 48 hours from an initial video call (set up within hours)  to targeted paralegal profiles (delivered digitally), to full briefing and action. Top to bottom, F-LEX are a great team to work with too - Impressive!”</em></p><p></p>








  

    
  
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From competitive sport to lawtech with Tom Dunlop

Flex Legal's 2021 Wrap-up

Helping flexy with cost effective contract reviews