Winner: Rachel Roche with her pet dog Molsey
Three entrepreneurial solicitors have been selected for a government-backed innovation programme that helps women turn ideas into new businesses.
A litigant in person (LiP) who took her own case through the family courts has also been selected for her platform that helps family lawyers assemble case files automatically, and gives confidence to people who represent themselves.
Three of the women have been awarded £75,000 by the Women in Innovation programme – which is led by Innovate UK – to fund the next stage in the development of their concept or start-up, alongside 12 months of tailored business support, training, networking and mentoring opportunities
Innovate UK named a record 100-strong cohort for this year in its three priority areas of advanced manufacturing, digital tech and life sciences, of which 61 were awarded the full package and 39 were highly commended, meaning they receive the support but not the money.
As we reported last year, Rachel Roche, a private client solicitor who founded York-based Roche Legal, has developed an online tool called PetPact to give owners “peace of mind” that their pets will be cared for if they become seriously ill, die or separate from a partner.
PetPact creates an online statement of wishes, setting out the name of the pet’s new owner or guardian and instructions for the pet’s ongoing care. That statement is attached to the owner’s will, given in England and Wales pets are still legally classed as property.
Ms Roche said: “Currently, your dog has the same legal status as your sofa, but nobody grieves for the loss of a sofa. We plan carefully for our children and finances and the law should let us do the same for the animals who are part of our families.”
Celebrating her selection in the programme, she said: “PetPact gives owners that protection today and this Innovate UK award will help us demonstrate how we can reach pet owners at scale through the vets and insurers they already trust.”
Emily Gill was a finance lawyer at City giant Clifford Chance until she came up with the idea for LEVRA, which measures, tracks and develops the skills that employers look for, to help solve the global “human skills crisis”.
Ms Gill said: “The UK loses £22bn a year from underinvestment in human skills and traditional education neglects the skills that employers demand, leaving 65 million young people unemployed globally.”
LEVRA is a psychometric tool that measures an individual’s capability across 31 human skills to reveal strengths and gaps in what they can offer to an employer, and the help them fill those gaps.
Ms Gill’s clients include Google, Deloitte, US law firms Milbank, Covington and Goodwin, as well as Oxford University.
LEVRA is targeting £1.6m in revenue and 7,625 users by its 2027 financial year, and is looking for its first government contract.
She said the company was now working on “the world’s first ‘Fitbit’ for human skills, measuring, tracking and developing skills at scale to power personalised learning and the largest human skills dataset in existence”.
Bethia Green, who specialised in international IP, left London firm Mishcon de Reya to start Mediaite earlier this year. She was a highly commended applicant.
Mediaite is a data-led workplace conflict management platform that helps employees resolve disputes and employers prevent them. The first pilot starts this autumn.
Ms Green said: “Workplace conflict costs UK employers £32.5bn a year. As a lawyer I see the damage that conflict causes, not just to an organisation’s bottom line and culture but to employees’ health and wellbeing. Everyone deserves better solutions, and Mediaite is determined to build them.
“We’ve built an HR-tech platform that transforms how employees will navigate conflict. We prioritise confidentiality and employee data privacy yet can anonymise and convert employee data into reports that identify high-ROI interventions and demonstrate the human, economic, and cultural value of building happy, healthy, and safe workplaces for all employees.”
Mediate runs on a subscription model. With 30 million employers and employees in the UK, Ms Green sees “a £4.6bn opportunity, rising to £13.7bn with enterprise”.
In 2022, Nimrita Dadlani moved from being a LiP to set up Pivot, a digital platform that helps family lawyers and LiPs use AI to “turn chaotic evidence into structured, fully cited, court-ready case files”.
Ms Dadlani said she saw the impact that cuts to legal aid have had on the justice system, which has led 80% of family cases now involving LIPs.
As well as producing court bundles, Pivot connects a myriad of evidence – such as emails, WhatsApp messages, screenshots and bank statements – with people, events and documents and flags any gaps or inconsistencies within the claim.
Ms Dadlani said: “We work with UK family law firms, with our platform live among early adopter firms and a waitlist of over 28 more.
“We are now building a consumer product to widen access to justice for litigants in person. Over the next three years, we plan to scale across the UK and expand to the US, where courts face the same challenges.”
Since they were launched in 2016, the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Awards have invested over £15m in 260 female innovators – including others in the legal market – and previous winners going on to secure £358m in funding and investment.
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