Emily Reid

Hogan Lovells

Since working on the UK’s first debit card in the mid-1980s, Hogan Lovells partner Emily Reid has guided the launch of products that are now at the heart of everyday financial services. In 2004, Reid advised Britain’s first peer-to-peer lender Zopa, which paved the regulatory path for fintechs like RateSetter. Her experience as client relationship partner for big banks inspired entrepreneurial ventures; in 2019 she piloted a managed legal services business in Birmingham in a bid to allow clients to increase visibility over matters and legal projects without the need to involve senior lawyers. It followed the launch, in 2017, of a compliance consulting unit understood to be worth over £1m.

In the tech community, Reid is a fairy godmother for early-stage companies, leading a mentoring programme that each year provides 10 fintech-focused start-ups with £25,000 worth of free legal advice. Conscious of the high fees of private practice, Reid has launched online toolkits to help start-ups understand shifting regulatory regimes and consumer credit law.

In 2020, she will capitalise on that knowledge by encapsulating it into chatbots that will answer client queries automatically 24/7. The goal? Making money while she sleeps.