Juno Legal – NZ Entrepreneur Magazine

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at a glance

Founder: Helen McKay

work: Juno Regal

Established: April 3, 2017

Headquarters: Wellington

Could you tell us a little bit about your business?

Juno Legal provides on-demand in-house legal services to businesses and the public sector in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Juno was one of the first law firms to transform the way traditional law firms work. The issues associated with the law firm business model are well known. high stress, lack of diversity, and the desire of lawyers to pursue other interests and family involvement while doing their job.

In a tight recruitment market, Juno Legal attracts and retains talented attorneys who make a real difference to our clients’ businesses. The Juno model is employee-centric, allowing lawyers to do quality and interesting work while spending time doing other things in their lives. Juno offers unparalleled value to lawyers who are fully compensated for the hours they choose and have complete freedom to design their own work lives.

Juno is listed on the Deloitte Fast 50 as New Zealand’s 33rd fastest growing company in 2021 and is the first law firm to make the list. Juno’s reward system encourages initiative and social contribution. 1% of company profits are donated to charities and causes supported by various attorneys and practitioners.

Building Juno as a community and prioritizing the interests of people and clients over economic incentives has made Juno sustainable and continues to attract more demand than it can currently meet.

What is the background of your business idea?

I was a senior general counsel for a publicly traded company and worked over 50 hours a week with two young children and my third pregnancy. I was constantly stressed and felt like I wasn’t doing my best in any area of ​​my life. Something needed to change, so I took on a 20-hour-a-week role leading a trade association of in-house lawyers in New Zealand. I worked her 30-35 hours a week to perform the role at the required level. This highlights the penalties many part-time workers are paying.

On the demand side, other general counsel have often told me that they need temporary access to senior strategic in-house counsel, but there is no legal contractor market in New Zealand. Because before you can become a lawyer, you need to be qualified to open your own law firm. can contract.

In 2017, I decided to form a B2B law firm made up of in-house lawyers. We decided to allow everyone to work flexibly, get paid by the hour, and still provide excellent, agile legal services to businesses.

What programs, learning, and teaching have helped you so far?

• So many! I had tremendous support from the Wellington Regional Economic Development Board, my two coaches of hers and many other founders who generously gave their time and effort.
• Joining the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) two years ago was a game changer as the experience shared by other founders was very helpful.
• Favorite books include all the titles by Jim Collins and Patrick Lencioni, but also by Dr. David Locke (we always use his SCARF model) and Michael Garber’s “E-Myth Principles”. There are also new discoveries such as

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