From Legal Expertise to Legal Access: Rebecca Kelly on Making Quality Legal Support Available to Every Business

In her Legacy Bench conversation, Rebecca Kelly shares a career shaped by expertise, entrepreneurship, and a determination to make the law more accessible. With more than 25 years of experience as a data and technology lawyer, she has advised businesses on commercial, data, and technology matters while building her own practice and launching shizl, a legal document platform designed to support start-ups and SMEs.

But her story is about more than practising law.

It is about challenging the idea that high-quality legal support should only be available to businesses with large budgets and in-house legal teams.

Rebecca began her career as a corporate lawyer, advising on the sale and acquisition of businesses before moving in-house, where she specialised in negotiating commercial and technology contracts. Working closely with businesses gave her first-hand insight into the legal challenges organisations face as they grow, particularly smaller companies that often lack access to affordable legal expertise.

That experience inspired her to think differently.

In 2015, Rebecca established her own legal practice, combining technical expertise with practical commercial advice. But she also recognised a wider problem. Many entrepreneurs and small business owners either delayed obtaining essential legal documents because of the cost or turned to generic online templates and AI-generated content that carried significant risks.

Her response was to build a solution.

In 2021, she launched shizl, a legal document platform providing professionally drafted legal and compliance documents that are simple to use, affordable, and designed specifically for growing businesses. Her goal is not to replace lawyers, but to ensure that businesses of every size can access trusted legal foundations from the very beginning.

Rebecca is also passionate about widening opportunity within the legal profession itself. Inspired by trailblazers such as Betty Boothroyd, who broke through social and professional barriers despite her working-class upbringing, she believes talent should never be limited by background and that success should create opportunities for others.

Joining The Legacy Bench gives Rebecca the opportunity to share her journey as both a lawyer and entrepreneur, while encouraging founders to view legal protection as an investment in their future rather than a barrier to growth.

At the centre of Rebecca’s work is a simple belief: every business deserves access to legal support that is practical, trusted, and affordable, regardless of its size.

As technology continues to reshape the legal sector, Rebecca remains focused on combining innovation with expertise, ensuring that businesses can grow with confidence while avoiding unnecessary legal risk.

Her story is a reminder that the best innovation doesn’t replace expertise. It makes expertise accessible to the people who need it most.