Consultant Legal Counsel
Natalie Connor
Natalie is a brilliant tech focused Head of Legal and General Counsel with experience leading global legal, people and ops teams on legal strategy, product governance and HR. She has worked across a number of disruptive sectors, including proptech, SaaS and regulated fintech and her particular skillset lies in translating complex, often opaque, regulatory requirements into accessible and workable guidance for commercial, product and compliance teams.
She worked as a commercial barrister before moving in-house and has tonnes of experience in all areas of general commercial law, litigation, employment, data privacy, anti-bribery / AML and regulatory work – which includes securing European MiFID licenses. Natalie also sits on several boards, with a particular focus on scaling female and ethnic minority-led businesses, helping with various digital and growth challenges.
Useful to know:
Outside of work, Natalie’s passion is all things health and wellbeing – she runs a wellness brand for busy professionals which curates retreats and other experiences focusing on achieving longevity – www.howweelevate.com. For fun she dances a style called ‘Hustle’ (similar to salsa which grew out of the New York City disco scene in the 70s) and frantically continues to learn French (since learning the French regulators wouldn’t communicate with her in English). She is also very involved in the wider tech ecosystem as an angel investor, venture scout and public speaker at international conferences such as GITEX, TechGC and LegalGeek.
Worked with:
Natalie has been GC at flatfair (an Index Ventures portfolio company where she also sat on the Board), Head of Legal at Freetrade, and most recently CLO at Semper (where she led on the company’s acquisition by Crowdcube). Her current fractional clients include a range of disruptive tech companies – including Superhog and Homemove – whom she advises on all aspects of their business legal requirements, as well as more traditional financial services firms who appreciate her strong regulatory capabilities. As a barrister, she was instructed by many leading law firms, including Ashurst, Allen & Overy and Farrer & Co.What Natalie's clients say:
I worked with Nat for 18 months during which her legal guidance, leadership and support have been second to none and instrumental in helping us successfully navigate both our rapid growth and the challenges of the pandemic.
She is an excellent communicator who works with precision and deftness - identifying and applying herself to challenges and then quickly finding the most pragmatic and cost-effective approaches to resolving them, regardless of which area of the law the challenges fell under (corporate / financial / employment).
She clearly demonstrated how valuable a team member she was, gaining a statutory directorship at the company after 12 months - having firmly cemented herself into the senior leadership team.
I can’t recommend her highly enough.
Natalie has been an invaluable GC for Finity, delivering first-rate expertise in data, privacy, commercial, and employee relations. Natalie’s proactive approach and tailored solutions have been instrumental in helping us navigate complex challenges with clarity and confidence. I couldn’t recommend her highly enough!
If you're looking for legal support, Natalie is a powerhouse and is able to cut through noise and support companies in regulated spaces with quality, compliant, commercially savvy legal work & strategies. She's had a big impact on our business in a very short space of time!
