Making In-House Work Better

Front Foot Law was born out of dissatisfaction with the status quo

In-house legal teams face relentless workloads and constant stress which has a significant adverse effect on their personal wellbeing. The good news is that for in-house legal teams, this is a hurdle you can clear – and leave behind for good.

Most in-house lawyers are exceptional lawyers – and amazing people.  But most face challenges managing the operational side of an in-house legal function.  Why?  Because these are fundamentally different skills to simple being a good lawyer, skills in which very few in-house lawyers receive effective training, if any.

Having spent years working in-house managing these issues, Front Foot Founder, David Curtain, spent the latter stages of his in-house legal career learning and developing frameworks to drastically improve how in-house teams work, better support their clients and importantly – forge a happy and successful legal career.

Today, Front Foot Law offers three specialist services to support savvy (but overworked) in-house lawyers that want the same outcome.

Founder

David Curtain

Before starting Front Foot Law, founder David Curtain was the Head of Legal with a multinational energy company, having previously held senior in-house roles in other in-house legal teams and law firms. In these roles, he learned the importance and effectiveness of a well-run legal operations function.

David has since dedicated his career to helping others manage the ‘non-legal’ operational problems in-house legal teams, face so that they can work more effectively, enjoy their work more and have a life outside it.

David is an active mentor and a regular consultant and presenter to in-house legal teams, industry bodies and law schools.

Given his passion for improving the life of in-house legal professionals, David developed the market-leading on-demand legal operations education platform – Front Foot Academy.

Outside of law, David loves nothing more than spending time with his family and enjoys snowboarding, live music and anything outdoors.

General Manager, Secondments

Francesca Conquest

Francesca’s specialty is helping lawyers find short- and medium-term roles they love. A Scottish-qualified lawyer, Francesca saw first-hand the enormous number of lawyers who worked in roles they weren’t suitable for or didn’t enjoy. So, she made it her life’s work to fix it.

Before joining Front Foot, Francesca practised commercial law in the UK, ran the recruitment function of an Australian commercial law firm, and managed legal secondments for other specialist legal secondments organisations.

This experience is paired with being a certified career coach. As a bonus, Francesca’s clients continue to comment on her remarkably warm and empathetic nature to lawyers in transition.

This unique combination of experience, qualifications and traits is perfect for legal secondees to flourish – especially in a business dedicated to helping in-house lawyers forge a happy and successful legal career – with a personal life.