Menu
Founded in 2015, Trussle is an innovative online mortgage broker, helping first-time buyers and existing homeowners save time and money securing a great-value mortgage online. Completely free to use, Trussle searches through 12,000 mortgages from 90 lenders to find borrowers the best deal to suit their circumstances.
Backed by specialist venture capitalists and financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs PSI and Dutch Rabobank Frontier Ventures, Trussle has grown quickly, led by the senior leadership team, including a general counsel to handle its legal affairs. But the departure of the general counsel in late 2019 left the business temporarily reliant on a law firm for ad hoc legal advice, which was obviously expensive.
Seeking a stop-gap means of obtaining in-house legal expertise until a replacement general counsel could be recruited, Trussle approached The Legal Director after a recommendation from one of its investors.
“We wanted someone who would be able to hit the ground running,” recalls Aman Attwal, Trussle’s head of strategic projects. “We weren’t at first sure that The Legal Director would have anyone who could fit the bill, as it called for a specific combination of skills and experience in financial services, mortgage broking, and fintech.”
The Legal Director’s James Mallender offered to forward CVs
of a handful of potential candidates but, rather than rely on this, he urged the company to physically meet with a The Legal Director’s lawyer Richard Kendall, first.
The meeting significantly exceeded Trussle’s expectations, she explains. Very quickly, it became clear that there was a very good fit between Trussle’s requirements and Richard Kendall’s personality, capabilities and experience.
“At that first meeting we were going through the necessary steps towards obtaining FCA authorisation and Richard had a great deal of experience in this area, not least having been a compliance officer,” she explains. “We had a checklist that we were working through during the meeting, and Richard kept saying things like ‘Yes, I can see why you’d need to do that,’ and ‘Yes, I’ve done that before’. It was clear that he had a wealth of experience, and we found his air of calm competence very reassuring.”
Going forward, the plan was clear, explains Aman: Trussle would recruit a full-time general counsel. But in the interim, the firm needed specialist legal expertise—and it needed in-house support, on-site and quickly.
The Legal Director’s flexible resourcing model met Trussle’s requirements well, she adds. Available immediately, and able to work flexibly, it was clear that Richard possessed the appropriate skills and experience that Trussle was looking for. “More than that, we realised that we could learn from Richard, which was something that we hadn’t expected,” sums up Aman.
The engagement began at the beginning of December 2019, and was intended to last until the end of January 2020. Initially contracted at two days a week, Richard elected to work this as four mornings a week, in order to provide Trussle with the greatest amount of continuity and availability.
“In practice, though, Richard was available for us at any time, unless he was actually at another client—so it really felt like he was a full member of the team: he’d do afternoon meetings and conference calls, if that was called for.” In the main, the work was a mixture of finance-specific work, and the sort of things that any general counsel would do: employment law, drafting and reviewing contracts, and dealing with suppliers.
By early January, it was clear that the recruitment process was taking longer than originally envisaged. More realistically, the engagement would probably last until the end of April—and in fact, Richard remained on board until the end of the first week in May.
“What we hadn’t originally planned on was the extent to which Richard would become a part of our recruitment process,” explains Aman. “He crafted and revised a case study for us to interview around, and played a full part in the interviews, asking questions and assessing candidates’ presentations. We interviewed quite a few candidates, and Richard’s experience was enormously helpful.”
In a way, concludes Aman, this final task for Trussle—together with the ‘handover’ to the successful candidate—sums up the entire experience of working with The Legal Director and Richard Kendall: quiet competence, professionalism, and genuine flexibility.
“To say that Richard exceeded our expectations would be an understatement,” she notes. “We couldn’t have been more pleased.”
The Legal Director is a fully regulated legal consultancy that provides businesses with high-calibre experienced lawyers on a part-time or flexible basis. By working smarter as part of the client’s business, and by delivering legal advice from a business perspective, we can demonstrably save our clients significant amounts of money and directors’ time. The Legal Director is the most transparent, cost-effective way of embedding a senior lawyer within your business — at a fraction of the cost of employing a full-time Legal Director or engaging with a traditional law firm on an ad hoc basis. We match one of our lawyers to your business needs and he/she then performs as a member of your senior management team, just like an in-house lawyer. Moreover, clients can use our unique 9-point legal framework for business-focused legal advice to systematically address key business areas that require legal expertise and appropriate action.
Call us on 020 3056 8538,
Email us at info@thelegaldirector.co.uk
or send us an enquiry.
Address:
Blackwell House, Guildhall Yard, London, EC2V 5AE.
Tel : 020 3056 8538
Email: info@thelegaldirector.co.uk
The Legal Director is a Referrals Based Company
Copyright © 2026 The Legal Director
The Legal Director Limited is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under SRA Number 560058.
Registered in England and Wales with number 7573474. Registered office Blackwell House, Guildhall Yard, London, EC2V 5AE.
