Former Kira EMEA Sales Chief Joins Legl

Legl, the client management system started by Julia Salasky, who built A2J platform CrowdJustice, has hired Russell Enright, the former Kira Systems EMEA and APAC Head of Sales. He joins as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO).

The startup, which raised $7m (£5m) in March after only 18 months post-launch, has also made two other recent senior hires to boost its top team: Matt Jared, CTO of FestTicket, a post-Series C startup in the music festival sector; and Rob Thorogood, who joins as CFO, formerly at MentionMe, a B2B SaaS scale-up.

Salasky told Artificial Lawyer that they had interviewed around 60 people for the top sales and growth role at the company. Enright (pictured above) left Kira in around April. Earlier this year the pioneering legal AI company underwent a restructuring that saw over 20 staff depart and several others reassigned to new roles.

Before working at Kira, where he was for about two years, Enright also worked at VDR company, Ansarada, and earlier in his career spent over 16 years at Thomson Reuters.

Salasky noted that he will be a great asset as the company now embarks on a major growth drive following its funding, while Jared’s technical expertise at a web-based platform for festival goers would be vital as Legl had a ‘heavy emphasis on client experience’.

On his hire, Enright commented: ‘It’s a really exciting moment to join this fast-growing, ambitious company. I was impressed by the product and the vision, and the opportunity to help shape the future, at a moment in time when digital tools for law firms business operations have never been more relevant.’

And Salasky, added: ‘We are thrilled to welcome Russell, who brings a wealth of experience in the legal industry, as well as in high impact technology solutions. Russell is both a thought leader and exceptional operator and is a key hire for us at a moment of fast growth.’

And as to what Legl does, it’s aimed at helping more medium-sized law firms manage everything from client onboarding to payments.

She also added that in terms of growth since the fundraise: ‘We have invested heavily in product development and customer success – with revenue and number of customers growing 80% over Q1 versus Q4.

‘[And] In terms of product development, we’re launching our client lifecycle management framework end of June to drive better client data and interactions. We’re also investing heavily our KYC (Know Your Customers) and KYB (Know Your Business) workflow solutions, which we think already offer best-in-market compliance but which we are continuing to develop in line with new AML (Anti-Money Laundering) regulation and also new client behaviours post-pandemic.’