Inside Life: Simon Coles, MarketInvoice

Simon Coles is general counsel and company secretary at London based MarketInvoice. Founded in 2011, it is one of the largest peer-to-peer invoice finance platforms in the world and was the UK’s first online marketplace allowing companies to sell outstanding invoices to institutional and private investors as a means of raising working capital.

Since its launch, says Coles, the volume funded on the platform has increased 100% year-on-year, it has financed invoices with a face value of more than £800m and is on target for £1bn by year end.

"In the late 1990s, big firms were throwing a lot of money at recruitment in the 'annual milkround'. I made around 30 applications for training contracts, got 26 interviews, went to 15 of them and was lucky enough to get 13 offers", he recalls. He certainly appreciates how fortunate he was: "I know all too well how the landscape has changed since then for lawyers of the future. It’s a different ballgame: firms are more selective and there is much more competition for training contracts."

He picked Allen & Overy (A&O) because of its established global reputation, award winning training and because it gave him the opportunity to work abroad for six months, which he spent in Singapore working on major banking and restructuring projects. "They were (and are) great people, with a “work hard play hard” attitude," he says. But the problem with working hard on deal after deal meant that he had little opportunity to stand back and reflect on what he really wanted to do with his career.

After two and a half years of frenetic activity following qualification, Coles was ready for a change, and became a lecturer on the Legal Practice Course (LPC) at London’s BPP Law School. "I actually learnt more law while teaching on the LPC than I did in private practice. The students, who were fresh out of academia, had so many insightful questions and to be able to answer them effectively I really had to up my game," he confesses.

While at BPP, Coles not only increased his legal knowledge but also improved his business and management skills by undertaking a part-time Diploma in Management at Birkbeck, University of London. Although he enjoyed teaching, any promotion would have taken him away from the lecture hall and into management, which was not what he went to BPP to do, so he once again looked to change his career path.

His next three moves saw him back in private practice. He initially joined Simmons & Simmons as a managing associate after a former A&O colleague suggested he join the team. He stayed for six years working once again on banking and restructuring deals. Despite forming relationships with "some great banks, especially the Nordics and emerging market lenders," departmental metrics meant his partnership goal kept being pushed back.

Therefore, when national firm TLT cold called him to offer him partnership, a banking team and a budget, it was "too great an opportunity to pass up at that stage of my career". From there, he moved to the partnership at Fieldfisher, who wanted him to continue the growth of its banking team. While at Fieldfisher, he became more involved in corporate and commercial work, particularly with fintech clients.

"I started to look at how these new businesses were growing and what type of legal support they needed", he says, which got him thinking about his next career change. "I thought my next move would be in-house but I didn't expect it to be for another decade or so." However, after just over a year at Fieldfisher, Coles moved to MarketInvoice in March 2016.

The MarketInvoice legal team consists of Coles and another solicitor with higher rights, who is a collections specialist. "We expect to increase headcount by at least one solicitor by the end of the calendar year and, as the business grows, we will scale it up appropriately," Coles says. A key part of his job is also running the compliance function, which he says, "is a hot topic for fintech companies."

"Invoice financing is not (currently) regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), but to operate safely we must understand the FCA requirements and ensure we keep our noses clean," he says. "As we offer a new asset class for investors, we have the benefit of being a member of the FCA’s innovation hub." The hub seeks to provide guidance to innovative companies bringing new products to market.

Having spent 15 years in private practice, the real challenge about going in-house, Coles believes, is recognising the dangers of spreading yourself too thinly: "The “to do” list will always be too long and you have to learn to accept that you will never tick everything off. Instead, you must learn to prioritise, develop efficient processes and systems, and to delegate, whether that’s to legal colleagues or others within the business."

In terms of outsourcing work to law firms, the company uses Simmons & Simmons, Taylor Wessing and King Wood Mallesons, as well as smaller boutique firms, such as Francis Wilks & Jones and Abrahams Dresden.

Coles is quite demanding of his external lawyers: "I want people who are like how I was in private practice: hungry for client service, capable and efficient, and take responsibility for getting things done. I need a fast response time with people able either to deliver on time or exceed those expectations. I expect visibility and availability from everyone in the team, who should all be up-to-speed with the work, whether they are the partner on the file or the supporting trainee.

"I really value frankness and honesty. If someone doesn't feel they are the experts in an area, I don't want them to 'give it a go'. I want them to tell me that they cannot do it and to recommend someone who can; even if that is someone at a different firm." On this point, Coles thinks firms are too often reluctant to cross-refer work to others where they lack the ability to do a job. This, he speculates, can often be down to typical methods of partner remuneration; something which, in his new role, he no longer has to worry about.