YPOG, (You + Partners of Gamechangers), has opened an office in London with a team from UK law firm Withers to shake up the VC sector, using a blend of legal expertise, proprietary tech and a startup mindset. AL asked them what is so different about their firm – see interview below.
YPOG, which has its HQ in Berlin, started in 2017 and has been steadily growing, along with building its own tech solutions, including YSolutions for compliance requirements. The firm operates on a digital, process-automated platform, giving lawyers more time to focus on client strategy, they noted.
The firm explained that the new London and Cambridge-based team from Withers: James Shaw, Susanna Stanfield, Iain Cockburn, Mary Harley, Andrew Gay, Tina Baker and IP expert Ben Williams, had recently left ‘to build a genAI-powered law firm’.
But, they added: ‘While initially planning to start from scratch, it became obvious that joining forces with YPOG made sense.’
That team has advised scale-ups including Wise, Revolut and Snyk, plus top-tier funds including Stride.VC, Phoenix Court and Index Ventures. While, YPOG has now advised on over VC 100 deals, with clients including Helsing, Bullish, Trade Republic, Personio, HV Capital, Atomico, Northzone and Phoenix Court.
Artificial Lawyer asked the YPOG team what was so different about them:
How will working at YPOG be different to a traditional law firm?
YPOG operates more like the fast-growing tech firms we advise than the traditional law firm competitors. Beyond our fully digitised and tech-enabled workflows, we embrace an entrepreneurial mindset and foster a truly collaborative, no-silo culture. For example, our timekeepers are increasingly expected to help develop our own proprietary AI/tech development.
What AI are you using for your work?
Our in-house team of data scientists, ML engineers, and developers work collaboratively with our ops and legal ops team, legal project managers, lawyers, and tax advisors to craft tailored solutions for use by (i) our timekeepers, and (ii) our clients. It’s a team effort, much like an orchestra rather than a single instrument.
How much work is on the billable hour?
This largely depends on our clients – we offer a wide variety of alternative fee arrangements for our legal and tax work and have fixed-price subscriptions for some of our compliance solutions. We are working hard to ensure the proportion of work charged by the billable hour is decreasing.
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Carola Rathke, co-managing partner at YPOG, commented: ‘We established YPOG as the firm that doesn’t just advise the tech ecosystem, but is an integral partner. We work like entrepreneurs and tech leaders, speak their language and share their curiosity and drive for change.’
Benjamin Ullrich, co-managing partner at YPOG, added: ‘After expanding to Munich last year, opening up an office in the UK puts us at the heart of European innovation, and is our first move to building a truly pan-European brand. What mattered to us was not only professional excellence, but also that the London team embodies our values and actively contributes to shaping our culture.’
And, James Shaw, partner at YPOG in London, concluded: ‘The legal sector is at a huge inflexion point, globally. Emerging technology solutions are challenging law as a service and proving to be a real force to reckon with.
‘If law firms do not evolve, they will lose talent, lose clients and struggle to survive. This is why we felt it was the right time to seize the opportunity and build something new – a firm that combines market-leading expertise with tech solutions from Europe to tackle head-on the dominance of the US tech giants.’
Good luck to them!
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Pic: From left to right: James Shaw, Ben Williams, Iain Cockburn.
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Legal Innovators Conferences in London and New York – November ’25
If you’d like to stay ahead of the legal AI curve then come along to Legal Innovators New York, Nov 19 + 20 and also, Legal Innovators UK – Nov 4 + 5 + 6, where the brightest minds will be sharing their insights on where we are now and where we are heading.
Legal Innovators UK arrives first, with: Law Firm Day on Nov 4th, then Inhouse Day, on the 5th, and then our new Litigation Day on the 6th.
Both events, as always, are organised by the awesome Cosmonauts team!
Please get in contact with them if you’d like to take part.
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