Lawyer to founder

Tara Grossman was a senior associate in the Employment group from 2007 to 2017. Srin Madipalli trained and practised with the firm between 2008 and 2012, mostly working on real estate and infrastructure transactions. They have struck out into business, with their primary ambition to do good – not that they don’t appreciate the financial benefits!

Srin Madipalli and Tara Grossman each had powerful motivations for starting their own businesses. As a disabled person from birth and wheelchair user, Srin was intensely angered by how difficult it was for him to find accessible accommodation when going on holiday. Not only did he believe that more accessible accommodation should be available, but also there should be an easy way for those with disabilities to find out the best places to stay. That prompted him, along with a business partner, to start an App, Accomable, which provided just such information (see Alumni Matters 2017).

Tara Grossman spent much of her career advising employers on how to lower the risk when dealing with employee issues. After successfully applying for a £50,000 grant from Legal Access Challenge to develop technology that would give employees greater access to justice, Tara realised that she could be more help for employees who were at a significant disadvantage when they had been mistreated by their employer. This was the birth of Litigation Friend - a justice tech platform that aims to help employees resolve their own disputes using a unique combination of legal expertise, behavioural science and (one-day) Generative AI.

Srin sold Accomable to Airbnb in 2017. While the business had been going well, it had hit something an inflection point that required a large injection of capital to help achieve bigger scale. While looking out for potential investors, Srin was introduced to the CEO of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, who suggested that Accomable could achieve more within the bigger company.

Srin agreed, and there followed eight months of intensive and exhausting negotiations – “I am sure all your readers who have advised on M&A deals will understand that!” Srin says, which also involved him moving to San Francisco and taking on the role as head of the division that dealt with disability and accessibility issues.

Not that Srin is reckless in his investments. He has his own checklist of criteria that he applies in each case. Are the people in the start-up smart, resilient and driven and have big ambitions? Do they want to solve difficult problems? Do they have a good team around them? And then, finally, is it a good product they are making?

An employee focus

It is perhaps somewhat contradictory that Tara, as someone who advised employers exclusively when in private practice, should start a business that is focused on employees. But such was her realisation that employees are at such a huge disadvantage when they have been dismissed/mistreated that she felt compelled to switch sides.

Tara started Litigation Friend in 2020 after winning the grant. Her original idea was to create a platform which analysed past employment tribunal judgments and would then tell what their chances of success were, because she knew that was the first question that every employee wants to know. The aim is to solve the huge problem of getting employees access to justice when the law/ system is complex and lawyers are too expensive.

To date, the primary way of providing that assistance is person-to-person, but Tara has developed a prototype (which she jokingly calls “AI Tara”), a Generative AI Chatbot which will eventually be used to help assemble the core information that has given rise to the claim. That can then be picked up by Tara or her growing team of barristers, paralegals and litigation friends (all fellow justice warriors!) to take the case forward.

The business is certain to take off, after a recent preliminary victory by a group of employees represented by Tara in an action against British Airways. This began when Tara received a call from a British Airways cabin crew member who had been dismissed in BA’s “fire and rehire” policy during lockdown. She started a Facebook page, and was inundated with requests from others in the same position.

Tara helped the group draft an open letter to Willie Walsh, BA’s chief executive, explaining the mental anguish the fired employees were being put through by this process and pointing out where BA’s actions might be unlawful. The case is currently making its way through the Courts. but is off to a solid start with a recent win at the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

One thing on which Tara is absolutely clear is that she is not going to look for funding as the business expands. “Bootstrapping has its own stresses, but having full control over the direction and pace of the business is really important to me. I also much prefer working on the business as opposed to spending time on pitching to investors.”

In fact, Litigation Friend is Tara’s second start-up. She left Herbert Smith Freehills to start Helpappy (a life admin PA service for busy working parents). Helpappy is currently saving working parents (including current and ex-Herbert Smith Freehills lawyers) thousands of hours in life admin time by helping them with boring but necessary tasks linked to home lives. The idea for Helpappy was borne out of Tara’s frustration at spending hours on a weekend trying to find a second car seat for her first child. She felt that her time could have been spent far more productively.