ESpark signs deal with Harper Macleod

Business accelerator Entrepreneurial Spark has today announced its signing of a three-year partnership deal with law firm Harper Macleod to provide fledgling businesses with access to a range of legal advice and support.

Martin Darroch, Paula Skinner, Lucy-Rose Walker. Picture: Ross Gilmore

The aim is to help about 700 entrepreneurs navigate the legalities involved in setting up, running and scaling up a company. The agreement will see the legal firm – already an advocate of the accelerator – join Royal Bank of Scotland, accountancy giant KPMG and IT business EMC as ESpark partners, known as “eagles”, in each of its Scottish hatcheries, namely Glasgow, Edinburgh and Ayrshire.

Lucy-Rose Walker, co-founder and chief entrepreneuring officer at ESpark, said: “It’s so important to have access to expert information on the myriad legal issues our ­‘chiclets’ may face, whether that’s intellectual property, contract law, investment or regulatory issues.”

Harper Macleod partner Paula Skinner will lead a team of dedicated lawyers known as “legal eagles” providing the likes of one-to-one support to entrepreneurs and taking part in fortnightly drop-in ­sessions.

Martin Darroch, chief executive of Harper Macleod, said: “We’re delighted to be joining the other partners as we move forward together in what will be an exciting time for everyone involved.”

He added that Harper Macleod and ESpark “share the same values and we’ve both contributed to building Scotland’s impressive entrepreneurial ecosystem over the past few years”.