Melius

[me.li.us] adverb, adjective

Latin, better

At Melius we “do Legal better.”

Legal teams are expected to deliver against a backdrop of increasing demands, economic  headwinds  and  budget  constraints.
The stakes are high. Expectations are higher.
Melius can help. 

About Us

Melius is a legal consultancy offering legal operations and fractional GC solutions to in-house legal teams.

Our mission is to help your legal team become the best…to create the conditions for your people to thrive, to unlock the potential in your team and deliver value for your business.

Why Melius?

Our legal solutions are provided by former GCs and legal operations leaders.
Leading and transforming legal teams is in our DNA.
This means you can be confident that we can help you “do Legal better”.

Why Legal Operations?

Our Legal Operations support can streamline your operations, enhance efficiency, and increase your value to stakeholders. We will help you run Legal like a business.

Why Fractional GC?

We provide strategic legal support when you need it, not when you don’t - without the need for headcount or expensive law firm costs.

Our People

John Bennett

Our founder, John Bennett has over two decades of experience as a GC and COO.

John was raised in Yorkshire and that no nonsense upbringing helped shape John into the problem solver he is today.

Having started his professional life as a trainee solicitor at Eversheds’ Leeds office in the late 1990s, John practised at Eversheds as a commercial contracts lawyer with a focus on technology law. He spent over two decades leading and transforming legal teams in some of the world’s biggest financial institutions before establishing Melius in 2023

“I am obsessed with transforming teams…to help them realise their potential. I am passionate about developing people, about creating the conditions for them to really flourish. It’s that passion which is the driving force behind Melius– a burning desire to help as many legal teams and lawyers as possible become better versions of themselves, to allow legal teams to deliver more for the business and their people”

Lucy Powell

Lucy, our Director of Legal Operations, has worked in-house in various sectors, including as a legal operations consultant at the Big 4.

After working in private practice for a number of years, Lucy moved in-house and hasn't looked back. Moving from the energy industry to FMCG and on to professional services means Lucy has seen a wide range of opportunities and change in the legal sector and joined Melius in 2024 to further drive transformation and change.

“I love nothing more than meeting people and understanding what makes them tick, both individually and as part of a team. By asking the right questions, we can uncover what is working well and where there are opportunities for change. Once those changes are defined and designed, it's all about making them stick and supporting everyone on their journey to a more effective and efficient legal department.”

At Melius, nobody's name is on the door.

Our name means “better” in Latin and reflects our mission – to help in-house 
legal teams be the best harnessing the energy, optimism and creativity of our team.

Recent Work

  • UK’s largest asset manager – Legal Operating Model Review

    Due to a change in strategy and leadership, our client wanted to design a new structure for the legal team that aligned with the future direction of the business and to identify opportunities for driving efficiencies across disparate legal teams. ​

    We conducted an activity survey of all legal colleagues, held 1-2-1 conversations with panel law firms and business stakeholders and ran workshops to identify a set of recommendations across strategy, structure, people, process and technology. A Final Report consolidated our findings and recommendations.

  • Global FMCG company - Legal Spend Optimisation

    Our client had over 300 firms on its roster and a sizable external legal spend but was facing pressure to cut costs. However, it lacked the necessary data and insights to make strategic sourcing decisions and was unable to optimise its panel or leverage all the value-added services available. 

    We helped the client implement an e-billing and spend analytics tool enabling it to be more strategic in managing its external counsel roster and legal budget.

  • Europe’s largest defence company - Legal Strategy

    Our client was ambitious to modernise its legal function in order to drive greater efficiency, cost savings and to deliver for its clients. However, it lacked the in-house legal operations capability required to deliver meaningful transformation. 

    Having assessed the current-state and identified key pain points, we developed a roadmap for optimisation, leveraging technology solutions and establishing an operating model that enabled the legal function to thrive.

  • European Bank - Legal Tech Implementation

    This client was managing a large volume of litigation and contentious regulatory matters but was hindered by legacy systems and obsolete technology. This made extracting key data in a timely and cost-effective manner extremely challenging. 

    We helped the client implement a new e-discovery solution and managed service to transform its litigation capability.

  • FTSE 100 Insurer – Legal Risk Transformation

    During its rapid growth our client had failed to adequately implement legal risk management controls and procedures. As a result, the client faces increased exposure to fines, litigation and regulatory actions. 

    We implemented a new Legal Risk Framework to provide clarity and transparency in relation to how legal risk is defined and its risk appetite. We also designed a control framework and established a reporting and oversight mechanism to ensure legal risks had the appropriate level of senior visibility and oversight within the business.

    The Global Head of Compliance said "John helped us elevate our approach to legal risk management. By establishing a new risk and control framework we were better able to identify, assess, manage and report legal risks impacting the business."

  • US-based global technology company – Legal Ops Design

    The client had an established legal and privacy operations team and wanted to determine if it was operating at the right level for the legal function and the wider organisation.  

    We undertook a current state assessment of all of the operations activities, looking across the full operating model to analyse who was doing what, how and why and to identify where there were opportunities for improvement.  A ‘stop start continue’ assessment helped us to define a set of recommendations for optimisation.

    The General Counsel said “The Melius team stepped in with a practical and efficient approach to fact gathering, delivered every aspect of the project in a thorough and timely manner, and helped drive real clarity and improvement across our team.    No question engaging Lucy and John was worth every penny — we definitely came out ahead.  Would recommend Melius for any size legal group interested in increasing their operational skill and efficiency. 

Our Services

Legal Operations

    • A functional strategy for your team that aligns with your business priorities

    • Optimised operating model ensuring the right people are doing the right work at the right price

    • Defined meaningful metrics that drive the right outcomes for your team and your business

    • Optimising engagement with the business through streamlining matter intake

    • Getting contracts done faster and cheaper

    • Ensuring that processes are simple and intuitive, driving better decision making

    • Ensuring the right policies to drive the desired cultural and operational outcomes across the team and business

    • Implementing an appropriate governance framework so that decisions can be made quickly and effectively

    • Designing robust controls within a risk framework that balances commercial objectives with risk management

    • Ensuring the optimal mix of internal and external resource to provide legal support to the business

    • Managing your legal budget to ensure spend is aligned with risk

    • Harnessing key data to deliver cost savings

    • Helping you get the right technology to alleviate your pain points

    • Design a legal technology roadmap that can deliver enterprise-wide value.

    • Ensuring the effective roll-out of legal technology solutions

Fractional GC

    • You’ll have an experienced lawyer as your single point of contact who works as part of your business team

    • Flexible, dedicated GC support, which can be scaled up or down depending on needs

    • We assess your risks and prioritise what’s important, then manage and carry out the day-to-day legal work, all to a set budget

    • Additional support on a flexible basis without adding to headcount

    • We understand the challenges and demands of small in-house teams because we’ve been there

    • Working as an extension to your team, we get up to speed on business priorities quickly, and help you keep control of legal workflow and budget

How We Work

We work with General Counsel and their in-house teams to create the conditions for them to flourish.

This might be a long-term transformation or providing a Legal COO or fractional GC on demand for as little as one day per month.

We don't provide off-the-shelf or cookie-cutter solutions. Our approach is to listen to our clients from a position of having been there and done it. We don't come with a solution looking for a problem but help our clients prioritise their challenges, work with them to articulate pragmatic solutions and then execute sustainable change - that's transformation in action.

Our offerings were developed by lawyers, for lawyers. This means that leading and transforming in- house legal teams is in our DNA. But we can’t do it alone. We work with the best people and providers in the market to embed the right solutions for your team and your business.

Insights