Our founding story

Toby Harper established Harper James in 2014 with an idea for a different kind of commercial law firm – one built around the needs of start-ups, entrepreneurs and growing businesses.

Toby trained and qualified at a boutique corporate law firm and worked at a Top 50 Midlands firm before joining a leading venture capital fund as its in-house counsel. Working closely with founders and growing businesses gave him first-hand experience of the challenges they faced in accessing the right legal support at the right time – and prompted him to think about how legal services could work differently.

Toby knew he could tackle some of those challenges by operating more like a start-up himself. Harper James was built with a remote working model from the outset, using technology to connect our lawyers and clients at a time when that was still unusual for law firms. This enabled our lawyers to focus on advising clients while keeping traditional law firm overheads lower.

He also borrowed an idea familiar from the technology sector: paying a regular fee to access a service. Our subscription model gave businesses an alternative way to access experienced legal advice, with greater flexibility and more predictable pricing. Technology has remained an important part of how we work – helping us operate efficiently and make legal support easier to access, while keeping experienced lawyers and their judgement at the heart of the service.

We’ve now supported over 8,000 businesses, reflecting a real demand for a different way to access commercial legal support. We continue to work with start-ups and entrepreneurs, while supporting many clients as they scale and become larger, more established businesses – helping them through a wide range of legal and commercial moments, from raising investment, hiring and protecting IP to major contracts, international expansion, acquisitions, regulation, disputes, restructuring and exit.

And as our clients have grown, we’ve grown with them. Our team of 80+ experienced lawyers, many of whom have joined us after careers in leading law firms and in-house teams, bring significant legal and commercial expertise to support our clients.

Our own next stage of growth began in 2025, when LDC invested in Harper James. The investment gives us additional backing to develop our people, technology and services while continuing to build on the model and entrepreneurial thinking that have shaped the firm from the beginning.

Our approach has earned recognition from clients and across the legal sector. We’ve consistently achieved an Excellent rating on Trustpilot and a Band 1 Ranking in Chambers Guide for SME-Focused Law Firms. In 2026 we were commended for New Business Law Firm of The Year at The Lawyer Awards.

More than a decade on, the idea that led Toby to start Harper James still shapes how we work: giving growing businesses access to experienced commercial legal support in a way that works for them. As our clients’ needs evolve, we want our model to keep evolving with them.