LegalOps Parachute Man

Legal operations & transformation · Interim · Fractional

No legal ops? I drop in and build it.

I'm Fraser Matcham. For General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers whose teams have outgrown inboxes and spreadsheets, I arrive fast, fix the foundations of strategy, technology and process, and leave you with a function that runs without me.

Request a drop Take the 60-second check

Flight log

10yrsDesigning, funding and running legal operating models
55,000Legal matters routed a year to a network of 14,000 lawyers
600Law firm clients served by the operating model I ran
4entitiesRun as Operations Director across the UK, US and Brazil

Based in London, UK. Available for short-notice drops, having worked from Singapore, Kenya, South Africa, the USA, Brazil and the UAE.

Pre-jump checklist

Do you need a drop?

Tick everything that sounds like your team today. The readout tells you what kind of help fits.

Conditions 0 / 8
  • ClearClear skies. A sounding-board call may be all you need.
  • LightLight winds. A two-to-three-week diagnostic will show where to start.
  • CrosswindCrosswinds. An interim legal ops lead would stabilise things quickly.
  • MaydayMayday. Request a drop and let's get boots on the ground.

Mission profile

From jump to landing in four phases

A typical interim engagement runs three to six months. Every phase ends with something your team can use straight away.

ALT 12,500 ft
01

Jump

Weeks 1–2 · Diagnose

  • Interviews with legal, finance and the business
  • Legal ops maturity baseline across people, process, tech and data
  • A prioritised 12-month roadmap for the GC
ALT 6,000 ft
02

Stabilise

Weeks 3–6 · Quick wins

  • One front door for legal requests, with triage rules
  • A live matter register and spend tracker
  • Self-serve templates for low-risk, high-volume work
ALT 2,000 ft
03

Build

Months 2–4 · Systems

  • Tech selection and rollout: CLM, matter management, e-billing, AI
  • Outside counsel guidelines and panel structure
  • A KPI dashboard the board will actually read
ALT 0 ft
04

Pack the chute

Months 4–6 · Hand over

  • Playbooks and documentation for everything built
  • Training so adoption sticks after I leave
  • Role design and hiring support for your permanent legal ops lead

What I fix

Six things that break when legal ops is missing

Strategy & operating model

A clear picture of what legal does, what it doesn't, and how work flows between in-house, outside counsel and the business.

Done beforeDesigned and ran the legal operating model for a four-entity group across three continents.

Maturity assessmentRoadmapResourcing

Legal technology

Vendor-neutral selection, contracting and rollout, then training and adoption tracking so the tools get used.

Done beforeProduct owner for Clio, DocuSign CLM, Adobe Sign, Gavel and Avvoka, from requirements to adoption.

CLMMatter managementDoc automation

Legal AI & governance

AI for contract review, drafting and clause analysis, with defined lawyer review points and controls your risk team will sign off.

Done beforeLed legal AI adoption and set deployment controls with an AI Governance Board. Built an evaluation harness tested against LegalBench and CUAD.

Use casesControlsDPIAsEvaluation

Intake, triage & self-service

One way in for every request. Routine contracting handled by the business with playbooks, and higher-risk terms escalated to lawyers.

Done beforeBuilt the front door and referral model for 55,000 matters a year, plus 245,000 self-service queries.

Front doorPlaybooksEscalation

Spend & outside counsel

Scope, fee and service expectations for law firms, with spend tracked against budget and defensible to finance.

Done beforeManaged external firms and counsel across the UK, US and Brazil while owning the P&L and annual budget.

Panel reviewVendor termsBudget vs actual

Data, metrics & board reporting

A small set of KPIs that show what legal delivers, pulled from systems instead of assembled by hand.

Done beforeTracked volume, cycle time, spend and risk, and reported to the board every quarter.

KPIs & SLAsPower BIBoard packs

Coverage maps to the CLOC Core 12 legal operations competencies.

Rigger's bench

Systems I've built myself

I build legal technology as well as buy it. That means I know what your team can configure, what needs integrating, and what a vendor demo is glossing over.

2017 – 2026 · Product owner

Legal Utopia platform

A legal services marketplace that triages people's legal problems and routes them to the right lawyer.

55,000matters routed a year to 14,000 lawyers, plus 245,000 self-service queries
  • Intake and triage front door
  • Referral routing and lawyer directory
  • Lawyer portal with availability and bookings
  • Self-service legal guidance
  • Contract repository and obligation tracking
  • KYC and contract template library
  • Consumer web, mobile app and developer portal
2026 – now · Product lead

Legal Workflows

A matter management and regulatory compliance workspace for law firms, chambers and advice agencies, extended from an open-source foundation.

13,000+automated tests checking every change before release
  • Matter management: case types, custom fields, tasks, a daily view and calendar feeds
  • Client and contact register
  • Automations and matter quick actions
  • Letter packs and document templates generated in Word
  • SRA and BSB conduct rules mapped to matter events. AI drafts the compliance record and a person decides
  • Subscription billing and payments
  • Reporting, audit log and multi-factor sign-in
  • AI evaluation harness tested against LegalBench and CUAD
2024 – now · Builder

Market Indicators

A signed, versioned dataset of UK legal market indicators, built from public registers with a published methodology.

194indicator definitions across 16 categories
  • Data pipeline from public registers, including the SRA Solicitors Register
  • 215,000+ register rows cleaned with a recorded derivation history
  • 91% of solicitor-to-firm links matched automatically, with a review trail for the rest
  • Signed releases served through an API
  • Daily dashboard refresh and automated validation

Built with Claude Code and Cursor on Next.js, TypeScript, Django, Postgres, Supabase, Docker, AWS and Vercel, supporting Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini and locally hosted models.

Ways to deploy

Three ways to bring me in

Every engagement leaves behind

  • Maturity baseline
  • 12-month roadmap
  • Tech stack plan
  • Intake & triage model
  • Matter & spend dashboard
  • Outside counsel guidelines
  • Playbooks & templates
  • Ops lead job spec

Parachute Man

Fast in. Precise landing. Nothing left dangling.

I'm Fraser Matcham, a legally trained legal operations leader and former company director. I'm based in London and travel at short notice.

From 2017 to 2026 I was Operations Director and a board director at Legal Utopia, responsible for operational delivery across four group entities in the UK, US and Brazil, including as President of the US company. I designed the legal operating model, owned the legal technology estate, managed budgets and suppliers, and reported to the board every quarter.

Before that I led the legal function at a consumer goods and e-commerce business, managing external firms and leading GDPR readiness. Today I build AI legal tools and evaluate legal AI for frontier labs, so the technology advice you get comes from hands-on use.

I work alongside your lawyers. The goal of every engagement is the same: a legal team that runs well after I've gone.

  • Arrive fast

    Productive in the first week. No bench of juniors, no long procurement cycle.

  • Land on target

    Scope set by the GC's priorities. Work that doesn't move them gets cut.

  • Pack the chute

    Documented, trained and handed over, with your permanent team ready to own it.

Public appointments & advisory

Trusted with the justice system's data

  • 2023 – 2025

    Independent Member, Senior Data Governance Panel, HMCTS

    Advised the judiciary, HMCTS and the Ministry of Justice on the creation, access to and re-use of court and tribunal data, applying the principles of open justice and judicial independence.

  • 2024 – 2026

    Panel Member, Decision Maker Panel, Bank of England

    Reported monthly as a financial officer of a UK company group, informing research for the Monetary Policy Committee.

  • 2019 – 2023

    Consultant Director of Legal Innovation, University of Westminster

    Designed the postgraduate LLM in Legal Technology at Westminster Law School and led delivery of its legal operations module.

  • 2026 – now

    Product Lead, Legal Workflows

    Building an AI case management and legal assistant platform for advice agencies, law centres, firms and chambers, with every change gated by an AI evaluation harness.

  • 2025 – now

    Legal AI evaluation

    Assessing legal reasoning, drafting and benchmark quality in AI model outputs for leading frontier AI labs.

Qualifications

  • LLM, Software PatentsUniversity of Law
  • Legal Practice CourseUniversity of Law
  • LLB (Hons), 2:1University of Westminster

Regulatory engagement

Worked with the SRA, Legal Services Board, Ministry of Justice, FCA Innovation Pathways and ICO Innovation Hub on regulatory questions raised by new legal technology. Led quarterly advisory panels on responsible AI in regulated environments.

Kit bag

Tools I've selected, deployed and used

I recommend technology based on hands-on use. Every tool here is one I've worked with directly.

Contract lifecycle & matter management

  • DocuSign CLM
  • Workday CLM
  • Zoho Contracts
  • Clio
  • Tessaract
  • AdvicePro

Legal AI

  • Legora
  • CoCounsel
  • Claude
  • Microsoft Copilot
  • MikeOS

AI models & evaluation

  • Anthropic
  • OpenAI
  • Gemini
  • Locally hosted models
  • LegalBench
  • CUAD

Document automation & e-signature

  • Gavel
  • Avvoka
  • Etatonna
  • DocuSign
  • Adobe Sign

Legal research & knowledge

  • Practical Law
  • FromCounsel
  • LexisNexis

Collaboration & documentation

  • Microsoft 365
  • SharePoint
  • Teams
  • Google Workspace
  • Confluence
  • Atlassian Rovo
  • Notion
  • Jira
  • Slack
  • Zoom

CRM

  • Salesforce
  • HubSpot
  • Zoho CRM Plus

Data & reporting

  • Power BI
  • Power Apps
  • Tableau
  • Amazon QuickSight
  • Snowflake

Workflow automation & build

  • Zapier
  • Claude Code
  • Cursor
  • Next.js
  • Supabase
  • Docker

Request a drop

Ready when you are.

Start with a 30-minute call. No pitch deck, just your situation and an honest view on whether I can help.

Email
frasermatcham@gmail.com
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/frasermatcham
Based in London, UK Short-notice travel · worked from Singapore · Kenya · South Africa · USA · Brazil · UAE
Your first message should cover
  1. The size and shape of your legal team
  2. What's breaking right now
  3. When you need boots on the ground