LegalEdge

🚨 Is your business ready for the EU Digital Services Act (DSA)? 🚨 The EU Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into force earlier this year, applies to a wide range of businesses, including many SaaS companies providing intermediary services like content management and sharing platforms. If your company targets EU users, you might be required to comply – even if you’re based outside the EU. 🌍 Key things you need to know: 🔑 Companies outside the EU need to appoint an EU-based legal representative. This is required even if you don’t have a physical presence in the EU. It’s important to evaluate if your business is sufficiently connected to the EU and whether you need to designate a representative. ⚖️ While the representative obligations under the DSA are similar to GDPR, they are not the same. Key differences include: 1️⃣ Notification of Appointment: You must inform the EU Digital Services Coordinator of your representative’s appointment. 2️⃣Representative’s Liability: The appointed representative can be held liable for non-compliance with DSA obligations, including fines – unlike under the GDPR, where liability is less clear. 📜 The need for EU representatives is growing under various regulations, including: • the Terrorist Content Online Regulation (TCOR, which will apply to most organisations deemed a “platform provider” under the DSA),  • the Network & Information Security Directive 2 (NIS2, relating to cyber security of significantly important services)  • the Data Governance Act (DGA, for companies which – over-simplifying – gather information and distribute it) • the (upcoming) Data Act • the AI Act So, it’s important to keep abreast of the regulations and their requirements. Next Steps: ✔️ Talk to us/your legal advisors about whether the DSA applies to your business and its activities. If it does, take steps to ensure your compliance. ✔️ Appoint a legal representative if necessary, in writing, and notify the EU Digital Services Coordinator. ✔️ Monitor other EU regulations to ensure you meet all compliance requirements. 📞 Need help with DSA compliance? We work with DataRep - Data Protection Representatives, a leader in EU/EEA and UK Representative services. They have a network of contact locations in all 27 EU countries, Norway and Iceland in the EEA and the UK. 👉 Reach out to discuss your requirements and ensure your business stays compliant! #EUCompliance #DSA #DigitalServices #SaaS #GDPR #RegulatoryCompliance #LegalTech #DataProtection

A festive office day! ✨ And a delightful lunch catching up with Emma Zerilli and Felicity Goldser 🎄 #London #Team #HappyChristmas

From all at LegalEdge, we wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy and Prosperous New Year!🎄✨ #MerryChristmas #LegalJargon #NewWords #LegalUpdates

🌟 Navigating EOT Transitions with EMI Schemes 🌟 With over 2,000 companies in the UK now employee-owned, transitioning to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) is more popular than ever. But what happens when Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) schemes are part of the equation? In our latest blog, we explore the practical and technical challenges founders and businesses can face when combining EMI schemes with EOTs. From managing pre-sale considerations to designing effective post-EOT incentive strategies, our insights offer guidance to help you navigate the transition. Read the full blog to discover some things to think about to help make your transition smoother: https://lnkd.in/dptxp3ZQ #EmployeeOwnership #EOT #EMISchemes #EMI #EmployeeOwned #shareschemes #csop #shareschemeplans Toby Locke

Navigating the EU Digital Services Act: What SaaS Businesses Need To Know The EU Digital Services Act (DSA) is a relatively new regulation designed to ensure a safe, predictable and trusted online environment. It applies to a wide range of digital services, including Saas companies whose online platforms or services involve B2B or B2C services, user interactions or data hosting. And whilst it’s an EU law, it also applies to companies who may not be based in the EU but target EU customers/users. SaaS businesses must: • Evaluate their connection to the EU market. • Update terms of service to include clear content moderation policies. • Implement mechanisms to effectively handle illegal content reports and enforce their terms. • Appoint an EU representative if based outside the EU. UK businesses should assess compliance now, as future legislation like the Online Safety Bill may bring similar requirements. To learn more about what businesses are impacted, and steps to take to stay compliant with the DSA, see our blog on the topic, here: https://lnkd.in/ejBpCCSA #DigitalServicesAct #DSA #SaaS #Compliance

A Companies House update by Kudocs 👀 Companies House have provided a further update on the new Identity Verification (IDV) requirements: 1️⃣ No action will need to be taken by companies or their professional advisers until at least Q2 2025. 2️⃣ Directors and PSCs are due to start providing identity verification information in certain filings no earlier than Q3 2025. 3️⃣The ID requirements that Companies House will require from ACSPs currently appear to be no less onerous than existing ID requirements set by existing AML processes. Kudocs' recent blog post provides further detail of the changes, check it out, here: https://lnkd.in/eHYQc58D Thanks for the update, Oliver Stanley! 👏 #CompaniesHouse #IdentityVerification #Kudocs #CompanyManagement 

We’ve always been proud to be a female founded business.🎉 We haven’t shouted about it much, but perhaps it’s time. 📢 Recent studies show that: 👉 Only 20% of UK businesses are led by all-female teams. 👉 Women account for just 32% of smaller business leaders in the UK. 👉 A mere 11p out of every £1 of venture capital investment goes to female founders. The challenges are real, but so are the successes. 🌟 Companies like Ocado, Walmart, and Target are highlighting female-founded brands, while networks like WE Connect International are helping women entrepreneurs thrive. Over 15 years ago, our co-founders Donna and Helen set out to make the in-house legal function accessible to scale-up businesses so they could grow faster and more effectively. 👩⚖️ That meant providing scale-ups with high quality, cost-effective legal support which could flex up or down throughout each stage of their growth. 📈 They wanted to create a business that offered an alternative to the traditional legal firms which then dominated the legal sector. They may not have realised it at the time but, being female founded helped ensure that LegalEdge achieved that ambition. 💡 To start with, the majority of our staff were predominantly working mums seeking to overcome inflexibility in the legal profession, who recognised LegalEdge was different and provided access to working flexibly and not otherwise exiting their profession. In the intervening years, accelerated by the experience of Covid lockdowns, the legal industry has changed. There are now many more “non-traditional” paths to practising law and, in general, a more open attitude to flexibility of working practises. 💻 Reflecting the change in the legal sector in general, the LegalEdge workforce is now much more gender balanced – with an almost 50/50 split between men and women lawyers and we embrace the diversity of thought and skills which this gives our business.💪 We think that female founded businesses are worth celebrating and we think it’s time to speak-up about it and to encourage others to start their own stories!  🚀That’s why we’re now proud to be members of WE Connect International. What’s your take? How can we all do more to support female founders? 💬 https://lnkd.in/et8EYWzv #FemaleFounded #WomenEntrepreneurs #DiversityInBusiness #LegalInnovation 

Are you an in-house lawyer in need of Christmas holiday cover?🎄🎅🏼 We’ve had a few requests recently for overflow and interim cover for the Christmas holidays, which we can absolutely help with! So if you'd like to learn more about how this might work, and chat about which of our experienced in-house lawyers are available to support you/your team, then get in touch on [email protected]. We'd love to help take some of the stress away this festive season. #HolidaySupport #InterimSupport #FractionalGeneralCounsel #GeneralCounsel #InHouseLawyer #HolidayCover #Lawyers #Legal

We enjoyed another great team meeting in London last week, discussing all things #AI and #legaltech. 🤖   A really insightful conversation about the adoption of tech and its opportunities and challenges. 💻   We then enjoyed a lovely meal to celebrate Christmas and the year, where we had the pleasure of hearing from our talented team Nick and Rebecca. 👏   It was great to see you all! 😊 #Legal #Lawyers #ChristmasParty #Collaboration

Startup legals... What not to f* up! 👀👇 What do you absolutely need to have covered at the start? 1️⃣ Manage your cap table and have a mechanism to deal with leavers shares Have your cap table on a simple spreadsheet and put simple Shareholder/ Founder Agreement and bespoke Articles of Association in place asap. Don’t use anything fancy at this stage! The agreements / articles work like a prenup. Hopefully you’ll never need to rely on them. But things happen, founders sometimes can’t stay the distance, and founder fall out is sadly common. So, the docs should set out founder roles, equity splits, decision-making power, a conflict resolution process, and, most importantly, what happens to a leaver’s shares. Having these docs in place helps resolve any disputes and stops early leavers from keeping a large stake, which is a big turn off for potential investors. If you don’t have them, it can take so much time and money to sort out that it can damage a startup beyond repair. We have seen this happen…. 2️⃣ Intellectual Property ownership and protection Ensure IP is transferred to the company, trade secrets and confidential information are protected, and trade marks, patents, etc are registered in the company’s name. If this isn’t done early on it can be hard/ impossible to fix later. And if the company’s value is based on its IP, (brand, proprietary software, etc), but you can’t show it is owned by the company and protected, it’ll put-off investors/ customers/ etc. So:  👉Get simple IP assignments from founders, freelancers, agencies, etc. for any IP created by them (e.g. software, brand) etc. and use simple agreements like OneNDA. 👉Register your brand and any unique product names as trade marks in the countries in which you’ll be trading (with the correct spec and in the right classes) to prevent others from using anything similar. 👉If you’re developing novel products/ technology, consult a patent specialist early to determine if you can get patent protection. It’s too late once you’ve launched… Almost everything else can be put in place as you scale. 📈 If you want to discuss how we can help ensure you get these basics right get in touch on [email protected]. We also offer a Cap Table and Corporate Document Review as well as a free Trade Mark Audit so if you’re not sure if your brand is protected or think your current documents aren’t fit for purpose we can help. #Legal #LegalAdvice #Startups #TradeMarks #BrandProtection #CapTable #CorporateLaw