Kate Bennett

Powerlist Category: Financial and Professional Services

I expanded the virtual general counsel service I offer to FinTech clients into a core Arbor Law solution, providing FinTech start-ups, scale-ups, SMEs, and market entrants access to high-quality legal and strategic support on a flexible, scalable basis. Our model eliminates the need for permanent hires and the high costs of traditional City firms, ensuring tailored, cost-effective solutions. As a firm with deep sector expertise and exclusively senior lawyers, all of whom have worked in City firms and senior in-house roles, Arbor Law is uniquely positioned to deliver critical legal and strategic support to FinTechs, filling a gap in the market. I have supported my FinTech clients in relation to regulatory compliance, licensing, market entry, partnerships, complex transactions, financing, governance, risk management, cross-border expansion, and crisis management. I continued to oversee Arbor Law’s compliance managed services and enhanced our RegTech compliance solution.

I co-founded Arbor Law with a clear vision: to provide top-tier, business-focused, and financially accessible legal advice while fostering an inclusive, innovative, and integrity-driven environment where lawyers can thrive and work flexibly. With psychological safety at the heart of my leadership, Arbor Law has grown into a highly successful firm, most recently shortlisted for 'Boutique Law Firm of the Year' at the Legal Business Awards. I also lead our Financial Services and Corporate teams and am a vocal advocate for diversity and inclusion, addressing gender disparities in FinTech and the importance of female role models in the sector and sharing my own journey as a neurodiverse lawyer. Today, 50% of Arbor’s lawyers are female, nearly all working mothers. My FinTech and financial services clients routinely invite me as a speaker to address diversity and inclusion.