Wikipedia:Mary Bonsor

Mary Bonsor, born in April 1987, is an award-winning British businesswoman and entrepreneur.

Mary is the daughter of Sir Nicholas Bonsor – a former Conservative MP and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs – and Nadine Marisa Lampson. Mary became the CEO and founder of Flex Legal in 2016, a legal services platform which connects businesses with interim lawyers and paralegals.

Early Life and Education
Mary was born in 1987 whilst her father Sir Nicholas Bonsor was a Conservative MP for Upminster. Mary was educated at Downe House School in Berkshire, where she became Head Girl. She then attended the University of Leeds and BPP Law School in London.

Career
Whilst studying at BPP Law School Mary worked as an Arbitrator’s Clerk at the London Maritime Arbitration Association. Between 2012 and 2016, Mary worked as a trainee solicitor and then a solicitor at Winckworth Sherwood LLP. Whilst working at Winckworth Sherwood LLP in 2015, Mary had the idea of providing law graduates with vital work experience by matching them with legal firms facing short term workloads. This idea came from her own experiences of both looking for a breakthrough into the legal profession and later needing help when facing imminent court deadlines. Mary founded Flex Legal with James Moore, an experienced software developer, which is a tech platform which connects law students with legal firms needing temporary or ‘on demand’ lawyers and paralegals. At first the business was a part-time project, but in 2016 Mary was able to leave full-time employment to concentrate on the business. By 2020, Flex Legal employed 30 people and had over 5000 paralegals on its books and a roster of over 300 clients, which included magic circle law firms, FTSE 250 firms and large in-house legal teams.

Flex Legal have a head office in Bermondsey London and also an office at the Technology Centre in Manchester.

Achievements
Mary was named in Management Today’s 35 under 35 2020 and is an alumnae of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Programme. She also won Entrepreneur of the Year at the Women in Law Awards 2020.

On 27th November 2020, Mary won the Entrepreneurship Award at the European Women of Legal Tech Awards.

Flex Legal has also been recognised in the Timewise Power 50 2020, Legal Week Innovation Awards 2019, Legal Business Awards, winner of Lexis Nexis Legal Awards 2018, National Paralegal Awards, the British Legal Awards 2018 and the Lawyer Awards 2019.

In addition to her achievements with Flex Legal, Mary is recognised across the industry as a “legal disruptor”, and supports other female start-ups through the Legal Geek and London Young Lawyer Group mentoring schemes.

Personal life
Mary is one of five children of Sir Nicholas Bonsor and Hon. Nadine Marisa Lampson, now the Hon. Lady Bonsor. Her father Nicholas Bonsor was Member of Parliament for Nantwich from 1979 to 1983, and then for Upminster from 1983 until he lost the seat to Labour's Keith Darvill in 1997. He was Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 1997 under Conservative Prime Minister John Major, and also practised as a barrister in London. Mary’s mother, the Hon. Lady Bonsor, is the daughter of Graham Curtis Lampson, 2nd Baron Killearn.

In 2017 Mary set up a side project called ‘Hello Stranger UK’, a community online which leaves blank postcards in London for strangers to complete and return with their thoughts. The project’s aim is to tackle loneliness.

Since November 2015 Mary has been on the Board of Governors at Keyworth Primary School in London.