A modern business for the modern world.
I am Mark Maclean and I am the founder and sole legal consultant at Straight Line Legal. I qualified formally as a solicitor in 2014 and I’ve worked in various top 25 and top 50 UK law firms since 2010.
I have well over a decade of experience as a commercial lawyer, dealing with both contentious (e.g. court litigation) and non-contentious work for clients across all sectors. The work is always varied which means I’ve seen a lot!
The ethos behind Straight Line Legal is very simple: I want to offer SMEs a no nonsense guiding hand with their legal help. I lived and breathed the corporate world for years - fancy city-centre offices, big ticket cases, multi-national client projects. It was a great experience but I could never shake the feeling that the traditional law firm model was a bit broken with non-transparent hourly rates, a focus on billing targets over client outcomes, and out of touch boffins over engineering problems. So in 2023 I finally branched out on my own to offer a service where the focus is delivering bespoke legal solutions in the simplest way possible.
In my spare time I am usually stuck into something music-related and I love spending time exploring something or somewhere new with the family. I also have a (perhaps unhealthy) obsession with all things fantasy and sci-fi!
About Me
Why Choose SLL
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Price certainty.
With fixed fees you’ll know what to budget for and there will be no surprises. The outdated hourly billing model is gone - you are only charged fixed fees which are agreed and scoped by you at the start.
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A safe pair of hands.
You get access to a senior lawyer who has been doing this work since 2010 and has helped hundreds of clients just like you. I’ve resolved all sorts of legal problems and know the big issues facing small businesses.
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Speaking your language.
You get a corporate lawyer without the corporate nonsense. There is no room for stuffy legal jargon at SLL. I am a straight talking Northerner and I’ll speak to you in a way that mean something to you and your business.
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A service just for you.
You get a service tailored to you where you’ll work one on one with me for the duration of the matter. You can call me whenever you need to and you won’t be charged extra for it. You’ll never be passed from pillar to post.
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Commercial mindset.
You’ll get advice that is always aligned with your specific business goals and with a clear set of action points to follow. As a business owner myself, I know the ins and outs (and hassle!) of running your own business.
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A modern approach.
We’ll make life as easy as we can for you. SLL operates a modern, virtual firm far from the traditional law firm model you may have seen. Every process is streamlined and designed to keep things simple.
Straight Line Legal is not a traditional law firm.
SLL is an alternative legal service provider operating as a legal consultancy - it isn’t a traditional law firm regulated by the SRA.
There are lots of benefits to instructing a legal consultancy but there are also certain differences between the two systems that you may wish to consider before making any decisions. We have prepared a more in-depth look at those differences here if you wish to learn more.