Kevin Gold

Spear’s Review

Executive chair at Mishcon de Reya, Kevin Gold tells Spear’s that he embarked on a career in law by virtue of his South African heritage. ‘Coming from South Africa, there was always a passion for rule of law and justice for all.’ He began to work towards his dream of becoming a lawyer after being inspired by Perry Mason, a 1960s courtroom drama of a criminal defence attorney. ‘Somewhere in between Perry Mason and opportunity, I found law,’ he says. 

Gold began his career at Lovell White Durant (now Hogan Lovells) and then joined a smaller legal practice, Bayer Rosin. In 1994, he inherited the firm but felt as though he ‘was too young and didn’t want to run the practice on his own’. He consequently chose to merge the firm with Mishcon and come on board as a managing partner. 

Now having built a lifelong career at the legal giant, he focuses on building the company’s foreign relationships and pursuing strategic growth. The firm says that ‘under [Gold’s] leadership, the firm has seen more than a ten-fold growth in revenue’. 

One of his standout achievements includes launching MDR Labs, ‘the first Legal Tech incubator and investment arm in the UK’. The 12-week programme attracts budding entrepreneurs who wish to enhance or develop new technologies that can be applied to legal work. Under the programme, they are afforded access to Mishcon’s data, lawyers, insight and network. So far, Mishcon has signed nine enterprise contracts and invested in four different companies. 

MDR Labs is a platform that Gold believes can revolutionise the legal industry. ‘We believe that technology is going to innovate and change the law,’ he remarks. ‘We want to be on the frontline of that’.