🎙 Interview with Richard Lake, Deputy Head of Commercial (Transactions) at Deliveroo

Hi there! 👋

In this article, Chirag Morar speaks to Richard Lake, who speaks about his journey and role at Deliveroo as Deputy Head of Commercial (Transactions). He also provides an insight into the food delivery industry and practical advice for aspiring lawyers.

Can you tell us about your professional background and career journey?👩‍⚖️

From a very young age, I wanted to be a lawyer, initially because teenage me thought it might be glamorous, I would get paid well and that was all that mattered. While these assumptions weren’t entirely accurate, I did get lucky, as I do really enjoy my work.

I began at a small high street firm, which is quite unusual for people in the environment I work in now. After qualifying into commercial property, I moved to a slightly larger firm but found the training lacking.

As I was still early in my career, I needed to prioritise my training so moved to, what is now, RWK Goodman, a mid-tier private practice firm, where I spent five and a half years. Somewhere along the way, I got into restaurant and hospitality work. Food is one of my big passions outside of work, and at the firm, I was able to build a client base of my own around a sector that I loved.

After doing that for a while, an opportunity to join Deliveroo came along to work on their ‘Editions’ commercial kitchen model. It was a bit of a risk leaving the client base and practice that I had grown, but I figured I could always go back if it didn't work out. Turns out, it was a fantastic move - great work and amazing people.

Our General Counsel is a big believer in putting people into stretch roles and encouraging multidisciplinary experience to make us better lawyers so, a couple of years ago, I expanded my practice beyond purely commercial property work to include more general commercial contract work. I’ve never looked back and now I look after the Transactions pillar of the Commercial Legal at Deliveroo.

What are some of the typical tasks you do as Deputy Head of Commercial Legal (Transactions) at Deliveroo? 📝

As Deputy Head of Commercial at Deliveroo, my typical tasks are quite varied. A significant portion of my work involves commercial contracts - negotiating, reviewing, or supporting others in the team. I work closely with our commercial team, providing ad hoc advice on how to approach negotiations or transactions with the restaurants, grocery and retail partners on our platform.

While I still handle some property work, it's less than before and mostly in a supporting capacity. This primarily involves landlord and tenant matters such as lease reviews and negotiations.

In an in-house role, you essentially work with different parts of the business as if they were clients. A key aspect of my job is ensuring we deliver excellent service to all areas of the business while protecting the company's interests.

Can you describe a particularly interesting or complex legal matter you've worked on at Deliveroo? 😆

One particularly interesting and complex legal matter I’ve worked on at Deliveroo was the launch of our retail offering last year. From a consumer perspective, when you order something on the app, you might not consider how that product has appeared on your screen for you to place an order. Introducing retail products was a major shift for us, as we'd never really sold retail products to our customers as a category of its own.

While it was a commercial decision to launch retail, the legal department’s job was to support this initiative by assessing and mitigating the associated risks. We had to consider various aspects - for instance, with DIY retailers, we had to evaluate the potential risks of delivering certain items to both our riders and our customers.

Once we'd analysed these risks, my specific role was to negotiate the terms of our agreements with the new retail partners. Meanwhile, the Product & Advisory pillar of the Commercial Legal team focused on the regulatory implications of selling retail products through our platform.

How does working in-house at Deliveroo differ from working at a law firm? 😎

Working in-house at Deliveroo is vastly different from working at a law firm. Firstly, from a commercial perspective, the most significant difference is that we're involved in the full lifecycle of business decisions. For instance, with our retail launch, the Legal Team were involved from inception through to launch. This allows our team to see how our legal work directly impacts the business and its customers. Being in-house, I also get to work closely with talented and passionate non-lawyers, which challenges us to think more commercially and assess risk more acutely.

In private practice, you generally specialise in one field – for me, it was restaurant property work. At Deliveroo, we are encouraged to broaden our expertise, so I went from being a pure property lawyer to a more general commercial lawyer. I often say that I learnt more in my first three months here than I did in my previous three years of private practice.

In a law firm, there is often a tendency for firms to be over-cautious in avoiding risk for fear of liability. It’s often easier to say ‘no’ than to weigh up the risk and associated pros and cons of making a decision. In-house, you have to really get ‘under the hood’ of the risks to understand if you are preventing the business from achieving its full potential.

There are also the practical differences with any in-house job: we don’t have billable hours, time record, or chase debt recovery.

What do you think are currently the most challenging legal issues in the food delivery industry? 🤖

I think one of the most challenging legal issues in the food delivery industry right now is figuring out how to effectively and responsibly integrate AI into our operations. As a tech business, we see huge potential improvements that could be gained from properly harnessing the power of AI. The challenge is deciding where to invest the time, energy, and financial resources to leverage AI and become better at what we do.

It's not just about us; the same applies to our restaurant, grocery, and retail partners who are all looking for ways that they can leverage AI to improve their businesses.

What advice would you give aspiring lawyers who are at an early stage in their careers? 🤔

Firstly, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Many people in the legal industry are willing to share their experiences and advice if approached, say, on LinkedIn, at events or otherwise. You can learn so much just by asking, and don’t be scared of the consequences of asking because 99% of the time there aren’t any. Think about how much time you could save by asking someone ten or so years ahead of you what to focus on or what not to worry about.

Second, try to find a mentor. This doesn’t have to be someone you work with, but ideally someone you know, trust, and can rely on. Having conversations with someone who's achieved what you're aiming for can be enormously impactful. I’ve had some great supervisors and mentors while I’ve been in certain roles but wish I would have had a consistent, dedicated mentor throughout my career.

Third, consider how AI will impact the legal industry. Think about areas of law that might be safer from AI disruption. In my opinion, areas that are "decision rich" - where you need to understand complex things, interpret them and effectively communicate them - are likely to be more future-proof.

As a fourth point, tailor your career to something you are genuinely interested in, as it is really difficult to get really good at something you aren’t passionate about. I remember being a student and thinking I had to find everything interesting, which just isn’t the case.

Lastly, I’ll practice what I preach: if you're reading this and have a question you'd like to ask me, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn (click here).