We're delighted to feature the Sharesies legal team, a team of eight who lead with a "how might we?" curiosity. Winners of Chapman Tripp Private Sector In-house Team of the Year and Highly Commended in the Artemis In-house Innovation Award at this year's ILANZ Awards, they support 14 companies across Aotearoa and Australia and have built an embedded model that puts legal right at the heart of the business. We asked them how the team has evolved, the impact of their curiosity mindset, and what's on their tech wish list.
Sharesies legal team. Top (L- R) Vinnie Schumacher, Amanda Jones, Louise Nield, Meredith Pearson. Bottom (L-R) Irene Peter, Neisha Mistry, Lesleigh Romond, Lucy Rowse
Can you tell us a bit about the Sharesies legal team and how you support the business?
We’re a high-energy team of eight, supporting 14 companies and a growing suite of products across Aotearoa and Australia. We take a curious, "how might we?" approach to our work. We don't see ourselves as here to pump the brakes; just like our developers and marketers, we’re all part of the engine, driving to achieve Sharesies’ purpose at pace. Over the last year, we’ve been building the legal infrastructure to allow Sharesies to scale from an investment platform into a full-service wealth development business. Whether it’s navigating complex regulatory landscapes, engineering the frameworks for our unique KiwiSaver scheme or setting the foundations for loveable partnerships with our business customers, we’re here to help Sharesies move fast with confidence.
How has the team grown or evolved over time, and what has that meant for how you work together?
We’ve moved away from traditional legal silos to a more embedded model. We now have Senior Counsel sitting directly within the leadership teams of our core business lines—Superannuation & Funds, Sharesies for Business, Sharesies Personal, and Australia. This means our lawyers are part of shaping the strategy from day one, not just at the final sign-off. This shift has been massive for scaling our B2B products, like our listed company employee share schemes and bespoke registry tech. Alongside investing, we have grown our retail wealth products to include a unique debit card offer ($1 investback for every $100 spent), digital advised portfolios, crypto trading, competitive savings offers, insurance and digital wills. Being close to the action allows us to give advice that is faster, more connected, and proactive.
What does that "how might we?" mindset look like in practice for your legal team?
It’s about challenging the "that’s just how it’s done" mentality wherever it shows up for us as a legal team and business. For KiwiSaver, this curiosity led us to build a scheme that offers partnership with some of NZ’s most well-known fund managers, alongside the unique option for people to direct some of their retirement investment themselves into listed companies or funds. On the B2B side, we asked: "How might we get more Kiwi and Aussies benefiting from the growth of the companies they work for or brands they love?" This thinking resulted in our Staff Shares product and the Sharesies Open platform—helping listed companies engage with employees and investors in a way that’s actually engaging.
"Our biggest impact is providing confidence for the business to be bold." | ||||
Where do you think the legal team has the biggest impact on the wider business?
Our biggest impact is providing confidence for the business to be bold. Whether it’s managing our own capital raise and secondaries digitally via the Sharesies platform, or partnering to provide the digital infrastructure for Fonterra’s co-operative trading, we provide the legal clarity needed to innovate. We help turn complex regulatory hurdles into innovative products that really serve our customers.
Is there any technology or tool that’s quietly made life easier for the team, or something on your wish list?
We’re big believers that humans should do human work and computers should do computer work—and the definition of "computer work" just changed enormously. Right now we are:
● Building agents: shareable, structured, custom AI agents that are pre-loaded with Sharesies-specific legal guidance to help the business self-serve on repeating tasks like marketing reviews (with a lawyer in the loop) - right now we are building these with simple Gemini Gems
● Bespoke Slack Workflows: Every legal request comes through a Slack workflow. This allows for rapid triage and creates a data set we can interrogate with AI to identify patterns and create faster solutions.
● Bespoke Legal AI: We’re trialing AI contract markup tools to find the right fit for us for now.
On the wish list? We’re excited about using AI to create better onboarding experiences, especially for complex entities like trusts and companies, where that KYC (Know Your Customer) friction is so real. We are also excited about how AI could help provide lovable and scalable personalised financial advice.
Ngā mihi nui to the Sharesies legal team for sharing about your mission and challenging the "that’s just how it’s done" mentality. Thanks for sharing with the in-house legal community.