Mon – Fri: 8:00 – 17:00
Our Team
Meet the team
At Lay Law we are proud to work with an expanding team of top legal minds, with a focus on providing well-rounded legal services, with uncompromising attention to detail.
Founder
Richard Thompson
Principal Legal Consultant
BSc Marketing — UCT 2009
LLB — UCT 2013
LLM IP Law — UCT 2019
Admitted 2015
Richard has over 11 years of post-qualification experience, both in practice as a commercial and civil litigation attorney and in-house as legal counsel for start-ups and established businesses across e-learning, digital media, e-commerce and public legislative industries.
His main areas of interest include nuanced business and IP legal advice; drafting, reviewing and negotiating commercial agreements; establishing robust data protection compliance frameworks; and assisting with in-house employment law matters.
Having become disillusioned with the unnecessarily complicated and expensive ways that traditional law firms provide services, Richard founded Lay Law in 2023 - motivated to build a more modern, practical and accessible way of delivering legal support to businesses. He now works closely with founders, consultants and growing businesses, often acting as a Fractional Legal Counsel and strategic legal advisor.
Ardent sport lover, passionate (albeit limited) guitar player, avid reader, crime documentary watcher, and family man who loves going on walks with his wife, son, feisty pomeranian and slightly less feisty pug.
Connect on LinkedIn
Taryn Blignaut
Legal Consultant
Admitted 2010
Financial Services Law
Corporate and Commercial Law
Taryn has over a decade of experience as in-house legal counsel to global, listed companies including Ninety One and Coronation Fund Managers. Her specialisations include financial services law and corporate and commercial law, having drafted everything from IT contracts to multi-billion rand investment mandates.
At Ninety One, Taryn served as senior legal counsel for the Southern Africa institutional business. She joins Lay Law driven by a passion for uplifting smaller businesses that typically don't have the budgets to hire quality legal counsel.
Enjoys cooking, painting, travelling, chilling with her hubby and fur babies, and walking the beaches of Big Bay, Cape Town.
Eugenia Barale
Legal Consultant
Admitted Attorney
CIPP Certified
DORA Senior Lead Manager
An admitted attorney with over a decade of experience across the legal, compliance and risk landscape, Eugenia is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional and a DORA Senior Lead Manager.
This blend of credentials underpins her comprehensive grasp of commercial law, regulatory compliance, privacy, information security, IT risk management and IT governance. Having worked across finance, fintech and technology, she is highly equipped to help businesses manage their legal and regulatory risks in a digital world.
Nicholas Huxter
Legal Consultant
BA LLB
PGDFP
RE5 Certified
Admitted Attorney
Nicholas is an admitted attorney with a particular focus on wills and succession planning, helping clients put clear, practical arrangements in place to protect what they have built.
He also advises on commercial law, supporting businesses with contracts, compliance and governance. Nicholas is known for making complex legal issues easier to understand and for providing advice that is both practical and reliable.
