Slaughters partners Rob Sumroy and Ben Kingsley

Slaughter and May is set to offer free legal advice to up-and-coming UK tech entrepreneurs selected by a panel of experts including Autonomy co-founder Mike Lynch, as the magic circle firm looks to tap into the burgeoning startup market.

The firm is expecting to identify around 10 UK-based tech startups per year, with each successful candidate receiving £30,000 in free services including legal advice, access to model legal documentation and tailored coaching in areas such as pitching and presentations.

The companies will be selected by a panel led by Slaughters head of technology and outsourcing Rob Sumroy and financial services partner Ben Kingsley, alongside Lynch, Santander UK head of innovation Sigga Sigurdardottir, Trevor Callaghan, the GC of UK artificial intelligence company DeepMind Technologies, and Ophelia Brown, a partner at seed-focused venture capital fund LocalGlobe.

The first round of applications for the scheme, dubbed 'Fintech Fast Forward', will open on 17 November. Slaughters is aiming to complete this by  January next year, with a view to launching the programme shortly after.

The firm is looking to work with companies operating in financial technology and similar fields, with a particular focus on businesses with the potential to deliver "meaningful improvements or increased competition". The firm is open to discussions about ways to continue to support the companies when they reach the £30,000 mark, and will consider refreshing the programme twice a year.

The news comes after Slaughters announced last month it had adopted new artificial intelligence technology – Luminance Technologies – funded by Lynch's tech investment firm, Invoke Capital.

"We will consider applications throughout the year. In terms of formal application rounds we will probably hold a couple within the year," said Sumroy, who is spearheading the programme alongisde Kingsley.

The pair are also joint heads of Slaughters' fintech group, which launched two years ago and now includes 13 partners.

Sumroy continued: "We think we can give a lot to the entrepreneur community at an early stage of growth. Of course we have many big, established clients doing great stuff in fintech but we also want to make sure interesting startup companies can access us going forward."

Kingsley added: "Our forte is complex financial services and regulatory issues. There are plenty of small and mid-sized firms doing great work in the startup community – but they can have problems when their clients say: 'Thanks for getting the corporate structure set up; now we need to engage with a regulator on something they've never seen before.' That's where we can add more value."

Slaughters has worked with startups in the past, albeit in a more informal way. For example, it advised UK chip designer Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) when it launched nearly two decades ago.

"CSR was originally launched by a team of Cambridge-educated tech people. We first knew them because our clients had invested in them. They were looking for support. They wouldn't have traditionally gone to a large firm but some of the things they were doing were complex.

"We felt we didn't need to charge CSR for everything we did in the early days, because we knew there would be fee-earning opportunities further down the line and they became a great client for us."

Slaughters' investment in CSR paid off in 2014, when it advised on the company's $2.4bn (£2m) sale to US chipmaker Qualcomm.

Kingsley said: "If we look at some of our most successful clients, we can trace back the relationship to a point in time where we took a bit of a risk in doing either free or low paying work. So we are turning an ethos we have had for some time into a programme."

Other firms that run similar programmes include Simmons & Simmons, which launched a £100,000 fintech fund in May this year. Earlier this month, it announced its first fund recipients, including Alterest, which brings transparency to non-bank credit markets, and Cuvva, which provides hourly car insurance on demand.