About
Software, and the people who have run the campaigns.
handyside.legal is a small company with one job: taking the pointless, expensive duplication out of legal directory submissions. The software is now in its fourth iteration. Our directors have run directory campaigns for sets for years and know the directories' people and processes. Many clients use both.
01The company
Who we are.
We are experienced professionals who want to make our clients' lives, and our own, better by reducing boring tasks to a minimum. That way we can all focus on what is important and improve our results.
The amount of pointless and expensive duplication in the legal directory submission process is depressing. With handyside.legal it is also unnecessary. Our software eliminates keying errors in both the written submissions and the referee spreadsheets, does away with cutting and pasting in Word and Excel, and saves hundreds of hours of work by valuable staff whose time could be more usefully spent.
We remain focused on improving the software to improve the working lives of barristers, marketing teams and admins. Our ambition is for it to be the industry standard. With 34 years' professional services marketing experience and 36 years' systems experience, the management team has a close understanding of what a chambers needs, from everyday problem-solving to a time-critical crisis.
Handyside Ltd is based in Kent. The platform was rebuilt from the ground up in 2026 by Software Development UK, and the first chambers are live on it.
02The service
The software on its own, or with us alongside.
Some sets run their whole campaign on the software with their own marketing team. Others ask us to run it with them, or for them. Our directors have managed directory campaigns for sets for years, and they know the directories' people and processes.
-
Everyday problem-solving
A question about a practice area, a barrister who needs chasing, a referee spreadsheet that has to be right by Friday. Our consultants can work inside a set's portal as admins, alongside the marketing team.
-
Longer-term issues
Where the set's rankings should be in three years, which practice areas to build submissions for, how the record of past years should shape the next campaign.
-
Time-critical crises
A deadline that has crept up, a marketing manager who has left mid-campaign, a guide that has changed its format. The sort of thing we have handled before.
-
Relationships with the directories
Our directors know the directories' people and processes from many campaigns. The submissions are only part of it; the relationships are looked after too.
03The team
The directors.
-
Daniel Edelman
Director
Daniel's 40-year career spans broking on the floor of the London Stock Exchange to being part of the team that set up the first market-making desk at Cazenove following the deregulation of London's financial markets. At Cazenove he was the lead broker involved in the development of Fidessa, the equity trading system used worldwide to handle billions of trades a day.
He has been a founder director of various companies, including a corporate finance boutique, an emissions broker, a financial structuring firm, a specialist marketing consultancy (JLE Marketing Ltd) and now handyside.legal.
In his spare time he spearheaded a successful campaign to prevent a large housing development on a greenfield site in Kent. He was then approached to stand for the local council, was elected following a contested election, and is now Chair of his local Parish Council.
-
Justine Edelman
Director
Justine is an all-round marketer with a magic circle law firm background at Allen & Overy. She worked in marketing at Sumitomo Bank, VNU, Gauntlet Insurance Services, Theodore Goddard and Howard Kennedy before going freelance in 2007.
While at A&O she devised and implemented client service programmes, initially for litigation, which were then rolled out across the firm's global clients. The initiative started genuine co-operation between internal teams internationally to serve clients better, and it is still in place twenty-five years later.
Other projects include change management programmes, international conferences and events, and legal directories consultancy.
04Clients
Past and present.
Sets and firms that have used the software, the service, or both. Brick Court Chambers won Chambers of the Year and 39 Essex Chambers were Highly Commended at The Lawyer Awards 2023; 3 Verulam Buildings won Commercial and Banking set of the year at the directory awards.
Barristers' sets
- Brick Court Chambers
- Fountain Court Chambers
- 3 Verulam Buildings
- Twenty Essex
- 39 Essex Chambers
- Gray's Inn Tax Chambers
- 4 Stone Buildings
- Coram Chambers
- Outer Temple Chambers
- Gatehouse Chambers
- Farringdon Chambers
- Forum Chambers
- Senate House Chambers
- Chambers of Toby Landau KC
- Duxton Hill Chambers, Singapore
Law firms
- Stephenson Harwood
- WilmerHale
- Boodle Hatfield
- Boies Schiller Flexner, New York
- Maurice Turnor Gardner
- Pemberton Greenish
- Laura Devine Solicitors
- Branch Austin McCormick
- Dickinson Gleeson
- Jury O'Shea
- Gibson & Co Solicitors
- MCG Solicitors
- Hussain Solicitors
- Central Chambers Law
- Rosefield Divorce Consultancy
05In their words
On the software, and on the service.
On the software
-
handyside.legal has made an enormous difference to our marketing team. One person can handle the submissions in less than a quarter of the time it usually takes. This has enabled my team to spend the time we have saved on far more profitable activities that bring business into chambers.
-
handyside is a crucial tool in helping our small marketing team to organise and streamline a complex and time-consuming task, and enabling members and employees to work collaboratively.
-
Handyside is crucial to our ability to produce quality submissions for both directories in a timely and efficient way.
-
Suffice it to say, quite simply, we couldn't manage 90 barristers' submissions across 35 practice areas without it. And the cost is more than recouped in the time saving and in the resources required to prepare so many documents.
On the service
-
A special thank you for all the hard work you put into the submissions and relationships with the directories. We are all delighted at last night's outcomes in winning both Commercial and Banking set of the year and Ali's win as banking silk. It's a fantastic result and thank you for all the work you have put in.
-
Regardless of what you have done for us as a set (which is unquantifiable) you have proven to be one of the nicest people I have had the pleasure to work with.
-
Thank you for all of your hard work. You are a breath of fresh air and so lovely to work with.
-
Thank you so much for your help, as always. This year you have really gone the extra mile.
-
You are amazing, it is such a pleasure to work with you, I really appreciate it.
-
You have been a complete star and I love your boundless energy and can-do attitude. I could not have done it without you.
Next step
Talk to Daniel about your next campaign.
A conversation first, then a demonstration of the system with your own practice areas in mind. No self-serve sign-up, no obligation.