Partner

Shaw Stapely

ABOUT

Introduction

Shaw is a commercial and consumer lawyer with extensive experience advising technology companies on the end-to-end launch and delivery of products to market. He combines private practice experience with substantial in-house expertise, having served as lead counsel for Hive, Centrica’s Internet of Things business, helping grow it from a start-up to an award-winning business with over 1.5 million customers worldwide.

Shaw qualified at Osborne Clarke before spending eight years at Thomas Eggar (now part of Irwin Mitchell), working initially as an M&A lawyer before moving into the commercial team. In 2012 he joined Centrica to support the residential energy business and smart meter roll-out, before becoming lead counsel for Hive. He subsequently became Associate General Counsel and part of the management team of British Gas Energy, tasked with developing a new agile energy business and migrating a seven million customer base onto a new billing platform.

Since joining Arbor, Shaw has gained considerable experience in the travel tech and telecoms sectors, spending time both on long-term secondments and retainers with leading international travel companies and telcos, serving as lead regional counsel and providing commercial and marketing support to international and regional projects and campaigns.

He is known by clients as the “least lawyerly lawyer” they’ve worked with, a description he takes as a compliment: he works as a business partner, helping clients understand risks and issues in plain terms and navigate the best route through them.

Behind the lawyer

Shaw is happiest outdoors and being active, from mountain biking and swimming, or walking the dog and checking on the local woods, of which is he a Woodland Trust volunteer warden.

Education

University of Bristol

BA in Classics

College of Law, Guildford

CPE & LPC

Previous roles

Virgin Media O2

Legal Counsel (Contractor) - 2025 - 2026

Airbnb, EMEA Commercial and Marketing

Senior Legal Counsel (Contractor) - 2024 - 2025

Etc, BT’s Incubation Unit

Legal Director (Contractor) - 2021 - 2023

British Gas Energy, Centrica

Associate General Counsel - 2020 - 2021

Hive (Centrica IoT business)

Lead Counsel - 2015 - 2020

British Gas Centrica

Legal Counsel - 2012 - 2015

Thomas Eggar (now Irwin Mitchell)

Commercial Solicitor and Associate - Eight years

Osborne Clarke

Trainee Solicitor

Services

Legal specialties

SaaS Agreements Preparing templates and playbooks for clients and negotiating agreements, both on clients’ and customers’ template terms.
Commercial Technology Advising technology businesses on the full range of commercial, regulatory and compliance matters associated with launching and scaling products, with particular experience in consumer-facing technology and IoT.
Consumer Law Advising on consumer protection, product liability, consumer credit and customer segmentation and migration, with in-house experience across large-scale consumer bases in the energy and technology sectors.
Product Launch and Scale Advising technology businesses on the legal, regulatory and commercial frameworks required to take products from concept to launch and into international growth, drawing on first-hand experience scaling Hive from start-up to 1.5 million customers.
Consumer Protection and Regulatory Advising on consumer protection obligations, product liability, consumer credit frameworks and regulatory compliance for consumer technology and energy businesses.
Customer Migration and Segmentation Advising on the legal and commercial aspects of large-scale customer migrations and segmentation programmes, with direct experience managing a seven million customer migration at British Gas Energy.
Intellectual Property, Marketing and Brand Protection Advising on IP protection, marketing and advertising law and brand strategy for technology and consumer businesses.