Eleanor Lightbody

“Having lightweight models that are your own models that are fine-tuned are really important,” Eleanor Lightbody said in June 2026, “because fundamentally it means that your margins as a business are much more palatable and sustainable.” She is CEO of Luminance, a London, United Kingdom legal AI company whose own models review, draft, and negotiate contracts for in-house legal teams.

Darktrace’s First 30

After the University of Exeter and a postgraduate diploma at the University of Cape Town, Lightbody joined Darktrace, a cyber AI company spun out of Cambridge research, as one of its first 30 employees. She started in marketing, moved into sales, and spent six years there, ending as global head of its industrial division. “I saw first-hand the ability of AI to transform an entire industry,” she said.

Running Luminance

She joined Luminance, founded by Cambridge mathematicians, in 2021 to lead product development and global growth. One of the first products she oversaw could take a first pass at any incoming contract straight out of the box, marking each clause against what a company had agreed to before.

No More NDAs for Lawyers

Under Lightbody, Luminance launched its Luna legal models and began letting AI negotiate NDAs against another company's AI. She says lawyers should never have to review an NDA again once the technology is in place. About half of Luminance's revenue now comes from the US, where it is pushing deeper into in-house legal departments.