Could your mobile phone replace your lawyer? Maybe – in the future. Law tech is one of the hottest areas in tech at the moment, and shareholders and founders alike are flocking to the sector that for many years has been left behind in the tech revolution.
The internet is over 30 years. A large number of services have since it’s birth moved from offline to online. After the launch of the iPhone in 2007, the smartphones and tablets of the world quickly won the hand over desktop computers and laptops. The modern man and his phone are inseparable, and a number of startups are working to increase the number of services that can be executed through your phone.
Why reinvent the wheel?
A Hong Kong-based startup is trying to get lawyers to work more effectively with an online document builder. The Chinese law tech company Zegal made waves with their document builder when they launched in 2013 under the brand name Dragon Law. Since then, the law tech startup has established themselves in Europe through an office in the United Kingdom, according to E27.co.
The Hong Kong-based startup is just one of many trying to come up with innovative ways of assisting lawyers in doing a more with less. A Canadian startup named Kira work on optimizing the document review process for law firms worldwide. With their machine learning technology, Kira claims to reduce time spent on contract review by up to 60%, according to co-founder and CEO of Kira Noah Waiseberg to LawTechToday.org
Brace yourselves, the apps are coming
Both Advokatguiden.no, Zegal, and Kira, all have solid traction in their respective markets, and with good reason. Law firms worldwide are seeing the text written on the wall; the technological disruption is inevitable. It’s just a question of time, and who survives. The trend is also visible in the Google Play Store for Android apps to tablets and smartphones.
RePresent is a court simulator that aims to help unexperienced non-lawyers educate themselves and prepare for court appearances. The app is produced and funded by among else the Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, the Legal Advice & Referral Center in New Hampshire, and the Legal Services Corporation.
RePresent and other apps like it has seen significant traction in the rankings of Google Play Store over time. The creators of RePresent even felt that the demand for their app could justify a standalone version targeting renters to educate them on the eviction process, find out where to get help and discover how to gather evidence to defend against an eviction.
TripAdvisor for lawyers
One of the trickiest parts about hiring a lawyer is hiring the right lawyer. If you’re not a serial criminal or a well-weathered businessman, it’s likely to go through life without hiring a legal practitioner more than at most a handful of times. And even then, you’re likely to be in need of vastly different specialists.
Picking the right hotel in a foreign country you barely can spell the name of, or even the perfect steak restaurant on the other side of the world is easy; you just go to TripAdvisor. One Norwegian serial entrepreneur wants to do the same for picking lawyers.
With Advokatguiden.no, the founder Erling Løken Andersen, and his team want you to be able to benefit from the same transparency when hiring a lawyer as you do when choosing the next vacation destination. Through verified reviews of former clients, Advokatguiden.no aspires to become the European TripAdvisor for lawyers.
Erling Løken Andersen got his law license after being sued by the tax authorities in a multi-million dollar tax case after Løken Andersen selling his first company. Shocked by the amounts his lawyer charged him, he fired all of them and decided to defend himself, he told the journal of the Norwegian Bar Association, Advokatbladet.no
The future is mobile
No one can say anything for sure about what is coming, but the trend is clear as the day is bright; mobile is here to stay. Pen and paper won’t make a return, and all industry players across the board must either step up to the standards of the new digital world or take the inevitable losses for themselves and their businesses. Founders and entrepreneurs around the world are all eyeing the deep pockets of celebrity lawyers, and the era of 6-digit monthly retainers just to have access to law services is over. In the digital gig economy, clients and consumers alike want fixed prices, immediate services, and an omnichannel experience.