Here’s what they are saying
Law firms and attorneys have served businesses for over a century. Their services, while expensive and complex, have been valued by clients. However, new technology enabled legal services are providing an alternative. Easy-to-use, template driven, reasonably priced services are emerging to serve small and startup businesses. These innovative business models are taking hold across hubs in Asia Pacific.
New Services
Consider the plight of a small business owner or startup founder. There are several documents needed in setting up a new company. Founders must decide on a company structure, draft employment agreements and register their companies with the local regulators. They need to make sure they are following the right rules depending on the jurisdiction, while also generating revenues and serving clients. It can be overwhelming, especially when they don’t have the luxury of large budgets or internal counsel.
New legal services are using a combination of technology and legal expertise to offer a menu of commonly needed solutions for clients in a more accessible way. Using the power of cloud-based platforms, they offer clients some of the most frequently needed agreements, such as employment contracts, subcontractor agreements, NDAs and other documents via an online portal. Clients pay a flat monthly or annual fee and can login to a website to create these agreements based on standardized templates and a simple online questionnaire.
Ongoing Innovation in Legal Arena
Such services gained popularity in the U.S. almost 15 years ago when LegalZoom was founded. Players in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia are only now seeing traction for similar solutions. It may be the rise of startups in these regions that is creating market demand for such services. Whatever the reason, this latest business model innovation is one that follows a familiar pattern. Varying price points become flat and predictable. Physical services become virtual and accessible online. Human services are replaced by software. This is the movie of digital shifts, playing out not only in the legal arena, but in almost every sector, globally.
And, this isn’t the first time law firms have seen disruptors in their midst. In the late 1990s, legal process outsourcers (LPOs) came on the scene and began to provide certain contract review and basic paralegal services at heavily discounted prices. Then in the mid 2000s came the electronic discovery services and contract management software which eliminated the need for lawyers to spend hours searching through paper documents for specific evidence. Now it seems that document creation is also being handled by technology.
