The Australian Financial Review reports
Australian law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth is looking to build up its start-up clientele, signing a partnership deal with the Melbourne Accelerator Program (MAP).
The three-year deal, which involves a six-figure investment from the firm, gives start-ups going through the accelerator access to free legal advice, clinics and new technology the firm is developing to help companies produce customised legal documents quickly.
Corrs partner Jonathan Farrer has been leading the push within the law firm to get involved in the start-up ecosystem and he said the partnership fits into the company’s approach of embracing disruption, rather than being concerned by it.
“In the start-up space we see a lot of exciting businesses growing quickly and we’ve recognised that a traditional law firm approach doesn’t work well in dealing with these companies,” he said.
“We’re looking to build longer term relationships, so we’re getting in on the ground floor and MAP fits in well with that.”
In November last year the law firm also partnered with Melbourne University’s Wade Institute, providing one student a scholarship to study its Master of Entrepreneurship program.
New legal platform
Mr Farrer, who will be joined by other Corrs partners Philip Catania and John Tuck in delivering the program for the MAP start-ups, said the firm also hopes to learn from the start-ups more about what features it needs to build into a new platform to make getting legal documents easier for early stage business. The platform is still in the testing phase.
“We’re working on a few different technologies that we’re developing in-house with external partnerships that are designed to make the legal process more efficient for start-ups,” he said.
“A lot of it is about reducing the time lawyers need to spend doing basic things and focusing our time on the value-add.”
The platform will allow start-ups to put in their business details such as who the board members are, ABN, and other corporate details and have legal documents auto-generated.
Despite Corrs’ interest in the ecosystem, the firm has no intention to start making financial investments in early stage companies.
“At the moment as a firm we’re not talking about making investments in companies, it’s about developing long term partnerships where the start-ups work with us,” he said.
MAP currently has start-ups such as anti-depressant drug dosage company CNSDose, Airbnb-style “tiny house” holiday booking start-up Shacky and renewable energy tech company Allume.
Since the program started in 2012, 24 start-ups have gone through the accelerator and it is estimated that they have created more than 200 jobs and raised more than $11 million in funding.
Some of its most successful alumni to date include online furniture retail start-up Brosa; Nura, which makes headphones that learn and adapt to a person’s hearing profile; and Palette, a start-up which has developed a portable cube which can capture the colour of any surface and send it to a smartphone.
Start-ups need lawyers
Melbourne Accelerator Program director Rohan Workman said every start-up needed legal advice.
“There have been some documents I’ve seen where if a mentor or a lawyer had seen it before they entered into it they’d have advised them to do something differently,” he said.
“The partnership develops trust and rapport between our start-ups and the law firm. They all need legal advice, but it’s not their core business so they need to get it as quickly and cheaply as possible.”
In November last year MAP also signed a $1 million partnership with Australia Post to provide two extra places in the MAP program for ecommerce businesses, and an annual scholarship for a student in the Wade Institute’s entrepreneurship course.
