Rocket Lawyer (RL) hired Sumit Malhotra as CTO of Big Four PwC, where he was Senior Vice President of Engineering. CEO Charley Moore told the site that the main lease will contribute to RL’s mobile-centric legal strategy, which is at the center of its expansion. Plans
In a detailed interview, Moore also noted that an initial public offering, which rival LegalZoom has already undertaken, is “an option” and that “we could be a successful public company. “They are also expanding into South America with a new base. in Brazil.
But back to legal services.
Several law firms have dabbled in phone apps, but they are still limited. Moore’s vision is that the cell phone will become increasingly central to the legal desires of consumers and SMEs, with everything they offer, from document creation to legal advice, electronic signatures and access to their documents, all through the cell phone.
“Most small businesses and consumers don’t use desktop computers. They do all their computing with a phone. It’s their only point, they work through the phone and apps,” Moore explained.
RL must be part of this evolution by putting the legal in the hands of people. They have already launched a number of local cell phones in the U. S. The U. S. and now they will do the same in the UK, the largest legal market in the world right now.
Moore noted that this has not been easy, given the limited computing power of some cell phones and also their size. This means that a lot of effort has to be put into developing the cloud features of your service.
They also had many demanding physical design situations to overcome, for example. How do you fill in document templates when the screen is a few centimeters long?But they have where they want to be and they’re very focused on developing that.
“Our purpose is to democratize justice, so we want to be right in this domain [cellular strategy]. We now have mobile apps for the US, and in 2022 we will have them for the US. “We are in the U. S. ,” Moore added.
“It’s been a great investment for us. [But] we did our best to create contracts, have lawyers review them and sign them, all through a cell [phone],” he explained.
Moore added that phones have several additional benefits besides being at the center of everyone’s life now. He noted that they have cameras and can naturally respond to voice commands. In general, therefore, it turns out that the cellular lawyer in the client and SME sectors is about to be stimulated. Will this also take off at Big Law, or will it remain a niche business among large law firms?That remains to be seen, but RL’s pioneering works may motivate more activity in this area.
And as for the new CTO, Moore added in a separate statement: “The pandemic has laid bare the serious shortcomings of the classic legacy legal processes that feature physical presence. Our team is motivated to collaborate with Sumit to create the fashionable native virtual platform for legal documentation, electronic signatures, pro-recommendation and compliance that will bring justice teams closer to almost everyone.
Malhotra added, “I look to the future to help make legal assistance more available to others around the world through our Rocket Legal Cloud platform. Rocket Lawyer remains one of Legal Tech’s cutting-edge companies, with exciting projects underway, adding I’m passionate technologies such as knowledge science, AI and device learning, cryptographic and blockchain applications.
On this last blockchain-related point, the company added that its high-profile “Rocket Wallet,” first discussed in 2019, and potentially allowing crypto invoices and the use of Ethereum blockchain, has now been introduced and “will allow consumers to make legal transaction invoices more transparent and convenient. “
As noted, RL has also begun its expansion in South America. They were introduced in Brazil, a country with primary legal needs, but with a judicial formula that lately is tense and has a massive accumulation of cases.
RL will work there in Portuguese and use the base in Brazil to coordinate the expansion to the rest of South America, which of course is Spanish-speaking. While this will be a big leap, as RL already operates in Europe in Spain, France and the Netherlands. , so they are already well suited for multilingual approaches.
As for the provision of legal services, it can already be done by affiliated lawyers who provide advice, but in the UK they also have their own lawyers on staff. They have also acquired the ability to do the same in Utah, USA, and plan to do it in Arizona.
Moore added that he believed there would be “a wave of other U. S. states. “UU. ” that would follow the same path to allow non-attorney-owned corporations to provide regulated legal services to the public.
Another point that caught the attention of this site is that “1 in nine Americans has a Rocket Lawyer account” and that several giant corporations are now offering their staff an RL account as a component of their benefits package, that is, with dental insurance and gym membership. Salesforce is one of the corporations that does it.
“Staff use it for situations, such as prenuptial agreements or action incentive programs,” Moore noted.
And finally, when it comes to a potential initial public offering at some point in the future, they don’t want more liquidity right now, because last year they raised $223 million. This massive influx of capital is expected to make them last for some time. However, it’s worth noting that Moore, who is a securities lawyer, got excited about the idea, although there’s obviously no immediate plan to do so. . . For now.
Overall, Rocket Lawyer is doing well and, as Moore said, “we’ve had a very smart year 2021. “They have now strengthened their commitment to the concept that cell phones will be the focal point of legal facilities for many people. , and its global expansion continues.
The company in 2008 helped shake up the legal B2C/B2SME world, and it looks like the 2020s will be another decade of continuous expansion and evolution for them.
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