Upon graduating from Harvard with dual graduate degrees in law and business, Annie Webber embarked on a career in “big law” at local firm Ropes and Gray. But in addition to working the typical associate crunch, Webber found herself fielding legal questions from her MBA friends who were breaking ground on businesses.
She was used to the inquiries from fellow MBA candidates during school. “As a JD/MBA, all of my friends in business school used me to research their legal questions for startups … and most of the time, I didn’t know the answer,” admitted Webber to BostInno.
. @LegalHeroLLC addresses pricing uncertainty so early-stage companies don’t have to overpay for fantastic legal counsel.
But post graduation, questions concerning friends’ young companies in the hard-to-navigate legal world continued to stream in.
“They kept coming to me because they didn’t have anywhere else to turn,” Webber said.
That’s why, in April, Webber founded Legal Hero, which aims to make the tricky legal component to starting and running a company simpler to traverse, at a palatable price. After just three months in Boston and New York City markets, the startup is already on track to close its first round of seed funding at the end of August.
Webber stepped down from her position at Ropes and Gray in winter 2013, and took six months off to brainstorm her next move. “I took a bunch of time just reflecting on the legal industry, and all the ways it’s ripe for disruption.”
Combine that with Webber’s real-world experience as a consultant and MBA, and a startup that addresses pain points for both young companies and firms adds up.
“The gist [of Legal Hero] is that entrepreneurs know the price they’re going to pay before they even begin a relationship with a lawyer,” explained Webber. “It’s not so much worrying about finding legal help, it’s about the uncertainty in price.”
Legal Hero addresses that pricing uncertainty so early-stage companies don’t have to overpay for legal counsel. When startups seek legal help, sometimes lawyers mis-estimate how many hours it will take them to do a particular task. For example, a lawyer might have an hourly rate of $500 and predict a service will take four hours to address, when it winds up taking eight. While double the price may be a blip for a big corporation, that can make a huge dent on a small bootstrapped startup.
Companies sign up for Legal Hero, and select one of seven projects, from business formation to confidentiality agreements to employee termination, that it needs counsel on. Click on a project, and each part of process is broken down into various steps and their associated, fixed legal fees. Companies fill out a few questions, and within 24 hours, Legal Hero sends a few lawyer bios, best matched to the needs of a given situation. Once the lawyer is selected, the project is kicked off. The company team and lawyer can both sign an online engagement letter. Billing, which happens via online credit card payment at the arranged, fixed rate, doesn’t go down until the project is completed.
According to Webber, Legal Hero has 15 lawyers on its platform and a few success stories. Among the company’s beta testers is a Boston startup that used Legal Hero to find a Harvard Law graduate to write a demand letter to a competitor infringing on their trademark. Instead of having to shell the $2,000 quote from a firm the company previously worked with, the local startup paid only $180.
Legal Hero is revenue positive, claims Webber. The company plans on hiring an additional four people full-time in September.
“These are real lawyers answering questions, not form agreements on a machine,” shared Webber. “Legal Hero wants all startups to get access to top-notch lawyers.”
