With Legal OS lawyers can automate many contract processes

Please introduce yourself and your startup Legal OS to our readers!

I’m Jake, one of three founders of Legal OS. My background is in product strategy and creative writing. Specifically, I’m motivated by futurism and systems change applied through building new products and telling unheard stories. Legal OS is an example of this. It is the world’s first code-based library of legal content. With Legal OS, lawyers can automate many contract processes that used to be manual. Our current customers are using Legal OS to automate the creation of their contracts.

How did you get the idea to Legal OS?

Lilian, my co-founder, is the daughter of a Legal Tech pioneer, Stephan Breidenbach. Lilian grew up with his research and legal tech was discussed at dinner most nights. Lotta, Lilian and I have known each other for many years, so when Lilian suggested exploring the legal sector as a possible market for disruption, we were immediately inspired. The idea for the code-based library of legal content came from the great surge in popularity of blockchain in the past few years. We see the popularity of blockchain and cryptocurrencies as an indicator of the shift in the relationship to technology of the average person. Technology has traditionally been treated with caution, even fear. But blockchain is hardcoded trust.

We saw this as an opportunity to apply a similar concept to the legal sector. Further, we saw the legal sector is struggling with productivity. More money is being spent on legal tech, but productivity is stagnating (meaning ROI, in real terms, is decreasing). And we learnt that part of this stagnation was a consequence of the fundamental nature of law as text-based. Computers cannot accurately comprehend human text. With these insights and inspirations, we designed our first concept, a model of law that consists of thousands of units of legal meaning connected by intelligent paths.

How difficult was the start and what challenges you had to overcome?

The start of an ambitious project is always difficult. One of the great challenges to overcome is believing such a radical vision is possible. The next challenge is to convince others of this. We were very lucky to find sponsors and investors who believed in our vision and in us as a team. 

Who is your target audience?

Our target audience is lawyers, specifically those working within industry leading law firms and professional services firms. 

What is the USP of your startup?

Our content is both code-based and jurisdiction independent. Once you generate a contract using Legal OS, you are able to sync the terms and variables with a range of enterprise software including Salesforce and Workday. Further, as each contract is machine-readable, you can attain unprecedented insights from your contracts, automatically update contracts in real time, and accurately calculate risk.

Can you describe a typical workday of you?

As I’m a product focussed founder, most of my day involves working on the product on three levels: execution, tactics, and strategy. The execution of product is the day-to-day design and delivery of features. The tactical aspect of product is planning upcoming sprints, tracking KPIs, and working closely with customers to ensure the user experience is excellent. And the strategic product work is centered around identifying the next killer feature. The strategic work is often the most exciting, as is involves researching the legal sector, speaking to dozens-even hundreds-of lawyers and paralegals, and refining this knowledge into an idea. On any given day, I’ll be working across all three of these product levels.

Where do you see yourself and your startup Legal OS in five years?

In five years time, Legal OS could be the standard for legal content, while our platform could be the cornerstone of any Legal Ops stack.

What 3 tips would you give other Start-up founders on the way?

1. Think big – The world needs big ideas.

2. Found with the people you trust most in the world -Trust among founders will make the team stronger and allows you to ask the difficult questions earlier.

3. Embrace failure -Each failure is a lesson, these lessons accumulate to become great ideas.

More information you will find here

Thank you Jake for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.