Dragon Law to launch Legal Startup Academy in Singapore

Asia-Pacific Region Legal Startup Dragon Law will launch Legal Startup Academy in Singapore, beginning February 26th, 2016. This is the first of six modules that Dragon Law will run once monthly from now until July, 2016. Each module will target legal essentials at different stages of the startup business cycle, with a particular focus on helping Asia-Pacific region startups.

The venue partner is leading co-working space and community in Singapore, The Hub. While the agenda for all 7 modules have yet to be detailed, the series of events will bring together a diverse mix of speakers and panelists offering a balanced perspective — from industry players, entrepreneurs, startups and investors to VCs and incubators.

Asia-Pacific legal startup scene booming

And the timing could not be more appropriate as the Asia-Pacific region is increasingly becoming a hotbed of startup entrepreneurship.  Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Sydney and other cities in the region have seen a profound uptick in startup activity.

As Josh Steimle outlined last month in Forbes, "Angel investors, venture capitalists, and wannabes have flocked to Hong Kong" in recent years".  In addition to a recent series of high-profile events and government investment, Steimle observes, "the most telling sign of the growth and maturation of Hong Kong’s startup scene is the sheer proliferation of startups, cowork spaces, and accelerators, which I can no longer keep up with."  And Arnaud Bonzom, writing in Tech in Asia, details similar startup ecosystem dynamism in Singapore in: "All you need to know about the Singapore startup scene in 100 slides".

Practical legal and business guidance for the region’s startup entrepreneurs

With these development in mind, Legal Startup Academy from Dragon Law will help fill a growing and important niche in the greater Asia Pacific startup scene for practical legal and business guidance for the startup entrepreneur.  For more information about the Dragon Law Legal Startup Academy, please follow this link.

by @JohnGrimley, Editor & Publisher, Asia Law Portal

Australian legal startup Crowd & Co is creating an online market for corporate legal services

Australia-based legal startup Crowd & Co, launched on 30 November 2015, is aiming to help corporations and lawyers alike efficiently source help on transactions via a proprietary online matchmaking platform.

Inspired by the engineering sector

Jarred Hardman, Founder – Crowd & Co

Similar to American middle-market focused deal sourcing platform Axial, Crowd & Co, as founder and CEO Jarred Hardman outlines, is based on an engineering sector model for sourcing work.  Transaction-based, the engineering sector puts teams together around transactions.  "This concept, applies to legal", explains Hardman, "It will permit the legal services sector to optimize the utilization of talent to decrease overhead and increase profits."

Hardman, a lawyer himself, began his legal career at Herbert Smith Freehills in Australia – then worked in-house with UGL Limited, an engineering services firm.  "I saw engineers working within a fixed and variable cost model and the two industries are similar, yet legal is still utilizing a fixed cost model" he said.  "Adapt your workforce based on workflow demands is the approach Crowd & Co takes to the optimal deployment of legal talent", Hardman explains.

"The flexible legal market, particularly NewLaw, are trying to cut out the law firms.  Crowd & Co is different. We’re building an open marketplace where everyone can participate" he explained.  Reputation, pricing and fit are the three core elements of Crowd & Co".  "Looking at it from the perspective of having worked in engineering and construction.  Engineering will often subcontract to other engineering firms when they know they’ll need help.  Law firms have too much capacity;  Crowd & Co is looking to help the market to utilize the labor resources more effectively."

Notably, Crowd & Co, like Barcelona startup eTools, has created its own virtual startup team from throughout the world including Canada, Argentina, the UK, India, New Zealand and the Philippines.

Crowd & Co:  Complimentary to traditional law firms

Hardman strongly believes traditional law firms have a place in the legal market and that Crowd & Co and other startups aren’t going to replace them.   He does see, however, "a consolidation of legal services over the next decade, with mega law firms operating like mega engineering firms".  They’ll be similar to multibillion dollar engineering firms – with a corporate structure – but with specialized legal niches remaining and independent legal consultants becoming the norm." Hardman also predicts, "lawyers will start to follow the deals rather than just work in one law firm".

Hardman sees "traditional law firms benefiting from utilizing Crowd & Co, by finding deals and optimizing utilization of talent.  And corporates will benefit, too, by finding the talent they need".  Too, "Individual lawyers will work with whom they want to and not be stuck".

What’s in store for Crowd & Co in 2016 and beyond?

Longer term Hardman also sees Crowd & Co establishing private marketplaces for other professional services, including accounting, finance, engineering, IT and consulting.  Each will be its own independent niche, he explains.

In the meantime, Hardman will soon take Crowd & Co on a roadshow through London, San Francisco and Boston, seeking investment funding.  "We want to be in London in Q2 then come back to APAC followed by the US.  That’s the strategic focus."

by @JohnGrimley, Editor & Publisher, Asia Law Portal

Asia-Pacific Region legal startups: An interview with Cherilyn Tan, CEO of AsiaLawNetwork.com

Cherilyn Tan, CEO, AsiaLawNetwork.com

The Asia-Pacific Region holds an ideal mix of opportunity and innovation for legal services providers. In 2016, the Asia-Pacific legal market is now home to a growing number of legal startups and the entrepreneurs leading them, including Dragon Law, LawPath, LegalVision, Conventus Law and AsiaLawNetwork.com.  The region is also host to a growing number of entrepreneurs seeking to help cultivate this expanding ecosystem, including Nicola Pavesic, Jeffrey Ling, Lorraine Siew, Naoise Gaffney, Lim Jo Yan, Marcus Van Geyzel, Mathew Chacko, and others.

With this as a backdrop, Asia Law Portal had the opportunity to interview Cherilyn Tan, Founder of Singapore’s AsiaLawNetwork.com.  As the Straits Times outlined recently, a "tech enthusiast", Tan "founded Asia’s first legal interactive database last August", which helps clients "get an objective assessment and price quotation."  Since it’s founding, "more than 2,800 lawyers have registered with AsiaLawNetwork.com (ALN), including around 1,000 lawyers based in Singapore."  Below is our Q&A with Tan:

What inspired you to found AsiaLawNetwork.com?

I had the idea for AsiaLawNetwork.com a few years ago when I was looking for a lawyer to help restructure a business I was involved in. I found the process incredibly frustrating even though I had many friends who were lawyers. Essentially, it was difficult for me to get all the relevant information I needed at one go. That’s when I realized there was a need for a neutral platform or a resource which could serve, not only people like me, who are looking for legal help; but also for law firms and lawyers who want to be able to reach out to potential clients and give them the information they need – with minimum fuss and maximum efficiency.

What need did you see in the market and how is AsiaLawNetwork.com helping lawyer and law firms?

AsiaLawNetwork.com allows you to key in your specific requirements for legal help and immediately connects you to the relevant law firms or lawyers who can then provide you with the exact information you need.

In addition, it also allows law firms to look for other law firms when it comes to big, complex legal cases which may require expertise beyond one firm’s capability. Therefore, it connects law businesses and lawyers as well who may need additional help for bigger, say, transnational projects.

We are also expanding the platform to incorporate other professions. The latest addition is AsiaAccountantsNetwork.com. This database connects accountants to each other and their clients; but it also serves as an inter-professional resource, allowing a law firm to look for an accountancy firm, for example, should the need arise in complex law cases. Similarly, accountants can use the platform to look for appropriate legal help should the need arise,

AsiaLawNetwork.com is based in Singapore and most of your clients are located there.  What plans do you have for the greater Asia region going forward?

We currently have more than 3500 lawyers and accountants on our platform that are from across the region. We measure active users by their contribution to the platform and the rate at which they respond to the requests.

We are going regional as we speak – we have already gone into Malaysia and are setting up in Australia. But there is certainly potential to scale this to an international level. Increased trade amongst the ASEAN countries and beyond, and the way businesses use technology in their practice, are encouraging signs for the potential of our platform.

What does the future hold for legal startups in the Asia-Pacific region?

The market is definitely opening up and, therefore, there is a lot of potential for legal start-ups. But it is important to navigate through the different regulatory frameworks in the various countries. It is important to think about complementing and serving the existing industry, rather than just disrupting it. As with any new idea or technology, it is important to get buy-in from the people in the industry.

What if any unique hurdles do legal startups face that other startups may not face?

Law is a heavily regulated industry, and people have been accustomed to doing things a certain way for a long time. Legal start-ups have to then spend the additional effort to educate users and simplify the process of shifting established business models, without violating existing prevailing rules and regulations of the industry.

If you could give law students considering working in a legal startup one piece of advice – what would it be?

It doesn’t matter whether they are law students or not, but working in any start-up requires an open mind, and the hunger to learn and adapt quickly to shifting targets.

Start-ups are a great place for a truly hands-on 360-degree experience, compared to working in a big established firm. Because the operation would likely be small, you will get to learn a lot more in a shorter time frame. Our law student intern said he was able to get a better overview of the market while working with us, and thinks he will go back to school with a much better idea of what clients really want.

@JohnGrimley is Editor & Publisher of Asia Law Portal

6 reasons why Southeast Asia is poised to become a major new destination for legal startups

by @JohnGrimley

A confluence of trends appears poised to make Southeast Asia a new major destination for legal startups.  Among those trends is a spike in funding for startups in the region, the continuing challenge to the traditional law firm business model in Asia, a growing number of legal startups locating in South East Asia, the rapid increase in internet connection regionally, a growing infrastructure of support for startups regionally including incubators, accelerators and other similar support, and finally, an abundance of fast-growing Southeast Asia regional economies.

1. Startup funding sources are increasingly targeting South East Asia

An article in TechCrunch this month outlines the increasing maturity of Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem: "[A] new fund has arrived to offer yet more financing options for emerging tech companies. Venturra Capital is a big-hitting $150 million fund announced this week that is focused on the region, where mobile internet adoption is rising rapidly across a cumulative population of over 600 million." 

But traditional funding is not the only method startups can utilize to raise capital. Malaysia, for example, is the first jurisdiction in the ASEAN region to have a legal framework for crowdfunding.

2.  Challenge to traditional law firm business model

In recent months, as John Knox, Head of Asia for NewLaw firm AdventBalance outlined, "a growing number of traditional law firms including Eversheds (Agile) and Allen & Overy (Peerpoint) are establishing [NewLaw-style] operating units in Asia."  Additionally, Corrs Chambers Westgarth and Rajah & Tann are among others who’ve launched similar initiatives in Asia.  Knox sees these new entrants "as re-affirming what we already know – the traditional law firm model is under serious threat and success comes from putting client’s needs first."

NewLaw firm AdventBalance, along with regional rival Axiom Law, use a private equity funding model and place seconded lawyer in-house, while keeping overheads low.  Similar in nature to legal startups, they together encompass a groups of private equity backed challengers to the traditional law firm business model in Asia.

3.  More legal startups have come to South East Asia

Benjamin Cher outlined recently in Digital News Asia how:  "Legal services still remain relatively untouched by the startup boom in Asia. He cited the complex nature of law and a highly-regulated legal industry as part of the challenge to entry for startups.  However, he noted that: "There have been a few legal services startups, helping companies draft the legal documents from templates like Singapore’s LawCanvas, to legal directories like Malaysia’s Answers-in-Law."  He also cited Legalese.io and Dragon Law as a recent entrant to the Singapore market but noted: "generally the space in Asia is quite bare."

4.  A rapid increase in South East Asia internet connectivity

Internet connectivity is crucial to the rise of startups, with legal services startups no exception.  Notably, the Asia-Pacific region is responsible for 61% of new internet users in the world — according to a report published by Jim Dougherty, social media analyst and commentator at Leaders West.  According to the report: "Of the new connections between now and 2017, an estimated 61% will be from Asia-Pacific.  This growth will be driven mostly by the "big three" emerging markets: [India, China and Indonesia].  Between these countries they’ll have an estimated  3 billion [internet] connections in 2017."  What also characterizes this new growth is that usage will be often on a mobile device and be worn on the body.

5.  Incubators, Accelerators and other forms of support is on the increase

Cher detailed in Digital News Asia how Singapore’s Joyful Frog Digital Incubator has helped legal services sector startups locally.  While Malaysian startup backer Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre — founded in 2014 — is similarly helping Malaysian startups.  And Legal Hackers, a network of organizations globally, with a number of chapters in Asia, provides a venue conducive to the support of local legal startups via their efforts to "spot issues and opportunities where technology can improve and inform the practice of law and where law, legal practice, and policy can adapt to rapidly changing technology."  

6. Fast growing South East Asia regional economies

As Inbound Logistics details: "With an average annual economic growth rate of more than five percent, the countries that comprise this dynamic region represent a thriving trade and economic hub, despite infrastructure and regulatory challenges.  Southeast Asia’s 11 countries have a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of $1.9 trillion; a population of almost 600 million people; and an average per-capita income nearly equal to China’s, according to Southeast Asia: Crouching Tiger or Hidden Dragon?, an article published by the International Economic Bulletin."

Looking forward

Taken together, these 6 trends are likely to see a marked increase in the number and diversity of legal services sector startups coming to South East Asia in the future – poised to help businesses and individuals adapt to what are likely to be more and varied legal needs attendant to a growing and complex regional economy.  It will certainly be fascinating to watch how these trends, working together, will contribute to the growth of the  region’s legal startup ecosystem.

@JohnGrimley is Editor & Publisher of Asia Law Portal

Australian law firm LegalVision is generating 20 new customer leads per day from their blog

by @JohnGrimley

Australian online law firm LegalVision is generating 20 new customer leads per day from their inbound content strategy, according to their CEO and Founder Lachlan McKnight.  McKnight outlined the firm’s strategy in an interview this week with the Australasian Law Practice Management Association (ALPMA).

The interview was published after LegalVision was named 2015 ALPMA/InfoTrack Thought Leadership Awards at the ALPMA 2015 Summit last week,  LegalVision won the award as a result of their "award-winning innovative inbound customer acquisition strategy".

The LegalVision strategy 

In order to cost effectively and efficiently generate new customer leaders, McKnight explained, LegalVision "Implemented an inbound content marketing strategy…requir[ing] a significant investment in creating a constant stream of legal articles for [the firm blog]."

"We’ve created over 1,000 pieces of unique content, a resource that Australian SMEs can now access completely free of charge", McKnight told ALPMA. "We’ve also hired a full-time head of legal content, and built an inbound client care team to deal with the huge number of queries coming through."

"The greatest impact of our inbound content strategy", he explained, "has been on the new clients LegalVision has won through it."

Content marketing works for law firms and legal services sector companies

Asia Law Portal has frequently outlined the value a content marketing initiative will bring to law firms and legal services sector companies.  And Australia’s LegalVision is proof the strategy works well.  Asia Law Portal publishes and promotes content every day focused on the Asia-Pacific Legal Markets  — so  If you’d like to discuss working with us to create a content marketing strategy for your law firm, legal startup or legal recruitment or legal services sector company, please contact us.

@JohnGrimley is Editor & Publisher of Asia Law Portal

Australasian Legal Innovators Conference set for July 30th, 2015 in Sydney

by @JohnGrimley

Australia’s Beaton Capital and ZICO Holidings of Singapore will host a one-day conference focused on innovation in the legal services sector on July 30th, 2015 in Sydney, Australia.

The conference will bring together representatives from listed law firms, alternative business model providers, tech-based firms, outsourcers, progressive BigLaw business model firms, and others from across Australia and South East Asia.

The conference will focus on the following key issues:

• Why and how clients are leading the change in legal services delivery
• The progress being made by innovative business model providers
• How traditional law firms are responding
• Key success factors for disruptors
• Investors’ interest in this sector
• Beaton’s scenario for legal services ecosystem 2025

The following speakers will participate in the conference:

• Anthony Wright, Principal at Lexvoco
• Chew Seng Kok, Managing Director at ZICO Holdings Inc.
• Damien Andreasen, Co-Founder at LawPath
• Eric Chin, Associate at Beaton Capital
• George Beaton, Partner at Beaton Capital
• Hayden Stephens, Acting Australia Chief Executive Officer at Slater & Gordon Ltd
• James Odell, Managing Director, Australia and Asia Pacific at Elevate Services
• John Knox, Managing Director Asia at AdventBalance
• Jon Kenton, Chief Operating Officer at Orbit
• Michelle Mahoney, Director of Legal Logistics at King & Wood Mallesons
• Simon Meiklejohn, Associate Director at Exigent
• Tanya Khan, Chief Legal Officer at Australian Corporate Lawyers Association
• Tim Griffin, Marketing & Business Development Manager at Seyfarth Shaw
• Warren Riddell, Partner at Beaton Capital as panel facilitator

For more information or to register to attend, please see the event website.

@JohnGrimley is Editor & Publisher of Asia Law Portal

From lawyer to Tokyo startup entrepreneur: An interview with Nikola Pavesic of Justa

by @JohnGrimley

Elise Hu (@elisewho), reporting for NPR earlier this month, outlined how the startup scene in Japan is now beginning to gain momentum in an economy still centered around traditional companies that made it big in the latter part of the last century.  The Japanese government, however, is now funding its own startup incubator with an aim to focusing on a future economy where the current dynamics of traditional employment are waning.  With these trends in mind I sat down in Tokyo’s Harajuku district with Nikola Pavesic (@nikpavesic), a former international lawyer now helping to lead Justa, a digital hub for the Japanese startup community, to discuss these trends and what he sees currently happening in the Japan startup scene.  Here’s the text of that interview:

What is Justa and Redbrick Ventures?

Redbrick is a small but focused venture incubator in Tokyo and has been involved in helping to form incubated startup teams.  One of such teams is Justa. We provide recruitment to startups

Nikola Pavesic of Justa

in Japan, placements are not easy to make so commissions are lucrative.  Startups don’t have the resources to do this work themselves, so we can do it for them.  We help bring in unique talents and strengthening the local startup community with our work.

Justa is the leading initiative of Redbrick Ventures.  It’s a digital platform dedicated to the Japanese startup market with the aim of connecting employers and talent in the startup sector here in Japan. We’ve created in Justa a streamlined system to do just that

What is the current state of the Japanese startup sector?

Fragmented.  Not small but huge.  There are thousands of Japanese startups supported by venture capital.  We try via Justa to bring the entire Japanese startup community together.  IPNexus is one legal startup that I can think of – they are building a platform for IP consulting.  There are others focused on consulting services with legal help, including foreign startups incorporating themselves on the ground in Japan.

What’s the venture funding community like here versus the Silicon Valley?

Most of the venture deployed in Japan capital comes from Japan.  But here, as opposed to Silicon Valley, venture capital is not as diverse as that in the Silicon Valley.  Here in Japan, VC’s stay very close to their investment, seeking quick exits without M&A activity.  Some one-off products in Japan utilize crowdfunding, but not many.  There’s no large angel investor or Micro VC community here. I would say Japanese investors are careful, way too careful.

Where do Tokyo startups get their talent?

The market is very closed and comprised of mostly Japanese nationals.  Large Japanese companies and the government tend to be the venture investors, by contributing to the funds. Traditional industries give money to people well connected in the economy and have them deploy the capital.  Funding terms are worse than they would be in Silicon Valley.  There, most investors used to be entrepreneurs, not bankers.   And they often start funds or invest as angels.  Here the sector is more driven by traditional forces so less nimble than the Valley.

What led you to the Tokyo startup scene from a background in law?

I got involved in project management and systems here in Tokyo working for the United Nations after a career in private practice in my home country, Croatia and a brief excursion into international criminal law at the UN ICTR in Tanzania. At the UN in Tokyo, I saw the impact we could make and then ended up marginally in IT without a technical background.  But I believe you can do whatever you want from learning things.  I love law and miss it – but I like the IT sector because you can build anything from scratch.  After my time at the UN, where I handled a large yearly budget – a co-worker joined Red Brick Ventures.  I too was interested in the private sector, where competition is challenging.  But I liked it – the branding, seeking attention, listening to clients and what they really want and asking for feedback, and especially connecting people.  It’s how we started Justa.  So far, we’ve helped a lot of startups recruit and have helped a lot of people find jobs.

What’s the opportunity in Japan for foreign venture investors?

It’s an excellent opportunity and would stimulate the local market to improve.  Silicon Valley should expand – but as the market over there is already big and competitive to start with – it’s a challenge as so many opportunities go to them, are brought in, and turned into a Silicon Valley startup versus a local startup from wherever it might be internationally.

What’s your advice to college students or young professionals interested in a startup career and who is an inspiration for you in your own startup career?

My inspirations include Elon Musk, Larry Page, Peter Theil, Alex Karp – most of them part of the "PayPal mafia".  Elon Musk has remarkable vision.  Seemingly incomprehensible.  He wants to bring over a million people to live on Mars by 2100.  It seems crazy, but when people see his operations – and that none of it existed a decade ago, they think that it may be all possible after all.

In terms of advice – Japan is interesting for the culture aspect: "Career for life".  It still has a hold in Japan and is changing more slowly.  Not everyone needs to work in startups, but exposure to startups is a unique experience.  But students in final year at university in Japan in most cases already have jobs. And in most cases those are big, traditional Japanese companies. We often bring startup entrepreneurs and talented people together and it creates creative friction and opportunity.

Travel, work and intern in startups. If you have an idea, go for it.  But going from idea to execution is hard.  Even if you fail – it’s terrible, but you’ll learn a lot that you wouldn’t have learned in a traditional corporate environment – so just go for it.

@JohnGrimley is Editor & Publisher of Asia Law Portal

Asia-Pacific Region Legal Startups: A Q&A with LawPath Co-Founder Damien Andreasen

by @JohnGrimley

As Angus Kidman (@gusworldau) outlined in a 2013 profile in Australia’s Lifehacker, "LawPath is Australia’s largest and fastest growing legal platform…connect[ing] people and businesses that are in need of legal assistance to the right lawyer who specialises in their area of need."  LawPath (@LawPath) is among a growing number of Asia-Pacific Region legal startups that, over time, appears likely to increase.  I had the opportunity to interview LawPath Co-Founder Damien Andreasen, via email, about the inspiration and driving force behind LawPath.  Here’s a transcript of that interview:

Grimley: "What inspired the founding of LawPath?

Andreasen:  "Like a lot of startups LawPath was inspired through necessity, frustration and opportunity. Founders Phil Morle (CEO of Pollenizer) and I have been involved in launching several companies, usually with limited or no funding.

The frustration came from having to spend tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees when we were just setting out, it’s prohibitively expensive creating a business’s structure to limit your risk and liability with legal documents. The money businesses spend getting their legals in order could and should be spent on developing an MVP or hiring resources to help accelerate the growth of the business.

Ultimately registering companies, protecting IP, and creating shareholders agreements are all a necessity, a necessity that comes with an extraordinary price tag.

Starting several business, we noticed that the legal process was easily replicable, the contracts we had drafted for each of the businesses were almost identical, aside from a few individual clauses or elements that varied based on the businesses objective. The reality was that the firms were charging us hundreds of dollars and hour to do data entry into a boiler plate, the same boiler plate the vast majority of firms used.

It wasn’t long before we realised we could create huge efficiencies by using smart technology which allows us to provide online legal services at a fraction of the time, cost and complexity of the traditional model.

With 2 million businesses in Australia, and a legal industry valued at $21 billion per year, we realised how big the opportunity to commoditize legal services was."

Grimley: "How would you describe LawPath’s value-add for companies?"

Andreasen:  "Its an easy sell, our platform provides fast, affordable and more importantly, easy to use legal products and services usually at 1/10th the price of a traditional law firm."

We offer over 170 different legal products ranging from creating trusts, company and trade mark registration, to almost any legal document needed to start or run a business.

We also give our customers access to a curated network of over 577 of Australia’s best lawyers who will give you a free consultation when you connect via LawPath. Online legal products won’t always provide you with the right solution, and in those times we want to help our clients connect with the right lawyer with the experience and expertise to help them.

Grimley: "Who are LawPath’s key team members?"

Andreasen: "We’re still a relatively small team and every member is key to the success we’ve had to date. We’ve got experience with some of the biggest and best tech companies and startups in Australia and the world including BigCommerce, Tom Waterhouse, Minter Ellison, Getty Images, Spreets and Pollenizer.

We also have an amazing Advisory Board boasting experience working at C level in companies including Apple, Oracle, Stanford, Google and NASA…

In my experience the team is everything, you can have the best idea in the largest market with unlimited demand, you can even have millions in funding, but without the right team you’ll never successfully execute."

Grimley: "The Asia-Pacific legal market is growing rapidly, where do you see LawPath offering services in Asia in the next 5 years? In the next 10 years?"

Andreasen: "Thanks to our partnership with Global leader in legal content and technology LexisNexis we built ready to scale into international markets from day one.

Our platform has been built in a way where we can swap out our precedents for local precedents and we will likely start with countries with a legal system based on common law."

@JohnGrimley is Editor & Publisher of Asia Law Portal

Where are Asia’s Legal Startups?

from Hong Kong (by @JohnGrimley)

The question posed by the title to this post came from a blogpost of last January by Jeffrey Ling (@lingdecklee), a Taipei-based Lawyer and Startup Evengelist.

In that post, Ling outlined:  "Ever since I embarked on my very own legal web startup project in June 2012, I started paying attention to the legal web startups around the world. And I have been noticing a visible absence of prominent legal web startups rising out of the various startup ecosystems dotting all over the vast Asia region.  Whether this is due to lack of the right chemistry to spark things off or whether entrepreneurs are just not yet taking the legal market seriously, I believe for those who have started something in this part of the world, they are definitely on to something monumental."

Asia and Legal Startups:  The intersection of opportunities and solutions

Ling explained why he believes Asia is perfect for legal start-ups:  "The way I see it, Asia is currently the perfect place for some doses of disruptive innovation to be applied to its rather conservative legal service industry. It is not a sexy industry to get into, but it is nonetheless one of the fattest."  Ling isn’t alone in his outlook.  Notably, in 2013 in Hong Kong, legal futurist Mitch Kowalski (@MEKowalski) outlined for law student here what the Asia-Pacific legal market is likely to look like in 2025.  And change of the sort brought on by start-ups is central to Kowalski’s thesis.

In coming to the conclusion that Asia is the place to be for legal startups —  Ling cited the nexus between legal innovation and a fast-growing Asia-Pacific legal services market.  For the former, he cites a November 2013 article by Joshua Kubicki (@jkubicki), former lawyer and now legal-sector focused technologist.  In that article, Kubicki outlined "6 key facts that make the legal industry ripe for disruption and innovation."  The first is that "the US legal industry is roughly a US$300 billion market."  For the latter, Ling cites an article in Australasian Barristers Chambers citing my blogpost about what legal sector consultant Alan Hodgart outlined at the 2013 Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA) annual meeting in Seoul:  That the Asia-Pacific legal market would double in size between 2013 and 2017.1

As Ling relates, Hodgart’s prediction that the Asia-Pacific legal market size will increase from US$109 billion in 2012 to US$215 billion in 2017 are "facts [that] are certainly something [legal start-up] founders and investors should not lightly ignore."2  I could not agree more.

So where are Asia’s legal start-ups?

I agree with Ling that there is, for the most part, a "visible absence of prominent legal web startups [in Asia]".  However, over the course of the last few years of observing the Asia-Pacific legal markets – an ecoystem of some legal start-ups has taken shape in hubs of capital and entrepreneurship.  In particular, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney.  With pronounced start-up ecosystems in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.

In the case of Hong Kong, a vast government operated facility called Cyberport (@cyberport_hk) houses Asia-focused start-ups including legal tech start-up Dragon Law (@dragonlawasia).  Asia legal social media pioneers at Conventus Law (@conventuslaw ) are also Hong Kong-based, as highlighted by Lloyd Pearson (@lloydtpearson).  The Hong Kong start-up scene is covered closely by Iris Leung (@irismtleung), Editor of StartupsHK, including a recent profile of Dragon Law.

Singapore’s BLK71 (@Blk71_SG), an entrepreneurial community/working hub in partnership with the National University of Singapore is home to legal software start-up LawCanvas (@lawcanvas).  Steven Millward (@SirSteven) of Tech in Asia (@Techinasia) "cover[s] startups, ecommerce, tech market research and analysis across Asia, including a recent profile of Law Canvas.  Daniel Tay (@legendt), also of Tech in Asia, has also profiled Law Canvas.

While Tokyo’s best known start-up may be translation platform Gengo (@GengoIt), who’s history highlights a strong Tokyo-Silicon Valley connection, there is a budding legal start-up texture to Tokyo’s already strong start-up environment.3  The "StartEd (@StartEdLegal) community, founded by Naoise Gaffney (heterotextual) and Eric Klotz, is a forum that offers pro bono legal guidance to local startups while educating and training law students in the process." according to its’ MeetUp profile.  Richard Solomon (@beaconreports), Journalist with the Japan Times and blogger on Japan business at Beacon Reports, profiled StartEd’s efforts from Tokyo’s Open Source Cafe.  And in an article by Nikola Pavesic (@nikpavesic) of Justa Japan (@justajapan) — you can read why Tokyo may just be the ideal city in Asia to operate a start-up.

Other major tech/entrepreneur/capital hubs that may spawn new legal start-ups

• In Kuala Lumpur, Startup Grind KL (@StartupGrindKL) is one to watch.
• In Jakarta, Ideabox is a "tech business incubator" very much worth following.
• Sydney has no shortage of start-up entrepreneurs.  Among the most well-regarded start-ups going into 2015 is  Pollenizer (@pollenizer) (a start-up incubator) supported LawPath (@LawPath).  Australia is hub to the region’s NewLaw law firms and hence vital to watch for inspiration for legal start-ups as well.  Independent Australian journalist Sylvia Pennington has written a great deal about Australia’s start-up environment.

One Southeast Asian startup that really caught my eye

WoBe provides Mobile Business & Finance Tools for Southeast Asian Women founded by serial tech entrepreneur Adrianna Tann (@skinnylatte).  Might they add legal services to the mix of offerings at some point?  Seems an ideal addition.

There’s more to learn

I’ve tried here to answer Jeffrey Ling’s original question:  Where are Asia’s Legal Startups? – by providing at least some information based on my own research- of where the legal startups are – and where they might be in the future – in what is a vast Asia-Pacific legal market.  Should you have any additions to the above – whether companies, cities, incubators, entrepreneurs, investors,  journalists or the like – please do add them in the comments section below.

1. It was that conference, and that presentation by Alan Hodgart, which served as the inspiration for the founding of this blog – which then led to a subsequent book providing A Comprehensive Guide to the Asia-Pacific Legal Markets by this author and published last year by London-based Ark Group.
2. George Beaton (@grbeaton_law) of Australia’s Beaton Capital (@BeatonCapital) shares Hodgart’s conclusion, albeit with the caveat that the market will not double until as late as 2022.
3. Willis Wee (@williswee) of Tech in Asia has highlighted Tokyo’s particularly strong attraction as a startup hub.

John Grimley (@JohnGrimley) is Editor & Publisher of Asia Law Portal

Hong Kong Legal Startups: A Q&A with Chris Sykes, Client Services Director, Dragon Law

from Hong Kong (by @JohnGrimley)

As Iris Leung (@irismtleung), Editor at StartupsHK and Contributor at Forbes Asia wrote just last week: "The limelight has long been shed on Hong Kong as a startup-friendly destination. Besides efficient business setup, a robust legal system, easygoing regulatory environment and a simple tax system – one of Hong Kong’s greatest advantages is its proximity to the largest economy in the world."  Leung recently profiled Dragon Law founders Daniel Walker and Jacob Fisch on StartupsHK.

Dragon Law, along with many other Hong Kong startups, is headquartered in a Hong Kong Government facility called Cyberport (@cyberport_hk) — a 27,000 square feet Smart-Space capable of housing 134 startups.  I recently had the opportunity to interview Chris Sykes, Dragon Law’s Client Services Director – about the inspiration, substance and vision Dragon Law has for the Asia-Pacific legal markets.  Here’s a transcript of that interview:

Grimley: "What inspired the creation of Dragon Law?"

 Asian enterprises need an efficient and cost-effective way to create, manage and negotiate legal contracts and documents. Today they are, however, spending a lot of money – and a lot of time – fulfilling these needs, both internally and through law firms. We set up Dragon Law with the idea that we could empower businesses by offering a new and innovative way for them to draft their own documents and provide access to the legal support they need anywhere, any time and on any device they want to use. We can not and do not want to replace law firms; we will instead help our clients in finding the right firms to provide the legal advice they need, if and when they need it.

Grimley: "Within the Asia-Pacific Region – what markets are you currently serving and which do you hope to serve in the future?"

 Sykes: "We are launching our business in Hong Kong with Hong Kong law documents. It is important that we refine our business model in a relatively focused jurisdiction and within a manageable scope. There is no doubt that our business model can then be easily replicated. We will first launch new legal jurisdictions – for example, we are reviewing proposing BVI and Cayman law documents – and will then review other geographies where we will market our products."

Grimley: "What are your core service offerings and how is Dragon Law unique among competitors?"

Sykes: "Document builder. At the core of our business is the document builder software.  The Dragon Law App takes clients step-by-step through a structured set of simple questions to build a well-drafted legal document. The questions are designed to be understandable by a business person with no legal background. The documents can then be downloaded in different electronic formats or printed. They can be signed electronically. If a client wants us to check they have fully and accurately answered all the questions then we can check the document using our DoubleCheck service.

Access to legal resources. We do not provide and do not intend to provide the legal advice that our clients may need from time-to-time. We can offer two types of services in this regard. First, where clients want a legal opinion for a document they have built with our Document Builder, we can refer the document to a lawyer for an Independent Lawyer Review.  Second, we also connect clients with lawyers using our free DragonLink platform if they need to draft specific documents that do not exist on our platform.

Add on services. In addition, we also provide, in-house or through partners, a number of add-on services such as Trademark Applications or Company Formation. We will automate and expand these services over time.

Given the breadth of our services, we provide similar services to those provided by many different types of firms, including law firms, company secretarial services firms or accounting firms in some cases. We do not see ourselves as a competitor to any of them and are actually collaborating with several such firms to help them in acquiring new customers and to outsource some of our work to them. Our objective is to create an ecosystem of firms with different capabilities and focus and to use technology to empower the customers at the centre of this ecosystem."

Grimley:  "Where do you see Dragon Law in the Asia-Pacific market in 2020?"

Sykes: "We are breaking new ground and refining our business model and customer offering as we speak. By 2020, we hope to have changed the way Asian enterprises think about fulfilling their legal needs and become first point of call for day-to-day legal documents as well as a portal to access broader legal resources. Where will be in 2020? Not sure but we will pace our expansion to make sure we offer awesome customer experiences each step of the way if and when we launch in new markets."

John Grimley (@JohnGrimley) is Editor & Publisher of Asia Law Portal

"Asia Law Portal, the only independent source of information and insights on the practice of law in the vast Asian region." Dr. George Beaton, Partner, Beaton Capital