Azeem Rashid, Director at Lawtech 365 Limited
By Legal Futures Associate Advantage Consulting [1]
Lawyers can now earn £250 an hour without leaving home by carrying out remote video consultations with clients. This is being offered by the “Lawyer 365 [2]” app to qualified lawyers who want to work “flexibly”. Lawyers are told they can work from home or their usual workplace.
Founded by Rudi Kesic, Azeem Rashid and Mev Dzihic, the £5 million-valued U.K.-based virtual law app for “AI-powered” legal advice and video appointments, has announced its plans to offer both free and paid virtual legal consultations, AI Legal Assistant, live chats with qualified solicitors and appointments with lawyers up to 7 days ahead.
According to the company’s website, Lawyer 365’s initial assessment software uses a form of “AI” the company claims was “designed to mirror a lawyer’s brain” providing “legal advice for millions in the palm of their hands.”
The Warwickshire-based company has already secured several large national law brands to the platform, all with a significant share of the English legal market, and many smaller law firms have come on board in recent months.
Azeem Rashid [3], Director at Lawtech 365 Limited [4], the company behind the app, said:
“The platform offers a choice to lawyers of three distinct subscription plans to support the needs of firms of all sizes. A key benefit of all the plans is a range of features designed to facilitate online promotion and legal advice by video, something which became paramount during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Law firms with proactive growth strategies have a choice of additional plans based on powerful marketing tools.”
Lawyers listed on the platform can offer clients real-time appointments bookable at a time of their choosing from the comfort of their home or place of work. The virtual lawyer service aims to replace a traditional, office-based appointment.
Rudi Kesic [5], Director at Lawtech 365 [4], added:
“Lawyer 365 is an app-based service that works by offering clients free initial legal consultations for basic legal enquiries, or a 30-minute appointment from £49. Some lawyers charge £250 for a 60-minute consultation. Consumers just need to download the app [6] and get access to one of hundreds of lawyers listed for in-app video-call or text-message consultation seven days a week from 7am to 11pm.”
The legal sector, like the wider economy, has been forced to adapt at unprecedented speed due to the pandemic. The latest research by Lawtech 365 Group shows solicitors adapting to “hybrid and remote working arrangements”, replacing initial face-to-face meetings with virtual video consultations – often for the first time.
Nearly two-thirds of lawyers have never offered legal advice by video before, and over half (60%) have had to invest more in legal technology over the past 12 months. Most significantly, 96% of respondents said that even after the lockdown they would continue to make video-based legal advice available for those who wanted it.
Mev Dzihic [7], Director at Lawtech 365 [4], said:
“We’ve taken every part of getting paid online and put it into Lawyer 365 app. Lawyers can turn hours of admin into a few taps, all while giving their clients simple new ways to pay for the advice they get through the Lawyer 365 platform. In other words, no tedious transfers for clients, no piles of paperwork for lawyers. By accepting payments through Lawyer 365, lawyers can bring in even more revenue, get more clients, and avoid the hidden cost of cash management – no complicated paperwork or training necessary.”
Suezanne King [8], partner at SMQ Legal LLP [9] in Oxford and Bedford, one of the early adopters of the platform, commented:
“With the acceleration of virtual law on the back of social distancing, Lawyer 365 is truly a tailwind growth story that provides a sneak peek into what the future of law holds. It has been a true pleasure working with the Lawyer 365 team and we wish them the best of luck on the journey to come.”
However, Lawyer 365 rise as the U.K.’s rarely seen legal-technology success story has not come entirely without controversy. The Lawyer 365’s motivations are clear and noble – they want to build better access to law for all. Adverts for the app are becoming frequent on social media platforms like Facebook [10], Instagram [11] and LinkedIn [12], and the company is aiming to book tens of millions of pounds in revenue through the law firm SaaS subscription and fee-share models, according to the pitch deck.
For Lawyer 365 to fulfil its vision of making law firms more efficient and profitable through smarter technology, it will need to keep earning the trust of regulators and the legal community. But being at the cutting-edge of legal services comes with its difficulties, whether it be recruiting the right staff or management.
Rudi Kesic added:
“We are seeing incredible traction on both the legal provider and consumer side. Our vision of virtual law services as a solution to scale quality legal delivery has been accelerated by 10 years by Covid-19. The entire legal technology ecosystem is now on an accelerated transformation and Lawyer 365 is on the cusp of redefining legal delivery.”