Online barrister service seeks crowdfunding to back major expansion plans


DeKoven: significantly accelerate our progress

A website that connects the public directly with barristers is the latest legal business to seek crowdfunding after it launched a bid to raise £150,000 in expansion capital.

The site, myBarrister, wants to sign up 1,000 barristers by the end of the year, a near 10-fold increase on where it is today.

Since launching in June 2013, more than 100 barristers have paid the £1,200 flat fee to join the site. It is a pure marketing service, and once a potential client makes contact with their chosen barrister, myBarrister steps out.

According to founder and barrister Ronald DeKoven, at current levels of traffic subscribers receive on average more than one instruction a month.

Bruce Webster, myBarrister’s director of branding and marketing, said: “We want to dramatically accelerate our growth now that we’ve proved the concept.”

Investors on Crowdcube can put in anything from £10 to £100,000 – or more – and enjoy various tax benefits; the company is putting up 3.75% of its equity. Barrister investors receive discounts on the annual subscription.

Mr DeKoven, who is also qualified in New York, said that as well as growing the panel, the money will be used to expand myBarrister’s call centre to handle the increasing number of enquiries, as well as invest in more advertising and public relations.

This approach to funding would both create more barrister registrations and more potential clients, he added. According to the pitch on Crowdcube, Mr DeKoven made the initial £300,000 investment to get myBarrister off the ground.

Describing barristers as “the smartest, fastest lawyers you can find”, Mr Webster said the barrister brand was a “powerful” one when put against “faceless” advice services, “vast factory-type operations” or high-priced solicitor offerings. There are also plans to expand the service to other Commonwealth countries later this year.

The pitch said the founders are looking for an exit in 18-24 months, either through a private equity sale or listing on AIM.

Any requirements for solicitor-type work is referred to LawBite, an online legal business that itself recently sought to raise £120,000 through Crowdcube and ended up taking in £168,390 from 181 investors, the biggest of which put in £22,500. Similarly LawBite refers advocacy work to myBarrister.

Mr DeKoven said: “Our online marketing campaign is driving clients to our state-of-the-art website, where they can search for and get in direct contact with exactly the barrister they need. With additional funding we can significantly accelerate our progress while providing the market with a safe, alternative form of investment.”

Tags:




Leave a Comment

By clicking Submit you consent to Legal Futures storing your personal data and confirm you have read our Privacy Policy and section 5 of our Terms & Conditions which deals with user-generated content. All comments will be moderated before posting.

Required fields are marked *
Email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Blog


Wills are changing but do your financial partners know?

The Law Commission reforms to wills make this an excellent time to reflect, not only on how they will affect your own clients and processes but also those of your financial planner partners.


GEO – the impact of AI on digital marketing for law firms

GEO represents the biggest change in online business generation that I can remember. You cannot afford to stick with the same old engine optimisation techniques.


What the law can learn from fintech’s onboarding revolution

Client onboarding has always been slow. It’s not just about the paperwork and manual workflows; it’s also about those long AML checks and verifications.


Loading animation