Introduction\n
\nMy name is Lars Rasmussen. I'm a technologist. I run a small music tech company here in Athens.
So, lawyers are a part of my life, which I like. I like lawyers. I don't see how we could do anything without them, but even just my own company. It's a small company, it's a music tech. So we have corporate lawyers that deal with the incorporation, the equity grants help us when we get investments. We have entertainment lawyers because we're in music and so we need to deal with licensing music. We have IP lawyers because we're a tech company and so we write patents, we have trademarks. And then of course there's immigration law. We're an international company, we're in like five, six different countries. We have people hired from all over the world so we have to deal with immigration law, employment law. So a lot of different lawyers!
\nPart 1: The time is now\n
\nThe tools that are very quickly being adopted in my normal day-to-day work in particular collaboration tools and communication tools. They speed up things so much. And the law firms can see this right, that the pace of innovation is speeding up for a lot of reasons but one of them is that the tools that we use for our work becomes more and more efficient and the law firms are left behind a little bit. They can't keep up with that pace because those tools don't yet exist at a level where a law firm can comfortably use it. And so I think when I talk to lawyers about this, there's an amazing hunger in that world. As you can expect, for better tools that can make their work more efficient, that can make each lawyer handle more clients more quickly, and also, you know, more cost-effectively. And, the law needs that, all those law firms that again are a super important, indispensable part of our ecosystem, our technology ecosystem. They need that same thing.
I can't emphasize this enough. The reason it hasn't happened yet is it is that it’s materially harder to do in the law because those documents, the words on those pages are just heavier, more important, have more impact, have more weight. And therefore the tools have to be able to handle that. When this is all made modern, these tools that lawyers use to communicate with people like me, when that's all made modern, it's possible that there will be interesting side effects.
\nSo one thing I've noticed is that when we do interact with lawyers, often connections to partners, to clients, to potential employees comes through lawyers that have other clients, and then that could also be automated or semi-automated or streamlined. I think you could get a lot more of that benefit out of working with the lawyers. Again, the tools can make us more efficient, both in the actual construction of legal documents, the negotiations with partners and clients, but also this, this networking, this natural networking effect, that happens because you're working with a lawyer that has a different client - we should somehow work with my company directly.
\nThat's why LawAdvisor has this incredible opportunity in front of them. That's why I invested. It's not that lawyers are archaic or old fashioned. It's just that their world is more complicated and the documents they construct have stricter rules around them. And so therefore the tools that they need are more difficult to build. I don't fully understand those because I don't work in the law. Just like the lawyers might not fully understand the technology I build. And so we have to work together.
\nThis is what LawAdvisor I think shines at. In fact, the founder is himself, a lawyer, everyone I've talked to about this can’t wait, right? There are some real barriers to making this happen, LawAdvisor is making some fantastic progress, but everyone is like waiting for this to happen. There is an incredible pent up demand. And in particular, I think this is where you would want to start lawyers working with technologists like myself. That's like, it's like on a good day, like a barrel of gunpowder, we're in a haze to blow up. Once the tools are already in one's lawyers started adopting them.
\nPart 2: Collaborating with technologists\n
\nI think you cannot just like overnight replace all the tools you use throughout law. And then you have to also be able to then interface, right? So I might be able to use a more efficient tool with my lawyers, but if my counterparties at the client-side or the customer-side haven't adopted those tools yet the new tools have to interface with the old tool process. You can’t fully adjust and make everyone collaborate. And then it happens in that world, right? And so you need richer tools and the technologists, and they're going to build those tools, have to collaborate with the lawyers that are going to use those tools, because they're the ones that understand what are the requirements to make it as efficient as possible, but not so efficient that it's, you know, stops working. And that’s the challenge. The way to go, and I think that’s what LawAdvisor is brilliant at is that this is first identify a simpler workflow where there are fewer parties involved and find the early adopters, construct, and mature the products in those spaces and capture those things first and then expand from there.
Online real-time collaborations and communication tools. That's what I'm looking for. That would be the best.
\nAnd I think as law firms start adopting more modern tools, well-integrated with the old tools, but very familiar, similar to the modern tools that everyone in tech uses in their non-legal work, that law firm has literally a competitive edge over the other law firms. Because the work is going to take place faster. It's going to be more fun. Honestly, which matters. And it’s not gonna cost so much.
\nPart 3: The early adoptors\n
\nIf I was a law firm, I would be looking to be the early adopter. I would be aware that there's friction and tension because you're forced to use these old fashioned tools that people don't like, and people are not used to, and people are fun to have put behind them, except when they work with lawyers.
I think that the first law firms and lawyers that started adopting into more modern tools that companies like LawAdvisor is building will, plainly speaking, have a competitive edge. They will be able to do the work, particularly with tech clients, more quickly with less friction and for less money. And I can't emphasize this enough that I, as a technologist, when I'm used to using these super modern, super-fast, super efficient, amazing, and fun tools in every other aspect of my work than the law. It's a really annoying thing for a busy person to be forced to use these old fashioned tools, just to talk to a lawyer. I understand why, but it's still annoying. Right? Then the first law firm that comes to me and said, look, I can provide the services you're getting, but with more efficient tools. So we don't have to spend so much time on it. And it won't cost you as much I'm doing with that lawyer, right?
\nIt's literally a massive competitive edge for a law firm to be the first adopter of this new technology in particular, if they are working with clients in the technology space because there, they will find the people who they work with are dying for this to happen. You know, begging, hoping, dreaming for this to happen can wait for this to happen.
\nPart 4: Why I invested in LawAdvisor\n
\nWhen Brennan first pitched LawAdvisor to me, it was something I'd been waiting for someone to undertake. Because I already worked in tech for decades. I'd already felt that friction of working with lawyers, I felt how important when working with lawyers always is and always will be. But I felt that friction, I have seen the other tools very rapidly improve making all my other work more and more efficient, except here. And when Brennan came, I was immediately hooked on the vision. And of course, you don't just invest because someone has a good vision, you also spend some time, you figure out if they have the right background, the right skills, the right team. Super proud to be part of helping this happen.
And, you know, even if there are other companies out there that might also be working on this, just like being part of helping this, way overdue revolution in the tools that lawyers use is just something that makes me proud. This is why I invest to join and help move things along a little. And I think when you look at the whole tech ecosystem in Silicon Valley and all the other places around the world that are essentially mimicking Silicon Valley, that the more and more the law is used for progress and not for holding things back, not for suing people. And I think, I think technology can help that, can help spread that way of thinking about the law.
\nIt's a huge field. And there was an important part of Brennan’s vision. When we first started talking, to use tools to make the law cheaper and therefore more accessible to a broader set of the population. It is definitely true that if you don't have the means, you don't have access to the law because that's expensive and you're greatly disadvantaged by that. And so tools can make the service cheaper because it can be done faster and more efficiently, but it can also create marketplaces where people can more quickly get access to the right lawyer without having a network of people that know the right lawyer. Like this is how often I operate. I need the lawyer for something, in my personal life, and go out and I have to go and ask a bunch of people. Do you know a lawyer who can do this? It would be much better if you could just go online and offer up your problem and you get a bunch of law firms and lawyers bidding on it, then you can see how good they are because there is a vibrant online marketplace.\nPart of why there's such income inequality in the world is because it’s difficult to overcome when those that are less fortunate, just don't have access to services like this. And so it was a big part of why I was excited about LawAdvisor and why I invested in the first place.
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