Legaler Aid
How Access to Justice plays an active role in affecting change in the Legal Industry
If you have been enjoying the Lab, I’d love for you to use this button to share it via email or Social.
As always, I love feedback and learning from different people and experiences - so if you’d like to strike up a conversation with me just hit reply in your inbox or reach out on LinkedIn.
Now, let’s continue our journey into the #futureoflaw…
This story begins July 2017.
I had been admitted as barrister and solicitor in my own Jurisdiction just months prior.
I was looking for work - doing the usual rigmarole of sending in applications to different firms and receiving minimal (sometimes zero) feedback.
The (now) Dean of my law school suggested an event in Sydney called FLIP, the Future of Law and Innovation in the Profession hosted by the Law Society of New South Wales. She was going and so I bought in and decided to make the trip. I followed my heart on this, it didn’t make fiscal sense at the time.
This is where Stevie and I met. This is also where I met a lot of other people who have been and continue to do amazing things.
With Stevie, the connection was special and instant - the humor and shared background (Persian’s represent 🔥) made it fun to be around him, but the kindness and openness was not exclusive to me. Importantly he boosted me up to take definitive action, something that was really necessary at the time as I stepped into this new world.
Since then we’ve enjoyed many conversations, made introductions both ways and discuss how we both serve this changing legal landscape and the #futureoflaw.
In this context, it is my absolute pleasure to expand on the significance of Legaler Aid and its potential influence on the #futureoflaw.
But first, an inside joke and an opportunity for me to set the scene with my understanding of Legaler.
#dametgarm Stevie 😉
Legaler
If I could try to explain what I believe (speculatively) Stevie and the team at Legaler are all about, i’d say:
Legaler builds utility and capabilities relevant to the Legal Profession, (eventually) underpinned by Blockchain technology.
To do this, it requires two lines of effort to intersect:
To build something that the intended user enjoys and finds valuable (the front-end).
To build (or utilize) the underlying Blockchain, middleware and connectivity that would service that front-end (the back-end).
These two ingredients give great flexibility to strategically focus in multiple areas. The potential impact is directly linked to either how well the marriage of these two ingredients have come about. Sometimes it’s not about them both (front-end, back-end) being at the same stage of readiness, but more so that these two lines of effort inform what the service can be now, and into the future.
It’s clear to me how interested Stevie is in Blockchain and its many uses - so i’m taking the baton for a cheeky run ahead to see what Legaler Aid could become.
Why Crowdfunding Litigation?
In a word: impact.
The impact of justice, the impact of law, the impact of technology facilitating access to the two and connecting the people who need it most.
Against the first line of effort (the front-end), it is the opportunity allowing people to donate to causes with the specific intent of funding the legal fees associated with seeking Justice. It is also the ability for those seeking justice to appeal to a global community who has a vested interest in seeking that justice.
Against the second line of effort (the back-end), one of Blockchain’s most explored and talked about utility is around its finance capability; whether it’s a store of value, decentralizing financial transactions or next level accountability.
Legaler Aid’s mission, its goal is a perfect opportunity to marry these two lines of effort.
So let’s dive into what I think the implications and opportunities are for the future of law with such a project and what Legaler Aid could usher in.
A Phased Approach
Here’s how I would explain the strategic advantage of the project to maximize its impact for Access to Justice (A2J):
Phase 1
Enable access to litigation for social causes. Democratising access to litigation by using the crowdfunding method means the people who need it most are supported by people who feel it the most. There is an essential connection and community established by the act of donating to a social cause that actively seeks to use the legal system to pursue justice.
The types of cases, the amount of donation, the costs of pursuing it are all valuable pieces of information (data) that Legaler Aid can process in providing this service. By connecting people to litigation, there is a level of visibility created on trends, outcomes and costs.
Phase 2
With a certain amount of funding through their system, they can then begin working with the data and start setting policies around price and sustainability in the Legal Market. Essentially it would be the opportunity to set the standard for legal procurement, tracking the spend and finding the “dollar value amount” of legal services. This would begin their process of not just achieving justice for social causes, but achieving it sustainably.
It is clear that marketplaces - once they hit a certain mass - can influence the market behaviour of buyers and sellers. In this case, critical mass could be net amount donated or the number of causes listed or number of people represented.
With this mass, Legaler Aid could in its first instance seek a partnership with a firm or group of firms, or even the regulator on an agreed: hourly rate, capped price, sustainable practice, fixed fee, minimum use of technology, etc. for the pursuit of social causes. Once it proves its ability to deliver funding for litigation on social causes, it can leverage that ability to then focus on how Lawyers and Law Firms need to adjust their business models in order to scale their impact on the operation of the law in society, either directly or by example.
Phase 3
In parallel or soon after critical mass, Legaler Aid could begin work on building or transferring the process on to the Blockchain. The move to Blockchain will allow for peer to peer control of funds, full supply chain accountability and move into the Decentralised Finance (DeFi) space. At this point, any Firm who hasn’t yet caught up will have trouble being painted in “prestigious” light given the opportunity to do social good with full accountability by leveraging this transparent process.
“Pro Bono” should not focus on the act itself, but the outcomes and how it’s achieved. Even when funded to litigate, it is as important to understand how the money has been raised, how it is being used and being able to prove that transaction from donation to outcome.
If you can see the picture painted, then you can understand how much potential lies in Legaler Aid and subsequent projects for Access to Justice, the way it can actively influence Industry level change in Legal Service Providers and their existing models.
I have every hope for the future of law when seeing projects like this.
After all, the future of law is in our hands 🔥
Q.