Rocket Lawyer
Rocket Lawyer is an online legal technology company founded by Charley Moore in 2008,[5] based in San Francisco, California.[6] It provides individuals and small to medium-sized businesses with online legal services—including incorporation, estate plans, and legal document review.[7] The company also provides a network of attorneys that consumers and small businesses can consult with on legal issues through its On Call service.[8] In 2012, Rocket Lawyer UK was launched.
Private Company | |
Industry | Legal technology, Internet |
Founded | August 2008 |
Headquarters | San Francisco, California[1] |
Key people | Charley Moore, Founder, Executive Chairman and CEO;[2][3] Mark Edwards, Senior VP Rocket Lawyer UK[4] |
Products | Attorney Services, Legal Forms, Legal Planning and Local Attorney Listings |
Number of employees | 100 |
Website | www.rocketlawyer.com, www.rocketlawyer.co.uk |
History
Beginnings
In 1996, Moore graduated from UC Berkeley School of Law[5] and began his career as an attorney at Venture Law Group where he participated in the early-stage representation of Yahoo! and Web TV.[9] In 1998, he founded OnStation Corporation to provide software to the automotive industry.[10] Then, in 2008, he founded Rocket Lawyer to provide an affordable way for companies to access legal advice.[5] Moore’s idea for Rocket Lawyer was to create an easy to use platform where legal documents could be created and shared by everyone.[11] In 2009, he sold his company, OnStation Corp, and used the money form the sale to grow Rocket Lawyer.[6]
From the beginning, the company has targeted entrepreneurs; its initial sales model offered a basic plan and a pro plan,[5] both of which charged entrepreneurs for individual legal documents at a lower cost than standard attorney rates.[12][13] Under the basic plan, the company provided interactive legal templates and step-by-step instructions to help businesses.[5] The pro plan gave customers access to consultations, document review, and legal representation from local attorneys.[5][14]
After the late-2000s recession, Rocket Lawyer switched to a monthly subscription-based model to increase sales.[12] After making this change, Rocket Lawyer increased its annual revenue from $1 million in 2008 to $5 million in 2009, and increased its monthly visitors from 150,000 to 900,000 over the same period.[12]
Growth
In January 2009, Rocket Lawyer raised $2 million from LexisNexis[15] and appointed LexisNexis executive Ralph Calistri to its board.[16] In December 2009, Dan Nye, the former CEO of LinkedIn, joined Rocket Lawyer's board of directors.[6][9] Nye was initially brought on as a board member, but after a few months was named to president and CEO.[17][18] This allowed Moore to transition to Executive Chairman.[18] Nye focused on improving Rocket Lawyer's customer service and utilizing an analytical approach to new products, including allowing customers to create free legal documents.[18] This helped Rocket Lawyer boost new accounts from tens of thousands a month to over 100,000 a month.[18]
In 2010, Rocket Lawyer received $7 million in equity financing from Investor Growth Capital in order to expand operations.[11][19] In July 2011, Rocket Lawyer raised $18.5 million in a Series D round of financing from August Capital, Google Ventures and Investor Growth Capital.[20][11][21] Five months later, in December 2011, Rocket Lawyer raised an additional $10.79 million from Industry Ventures, bringing its total funding to $43 million.[20][21] By 2011, Rocket Lawyer reached $20 million in annual revenue.[20][22]
In 2012 Rocket Lawyer launched in the UK, and then in 2016 they launched in continental Europe in partnership with the French legal publisher Éditions Lefebvre Sarrut, a direct competitor of Rocket Lawyer's lead seed investor LexisNexis.[23]
In January 2013, the company acquired LawPivot, a legal question-and-answer service.[14] From October 2015 to January 2016, Rocket Lawyer partnered with the American Bar Association (ABA) on a pilot project designed to help consumers find lawyers and attorneys find business.[24][10] Information from the project was used to help the ABA with potential future Law Connect programs.[10]
In September 2018, Rocket Lawyer started integrating blockchain technology into its legal transactions in order to provide “smart contracts” for its clients. The service was beta-tested in 2018, and offered commercially starting in 2019. Under the new service, called Rocket Wallet, contracts are secured and executed automatically with blockchain encryption technology.[25] Rocket Lawyer works with the blockchain company ConsenSys and OpenLaw to provide Rocket Wallet.[25][26]
In 2018, Rocket Lawyer UK received a waiver from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to allow practicing solicitors to advise Rocket Lawyer’s clients.[4] In 2017, the SRA had approved a rule change to allow solicitors to practice from unregulated firms. The rule was not introduced until 2019, so, in the meantime, SRA offered waivers to qualifying companies.[4]
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rocket Lawyer created a website with free advice, information, and legal documents for business owners. It provided a worksheet to help owners determine what benefits and loans they were eligible for.[27]
Services
Online services
Rocket Lawyer provides online legal services for individuals and small to medium-sized businesses ranging from prenuptial agreements to incorporating businesses.[28] The online legal services are available to Rocket Lawyer account holders, and give access to online legal forms, help articles, and also extend to discounts with local attorneys.[29] Rocket Lawyer's online database of legal forms was the original premise of the company, and has since expanded to include various other services.[6]
Attorney services
In addition to the do it yourself legal services, Rocket Lawyer offers consumers and businesses access to a network of lawyers who can review customers' legal documents, answer questions, and provide other legal services.[6][11][21] For example, if a user needs assistance in creating or editing a legal document, he or she can be connected directly to a local attorney who can provide guidance.[30][31]
Legal Health Score
In 2008, Rocket Lawyer introduced Legal Health Score, which helps individuals and businesses understand their level of legal wellness.[32] The score, which is a number between 1 and 100, is based on considerations like whether a business has incorporated or whether legal contracts are in writing.[17] Rocket Lawyer then provides both a step-by-step walk through of all the basics needed to improve a user's legal heath and a detailed action plan that companies can follow to remedy any legal vulnerabilities.[33][34][34][29] Rocket Lawyer offers the Legal Health Score service to all types of accounts.[33]
Competitors
As of 2017, LegalZoom is Rocket Lawyer's primary Internet-based competitor in the U.S. market for legal form documents.[35] A personal finance article in USA Today stated the common perception that both LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer allow consumers to save money on legal fees but also require some self-education and legal legwork; in other words both allow consumers to "save a few bucks by doing some of the work yourself."[36]
Rocket Lawyer's competitors also include Nolo (formerly Nolo Press),[37] the pioneering publisher of do-it-yourself legal guides[38] and the creator of Quicken WillMaker software.[39]
See also
- eLawyering
References
- "Company Overview / Snapshot of Rocket Lawyer Incorporated". Bloomberg Stock Research. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
- "Company Overview / People for Rocket Lawyer Incorporated". Bloomberg Stock Research. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
- "Rocket Lawyer Executive Team". rocketlawyer.com. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
- "Exclusive: Rocket Lawyer receives waiver to employ solicitors". Legal Futures. 2018-05-13. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
- "Legal Counsel Even a Small Business Can Afford". Inc.com. 2013-02-18. Retrieved 2020-06-18.
- Hoge, Patrick. A lawyer in your laptop. San Francisco Business Times. June 20, 2010.
- Bernard, Tara Siegel. Writing a Will, With a Lawyer Looking Over Your Shoulder. The New York Times. September 15, 2010.
- Andriotis, Annamaria. Consumers: Avoid Robosigning and Save. SmartMoney. October 26, 2010.
- Rocket Lawyer. About: Board of Directors. Rocket Lawyer. 2012.
- "Rocket Lawyer's Charley Moore sees lawyer collaboration as the future". ABA Journal. Retrieved 2020-06-18.
- Takahashi, Dean. Rocket Lawyer raises $18.5M for web-based do-it-yourself legal assistance. VentureBeat. August 11, 2011.
- Klein, Karen. To Beat the Recession, Reinvent Your Business. Bloomberg. October 23, 2009.
- Spors, Kelly. Automatic IRAs For Small Employers?. The Wall Street Journal. August 27, 2007.
- "Rocket Lawyer Acquired LawPivot, Adds Quick Legal Advice Service". The Next Web. 2013-01-14.
- Loizos, Connie (January 7, 2009). "RocketLawyer Raises Cash from LexisNexis". PE HUB. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
- Carr, David. Making Your Business Legal. Forbes. October 27, 2010.
- Lewis, Katherine Reynolds. Making the Decision to Replace Yourself. The New York Times. December 22, 2010.
- Resources for Entrepreneurs Staff. Small Businesses Avoid Getting Legal Help Because Of High Cost. Gaebler. October 19, 2010.
- Fisher, Daniel. Google Jumps Into Online-Law Business With Rocket Lawyer. Forbes. August 11, 2011.
- Van Grove, Jennifer. Do-it-yourself legal site Rocket Lawyer raises $10.8M. VentureBeat. January 4, 2012.
- Rubin, Courtney. Big Money for Cheap Legal Services. Inc. Magazine. January 5, 2012.
- "LSC's James Sandman: We Need Technology & Paraprofessionals". Bloomberg Law.
- "Online lawyers to offer 'smart contracts' next year". Global Legal Post. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
- "Rocket Lawyer Joins The Blockchain Revolution To Improve Access To Legal Services". Above the Law. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
- "Small business owners worry they won't survive coronavirus without federal loans, but experts say they have options". CNBC. 2020-04-21. Retrieved 2020-07-20.
- Rocket Lawyer. Your Legal 'I Do' List: Rocket Lawyer Provides Legal Tips for Getting Married. Marketwire. November 23, 2010.
- Bradley, Tony. Professional Legal Assistance for a Small Business Budget. PCWorld. October 19, 2010.
- Bentley, Lora. Rocket Lawyer Uses Cloud to Offer SMBs Affordable Legal Help. IT Business Edge. October 28, 2010.
- Wilson, Jeffrey L. Rocket Lawyer On Call Delivers Affordable Attorney Access. PC Mag. July 12, 2011.
- Titlow, John Paul. Get Affordable Legal Guidance For Your Business with Rocket Lawyer. ReadWrite Biz. October 20, 2010.
- Widman, Jake. Cloud Legal Service Adds Diagnostic Tool. InformationWeek SMB. October 20, 2010.
- Greenstein, Howard. Start-up End-of-Year Legal To-Dos. Inc.. December 17, 2010.
- Lewis, Todd (April 6, 2017). "Wonder.Legal To Take On Rocket Lawyer And Legal Zoom". Nibletz. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
- Reeves, Jeff (April 26, 2016). "Plan ahead: 64% of Americans don't have a will". USA Today. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
- Morrissey, Janet (April 21, 2017). "Wills Can Avert Family Warfare, but Have Their Own Hidden Traps". The New York Times. Retrieved June 23, 2017.
- Goldberg, Stephanie; Poole, Gary (January 30, 2000). "Success At Nolo Press: A Berkeley upstart of the '70s becomes the guru of legal self-help". BusinessWeek. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
- Carrns, Ann (February 8, 2017). "Why You Should Get Around to Drawing Up a Will". The New York Times. Retrieved June 23, 2017.