LawPath, viewed as a disruptor to traditional firms, raised $1.3m itself last October. The legal start-up says it has more than 20,000 SMEs using its platform and claims its revenue has risen by 800 per cent in the past year. Norton Rose Fulbright managing partner in Australia Wayne Spanner commented: ‘This provides an avenue for the bigger firms to work with the tech start-ups and provides an avenue to access a market that traditionally we may have found out of reach, in terms of providing genuine quality legal advice.’ 

Fixed-price packages

LawPath’s online platform offers fixed-price packages, designed and built in collaboration with Norton Rose Fulbright, that cover capital raisings, shareholder agreements and convertible notes; and permanent and contract employment agreements. Each package includes standardised legal agreements and pre-paid hours with a Norton Rose Fulbright lawyer, to review and tailor documents as needed. For more complex requirements, customers can elect to supplement their package with an additional hours pack.

Avoiding excessive fees

Damien Andreasen, LawPath co-founder and CEO, told the Financial Review that this new product would not be available through other law firms.  He also said that avoiding excessive legal fees is vital to the growth of many small businesses. ‘I have been through and done capital raisings myself and legal fees starting at $2099 for all of the investment documents you need to raise capital and for four plus hours with a senior lawyer is very affordable in comparison to the traditional model,’ he said.

Start-up market

The announcement follows various attempts by law firms to tap into the start-up market, including Gilbert + Tobin’s investment in legal tech start-up Legal Vision and DLA Piper’s joint venture with contract firm Lawyers On Demand.  Allens also launched a locally designed start-up practice called Accelerate earlier this year.