This article first appeared on August 22, 2017 in ALB Insights, a weekly, ad-free newsletter that is sent to subscribers. To purchase your subscription, please email Amantha at amantha.chia@thomsonreuters.com or call her at +65 6870 3917.
ALB Hot Startups is a series that looks at the most promising new legal-tech companies in Asia. We look at LawGuide, which educates consumers with basic law-related information and recently launched Singapore’s first law-related chatbot. By Raj Gunashekar
Name: LawGuide Singapore
Year of founding: 2016
Located: Singapore
Founder: Jonathan Wong
What it does: LawGuide Singapore provides consumers with basic law-related information through its website, social media channels and Singapore’s first law-related chatbot. The legal information is presented in bite-sized and jargon-free form through animation, videos and infographics.
Markets serving: Singapore
Capital raised till date: Undisclosed
Key clients: General public, lawyers, and law firms in Singapore
How the idea came about: Wong realised that when faced with a potential legal problem, people sought basic answers before engaging a lawyer and, in many cases, even before deciding whether they need one.
“We decided to help by taking complex and often confusing information on commonly encountered legal issues and presenting them in short, simple pieces delivered in media-rich form through our website and social media channels – the focus of everyone’s attention in a digital-first and mobile-first economy,” he says.
He also notes that even though legal issues and law-related problems can turn up anytime, the sources of legal information were fragmented.
As he explains, “This meant that information about the law was not always easy to find because it can’t be sourced from a single dependable source or platform. To complicate things, even if a person did eventually find the information, it was not always easy to understand because information and knowledge about the law were often presented in long articles filled with technical legal terms and jargon.”
So while many people in Singapore can quickly get more information on what and where to eat, it’s not the case for dependable legal advice or assistance if they were in trouble, points out Wong. “Frankly, we felt that this was an uncomfortable proposition and reality that we shouldn’t have to accept. So, that's why LawGuide Singapore is changing that.”
He also believes that access to justice doesn’t and shouldn’t be limited to improving consumers’ access to lawyers or making legal services more affordable. “This is why with LawGuide Singapore, we are on a small, personal mission to educate and empower consumers by making information on basic but essential areas of Singapore law easier for the public to find, understand and use,” he adds.
The journey so far: According to the startup, LawGuide is Singapore’s fastest-growing and most-followed online legal information platform in terms of social media reach and engagement.
At present, LawGuide has more than 19,000 Facebook followers and over 10,000 monthly unique website visitors. It claims to reach an average of about 150,000 people who are looking for answers to law-related questions every week.
To contact the writer, please email raj.gunashekar@tr.com