As we’ve written in the past, Google Ventures-backed LawPivot has applied the Q&A model to the legal space. LawPivot is essentially a “Quora for legal advice” that allows technology companies and startups to confidentially ask legal questions to expert attorneys. Previously, the startup had only focused on offering advice in California but today is expanding its service nationwide.
On LawPivot, startups can post questions on the site, and lawyers message these companies back with advice. Questions are completely confidential, so companies still have privacy within the platform. The startup was co-founded by a team of lawyers and tech execs, including Jay Mandal, a lead mergers and acquisitions attorney at Apple; Nitin Gupta; an intellectual property litigation lawyer; and Steven Kam, a software engineer and architect with experience as an intellectual property litigation lawyer.
Both businesses and lawyers can register for free on the site and now lawyers can create profiles to connect with businesses on the site. Lawyers have the ability to add other relevant information (education, experience, recommendations) to better market their legal expertise and businesses now have a way to assess the reputation and credibility of a lawyer on LawPivot.
LawPivot is also rolling out the ability for startups to search for a lawyer based on their expertise and online reputation on LawPivot. Businesses can search for lawyers based on factors such as speed of response, responsiveness, quality, and contribution to the LawPivot community, in addition to general criteria such as legal practice areas and location.
LawPivot has been steadily building out the features of its platform, and is becoming more of a compelling destination for both startups and lawyers. Earlier this year, the startup launched recommendations, a personalized recommendation algorithm that connects a company to the best lawyers to answer its legal questions. As companies interact with LawPivot over time, the site’s technology will uses past and present data on users and trends to provide a company the best lawyers to answer its question based on the company’s specific needs.
For now the site is free, but has stated that eventually it will charge companies and lawyers for certain services. LawPivot has raised $1 million in funding from Google Ventures and other angel investors.