Worldwide web: Law Hound around when legal outsourcing portals just emerging
A long-standing seller of legal documents is set to launch a venture selling simple packages of documents aimed at website developers and people running online businesses.
Law in Minutes (LiM), started by public relations company Aspen Sachs, aims to deliver the legal documents required by a developer building a website using the WordPress platform.
Aspen Sachs also owns Law Hound, an online legal service providing documents but also remote and even face-to-face advice.
The LiM website is being completed. Aspen Sachs’ business development manager, Emma Thorpe, told Legal Futures that the online shopping aspect of the site was up and running. The solicitor-written documents, which include terms and conditions and other essential website legal material, will be available to white label under law firm brands.
She said: “The idea is that [LiM] will sell instant access to a bundle of documents and the range may well develop over time, but it started with a very simple plug-in which just installs pages in draft form into WordPress.”
She said that Law Hound, which was first launched in 2001 and, as well as offering documents and advice itself, sells white-labelled products through legaldocshop, has had more success among accountants than solicitors. “Legaldocshop was really set up in an attempt to attract law firms to engage in selling products basically as a commodity. It was actually very, very much more popular – and is still more popular – with accountants.”
LiM emerged from renewed market testing for the Law Hound products, she said: “When we were testing the market again with lawyers and with businesses, it became very clear that there was another sub-market that we hadn’t really looked at, which was for a simple package. Effectively it’s no more than that – a simple package of what you need to run a business online if you’re running a shop or if you’ve got a website presence.”
The core of the product is a “law plugin for WordPress”, described as “instant legal pages that appear as drafts in your WordPress website for instant use”.
The pricing was not visible as of yesterday. On the Law Hound website, individual documents are available from a vast range of law categories for download at £45 each, with a bronze, silver and gold level available depending on the degree of help and customisation users want.
On the legaldocshop website, white-labelled document ‘shops’ hosted by Aspen Sachs, payable on a 24-month contract, cost a one-off set up fee of £1,100, with 24-monthly payments of £200, including two document libraries. Firms have an option to add their own documents.
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