How a global pandemic coincides with the launch of new technology in Croatia
By Pim Betist.
Right when the world is disrupted by a global pandemic Croatian law firm Porobija & Spoljaric launches LegalCreator, an online platform that allows companies to create their legal documents online. The platform saves clients heaps of time and money, but it’s also safer for their health: clients no longer need to meet a lawyer to get the document they need.
On LegalCreator users produce their legal documents by answering a set of questions in Croatian or English. The online platform is the very first of its kind in Croatia. What led founder Marko Porobija to become the pioneer he is and will document automation become the New Normal in Croatia?
Why did you start LegalCreator?
A couple of years ago we saw a presentation in London about how document automation platforms are taking the European market by storm. It struck a chord with me. We get approached by so many small business who don’t have the budgets for our services. They end up copy pasting contracts they find online and are bound to call us again. This time with serious legal problems which cost a lot more money to fix. I loved the idea of offering these companies a solution that is affordable whilst guaranteeing the quality they expect from our firm.
Isn’t LegalCreator going to cannibalize your firm?
It is very unlikely. What we foresee happening is that we will welcome a lot of new clients to our firm via the platform. For example, a client might buy a purchase agreement and ask us to help with the negotiations. The cross selling options are endless. We will be focussing on the more complex assignments while the standard agreements are generated automatically through LegalCreator.
What is your vision of the future? Will document automation become the New Normal?
We believe any innovation that makes lives easier and more affordable will prevail the old way of doing things. So yes, document automation is definitely here to stay. Is that the end of law firms? Maybe for some, but definitely not for all. We need to re-assess where we deliver value as professionals and focus on those things. Intuition, creativity, experience, negotiation skills are all forms of added value a legal professional can bring to the table which cannot be automated.
How did you set up the platform?
Docbldr offers a plug and play solution. Our challenge was to match the docbldr team with the right local payment providers and to create the automated documents in English and Croatian. The latter took most of our time. It requires a different way of thinking. In stead of determining what article is important for one particular client in one situation we had to determine what could be important for all of our clients in multiple situations.
What have you learned from the experience?
We started with the most complicated documents. In stead, we should have started with simple ones and progressed to more complicated ones as we got the hang of it. We also made the mistake of trying to create a document for every single situation. We learned to create documents that are suitable for 80% of the situations. The remaining 20% are directed to professionals at our firm who finish the document the ‘old way’.
Are you happy the launch of your platform coincided with the outbreak of a global pandemic?
The timing is good, but if given the choice, we would have preferred to launch the platform without a pandemic to worry about.
Photo: Marko Porobija