Law Times

Page 10 June 6, 2016 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com FOCUS Lawyers turned inventors Legal apps, and aptitude, pay off BY MICHAEL MCKIERNAN For Law Times A fter six months in pri- vate practice handling intellectual property matters for clients, Samuel Witherspoon quickly re- alized his seat was on the wrong side of the desk. "I discovered private practice wasn't for me, because I was too motivated to invent stuff, or im- prove on other inventors' inven- tions, which is a terrible trait for a patent agent," Witherspoon says. After quitting his practice, Witherspoon joined a growing band of lawyers using their skills to build law-focused apps, and founded Miralaw, a legal analyt- ics platform designed to trans- late legal data into usable infor- mation for its customers. The move represented a re- turn to his roots for Wither- spoon, since he had worked as an engineer in environmental consulting before attending law school and clerking with a Fed- eral Court judge. "I did a lot of systems work in university, and I've always been passionate about software, hardware, and building stuff. It's something I'm still passionate about," he says. The company's latest app, Thistoo, is aimed at the vast ma- jority of litigants who approach divorce and other family law matters without the help of a lawyer. Users plug in informa- tion, such as their income and asset structure, as well as that of their spouse, and the app gives them an idea of what kind of resolution they could expect from litigation, based on data extracted from existing court files. Thistoo can also give them a projection of how much the whole process could cost them by matching them up to simi- larly situated court users pulled from historical data. "One of the things we have found that people coming into a family dispute are looking for is a basic understanding of what is going on, so there is a huge edu- cational component. There is a real information gap between the reality and what movies and TV have taught people to believe about the process," he says. Our objective is to give people a more complete picture, so they can make more intelligent decisions, and I think we're accomplishing that quite well." Miralaw has built a team of developers as it experiments with machine learning to im- prove its data extraction and analysis, and Witherspoon ex- pects the app to translate easily to other jurisdictions. In the near future, he expects Thistoo to be available in major U.S. markets, such as New York, California, Florida, and Texas. In addition, he says he is particularly excited about expansion to the U.K., since court filing and alterna- tive dispute resolution in that country both take place online, potentially making data much more easily available to the firm than in Canada, where paper- based systems still prevail. Lawyer Jonathan Burshtein also has a strong technological background to call on in the operation of his business Law- Pitch, an online application that matches consumers in need of legal help with lawyers offering their services. Among his other ventures is Blue Basil Studios, a web design company focused on web sites for lawyers and other businesses. Launched in late 2014, Law- Pitch allows users to post legal jobs, along with details about their budget and time frames. Lawyers on the site then make bids on the work, offering in- formation about their expertise, experience, and fees. "The site is an attempt to explore better, more efficient ways to connect clients with lawyers. I opened my own prac- tice around the same time as I started LawPitch, so these were issues that were resonating with me," Burshtein says. "I'm trying to focus in on the types of legal services that the site works best for, which is what you might call entry-level legal services; things like business incorporation, wills, real estate purchases and sales, where it's very easy for the lawyer to estimate the amount of work that will go into it." Burshtein's biggest challenge has involved finding free time to monitor and improve the app, while also managing a burgeon- ing business law and estate plan- ning practice at Toronto firm Rose Persiko Rakowsky Melvin LLP, where he is a partner. He also plans to soon launch an- other marketing web site aimed at business lawyers in Toronto. Meanwhile, another more per- sonal development has recently laid an additional claim on his limited time resources. "Our newborn arrived a cou- ple of months ago, so it's been a pretty busy time, with a lot of big changes," Burshtein says. He says marketing his own app has given him insights into the challenges his own business law clients face, and encourages other lawyers to take the plunge and get involved with their own legal apps. "It's good to experience the other side of things, especially for a lawyer who is used to deal- ing with the more transactional side. I think the experience has made me a more rounded law- yer," Burshtein says. LT Samuel Witherspoon founded Miralaw, a legal analytics platform designed to trans- late legal data into usable information for its customers. Platinum Sponsor Silver Sponsor Bronze Sponsor Hosted in Partnership With Date: Sept. 8, 2016 Location: Arcadian Court, Toronto 6 p.m. Cocktail Reception 7 p.m. Gala Dinner and Awards Presentation Emcee: Gail J. Cohen, Editor in Chief, Canadian Lawyer/Law Times Keynote Speaker: Brian Zubert, Director, Thomson Reuters Labs - Waterloo Region Dress: Business Attire Innovation. 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