E-Lawyering Company Total Attorneys Gets Multimillion-Dollar Investment
Total Attorneys, a Chicago-based marketing and software company for small law firms and solos, has obtained a multimillion dollar investment from a private company, but it’s not revealing the exact amount.
Total Attorneys president Kevin Chern tells the ABA Journal that the investment from BIA Digital Partners was “substantial,” but he couldn’t be specific. A Total Attorneys press release notes that BIA Digital Partners typically makes investments ranging from $5 to $15 million. Was the company’s investment in Total Attorneys somewhere in that range? Yes, Chern says, without elaboration.
Total Attorneys has been in the news for ethics challenges to its system for generating leads. The company collects the ZIP codes of consumers through its websites on topics such as bankruptcy and personal injury law. The potential clients are forwarded to lawyers who pay for exclusive rights to the names in their geographic area. So far, ethics opinions have OK’d the arrangement, Chern says. Ethics investigations in three states have not yet been completed, however. “Some of them are still spinning their procedural wheels, so to speak,” Chern explains. He sees the BIA investment as evidence that the financial services industry has confidence in the strength of Total Attorneys’ position in the ethics cases.
Total Attorneys also sells virtual law office technology that allows clients to go online to request legal help, fill out retainer agreements, upload or download documents, and pay their invoices. The company acquired the technology in 2009 from a solo practitioner and her husband.
The technology helps promote the unbundling of legal services, Chern says. He offers an example. A client can fill out a custom questionnaire for a will online, and a lawyer can review the work for a set fee. The limited representation would be cheaper for the client than the customary full “bundled” legal service.
The press release quotes Total Attorneys CEO Ed Scanlan. “As the dramatic growth in unbundled legal services continues, we believe Total Attorneys is exceptionally well-positioned to provide the industry’s leading secure and trusted platform for both consumers and law firms to effectively collaborate in this environment,” he says.
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