Rocket Lawyer launches European joint venture, contemplates leaving UK in the wake of Brexit vote
Rocket Lawyer could be looking away from the United Kingdom as it strives to create stronger roots within the European Union.
The company announced in a press release Wednesday that it had entered into a joint venture with French legal publisher Editions Lefebvre Sarrut (ELS) to launch Rocket Lawyer Europe. The joint venture aims to provide legal services and documents to Europeans, as well as on-demand legal advice from a network of lawyers based throughout Europe. Rocket Lawyer Europe will launch in France, Spain and the Netherlands before heading to other European nations, Rocket Lawyer and ELS said.
“Legal protection whether in the form of valid legal documents or the advice of a great lawyer should be a basic human right,” Charley Moore, Rocket Lawyer’s founder and CEO, said in the press release. “Our mission is to make high quality legal services affordable and simple for everyone, regardless of where they live or how much money they have to spend.” ELS CEO Dominique Illien, added: “Consumers will now be able to access legal help at a cost they can afford. At the same time, lawyers will have a new and efficient way to reach clients that they otherwise would have been unable to serve.”
The CEO of the do-it-yourself legal provider gave an interview to The Times’ email newsletter The Brief, which was published on Wednesday. Moore told the Brief that the company was considering exiting the United Kingdom in light of June’s Brexit referendum, in which the UK voted to leave the European Union. Moore said that his company, which has been in the UK for four years, might have “no choice but to relocate” and head to a country that’s part of the EU.
“The Brexit vote came as a shock and has created uncertainty for us as we now expand into continental Europe,” Moore said to the Brief. “We hope that Brexit may be a temporary political moment that can be changed, rather than a permanent impediment to the continued attractiveness of the UK as a gateway to the European market. Otherwise we may find ourselves with no choice but to relocate our European operations to a true EU country.”
