LegalZen, a start-up that offers standard contracts and documents written by lawyers, targets 20,000 customers in 2025

Deniza Cristian 05/04/2023 | 13:04

LegalZen, a start-up that offers contracts and standard documents drafted by lawyers to be customized according to the client’s needs, aims to have 3,000 clients and 150 contract templates uploaded to the platform in its first year of launch.

 

The company was founded in February this year by Marina Rosu, a finance specialist and entrepreneur, in collaboration with Paul Dumbrăvanu, a lawyer with 18 years of experience.

The platform was created to reduce costs for individuals and companies and make signing contracts less risky, given that more than 60% of civil lawsuits in Romanian courts are related to situations when one party didn’t meet the obligations of a contract, according to estimates by LegalZen co-founders.

“In May last year, I was talking to Paul about the fact that some people, among those who come to the law office, want, for a lower cost, just the draft of a contract, assuming the customization of it. Analyzing this, I realized that people fall into three categories when it comes to the contracts they put their signature on: those who won’t sign anything without a lawyer’s opinion, those who will sign anything, and those who don’t have a contract and look for one from friends or on the internet, not knowing if what they have in front of them is even correct, not to mention safe, clear, fair. LegalZen is a solution to this problem, providing access to the legal expertise of a lawyer without people necessarily needing to hire one”, says Marina Rosu, co-founder, and CEO of LegalZen.

Contract templates for web design, commodatum, business loan or apartment rental

The MVP for LegalZen includes 20 templates for contracts, written by lawyers, including models for privacy agreements (NDAs), legal documents for websites (privacy policy, terms and conditions, cookie policy), contracts for contractors (construction work), contracts for web design services, copywriting, collaboration with influencers, commodatum contracts, loan contracts between individuals, company loans, apartment rental contracts, model for holographic wills.

New documents are added weekly for legal entities – entrepreneurs, micro-enterprises, self-employed – and individuals.

The cost of a model contract starts at 100 lei and goes up to 350 lei.

The best-selling contract templates in the first month of the launch were the privacy agreement (NDA), the legal package for websites (privacy policy, terms and conditions, cookie policy) and the contractor contracts (construction).

The two founders expect to have 3,000 customers this year, 10,000 next year and 20,000 in 2025.

The number of documents uploaded to the site is also expected to increase from 150 this year to 2,500 in 2025 by expanding into finance and human resources.

“We designed the platform to provide a lawyer’s legal expertise efficiently and in the language of a business person. The legal terms are often a foreign language to anyone not in the field, and collaboration is made much more difficult. One of my main roles is to build a bridge between the legal world – the team of collaborative lawyers led by Paul, and the business world – our clients”, adds Marina Roșu.

A lawyer writes each contract template and can be customized by the client

The contract template is editable and comes with instructions for completion, where the specifics of the document are explained. The platform recommends reading the standard clauses and, where appropriate, deleting articles that do not fit the specific situation, following the guidance of the explanatory notes.

For more complex cases, LegalZen offers the possibility to customize the contract in detail or to have an existing agreement analyzed by a lawyer who signs a legal assistance contract with the client.

“The launch of LegalZen coincided with the artificial intelligence boom. Obviously, we asked ourselves: is there still a need for what we offer? Interacting with real people, small business owners or individuals, led us to a categorical conclusion: yes, there is a need. Will we pivot to a different way of serving our customers? Possibly. In the meantime, we focus on responsibly helping Romanians sign clear, secure and fair contracts”, adds Paul Dumbrăvanu, lawyer and co-founder LegalZen.

BR Magazine | Latest Issue

Download PDF: Business Review Magazine March (II) 2024 Issue

The March (II) 2024 issue of Business Review Magazine is now available in digital format, featuring the main cover story titled “BAT DBS Romania Hub: A Vibrant New Office For An Employee-Centric
Deniza Cristian | 27/03/2024 | 17:32
Advertisement Advertisement
Close ×

We use cookies for keeping our website reliable and secure, personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to analyse how our website is used.

Accept & continue