Tech entrepreneur sets sights on transforming legal sector

Mike Washburn, who previously launched and sold ScriptSwitch for £50 million, has invested more than £1.3m in the development of HyperLaw, a software package that provides intelligent case preparation and presentation for barristers and solicitors.

This innovative solution will help to eliminate the need for paper and deliver up to 30 per cent time and resource savings to help lawyers give cost-efficient access to the law whilst also increasing profitability.

The cloud-based platform enables users to build, review and share cases more efficiently, providing access to cutting-edge tag and annotation tools, a powerful enterprise search function, document bundling and rapid document assembly.

Early adopters include Keidan Harrison, Signature Litigation and JMW Solicitors, with the Stafford-based firm also called HyperLaw now looking to embark on a significant period of expansion that will see it double revenues over the next 12 months and explore the possibility of future external investment.

To support the growth, the company has recruited Matt Wistow as commercial director and Sam Wood as marketing manager, two high-profile appointments that will drive sales and brand awareness.

“The inspiration for HyperLaw came from my own personal, painful experience of fighting a legal claim, with my legal team regularly coming into meetings armed with 20 plus lever arch folders full of paperwork and being constantly charged for various people reading the same information,” explained Mr Washburn.

“This got me thinking. How can we take a very traditional industry, with laborious practices and bring it into the 21st Century through the clever use of technology? The answer has been five years in the making, but we feel we now have a product that gives solicitors and barristers a competitive advantage and, importantly, will help contribute to making justice affordable for all.

“The last few years have been about developing and adapting the software, not to mention trying to educate the legal sector on the benefits of switching from paper to a digital system that uses technology to deliver significant efficiencies and to drive down costs for them and their clients.”

He continued: “It has been a tough process and a lot of behavioural change, but we’ve made some important strides and the number of users is increasingly rapidly.

“Our pipeline of opportunities is indicating a doubling of revenues by the end of 2022, and this will hopefully lead to the creation of six new jobs.”

HyperLaw, which is located on the Staffordshire Technology Park in Stafford, works in three main areas, starting with ‘build’, where every lawyer can build any data source into one immediately available digital client case file simply by dragging and dropping files into the system.

This includes emails, attachments, PDFs, images, Microsoft documents and scanned papers, with no limit on the number of files you can upload.

From there, users move to ‘review’ and the ability to immediately work on the digital case file. This is fully editable content and features digital annotation tools highlighting and linking key points and evidence, whilst a smart enterprise search function enables quick and full content scanning for key names and words.

Everything in HyperLaw has been optimised to save every professional and administrative second. Ultra-fast document assembly is critical for client service, allowing solicitors and barristers to present or securely ‘share’ their digital case file with clients, colleagues or courts from a laptop or tablet.

Cheshire-based Elysium Law, a direct access barrister firm with litigation privileges, uses the technology to help it deliver affordable legal advice to clients in the UK and overseas.

Director Richard Gray said: “In short, we could not survive without HyperLaw. We’re very tech savvy and our clients expect us to make use of the latest advances to improve the services we offer them and keep costs proportionate.

“Without this technology we would lose, or indeed would never have had, much of our international business. The software platform offers several operational advantages for both clients and for us that no other tool can provide.”

Mr Wistow added: “This is a really exciting challenge. Having spent many years working for law firms, I can clearly see how HyperLaw’s cutting-edge tools can produce a faster, smarter, and higher quality client service.

“The cost of one annual subscription can be typically recovered after running one case through the platform and that’s before we look at the time savings from operating digitally – a point that was really reinforced during the pandemic when hybrid working was a must.”

He concluded: “Using our tech does all of the heavy lifting, allowing you to keep resource costs to a minimum whist maximising fees and billable hours for every lawyer. Better still, it also has a big positive environmental impact, reducing tonnes of paperwork and unnecessary courier journeys.”