Would you invest in the Access to Justice company, Legal Zoom – Here’s its new IPO
My thoughts are that I think that Legal Zoom will win big. Their TV ads “make it official” are absolutely brilliant. They are saying that you can access the legal frameworks which make you “official” in the eyes of marketplace through Legal Zoom, online and inexpensive. And, they are certainly providing a valuable service, mostly on the transactional side of “officialdom”, which is usually referred to as the justice systems run by the state and federal governments. The other side of the justice system is dispute resolution. Right now, I’m not certain that Legal Zoom will get into the “online dispute resolution” (ODR) business. They seem to be very comfortable with the transaction side of law (documents) and not the dispute resolution side.
It’s all law, though, so it’s anyone’s guess whether Legal Zoom will get into ODR…maybe the right partner and deal will show up. It’s tough to see courts and lawyers giving up their buildings and courthouses anytime soon. It may evolve that way much faster because of Covid. But from what I’ve witnessed, wholesale shifts of dispute resolution to an online setting are still a long way off.
What do you think??