There are people who want to take your money, and there are those who genuinely want to help. I first met Tristan Blaine, Esq. and founder of Law Soup several years ago at a Freelancers Union SPARK meetup. He was super friendly, kind and helpful. I’ve seen him volunteer for different organizations around Los Angeles such as L.A. Chapter of Net Impact, and we would run into each other at impact investing mixers. And when I sat down with him a few years back to work on a freelancers agreement for my business, he took the time to make sure I understood all the legalese before sending my contract off to clients.
So when he told me he was launching something to help freelancers and self-employed folks at large, of course I was excited.
He has been working hard at creating Lee, a Legal Virtual Guide. Lee is essentially a legal chatbot to help freelancers get their legal questions answered. We solopreneurs know full well that one of the downsides of freelancing is that as armies of one, it’s expensive to legally protect ourselves. Instead of paying tons of money for legal counsel, Tristan created this nifty chatbot to help us become more knowledgable about legal matters.
We were able to sit down with Tristan to learn more about Lee and how it can help freelancers with their legal quandaries and queries.
Hey Freelancer: How did you get the idea for your Chatbot?
Tristan Blaine: I created the Law Soup website four years ago to give people easy access to the legal information they need. And ever since then I have been looking for even better and more engaging ways to do just that.
As chatbots have become more prevalent and the functionality has improved, I started to see opportunity there. I realized a legal chatbot is a way to essentially simulate a conversation with a lawyer, but better in certain ways. With a chatbot, you don’t have the high costs of a lawyer, and you can ask your questions without feeling embarrassed for asking ‘dumb’ questions. Chatbots don’t judge. They just give answers.
Of course, a bot can’t completely replace a lawyer (at least not yet!), since laws can be quite complex and human lawyers are best at determining how a law applies to a specific situation. But for people who have basic questions and want to learn about basic concepts, chatbots are a great solution.
For example, if you want to know whether you need a DBA for your business, or even what a DBA is, the chatbot can easily give you a good answer. Most lawyers don’t even want to be bothered with a question like that, or if they do they might charge you several hundred dollars as part of a consultation.
And it’s also much better than just Googling, since you don’t have to click through a bunch of search results, scroll down the pages, parsing through irrelevant info. Chatbots are truly the future.
Hey Freelancer: What kind of information can you get from the Chatbot?
Tristan: Currently Lee (the Virtual “Lee-gal” Guide) has three features. Two are for small businesses and freelancers in California: You can get answers to over 200 questions about California small business & freelancing law, such as “How do I protect my business?” or “Do I need a privacy policy for my website?” Second, you can get a comprehensive in-depth customized legal action guide specific to your business.
The third feature is for anyone throughout the U.S. It tells you which “municipality” you are in, and thus which local laws and taxes apply. This is not always obvious, especially in the Los Angeles area. In Los Angeles County alone there are 89 separate municipalities (88 cities + unincorporated areas), each with their own local laws. So it’s quite a useful feature.
And we are working on many more features for consumers, homeowners, renters, and more!
Hey Freelancer: What was it like developing it?
Tristan: Not so easy! A consultant helped me get started with the bot builder called FlowXO, but other than that I pretty much had to figure out most of it by trial and error. It was quite a trial, with lots of errors! But when I got it working the way I wanted, I felt such a sense of accomplishment.
Hey Freelancer: What sort of topics can’t it answer?
Tristan: We have a full list of 200+ questions Lee can answer, which includes just about everything most people want to know related to California small business and freelancing law. That’s the extent of its capability at the moment, but we are constantly adding more questions in those areas, and will soon be adding additional areas for consumers, homeowners, and more.
Hey Freelancer: What do you hope to achieve from your exciting new product?
Tristan: Ultimately I hope Lee (the Virtual Legal Guide) can become the go-to resource for people who have any sort of legal question on any topic. I know it’s ambitious, and again, chatbots cannot replace lawyers any time soon. But it has the potential to truly make much of the law affordable and accessible to everyone.
Hey Freelancer: Any new features in the near future?
Tristan: Yes, plenty more features are coming soon! In particular, we will have a tool to help people understand whether they can get out of a contract, and we will add other Q&A topics like internet laws, laws for renters, etc.
Hey Freelancer: How much does it cost?
Tristan: There’s a free feature which gives info on the law of free speech, internet, and copyright. As for the business tools, the pricing is $55 for the Launch & Check Up tool (unlimited for 30 days), and $35 for the Small Biz Q&A (unlimited for 30 days).
Want to check it out for yourself?
People can email me at tristan@lawsoup.org for a free one-day pass!
