LawGives: one of the best Silicon Valley Startups with a Conscience!
We have the honor of being featured as one of the five best Silicon Valley Startups with a Conscience! Read the full article here.
Today’s entrepreneurs are younger and more idealistic than ever. Competition is strong; it has not been easy to select only five fresh young companies. The criteria? These visionary founders are under-30s and their socially conscious ventures have attracted increasing attention in their first months of operation.
LawGives
Imagine a world where citizens can afford full access to legal assistance. In California, this may seem like an impossible dream. According to LawGives.org, currently 67% of low-income individuals do not have their legal needs met. Frustrated by the inequalities in the current system, three ambitious young lawyers serendipitously decided to take a leave of absence from top corporate law firms in Europe and North America to forge a new path in the heart of Silicon Valley.
During their time at graduate school, founders Tony Lai, Bradley Newman and Pieter Gunst, hatched a plan to revolutionize legal access during late-night brainstorming sessions in the Stanford dorms. “We believed that the price of justice is too high,” Lai explained.
In partnership with the center for legal informatics at Stanford (CodeX), the founders are formulating a database to connect organizations and individuals seeking legal aid with law students and supervising attorneys with relevant expertise. Through their need-finding work, the founders realized that contrary to popular belief, lawyers are willing to offer pro bono services. Often, they lack the means to effectively reach out to those in need.
The three founders hope that one day their profession might not be the butt of all bad jokes. LawGives offers lawyers, “more support, more advanced tools and more kudos,” they said with a smile.