The legal disruptor

After Dominic Woolrych completed a Business degree and then UTS Law’s Juris Doctor (JD), he took the traditional path into the legal world – working for a time in both the corporate law and the public criminal law sectors.

He freely admits his initial ideas about practicing law were heavily influenced by television programs:

Early on in my legal career, I was motivated by nice cars and corner window offices – I think I can blame Harvey Specter from Suits for that!

But armed with his business acumen, legal knowledge and a passion for technology, Dominic soon saw the potential for a new way of combining these skills and that’s how his company, Lawpath began.

Recognised as one of the top 10 legal start-ups in the country and top 50 in the world, Lawpath is Australia’s largest and fastest growing online legal platform.

Dominic says there’s a place for traditional law firms but there are many small to medium size businesses (SMEs) which don’t need the full service legal treatment and often cannot afford it.

He says SMEs have streamlined their accounting practices by using online tools and Lawpath uses a similar model for many legal processes:

We help businesses understand their legal requirements and then we connect them with what they need; including legal document templates and specific legal experts who are registered with us.

Lawpath helps legal practitioners make the most of the gig economy and assists thousands of businesses access legal services at a fraction of the time, cost and complexity of the traditional system.

It’s already an award-winning business but Dominic has even bigger plans.

While studying for the JD, he interned with the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He met law students from all over the world and learnt about international legal systems and access to legal services in different countries.

Dominic says he saw how each country has its own problems when it comes to access to justice and legal protection for individuals and businesses:

Since then I’ve always thought about building a platform that allows customers to work easily with laws from different countries. My long-term goal for my company, Lawpath, is that we can operate in multiple countries and provide legal protection to all, with no geographical limitations.

Dominic is proud to be the 2020 UTS Law Alumni Award winner and also happy to be seen as a legal disruptor:

As one of the last professional services industries to be considerably touched by technology, I hope that I can affect change in the legal industry through technology adoption. Ultimately, if we can use technology to bring the cost of legal services down and increase accessibility, we will be able to provide more access to justice and legal protection to everyday Australians.

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