Kyle
Law firms spend millions of dollars a year contracting legal work out to third parties. Whether it be research, document reviews, investigative work or any of the hundreds of tasks that can be handled by third parties, there is an entire industry of service providers for law firms.
Typically law firms contract with one or two service providers for each type of outsourced work. Sometimes they spend more than they could on this legal work whether it be out of the convenience of using the same provider over and over again or there just aren’t enough service providers in their immediate local area to offer competitive pricing.
Also, as busy as legal firms are these days it’s hard to find the time to evaluate and outsource other service providers.
Now, a new Chicago startup called Justice Bid allows law firms to anonymously bid out projects to service providers and get the best quotes. Everyone knows that legal fees aren’t cheap but hopefully if law firms turn to this new service, and new way to bid out jobs, they could save their clients some money as well.
When the law firm is just billing the client back for this third party work anyway, as a client you would be happy to know they are looking to save you some money.
Justice Bid was founded by Omar Sweiss. Omar is an attorney himself and he founded Justice Bid by solving a problem that even his firm was experiencing.
We got the opportunity to talk with Justice Bid’s Chief Operating Officer Justin Strane about this new startup, in virtually its own space.
Check out the interview, after the break
Briefly describe Justice Bid?
Justice Bid is an online marketplace that allows third-party service providers to compete, via a closed bidding system, for projects anonymously posted by law firms, corporate legal departments, and government agencies. Justice Bid helps these legal professionals become more efficient and profitable by eliminating the need to spend large amounts of time and money bidding out their projects. In doing so, it shifts the paradigm on how routine law practice-related tasks are accomplished because of its unique platform for bringing together lawyers and contractors, maximizing both the quality of the relationship and the value for service.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
The Founder of Justice Bid is Omar Sweiss, a 33 year old businessman/attorney in Chicago, Illinois. Omar holds: BBA (Finance, Marketing, International Business – Loyola University Chicago), MBA (Loyola University Chicago), JD (The John Marshall Law School – Chicago), & LLM (Corporate Governance – Loyola University Chicago) degrees. While 22 years old, Omar graduated with his MBA, and took over a family-owned commercial development company where he instituted a new business model and grew the company aggressively and successfully. Omar also possesses broad business operation and development experience, from local/regional to large-scale international ventures. From these entrepreneurial experiences, Omar has built notable aptitude in marketing, management, and financial skills.
While many assume that enrollment in law school signifies a desire to become an attorney, this was certainly not the case with Omar. In fact, he never wanted to practice law. Omar’s motivation to attend law school was purely to become a better businessman. He wanted to sharpen his skills, and take his them to a higher level. Being a businessman, he saw the legal industry through that “business” lens. It was that vision that enabled Omar to identify the opportunity that brings us to the launch of Justice Bid.
What is the problem JusticeBid solves?
To begin, Omar always says, if you start a business, you always have to ask yourself, “what problem is this business going to solve? If you are not solving a problem, forget about the business.” This question is one that we hear Omar pose all the time. In our case, Justice Bid addresses problems that exist with legal project bidding with regards to efficiency, time management, and maintaining quality service.
Let’s say an attorney (and attorney could be an individual, a law firm, corporate legal department, or even a municipality) is involved in litigation with a large amount of documents involved. That attorney will probably need to find a legal service provider to perform a document review. Using the old, traditional method, the attorney would need to go down a list of vendors/service providers, and submit requests for proposal to each one individually. Then, the attorney would have to review each individual proposal as it comes in. They would also have to respond to any questions from providers about each individual RFP separately. They would also have to organize, compare, and follow up with questions to each individual proposal.
It’s not the most efficient process, and moreover, it’s not anonymous. So the service providers know exactly who they’re dealing with, and can price accordingly (often times, unfairly). Long story short, the firm and its client might not be getting the best price possible for the quality service they require.
Enter Justice Bid. With JB, the attorney can post the project anonymously with all project details (the Request for Proposal if you will). Service providers signed up with JB will review it and then submit closed bids via an uploaded .pdf work proposal. (attorneys have ability to anonymously invite service providers who may not be signed up with JB as well) The attorney can then review each work proposal, and also view the service provider’s profile, rating, and qualifications through Justice Bid. After reviewing the work proposal bids, the attorney can decide if one fits the project needs. If none of the bids are acceptable, the attorney is under no obligation to award the bid. After awarding the bid, the service provider submits all invoices through Justice Bid, and the attorney pays those invoices through our secure system.
Because we use a closed bidding system, Justice Bid isn’t a race to the bottom, and ensures that attorneys receive a fair price for quality work from service providers. To make a long story short, we streamline the previously inefficient process of legal professionals bidding out projects to service providers.
Are there any other company’s doing anything similar to Justice Bid?
No, there are no other online marketplaces for attorneys to bid out legal projects to service providers. Justice Bid has created a marketplace where one did not exist.
What’s your secret sauce?
If you ever meet our founder, you will know he is all about people. He loves people (which is probably why he wants to be a politician in the future) and more so, loves to make everyone in a room feel like they are the only one in that room when he talks to them.
Applying his personal philosophies to Justice Bid, the Justice Bid team is made up of hard working and outgoing people. Even though Justice Bid is a tech startup, we strive to reach out individually to our users so they know we are “here” – to find out what they need, whether there are problems we can correct, and anything we can do to improve our service. Omar hates when you visit websites, and there are no “people” standing behind it. “If you believe in what you do, stand up and show it,” he says. So we take a proactive approach to Justice Bid in order to identify problems before they arise in order to provide the best possible experience to our users. It’s not unusual for us to provide personal information, such as cell phone numbers, to our users if we feel that will provide them the best service. That’s how Justice Bid will evolve – staying tuned to our target market’s needs.
Are you guys lawyers? If not is there a legal advisory board?
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When doing business with attorneys, be an attorney. For instance, if you are doing business with a foreign country, you will be required to know the culture/customs and ways of how they do business, what they look for in products/services, etc., in order to succeed.
With Justice Bid, every member of our executive team is an attorney licensed to practice in the State of Illinois. We understand the legal industry dynamics – knowing how attorneys communicate, think, react, etc. Being a part of the profession also enables us to gain instant credibility because the problems we are solving are ones that we, as attorneys, have identified through actual experience.
Before JusticeBid how did lawyers bid out these kinds of projects?
As previously mentioned in the description of the problem we solve, before Justice Bid, attorneys had to do all of the leg work on their own. The attorneys had to literally locate and contact service providers, research their qualifications, and then send out a separate request for proposal to each provider. They would likely have a back and forth for RFP clarifications/proposal clarifications.
Now, with Justice Bid, the attorneys can quickly and easily post a project on Justice Bid, wait until the bidding end time is reached, and review all the proposals in one location. They can compare the companies’ profiles, reviews, qualifications, and detailed proposals. Justice Bid makes the process efficient and transparent.
What is your monetization strategy?
Justice Bid is completely free for our attorney users. We didn’t want to have any barriers for their entry to the Justice Bid marketplace.
For legal service providers, Justice Bid keeps it simple: We don’t get paid unless you get paid. Providers can sign up for free. They can bid for free. The only time that Justice Bid earns a commission is when an attorney awards a project and the provider gets paid. Not bad for providers. Pay nothing until you win a project, and payment is made.
What is one lesson you learned launching JusticeBid?
We have learned that having the right web developers is absolutely necessary, and at the same time, one cannot expect perfection for initial launch. Omar went through three web developers before finally settling on our current team. It was this team that helped us complete the website, and get the minimum viable product out to market. We are very satisfied with the end result, but painful lessons were learned on how to choose the “right” web developers.
What’s next for JusticeBid?
Justice Bid is now in the provider signup period. We will continue to reach out to and sign up legal service providers for the next few months. Additionally, we will begin our campaign to make the legal industry aware of our unique platform. Disseminating the message is one of our main initiatives during this signup period. And having Nibletz take notice is a great step in that direction. So thank you for being open to hearing about our story.
Where can people go to find out more about it?
Our website is located at www.JusticeBid.com. We also have the following social media links:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/justicebid
Twitter: @Justice_Bid
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/justicebid-llc
The following press release was issued with our launch:
There is a helpful video on the Justice Bid homepage that explains the concept behind the business. Video Here
