Shrijay Suratkal: finding a proficient advocate is very complicated these days, we are simplifying this arduous task into a straightforward way with Lawtendo.
The history of the legal profession can be traced back to the formation of the First British Court in Bombay in 1672 by Governor Aungier in India. The Legal History existing is the result of the story of the struggle for recognition, prestige, power, and income. Law as a profession has progressed after thousands of years and is growing at a rapid pace.
Through the various stages of progression, it has come to the place of recognition and social acceptance. Yet there exists numerous biases, ill-informed criticisms, and challenges to getting the right legal support among all strata of the industry besides finding proficient advocates.
Even in this ultra-modern age, solving legal issues and taking lawyer support are notoriously associated with high retainers and confusing fees. But the major progress has been made with the entrance of start-ups and technological revolution in the industry.
In order to remove all these legal hurdles and to streamline the process, Shrijay Suratkal, a person with extraordinary qualities, laid the foundation of Lawtendo. It was established in 2018, presenting all legal solutions.
With its ever-growing 10000+ lawyer network and meticulous background, the platform is covering numerous parts of the country including New Delhi, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Jaipur, and more. Lawtendo is created by lawyers, by lawyers, and it is revolutionizing the way attorneys practice law present-day.
Lawtendo is a young team hence dynamic enough to leverage the technology with Speed and Delivery. It is supporting individuals and corporates with the right lawyers as per their requirements.
Lawtendo is a prominent and reputed name in the legal world, it provides the best legal corporate management and advice in a cost-efficient manner by assigning a case manager for facilitating, consult, and follows ups to the clients and reduces legal cost by 50%.
It has multifarious advanced case management tools and in-house legal counsels that are flexible and efficacious in terms of activity tracking, expense management, reports and analysis, client management, and more. Lawyer Exchange matches law firms seeking support with attorneys seeking work and mentorship.
Known for his unique approach and intelligence, Shrijay Suratkal is heading the company; he is the CEO of Lawtendo. ShrijaySuratkal has done B.Tech in Textile Technology from PSG College of Technology and is the brains behind the brand.
He is a process driven person who is committed to providing maximum satisfaction to clients. He creates the process to maintain and full fill the best of everybody's interest.
In an interview with The Startup City, ShrijaySuratkal discussed Lawtendo, its offerings, and his professional journey.
Throw some light on your professional life. And, what inspired you to launch your business in this segment?
It's tons of research on the legal market, and of course, my interest in the subject that encouraged me to enter this field. I have travelled to courts in Tier 1, Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities to understand the legal system.
I have previously worked at Adidas and was managing the development to the production of apparel for the B2B business for a year and a half but always had a zeal for law somewhere.
The idea of Lawtendo started to pulp sometimes when I had the same issue. It was the only period, we had a lot of legal issues related to family and to get a lawyer or rather say a good lawyer. That is when it hit me that discovering a need-based lawyer is a serious concern.
I always desired to lead a technology-based company. From individuals, startups to Corporates, everyone suffers legal hassles daily, and we are here to resolve that problem.
In my research incorporating my friend Gurinder Singh, who is the co-founder & a chemical engineer from IIT Delhi, concluded that Legal Technology is the path that is on demand and has an excellent scope.
What has been your toughest problem as a business owner and how have you dealt with that?
The legal industry is a very close-knit industry and not being from the legal domain itself was a bit of a disadvantage. Lawyers initially would take time to understand our value editions.
But over time things have improved steadily. Today not only do they wish to collaborate with us but, the number of lawyer registrations at our site has gone up by 150%.
Practices offered by the firm.
There are a lot of varied practices offered by our firm few of them are given below:
Documentation
Litigation
Wills probation
IPR to medical negligence cases
Agreements and Contracts
Arbitration
Consumer Protection
Corporate Finances
Dispute resolutions
Labour Laws
The ultimate goal of all the services is to provide quality service.
What unique approach does your company bring to resolve the ongoing problems?
Individuals and Corporates find it difficult to get credible lawyers in their area or locality and in different cities becomes an uphill task. I have personally met a lot of legal heads of the biggest companies across various sectors, and they have mentioned the same problem.
Moreover, even if, they do there's always the lack of transparency related to fees. Lawyers sometimes overcharge, and the individual won't even know. Eliminating this dilemma is what we aim at. We provide a fixed price to our clients not a single INR is taken, other than what is agreed to.
For every case, our clients & corporates who have filed a case through us get a case manager. In the earlier scenario, clients never get updates on their case & getting to know the case status becomes an uphill task.
We inform our clients on each step of the road, from case filing, hearing dates, updates on the hearing & next hearing dates.
At Lawtendo we ensure that a particular specification is maintained. Supposedly if you have got a divorce case, your case will be handled by a lawyer only, who has expertise in divorce. Similarly, every case is handled by the lawyer whose specific skills follow that domain itself.
You will never find at Lawtendothat a client says that the charges are too high, we have lawyers at all price brackets, and in short, it is more of reverse auctioning.
Brief us on the notable matters handled by the firm.
We have handled NCLT matters of some big builders on PAN India Level. We've also solved a lot of divorces as well as medical negligence cases. We have recovered an amount of 50 Lakhs for our online clients at a 10% rate of interest.
What are your thoughts about the Indian legal system and its problems?
There is a big issue of finding a good lawyer in India considering that he doesn't charge hefty. Also, of course, the slow process or procedure in the entire Indian legal system is a huge issue.
What have been the key factors for your success?
My routine is the very first thing that supports leading a progressive life. I love planning and strategizing things beforehand to avoid last-minute hassle. Of course, my family is important; I am nothing without their support.
I am ever grateful to my team, who is very dedicated and never gets tired. Gurinder and I have always supported each other from the start& always think of new ideas to disrupt the market. I will always be grateful to the efforts of my team who put in 200% every day.
Take through your daily routine.
4:30 am – Wake up
5:00 am – Gym
6:30 – Reading or Blinkist
7:30 am – 8:15 am – Start working from home on emails or have tech meetings with my gurus.
9 am -6 pm – Office
7 pm -8 pm – Calls with family, friends & Co-founder& Dinner 8:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Netflix or Xbox
9:00 pm – 9:30 Pm – Maintain Journal & Sleep
Do you manage to strike a work-life balance or are there still grey areas you'd like to better address? What are your other interests?
I tendto havee a pretty decent work-life balance, and we ensure the same for our team as well. There are no grey areas. I ensure I play football or cricket at least 3-4 times a week.
Obviously, being a startup there are some sleepless nights but,we have tried to keep things as simple as possible. The market is huge, and ourproblem statement is even bigger which is very exciting.
Inan eventful journey like yours, what have been the opportunities and thechallenges?
The legal market excites me – We receive all kinds of enquires in various practice areas. The market is huge; clients & corporates can highly benefit from the services of Lawtendo.
One of the major challenges in the industry isthat clients sometimes find it difficult to have faith in lawyers. Even if,they are suffering they don't want to go down the legal road but, this is reducing as time passes by.
ForthcomingAgenda of Lawtendo
We are planning to establish the largestclient-lawyer network. We will soon be expanding our plans for more cities tosupport people on a wider range.
We havejust started working on AI of contracting which will reduce the need oflawyers, everything will be automated & contract vetting will happen via artificial Intelligence.
We will be providing our users with free templates for their daily use like Employee agreements, Vendor Agreements, MOU's, Founder agreements, etc.
We are slowly focussing on targeting who need virtual legal team handling all their legal requirements, the amount of queries we have got from startups due to negligence in legalities is astonishing. We will be working step by step on each vertical.
Shareyour experience and advice to law aspirants
I found the idea of the start-up in the legal industry is as exciting and overwhelming as it sounds. Many people take it risky as well. I won't completely deny but, you always have the freedom and option of choosing what you want to do or how you want to serve the society. It'sa beautiful industry with a pure joy bringing justice or helping someone with their legal problems.