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Los Angeles March 14, 2001
Internet World Diary
What's new on the floor
Who's zooming who? Perhaps my best meeting of the day was with a startup called LegalZoom.com (www.legalzoom.com). I admit that as a former attorney, I am a sucker for this stuff. That aside, it's definitely worth a look. LegalZoom offers straightforward legal services for basic needs. They help businesses incorporate, form limited liability corporations, and apply for a trademark or a copyright. They also offer personal services such as wills, living wills, uncontested divorce, and prenuptial agreements.
All of these things are forms that haven't changed in ages, so you could do it yourself if all that legal jargon that tripped up my career wasn't in there. That's where LegalZoom comes in. They get the necessary info from you to complete the forms and then charge you eminently reasonable fees (from $29 for a living will to $325 for a full LLC setup plus filing fees associated with the procedure) to file it properly (often another hurdle). They promise a 48-hour delivery and can do it more quickly if necessary (of course, LegalZoom can't promise how fast the government will get around to processing it once it's filed).
These guys aren't trying to be cyberlawyers, but they cut out of the process attorneys who charge high fees for routine things. The company has some smart people behind it: Its founders are from a couple of the top firms in the country, and Robert Shapiro (one of O.J.'s lawyers) is also a co-founder, although he's not involved in the day-to-day running of the business.
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