An experienced professional with expertise in international management and legal counseling, Max Kindler has led large scale multinational groups of companies, steering their legal departments and heading operational business units. As the CEO of incaseof.law, a Viennese-based start-up offering online legal services, Max has revolutionized the legal advisory system for businesses. As the worlds’ first legal department on demand that enables Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), incaseof.law creates access with high quality legal advice that is inexpensive, efficient, and perfectly tailored to operational needs. He is also the co-founder and currently deputy chairman of the Association of Austrian Corporate Lawyers (VUJ). Excerpts from an interview:

Conception of incaseof.law

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises avoid deploying in-house lawyers, since they turn out be too expensive, difficult to manage and impossible to fully utilize in relatively small companies. “However, due to the constantly growing complexity of business transactions and contracts and with increasing intensity of regulations and standards, and the trend towards standardization and internationalization, (all of which are associated with liability risks for the company), SMEs in particular need quickly available and affordable legal support. The firm offers SMEs easy, efficient, and affordable legal advice and services. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI), incaseof.law finds the right lawyer for companies on a case by case and pay per use basis. It can also completely replace the services of a debt collection agency.

incaseof.law’s Services

incaseof.law, based on AI, is a two-sided marketplace for SMEs and lawyers. Most of the legally unaccompanied companies approach legal topics with skepticism, avoid the explanation and search effort regarding legal expertise and thereby worsen their legal position and risk exposure. incaseof.law relieves these companies of the effort in connection with defining the problem and explaining the need for advice, by casting legal areas in product form and thereby significantly improving user friendliness and experience compared to the status quo.

It solves cost ambiguities, while solving practical pain points for lawyers by supporting business development free of charge and, above all, by making the consulting activity itself much more productive through the technology used (for data collection, structuring, research and file creation).

AI in Legal Industry

“Anything that can be automated by AI at a reasonable cost-benefit ratio will undoubtedly be automated, reducing the human aspect to the minimum required by law” observes Max. He adds that technically intelligent processing and analysis of legally relevant documents will increase the support contribution for human lawyers up to 100%. “The lower the proportion of interpretability and of human-ethical and moral relevance, the higher the proportion of legal tech support in the legal advice process will be.”

Challenges Galore

Max cites the need to meet the high-quality demands of those seeking legal advice in an increasingly over-regulated world as one of the main challenges faced in the industry. “There is an increasing need to avoid large administrative (time and financial) resource commitment to the legal advice process, and to acknowledge that technological capabilities are fundamentally revolutionizing the demands on the very traditional and analog legal advice industry.” Particularly in the context of legal advice to companies as opposed to individuals in private matters, we are observing a trend that places the content and quality of advice before the personal relationship with the legal advisor, he adds.

Leadership Traits

“If I could name only one quality here, it would clearly be empathy” adds Max. “It is the key factor to avoid missing out on a true connection between yourself, your co-workers, your partners and your customers. If I were to give one advice it would be to be truly authentic and to hope to be truly interested in all your stakeholders, their needs, their fears and their expectations.”

A Word of Advice

The entrepreneur advices young entrepreneurs to differentiate between judgment and constructive criticism. “Don’t let yourself be judged, as judgment should work to make you feel safe. Watch out for people who judge you and look for people who provide you with criticism as food for thought. There will be 99% of people, corporates and grant institutions not liking what you are up to. Take them as motivators and stick to the other 1%. Run but don’t rush. Be persistent but don’t get dogged,” signs off Max.