StreetLawyer Naija is making legal information simpler and more accessible for everyone, just at the click of a button

StreetLawyer Naija is making legal information simpler and more accessible for everyone, just at the click of a button

by | Jul 30, 2021 | Startup Focus

For justice to be done in a democratic society, legal information is considered as one of its essential ingredients.  Legal information is empowering for poor clients seeking access to justice, in their relationships to opponents, to lawyers and to judges. It helps clients to take control and can enhance their bargaining position and Streetlawyer Naija is working to make this possible for Nigerians.

Generally, people tend to fear what they don’t understand and that also applies to the laws of the country as well. A lot of Nigerians perceive the law as confusing and would rather not attend any court proceedings. People seem to perceive the law as confusing and would rather not have anything to do with the court, and StreetLawyer Naija is working to change that perception, as the more people understand their rights, the more the legal system gets better. 

StreetLawyer Naija is a platform that started out in 2019 with the aim of enlightening and educating Nigerians of their rights in the most simplified words. The platform covers content on topics that revolve around Business Law, Cyber Law, Laws on Election, Property Law, Wills, etc

The Team…

Onyinyechi Ezeoke started the platform by reaching out to lawyers within her network who wanted to be a part of the team with her. Two years down the line, StreetLawyer Naija has grown to a team of 11 lawyers who, although in active practice, are dedicated to contributing content to the platform. Currently, all lawyers on the team work as volunteers and interestingly, the team has had applications from other people that want to be a part of the team, and even on a volunteer basis. This has given a certain validation to what the team is trying to do.

On the side of feedback, the team has gotten quite a good number of positive feedback from their readers, as they get answers to their questions through the content on the platform. For instance, a good number of Nigerians do not know that there is something called the breach of promise to marry and that there are legal consequences to such breach. You cannot just promise to marry someone and then change your mind like NEPA (If you know, you know). This is not just a law in theory and StreetLawyer Naija wrote about it.

Monetization of Information…

From the beginning, the plan was never to monetize access to legal information on the platform but rather to make it a free for all. Recently, the team was able to get google adsense on the platform. With increased reach and engagement on the platform, Onyinye believes that lawyers working for StreetLawyer Naija will be able to get compensated.

The Future…

StreetLawyer Naija has been on for 2 years now and in that time, the platform has been able to help answer the legal questions of a lot of Nigerians. ‘We are working on an app for StreetLawyer Naija and we intend to launch before the end of this year’, says Onyinyechi. The app will have features where users can access the services of a lawyer closest to them. The long term plan is to become the go-to platform for Nigerians to get answers to all their legal related questions around any topic.

People need to remove that idea that the law does not work. Granted that there are times when things in the system don’t go as planned, but that doesn’t invalidate the other times that the law does work. With Streetlawyer Naija, knowledge of your legal rights is going to be a click away. 

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The Workchop Conversation with Joseph Badru, Senior Product Manager

The Workchop Conversation with Joseph Badru, Senior Product Manager

by | Jul 28, 2021 | People

The Workchop Conversations is an ongoing series of conversations with different players in both the law, tech & justice tech space, sharing about their work and innovative role within the space, promoting access to justice in Africa.

For this week, we have Joseph Badru, a trained Lawyer, who has transitioned into the Tech Ecosystem to become a thorough-bred Agile Product Manager with experience in ICT4D. In the past 4 years, Joseph has successfully managed 15 Tech Products while providing innovation and digital transformation consulting services to different clients. He is always excited to engage in new challenges and build products that users love. He volunteers as the Lead Organizer for Product Tank Abuja and Abuja Legal Hackers. He is also the Host and Lead Curator of the PM Magic Podcast, where he discusses tips, tricks and strategies to get ahead in Product Management. He writes about his learnings, courses and journey regularly on LinkedIn.

Tell us briefly how the transition was, from being a lawyer to becoming immersed in the tech ecosystem, even as far as leading tech communities like Decagon and becoming a Product Manager. Was there anything in particular that spurred your interest in the tech ecosystem?

My interest in Tech started growing even before I got into Law School. I realized that all the ideas and interests that excited me had a major component of digital technology in them. I didn’t know there was such a career path called Product Management at the time, but I wanted to get into the ecosystem. Two weeks after my Bar exams, I got a job as a Brand and Communications Associate in a Tech Company, where I was required to create and devise strategies and content for oral and written communications for the Company. It was during my brief time in this role that I discovered the role of a Product Manager. It picked my interest and the rest is history. The thought of managing the process of building digital products from just ideas to live products people can use made product management so fascinating.

As a lawyer, product manager and now a COO, what would you say your greatest challenge has been? Considering how rigid the legal profession can be.

It was not easy transitioning because I was moving from a very technical role to another field that was really technical, that is, from Law into tech. I had to really learn a lot and learn on the job, I was expected to deliver as someone who already had some sort of experience and exposure. I didn’t know a lot, I had to check a lot of things on Google even during meetings but I also had really helpful colleagues who made the whole process easier even though they still used me to catch cruise.

With all your experiences from leading tech communities, being a Product manager, tech lawyer etc, what one experience would you say has shaped you so far and why?

I would say the experience I had starting a career in tech and product management, having to learn the ropes. I had really supportive colleagues, even as they knew I didn’t know a lot, they helped me through the process. Although, they could be mean a few times, lol but it was all part of an interesting moment that built a kind of foundation for all the things I have learnt so far in my journey.

You lead Product Tank Abuja and Legal Hackers Abuja, with the experiences you have, what would be your advice to lawyers interested in the tech space?

My advice to lawyers who are interested in tech would be, don’t take the backseat, don’t look it at it from the sidelines, find something to do within tech. Do your law stuff but also get real domain knowledge. Volunteer to do some things in tech, decide to learn something that may not be in your regular legal work. Stick in your head into it and understand how it all works, the process itself. Be active in tech.

What is your go-to app for staying productive?

My Go-To app for staying productive is my Google Calendar and Microsoft To-Do. They help me get work done and track my progress.

Would you either read a book or listen to a podcast or watch a YouTube video? What book or podcast or YouTube video would it be?

I really love books but I have not been reading enough of them. I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos about Product Management and Faith. I also listen to Podcasts quite often.

Finally, and a funny question, if you had a time machine, would you travel to the future or back to the past? If it is the past, what would you change? If it is the future, what would you like to know?

Seeing as I already know everything that has happened in the past, I would prefer to go into the future to see my progress with my product management. I would also like to know what I eventually did with my law degree. It would be really interesting to have that kind of time machine.

Who would you like to answer these questions?

Phillips Nwachukwu and Adeboro Odunlami

Lawteract – The legal marketplace connecting lawyers to clients, and with a budget.

Lawteract – The legal marketplace connecting lawyers to clients, and with a budget.

by | Jul 23, 2021 | Startup Focus

Lawteract is on a mission to enable access to lawyers and legal solutions much easier, efficient and cost-effective. A digital marketplace will significantly improve and expand the delivery of legal services and Lawteract is building just that, as a mobile application. Let’s just say, like Amazon but for legal services. Taiwo Oni built Lawteract to bridge the gap between the demand for and the supply of legal services. Using Lagos as a case study for his user research, Taiwo found out that 92% of Lagosians do not have the most basic form of legal protection for various reasons including issues of proximity to law firms and the high cost of accessing legal services.

With the evolution of technology and the disruption of legal services delivery, clients can now access on-demand lawyers for their different projects and legal task. Through the Lawteract app, users get access to unique features that include : in-app chat, file sharing, services display, lawyers verification using the Supreme Court Number and NIN, This way, no one can take up a false identity of being a lawyer and it helps to eliminate quackery. Another interesting feature of the app is that clients are able to set a budget for their requested task, so lawyers can take up a client’s request if they are comfortable with the budget of the client.

The Beginning…

The Lawteract app started out as a law blogging site in 2018, with articles on different areas of law. After his service year, Taiwo decided to upgrade the platform from just a blogging site to a place where users could search for lawyers, draft documents, and review documents. With a few challenges and good feedback, the platform evolved to a mobile app for ease of access and navigation. It is also good to note that right before the launch, the soon-to-be mobile application had about 300 clients on the waiting list. All that was left was the onboarding of lawyers to commence the process of demand meeting supply as it should be in a marketplace. 

Beta test…

Before launching the platform, we did a beta user experience test, says Taiwo. About 50 lawyers and clients were invited to test out the platform and we got good feedback about the user interface and user experience of the app, the . The other feedback we got from the beta users was around the chat system, and we already had plans to look into that, at the time.

Product Validation & Fundraising...

In the journey for fundraising, Lawteract has applied to be part of some incubation and accelerator programmes. Some of the prorgammes include the HiiL Justice Accelerator, Google for Startups Africa, Kenya Afritech Innovation Challenge and Lawteract scaled to the final stages of all of them.

‘Although, we got regret mails from HiiL, that was because we were not fit for the acceleration program but for the incubation program, and not because our product concept was flawed. We see that as a win. For Google Startups for Africa, over 4000 startups applied, and we made the final 40, though not the final 15 and that’s a small win too. I am sure we will be applying at the next call for applications and we are going to break in. I am certain that we would not have been able to make the final stages of these applications if our product idea or business model was seen as flawed’, says Taiwo.

The long term game…

Lawteract is working towards building traction and once that is achieved, the company plans to launch in other countries in Africa, like Gambia, Cameroon, Ghana and South Africa. The company aims to create an African legal digital service marketplace, a centralization of African legal services. ‘I know, the amount of my personal funds that have gone into the development of Lawteract app. I could as well have invested that money in other ventures, but I am not doing this just to make profit but to set a trend, to change the narrative about the lucrativeness of legal technology’, says Taiwo.

With Lawteract, users have lawyers at their fingertips, and you can check out the app on the Google Play Store or the Apple Store.

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Q & A With Faith Obafemi on Getting Started in Space Law & Technology

Q & A With Faith Obafemi on Getting Started in Space Law & Technology

by | Jul 17, 2021 | People

Faith Obafemi is a tech lawyer with a focus on blockchain, cryptocurrency, emerging technologies and Space technologies. Faith helps projects navigate the compliance maze for novel technologies through Future-Proof Intelligence (FINT) where she serves as Head of Strategy. On the research front, she presented her paper on ‘Decentralized Governance: The Future of Global Cooperation?’ at the 10th Annual Cambridge International Law Conference; and is a 2021 Tech Policy Fellow at the Tony Blair Institute, where she will research the use of blockchain and cryptocurrency in space.

You have always been the go-to person for anything on Blockchain law, so what sparked your interest in Space Law

I’m still into Blockchain. I haven’t abandoned it. My main interest is actually emerging technologies and since there is more than one emerging technology, I decided to gain competence one at a time. Now that I have a foothold in Blockchain, my next area of interest is Space technologies and I got interested in it because of its futuristic potential. I’m the kind of person that likes to ensure my career stays future proof because history has shown us that humans are naturally curious and love exploring. Even now that we have finished exploring the earth, the next logical place would be the galaxy. I want to be at the frontier when things are happening, that’s the kind of person I am. When breaking into a new space, I like to link the new knowledge to an area that I am already familiar with, that way I don’t start from the scratch. In this context of knowledge, I get to link my knowledge of Blockchain with Space Technology.

Who are those that you look up in the Space Technology space in Nigeria and Africa?to that are also into Space law in Nigeria and Africa as a whole?

Anne Agi, Etim Effiong, Simone Haganaba: a space lawyer in the US. Lecturer at Arizona state university.

I saw your post about becoming a Tech Policy Associate at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, right, could you tell us more about that?

So, I am still trying to convince myself that it’s actually real because I submitted my proposal on the last day and I was convinced nobody was going to get back to me. So, you can imagine my surprise when I got an acceptance mail as a Fellow. As I stated, earlier, I like to link an area I already know about and one I am trying to acquire knowledge about, so before I sent in my proposal, I saw Elon Musk’s post about bitcoin in space, how we could use it in space? So, that made me realize that there is actually a possibility of using blockchain in the crypto space. So when I read the topics they had priority interest in, once I saw smart contracts, I started looking for a way to get a topic related to smart contracts.

Congratulations! Based on your topic, what are the possibilities of smart contracts and cryptocurrency being used as a legal monetary engine for space?

This is what I will be spending the next few months trying to answer. Let me give some background on that. Vacationing in space may look like something that is not going to happen or something that is impossible. But if you have been following the news and updates from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and from NASA and Jeff Bezos .You will realize that this is something that is going to be a reality very soon. Soon, we are going to need to start answering questions like will we need a visa to visit space and who will issue this visa? The Outer Space Treaty says no one government governs space but it is the common heritage of mankind. This means no government denomination can be adopted as no single country is in control of space. How then will space native transactions happen? 

This means we need to create space native digital currency but would it be collateralized? If we are to collateralize it would be by the sun or moon? Will it be algorithm backed like bitcoin? These are some of the questions I hope to answer in the coming months.

For lawyers or non-lawyers interested in  Space law, any tips, courses they should take, books they should read or communities they should be a part of? 

Join communities like Space Generation Advisory Council. Get books and reports to read on Space Law. I am also currently reading, Fundamentals of Business and Space Economics. I would also say to share your knowledge, write articles or collaborate with people to write articles and reports. Follow relevant handles on Twitter like United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Turn on the notifications, attend events.

Finally and a funny question,  what was the last TV show you watched and why?

I watch YouTube videos and I also love Korean and Chinese series, I am addicted to them. The last series I watched was The Imperial Coroner.

6 Nigerian Startups Emerge as Finalists at the Innovating Justice Challenge for the Innovation Hub, West Africa

6 Nigerian Startups Emerge as Finalists at the Innovating Justice Challenge for the Innovation Hub, West Africa

by | Jul 16, 2021 | Startup Focus

“You don’t raise money to start, you raise money to grow”. “Do not sacrifice profit for growth”. “I understand failure but I just don’t want to be fluent in it”.

Those were some of the words from Fola Olatunji-David and Funkola Odeleye, the speakers at the just concluded pitch event of the Innovation Hub, West Africa that also doubled as the fourth edition of its quarterly event : Round Pegs in Square Holes – The Justice Startups Edition. The event had the speakers share their stories in a Pechakucha style for the first session of the event called : Their Stories, Their Journey.

The second half of the event, termed : Their Pitches, Their Dreams, had 6 justice startups pitch their innovative solutions to the audience. The startups had earlier gone through the accelerator’s selection process that included its call for applications, interviews and a 5-day bootcamp before being admitted into the accelerator.

The criteria for selection of the startups were :

  • Innovative justice initiatives that were making significant social impact
  • Ventures with a business model that enabled them to become financially sustainable
  • Ventures with a good business model and the ambition to scale locally and globally.
  • Ventures led by a motivated and strong team that included experienced and inspiring founder(s).

Meet The Justice Startups…

Avocat, co-founded by William Chidube is a mobile app that helps Nigerians get quick legal aid in emergencies. How do you legally protect yourself during a violation whether its unlawful arrest, wrongful ejection or domestic violence, except by getting a lawyer on the scene as quick as possible and this is where Avocat comes in. The app is currently operational in Plateau State and plans to expand to other states

House Africa. After losing 18,000 dollars to land fraud, Ikokpu Ndifreke and his cofounder, Uba Nnamdi, went ahead to build a platform that uses blockchain to solve the problem of verification for land title ownership in Africa. The startup helps financial institutions and individuals validate properties before investment or purchase thereby mitigating fraud and reducing risk.

Legalbox , co-founded by Damilola Yakubu is focused on providing simple legal solutions and collections for everyday transactions and business. Through Legalbox, digital natives are able to create contract, create invoices and collect payments on their contracts anywhere and anytime. Fun fact, we had an IG Live with Damilola earlier this year where he shared with us the interesting things that he and his team were doing at Legalbox.

Rendra Foundation was built with the aim of providing inclusive finance for low income and forcibly displaced women, giving them access to affordable, financial services, micro-credits and financial literacy education. Currently, Rendra Foundation has impacted 575 women, reached 5 communities, had 153 women-owned businesses access micro-credits and disbursed N3.3m in its Micro-credit scheme.

Think Help Restore (THR) Media uses new media and technology solutions to help survivors of gender based violence break free, find shelter and recover. Through its app, survivors get access to an ecosystem of psychosocial support, health. security, legal aid, economic empowerment with the services provided anonymously. Through their platform, 2500 women have accessed advocacy content.

Unsub Africa is a digital platform that connects victims of sexual and gender based violence to stakeholders working in the space. It also provides a system for activity and incidence tracking while housing a resource center. Some of its features are Incidence reporting and alert systems, Incidence management dashboard, Victim management & communication tool, Resource center for relevant documents & contents.

The winning startups will be announced at a later date. The startups will be admitted into the 4-month HiiL Justice Accelerator Programme as well as receive €10,000 in non-equity funding, among other benefits.