Dealing with lawyers is frustrating. They lecture but don’t listen. They’ll tell you what you ‘need’ but aren’t interested in what you ‘want’. And you never know if you’re getting valuable help or are being taken for a ride. After 25+ years of practicing law, our founder developed OlyverApp because he, like you, thinks the legal system sucks. We’re committed to doing what we can to make it more user-friendly for entrepreneurs. Below we explain how OlyverApp solves some of the many problems entrepreneurs have with attorneys.
Lawyers should add value to your business. It’s how you know you’re getting your money’s worth.
| The Problem |
OlyverApp's Solution |
| Entrepreneurs often ask easy questions that have straightforward answers. But many lawyers make simple things complicated; it’s how they’re trained to think (and, for the hourly billers, how they make money). Attorneys are also taught to view themselves as the sole repositories of all legal-related information as though there’s no such thing as “Google” or “the internet”. |
OlyverApp not only gives concise explanations of basic business concepts – informing without overwhelming – we also help entrepreneurs understand when they really need lawyers. We make our users more knowledgeable entrepreneurs and more confident decision makers. So you can skip the expensive lectures and get things done. |
| Lawyers should add value to your business. It’s how you know you’re getting your money’s worth. And attorneys can be indispensable when they’re actually “practicing law”. Unfortunately, some insist that everything they do is “practicing law” and can only be done by counsel. |
Wrong! You need an attorney if you’re in litigation, need help with a patent, or have a securities issue. But a lot of routine matters – like those we handle on OlyverApp – don’t require legal expertise. You wouldn’t pay an insurance deductible to have your doctor put a band-aid on a small cut. The same logic applies to lawyers. And our policy is simple: We stay in our lane. If you need a lawyer, we’ll tell you. |
| Lawyers, especially those at big firms who bill hourly, write long, wordy documents so they can charge more. They think entrepreneurs will see a giant stack of paperwork and assume they’re protected from everything. But that indecipherable paperwork typically contains information you need to run your business. Every time you call for an explanation of what documents drafted for your business mean you get another bill. |
The templates and documents we prepare are easy to use and understand. It’s your business. They're your documents. You wouldn’t buy a car you couldn’t figure out how to drive, would you? Why should your contracts and other key documents be any different? |
| Law may be the only industry that displays so little interest in what clients want. Attorneys typically do a lot more telling you what you need than listening. As a result, entrepreneurs often feel ignored or misunderstood. |
Our Founder has been listening to entrepreneurial clients for decades: They want to be heard and informed. They want to be better, more confident decision makers. They want to know when it’s time to spend money on attorneys and when a matter doesn’t require counsel. They want lawyers who add value to their businesses. OlyverApp was developed to address YOUR wants. |
| How did the legal industry get so screwed up? It refuses to modernize. Ethical rules were developed decades ago for a manufacturing economy when access to information was so limited that knowledge itself was a commodity. The people who run the industry today – big firms, state bars, some influential Plaintiff’s attorneys – don’t want reform because it threatens their prestige and profitability. They see the internet, AI, and new technologies as a threat, not an opportunity for lawyers and clients alike. And much like the U.S. auto industry in the 1970s, when it was faced with Japanese competitors building more fuel efficient and reliable cars, the law's gilded class opposes any change no matter how beneficial it might be to consumers. They claim the reluctance to modernize is about “public protection”. That's BS. They're milking a dated system for all it's worth while they still can. |
The good news is that, as with the auto industry, overwhelming need for vital services will eventually force a serious regulatory overhaul, especially considering that 90% (that's right . . . 90%!) of Americans can’t afford a lawyer for the basics (divorces, evictions, etc.). Cartels are inherently unstable economically (see, OPEC). These entrenched interests are powerful, wealthy, and not going down without a fight, but they're living on borrowed time. It’s a battle worth fighting, one reformers will eventually win, and OlyverApp is committed to seeing it through. |
Important caveat: This isn't a screed against lawyers, most of whom are dedicated, hard-working, and trying (like you) to make ends meet while doing good work for their clients. They're not the bad guys. It's a screed against certain entrenched interests within the legal industry aggressively resisting changes they believe hurt their bottom lines. For example, the American Bar Association has already blocked publication of articles advocating for innovation while appointing anti-reform activists to committees supposedly dedicated to promoting access to justice. One influential plaintiff's counsel who only charges contingency fees argued against meaningful industry change because his clients aren't priced out of the market. (So screw everyone else.) Another attorney claimed - somehow with a straight face - that certain programs to expand access to justice would result in lawyers being replaced by (and we're not making this up) cyborgs. A state bar president recently suggested having lawyers take more free and low fee cases; i.e., everyone else in the profession should do more for less so this lawyer doesn't have to change a practice model which has obviously been profitable.
This biggest problem with the justice system is the small cabal that runs it, not with the rank and file lawyers doing the hard work.
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