AdviSME lead Phil Monahan.
One of New Zealand’s largest law firms has launched a technology-driven legal service designed to disrupt the market for small to medium business.
AdviSME is the brainchild of Hamilton-based Tompkins Wake. It uses automation and AI to provide innovative and affordable legal solutions for SMEs.
“Growing businesses need the best advice, support and guidance to remove risk and enable their success,” Tompkins Wake chief executive Jon Calder said.
“That was the genesis of the AdviSME Business Healthcheck – an AI-driven tool that quickly assesses legal risk and identifies hotspots for SMEs.”
Tompkins Wake teamed up with Imagimation School, a digital learning and innovation workplace, to create the Business Healthcheck along with a suite of automated legal documents powered by Automio, ideally suited to SMEs, backed by a human interface of expert lawyers.
“We have shifted from the traditional billable unit approach which doesn’t always fit SME clients,” Calder said.
AdviSME is offering a range of pricing options to suit clients’ needs, including fixed fee and other flexible pricing arrangements including monthly subscriptions.
Users can complete the check in three minutes to gauge the legal health of their business and personal affairs and to view clear recommendations.
The Business Healthcheck recognises patterns based on a user’s response to generate the next applicable question. The questions have been designed by lawyers.
Once the Healthcheck is complete, users are provided a legal risk score and the option to arrange a free, no-obligation meeting with a senior lawyer to review results.
From that discussion the AdviSME team will provide fully costed requirements based on the business’ legal budget.
A valuable consequence of the Business Healthcheck is the data that is collected.
“There is no other similar data that has been collected on SMEs in New Zealand. The information collected will not only be valuable from a marketing perspective but from a local/national government perspective. We will finally have an insight on how robust our SME industry really is.”
“We want to help SMEs strengthen and grow, working with them as trusted advisors to develop legal solutions that remove barriers and risk and accelerate their success and growth,” said AdviSME lead Phil Monahan.
AdviSME is available to SME clients across New Zealand and has four physical locations – Hamilton, Auckland, Tauranga and Rotorua.
