LegalTechTalk Uncovered Ep 17 – Amanda Bell

Transcript

Robert Hanna: Welcome to the Legally Speaking Podcast, LegalTechTalk Uncovered mini-series powered by Clio. Please introduce yourself.

Amanda Bell: Hi, my name is Amanda Bell, and I am co-founder of SeparateSpace.

Robert Hanna: And it’s great to have met you, Amanda. We were very kindly introduced by Legally Speaking Podcast alumni in Sahar Farooqi. It was nice to meet you here.

I think it’s been a great energy, but how have you found your experience?

Amanda Bell: What a brilliant couple of days. I’ve met some really interesting people, heard some very interesting talks. I’ve just done a panel about digitalising justice, which has been good fun.

And we had people from across the world talking about what’s happening in their jurisdictions. So it’s been brilliant, great energy.

Robert Hanna: Good stuff, good stuff. And I think everything that everyone is kind of focusing on and everyone where they’re looking to take that direction, they found some really good collaboration here. I feel there’s a lot of mutual minds and growth mindset people, which is good.

But what are you focusing on currently?

Amanda Bell: So SeparateSpace is a online platform to support people through divorce. So our focus right now, we’ve just launched our products. Our focus is getting out to those people who we can help.

Robert Hanna: I love that. I love that. But let’s dive deeper, right?

Because whenever you’re trying to launch any product, any platform, there’s a challenge for you as your business, but also there’s probably a challenge at the market. So like what’s the one or two things you’ve identified that are really kind of challenging in the legal sector and how are you going about addressing them?

Amanda Bell: Yeah, so I’m a lawyer by background. I spent many years working at Withers, who are market leaders in the family law space. And the reality for most people, when they’re coming across divorce, is that getting a lawyer is completely out of, you know, it’s just not realistic.

The idea of spending a few thousand pounds at the end of every month on a lawyer. So most people are left to navigate what is a really confusing and stressful process alone. And so we have created software which responds to an individual’s circumstances to help them understand what to do and when to do it, so that if they do have a bit of cash for a lawyer, they can use that lawyer really effectively.

Robert Hanna: I like that, I like that. So walk us through like a case study or something hypothetically for someone listening in.

Amanda Bell: Gosh, well, you know, when I got to the age and stage of seeing people in my personal life getting divorced, it’s when it really hit home that, yeah, there’s really important legal issues that you need to understand and navigate and do it properly so that you don’t have a raw deal. Because of course the decisions that you’re making in a divorce are gonna impact you for the rest of your life. But it’s so much more than a legal problem.

You know, it’s a relationship problem. And I’ve seen that in my personal life, where I’ve seen people go through divorce, where I’ve seen behind the scenes, because of course as a lawyer, you’re dealing with just a bit of the process. So with SeparateSpace, we are cross domain.

So we’ve got a child psychologist on board, we’ve got a therapist on board, we’ve got the legal and financial expertise as well, so that we are really a companion for people all the way through. So a lot of our users are people who cannot afford to pay for a lawyer to be by their side through the process. They may have a bit of budget, they may have had a meeting with a lawyer, but mostly they’re navigating it themselves.

And not only do they need support on understanding how on earth you get a valuation for a pension, the fact that a pension even should be included when you’re talking about divorce, but also, okay, I really want to help my kid, how do I do that? You need to tell school, what do you need to tell school? And we can help with all of those things.

So really taking a holistic approach.

Robert Hanna: It’s end to end, isn’t it? Basically a 360, covering everything. And also, like you say, and it’s a very emotional, it’s not a nice time, is it?

And I think to have this kind of platform and supporting end to end is really important. What’s been a standout moment for you at this conference?

Amanda Bell: Oh, I’ve just come off stage talking about access to justice, and we had people from across the world there. So we had someone who’s a founder of LegalTech platform in Africa, helping people get access to lawyers there. Someone that’s doing something really exciting with access to justice in the US.

Someone from Germany who’s working to help SMEs get the legal support they need. And I think just that energy around doing things in a different way is just exciting to have that all in one room.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, I always say energy is everything and it’s so infectious and I’ve just had that throughout. That’s how I’ve been able to do so many of these interviews throughout the two days. I’ve loved all of the conversation, but what are some of the future plans that you’ve got?

Amanda Bell: So with SeparateSpace, this year is all about getting as our message to as many people as possible, getting them onto the platform, getting the feedback as with any tech product, which is the startup mindset is slightly different to the lawyer’s mindset, but we need to get people on, get their feedback, improve as we go. And so it’s just about spreading the word.

Robert Hanna: Absolutely, and on that, where can people find out more about what you’re doing? Are there any websites, any social media handles? We’ll also share them with this episode for you too.

Amanda Bell: Fantastic, thanks. So our website is www.separatespace.co.uk. We have a mighty following on Instagram, lots of engaged people getting kind of reliable information on there, so that’s at SeparateSpace.

And I’m on LinkedIn, Amanda Bell.

There we go, go and check it out folks. Well, Amanda, it’s been an absolute pleasure hosting you on the Legally Speaking Podcast. Wishing you lots of continued success with SeparateSpace and everything that you’re doing.

But from now, from all of us on the show, over and out. Thank you for listening to this week’s episode. If you like the content here, why not check out our world leading content and collaboration hub, the Legally Speaking Club over on Discord. Go to our website, www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com for the link to join our community there.

Over and out.