The future belongs to digital legal services

Manual legal work is not always useful – especially when it comes to the standardized creation of documents. Fabian Staub, co-founder of CASUS Technologies, explains how organizations can create legal documents.

Mr. Staub, you originally aspired to a career in diplomacy. What sparked your passion for entrepreneurship and self-employment?

Fabian Staub: My last full-time job was actually at the FDFA, where I worked at the Swiss Embassy in Canada. It was a very educational time for me. But I quickly realized that the structures in public administration are not where I can contribute my strengths. This realization ultimately led me to take the step into self-employment.

Based on this insight, you founded CASUS Technologies. What gap in the market did you identify?

Legal work is often very standardized, yet a large part of the work is still done manually. In certain cases, this also makes sense, especially when creativity is required – although even this part is coming under pressure from generative artificial intelligence. In day-to-day legal business, however, manual work is above all risky and inefficient because manually overwriting templates is error-prone and time-consuming. We have recognized that by combining legal logic with software, we can quickly achieve a major impact.

Can you explain the CASUS business model using a classic example?

A typical customer is a legal department that wants to ensure that the company's internal legal expertise is available in the right place at the right time. With CASUS, our customers use artificial intelligence to automate even complex legal documents. This means that the creation of these documents can be delegated to the business. This saves time and prevents errors. One example would be a legal department that automates contract templates so that they can also be used by non-lawyers – to avoid errors and increase efficiency.

You mention legal departments. That sounds like larger companies. Who are your typical customers?

It is true that they are often larger companies – but it doesn't have to be that way. Automation makes particular sense when there are high volumes of documents. Our customers range from small companies with a high volume of contracts to corporations with highly standardized processes. The decisive factor is the volume of documents, not the industry or size of the company. In principle, our customers must already have legal know-how and templates. Industry associations and HR teams also use CASUS because the volume of documents they handle is very high. These groups benefit from the increased efficiency and reduced errors that our software provides.

What kind of contracts are we talking about?

Our software is agnostic when it comes to content, which means that any kind of text that follows a certain logic can be automated. The use cases are very diverse and range from data protection to sales and procurement to employment law documents. Real estate companies, for example, can also use it to design rental contracts.

What was the biggest challenge in founding CASUS?

For a legal tech founder who has never worked as a lawyer and doesn't know how to program, getting the right people on board is a major challenge. The team is everything. We couldn't have gotten off the ground without my co-founder and product manager Céleste Urech and the legal masterminds Florian Stuber and Pierina Janett.

So financing wasn't the biggest challenge?

Of course, financing was an important step. The environment for start-up financing is difficult. It helped that we are well connected.

Could you count on the support of your family?

Yes, that was essential at the beginning. Starting a business means repeatedly encountering closed doors. Thanks to the network of my father, who works as a lawyer, some doors were a little easier to open. Now we can rely on a very broad network, especially on our diversified investors.

“The combination of AI and human expertise is revolutionizing our industry.”

How do you deal with setbacks?

The team is the deciding factor in whether a company like ours can be successful. It is important to give each other the security to try things out and to be fully supported even when things go wrong. Open and critical discussion is essential. We learn from our mistakes and grow from them.

CASUS is not the only no-code solution on the market: how do you stand out from the rest?

CASUS is particularly effective when document creation is delegated to business users, i.e. non-lawyers. Our user experience is clear and concise, and all data remains in Switzerland. Customers appreciate the ease of use and the security of having their data stored locally.

Some might argue that automating documents devalues human expertise. Are these concerns justified?

In certain cases, for example when providing advice during a divorce, the human component can be paramount. However, we fundamentally believe that we can improve legal advice by processing more data more effectively in less time. The human component, strategic and creative advice, will continue to be in demand, but data-based work will be increasingly automated.

So it's important to strike a balance between automation and personal advice...

Many of our customers, especially legal departments, are not used to buying software. That's why we support them from the needs analysis to the roll-out. It's often about change management, which we master together. We help customers optimize their processes and get their employees on board.

What role does artificial intelligence play in your products and how do your customers benefit from it?

Our AI is used primarily in two areas: in the automation of document templates and in the support of template searches. In template automation, the AI ensures that even complex relationships within the customer's compliance framework are recognized. This makes the technology particularly effective. In the template search, the AI helps end users to find the right template by asking targeted questions, which is particularly useful when there are many templates.

How do you ensure that your software is always up to date with the latest legal standards and compliance guidelines?

This is our top priority. Our software processes sensitive data, so it goes without saying that we adhere to the highest data protection and security standards.

How do you see the future of document automation?

The future belongs to digital legal services. Combining in-house expertise with the power of pre-trained language models will determine the process of legal advice and services. The combination of AI and human expertise is revolutionizing our industry.

What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs looking to start their own tech startup?

It is important to team up with colleagues who believe in the vision and are willing to go through difficult times. My advice is not to hesitate for too long and to be prepared to face headwinds and storms time and again. It takes stamina and a willingness to learn from mistakes.

Interview: Maurice Müller
Link to the original article: KMU Today