Counselurdocs Halves Shareholder Agreement Time with Gavel

Sukhi Dhillon Alberga is the founder of Bridging Legal Solutions, a multidisciplinary law firm in Canada. Her firm specializes in business and health law, working with startups and businesses, including healthcare businesses. Her firm provides a unique combination of legal, human resources, and accounting support–the first of its kind in Canada. 

Sukhi is also the creator of Counselurdocs, a legal tech platform built with Gavel technology, that automates the creation of important legal agreements for businesses. 

What is Counselurdocs?

Counselurdocs is a platform that allows small businesses and startups to DIY their shareholder agreements. It’s designed to make crucial legal documents accessible to businesses with limited budgets, helping them expand while reducing legal costs. Sukhi's mission with Counselurdocs is rooted in access to justice and providing quality legal solutions in a cost-effective manner.

Counselurdocs is both a B2C and a B2B platform. On the B2C side, it provides an affordable alternative to drafting shareholder agreements to startups, with the expertise and backing that come with a lawyer-built product approved by the Canadian Law Societies (regulatory bodies).

Users can go into the platform, complete the required questionnaire, and receive an automated shareholder agreement. While it is a DIY product, it provides explanations, guidance, and warnings, like a built-in lawyer going through the document with you. 

On the B2B side, Counselurdocs also works with law firms who want to use the product to train junior associates. The product provides them with critical thinking skills and tailored guidance to learn how to draft complex legal documents. Law schools are also interested in partnering with the platform to train new graduates on key transactional concepts. 

Why Gavel?

Sukhi began using Gavel during the COVID-19 pandemic when she recognized the growing need for more affordable legal services. Many law firms in Canada faced challenges adapting to remote work, and she saw an opportunity to innovate. 

After exploring various options, including building something from scratch using Python, Sukhi chose Gavel because it provided a solid foundation for creating the document automation system she envisioned. Specifically, Gavel’s flexibility and ability to be tailored to her specific needs impressed Sukhi. She was able to build on the existing Gavel platform to create Counselurdocs.

According to Sukhi, “I couldn’t have done it if Gavel wasn’t built the way it was” - an incredible testament to the power of Gavel. 
Gavel’s end-to-end platform, including the ability to create client-facing intake, incorporate complex logic into forms, and integrate with DocuSign to collect e-signatures (among many other features) makes it a great option for automating and creating complex legal documents. 

While Sukhi built the product herself, Gavel's support team played a key role in helping her customize the platform and bring her vision to life. She sings the highest praises of the team and shared a story of how one of the members of the support team stayed up with her into the late hours of the night to help her build Counselurdocs. “The team is amazing, [and] there’s a couple of them . . .they’re all great!”

The Benefits

Counselurdocs and Gavel have been instrumental in furthering Sukhi’s goal of access to justice and providing affordable legal services to new businesses. In fact, it was only the third legal tech company approved by the Law Society of Ontario. 

Notably, the product builds trust with users by delivering a lawyer-supported and built product. While it doesn’t take away clients from Sukhi’s existing law firm business, the businesses she’s able to help through the platform may return to her for ongoing services as they continue to grow and scale and need more tailored legal services. 

For law firms, Counselurdocs has been well-received and successful in serving as an easy-to-use training platform for shareholders' agreements. 

Counselurdocs has also helped reduce the time it takes to draft complex shareholder agreements by 50%. Sukhi explained that “Shareholder agreements are very complex…and can affect several, like estate planning, succession planning, taxes,” and it’s impressive that she was able to use Gavel to automate and make the drafting of such an important and complex document more efficient.  

The Future of Counselurdocs

Sukhi plans to expand the platform’s offerings to include more legal documents such as NDAs and other business-related agreements. Sukhi also foresees continued growth in partnerships with law firms and academic institutions, where her platform can be used to train junior lawyers and law students in drafting enforceable contracts. As legal tech continues to evolve, Counselurdocs is positioned to be at the forefront of accessible and innovative legal solutions.

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