Rocket Lawyer raises $18.5M for legal assistance

Need to create legal documents? Need them checked? Maybe you just need anytime consultation

Rocket Lawyer, an online legal document service, announced Wednesday that it has raised $18.5 million in growth funding led by August Capital with participation from Google Ventures and Investor Growth Capital (IGC).

David Hornik, general partner at August Capital, has joined the company’s board of directors.

“As a former attorney and venture capitalist,” said Hornik, “the value proposition for small business owners and individuals is truly outstanding and very disruptive, as Rocket Lawyer drives down costs to benefit both the consumer and the local attorney.”

For the individual, Rocket Lawyer has everything covered, from bankruptcy to divorce and real estate dealings to traffic violations. On the business side, contracts, consulting, licensing, patents, taxes and more are all legal areas where the startup is trying to make things easier for its clients.

What the company actually does varies on a case-by-case basis. In some instances, its clients might only need to create legal documents or to have them reviewed by expert attorneys. In this way, Rocket Lawyer has something in common with First to File (FTF), an IP document management company that secured a much smaller funding round back in May.

Going a step further, Rocket Lawyer now gives its clients access to on-call attorneys. After all, there’s nothing better suited to legal services in the digital age than anytime consultation.

Rocket Lawyer provides two different kinds of legal plans, depending on whether the client's needs are personal or professional.

The personal plan costs either $20 per month or $120 per year and the professional plan costs either $40 per month or $300 per year. (The yearly plans are the bargains, but they require the full-year commitment, whereas monthly plans can be canceled at anytime.) Both plans come with the same kinds of tools and services, but the professional version includes access to the more business-oriented offerings in addition to personal needs.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco, Rocket Lawyer is free to try for both businesses and individuals.

As part of a growth-stage funding round, the new capital will be used to fuel Rocket Lawyer’s further expansion.