Finding the right lawyer that fits one’s needs and budget can sometimes be a daunting task of sieving through endless recommendations from your friends and contact list. This is exactly what Malaysian startup CanLaw.Asia hopes to achieve - 'By providing greater Access to Justice' in a simple and effective manner.

Founded by Loo Soon Yi, Edwin Lee, and Amir Rozlan, CanLaw is a lawyer-discovery platform that aims to bridge the gap between lawyers and members of the public. Think of it like a service marketplace for lawyers. 

To start off, users first choose a category from an automated drop down list on the website. They then complete a more extensive set of fields that appear based on the category they first selected. 

Once the form is submitted, users will then receive up to 5 free lawyer quotes based on the information they provided, all automatically done by the platform.

CanLaw also hopes to bring more business to lawyers in the long run. Due to the strict publicity rules that govern their profession, lawyers have very limited marketing means to reach the public in today's world. 

Through CanLaw, not only can these lawyers gain greater discoverability to the general public, the platform is also intelligent enough to recommend the right form tailored to users based on their specified needs. 

"In the next few years, we hope to be able to help all lawyers in Malaysia gain online presence thereby improving access of justice for the people of Malaysia. We want to be synonymous with finding legal services. Every person looking for a lawyer in Malaysia should think, “I’ll will just CanLaw it.”" - mentioned Pang Jo Fan, Head of Marketing & Communications at CanLaw

CanLaw isn't alone in this space. Today, more and more companies like TinkBig Venture funded Burgielaw, AsiaLawNetwork, DragonLaw have also recognized the opportunities available and entered the space, some even earlier than CanLaw.

Competition however may not necessarily be a bad thing. Seeing that heavy regulations are currently unfavourable against many, the emergence of these new startups could potentially lead to a positive shift in the industry as a whole.

As of today, CanLaw is running on venture investment funds provided by Brickfields Asia College (BAC) and previously Cradle Fund's CIP150 Grant programme. This will allow them to continue growing the company while keeping their service free of charge.

The team hopes monetize the business by charging a nominal administration fee to lawyers who use the platform in the future. As of now, they are currently speaking with the Bar Council to seek approval on this matter. The team also mentioned that their services will continue to remain free to the public.

That being said, CanLaw's aim for now is to focus on improving the quality of their service and to grow their service to serve more people and lawyers across the country. It will certainly be an uphill battle from here on, but definitely for the better.

CanLaw also has always had regional aspirations, as our URL (www.canlaw.asia) suggests. That said, we are going to take it one step at a time. Our current plan is to focus on the Malaysian market: we aim to become the platform of choice for lawyer discovery in Malaysia before we attempt to enter the regional market.