{"id":23358,"date":"2018-03-28T10:03:37","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T10:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legalgeek.co\/?p=23358"},"modified":"2018-03-28T10:03:37","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T10:03:37","slug":"postcard-from-argentina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legalgeek.co\/postcard-from-argentina\/","title":{"rendered":"Postcard from Argentina"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our new series, Legal Geek speaks to members of the legal community from outside the #LegalTech heartlands. Our first\u00a0postcard comes\u00a0<\/em>from Argentina.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn Argentina, the legal industry is really traditional and gaining access to information is not easy for clients,\u201d explains Juan Astibia, the co-founder and practice leader of LegalTech start-up MODO.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf asked by clients how cases are progressing, lawyers only say things like \u2018everything is OK\u2019, or \u2018the case is moving forward\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou tend to see lawyers hiding information from clients. It\u2019s not how I would want information to be managed if I were the client.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started MODO we wanted to be different and to be able to say to our clients \u2018you can access your case here\u2019 and \u2018you can see how it\u2019s all going here\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

This desire to be different is what led Astibia \u2013 a Deloitte lawyer for 12 years in Buenos Aires \u2013 to tear himself away from big corporate law and start his own firm.<\/p>\n

\"Juan

Juan Astibia, MODO Co-Founder & Practice Leader<\/p><\/div>\n

Guiding Astibia and his MODO team into new waters was a determination that lawyers needed to be more accountable and open with their clients.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur aim was to reengineer professional practice and be very close to our clients because that\u2019s what other law firms in Argentina weren\u2019t offering,\u201d explained Astiba. \u201cWe wanted to be available by phone, by email, and to be able to adapt to their meetings and timings, which is very important for them. This approach we combined with the principle of keeping things as simple as possible.<\/p>\n

Before setting up MODO, Astibia had been responsible for building the Tax Controversy Practice at Deloitte in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was at Deloitte, we did start to discuss changes and how software could help us do this but I realised that I couldn\u2019t implement all the changes I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March 2015, MODO was founded along with Astibia\u2019s fellow Deloitte colleagues Juan Manuel de Cabo, Martin J\u00e1ndula and Luis Mar\u00eda Flores Gimenez, with the name MODO reflecting the new way the quartet would approach legal services in the Argentine market [\u2018modo\u2019 meaning \u2018way\u2019 in Spanish].<\/p>\n

The companies\u2019 three guiding principles are to \u2018be close, be simple and be smart.\u2019 It\u2019s an approach which has brought more than 50 clients in three years and allowed the company to grow to 15 people in all (10 lawyers, 2 engineers, and 3 student interns). MODO’s operations are supported by technology, namely MODO Share \u2013 a platform that enables MODO\u2019s clients to access real-time information about their projects in a confidential and secure way and to communicate with the lawyers assigned to their case directly.<\/p>\n

This year, MODO are taking technology and law to the next level in Argentina by creating a new business division, MODO Tech, which offers integrated LegalTech solutions to existing clients and other companies.<\/p>\n

In an under-developed LegalTech market, MODO’s approach is truly disruptive and they don’t have any designs of slowing down either with Astibia’s eyes trained on becoming the LegalTech market leader in\u00a0Argentina and in South America at large.<\/p>\n

At Legal Geek, we love postcards. If you do too and want to communicate with us via postcard, drop us a line at\u00a0Legal Geek, The Hatch, 37 Heneage St, London E1 5LJ. We will pin all our postcards to our noticeboard at the 2018 Legal Geek Conference!<\/em><\/p>\n

Legal Geek Conference<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n