Marketplaces bring hiring into the future

A Conversation with EJ Lawless for the HR Tech GTM podcast

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EJ: It sounds like you're creating a category. There are people who start their own law

practices, but it seems like something people do later on after they have a few decades

of experience. You're building awareness for lawyers that this is something they can do

and then helping to create social proof and education about how to do that. Then a

community to support?

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Raad: That's pretty spot on. It is a different category. It's building into this internet

economy around delivering services online. It's around building your online profile

reputation versus your offline, in-person reputation.

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I think we're doing a good job of signing up lawyers that never really considered this a

real possibility. People look at us and question how big the market is for lawyers that

are actually freelancers. We have no idea how many lawyers in full-time jobs right

now are looking at us and considering that to be a real possibility.

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If anything, after COVID, it taught a lot of professionals that just because you have a

full-time salary doesn't mean you're guaranteed a job. You can get fired at any point in

any time and everything can be gone. Post pandemic, it’s viewed as a more riskier bet

trying than diversifying, or trying to build out a book of customers.

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It’s less risky than someone saying-

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I'm going to not just be with one company for 10 years. I'm going to work with five or six

companies at once. I'm going to build up my reputation so that can speak for itself.

And I'll get hired in the future instead of just working under one brand and one law firm.

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By doing more than one practice area, you can diversify your skillset and be more

marketable. We already know the future is going to be moving everything to digital,

and to the internet.

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We hear about all this stuff happening with web3 and the metaverse, and that's all

great- but who's innovating around work? What does that look like in a web3 world?

We're already changing that as it is. When you join Lawtrades and your profile is

approved, you can get hired within the same day. We've seen people get hired within

minutes.

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That's a very different process than going on LinkedIn and browsing through jobs and

submitting your resume and waiting around for days, and talking with a recruiter- or

going through a couple of rounds of interviews. It's really old school. Vertical

marketplaces bring hiring into the future. It creates opportunities for independent

professionals, way faster, in a way more predictable way.

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Now payments are seamless. Now there's a dashboard. Now there's spend

predictability. They're not wasting time sifting through resumes and posting jobs and

going through recruiters, it's a direct connection. It'll be interesting to see that grow

and play out. It's a peek into the future of work.

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I know everyone throws around the word, future of work, but we're actually doing it.