The company behind an online service which promises to ‘democratise’ legal advice for small businesses has appointed administrators, it emerged this week. According to a notice in the London Gazette, Lawbit Ltd appointed administrators from Antony Batty & Co LLP on 24 September.

The company’s subscription service, LawBite, continues to operate and provide legal advice through the Solicitors Regulation Authority-regulated firm Lawbriefs. According to its website, ‘the lawyers and barristers available through our Platform (we call them LawBriefs) are fully qualified, insured and regulated and have specialist expertise in dealing with small business legal matters’.

Lawbite website

LawBite: the subscription service continues to operate

Founder and chief executive Clive Rich told the Gazette yesterday that the appointment of administrators ‘is part of a positive restructuring and investment plan’. This will enable the business ‘to continue with its mission to provide fast affordable law to SMEs via its tech/AI, in the UK and the US’.

LawBite, set up in 2014, offers four tiers of subscription services to small and medium-sized businesses. Rich told the Gazette in October 2022 that the service aimed to ‘declutter law for SMEs’.

The LawBite platform, which can be downloaded as a proprietary smartphone app, enables clients to communicate with their lawyer and to be kept up to date on their matter via a dashboard. ‘You can ping your lawyer straight away and get a response straight away,’ said Rich, a barrister who previously worked in-house at media and technology companies.

The service last year announced a tie-up with online ‘challenger’ bank, Cashplus, now Zempler Bank. The bank confirmed yesterday that its partnership with LawBite remains in place.

Latest Companies House records show that chief operating officer and co-founder Richard Royce resigned in February last year, while company directors Rahul Malhotra and Yamini Malhotra resigned in March and February this year.

They also show that Lawbrief Ltd’s accounts, which were due by 31 May, are overdue, as is the confirmation statement.

Rich declined to give details of the restructuring plan, saying: ‘We will bring you more details on this intriguing opportunity as they are released to us.’