The 7th Anniversary of LexUniversal

On September 7, 2001, after 15 months of extensive planning and organizing, LexUniversal, a virtual network of lawyers and law firms, was born in New York, USA. Ordelio Sette, one of Brazil’s leading lawyers, nurtured the idea from the beginning and has kept his vision alive for 7 years and has grown the network to over 70 law firms in 55 countries with more than 7500 lawyers represented.

The world has rarely seen virtual networks that promised to unite the consumers of legal services with attorneys through technology; LexUniversal meets that promise. As it is said perfectly on the website: “LexUniversal.com® is an elegantly simple way for lawyers in more than 55 countries to participate in an instantaneous exchange of services and information with consumers from all over the world.“

What is the secret of LexUniversal’s success? First and foremost, the attraction of leading lawyers from all over the world to join LexUniversal. As business has become increasingly global, a large number of independent law firms are seeing networks and associations as an important way to develop their international practices and to attract larger clients operating on a multi-jurisdictional basis.

Membership in LexUniversal gives the Participating Law Firm (PFL) the right to promote their affiliation through use of the network’s international logo.

LexUniversal both depends upon and showcases the legal knowledge of its Participating Law Firms by featuring legal expertise in its articles and news journals.

And, LexUniversal stays on the cutting edge of technology. Ever the innovator, Lex Universal is a group of lawyers who think ahead of their time to develop a platform that is not only a benefit to the Participating Law Firms, but also a service to consumers of legal information all over the world. With one billion people in the world online, and the next billion people coming online using cell phones, LexUniversal is also ready to deploy its service to mobile phones!

It has been my privilege to get to know Ordelio and LexUniversal’s team and to play a small role in LexUniversal’s organization and operation. Jim Silkenat, former Chair of the International Law Section of ABA introduced us in 2000. I flew to New York, and we met in a hotel and talked for hours on end. We talked about the future of the practice of law and how to lead the profession during its transformative period. It was clear to me that Ordelio had his finger on the pulse of all lawyers and also knew that he was embarking upon a treacherous journey. As one of Brazil’s most successful attorneys, he had no reason to invest incredible sums of money and his reputation in this venture. It was pretty clear to me that the Brazilian legal marketplace had tremendous growth opportunities with traditional work in mergers and acquisitions, and, it was otherwise a very conservative marketplace. As was and still is the case in the United States, those that regulate the conduct of lawyers are conservative by nature. They have to be. They have the public interest at stake. But in an era of great change for society, those lawyers who would harness technology to increase access to justice for all, had to do so in the face of a legal profession that did not want to change.

We created LexUniversal to lead the legal profession to its future.

We have on our team and Participant Law Firms legal profession’s great leaders. They bridge generations by practicing law in two worlds: the one they grew up in and the one they lead at the helm of LexUniversal in times of great change. By linking law across cultures and generations with an easy to use technological interface, LexUniversal is the model of a virtual network that brings law to all who visit it and is emblematic of his belief that there is “justice for all.”
A real “Global Virtual Law Connection”!

*Jeff Aresty is an attorney of law in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, he is also an active member of the American Bar Association where he is known as “The Digital Lawyer”. He is currently President of LexUniversal, and also the leader and founding President of IBO – Internet Bar Organization www.internetbar.org

Aresty International Law Offices, P.C