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Shovel: Major growth plans<\/p>\n
An AI-first law firm that is planning to automate much of the conveyancing process \u2013 using AI agents clients can speak to \u2013 has raised \u00a32m in seed funding ahead of its launch this summer.<\/p>\n
Keith is the brainchild of three serial entrepreneurs: Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman, who founded plant-based food brand THIS, and Sam Tucker, who started hybrid scheduling platform Common Surface.<\/p>\n
Well-known solicitor Eddie Goldsmith, former chair of the Conveyancing Association, is a strategic advisor and non-executive director.<\/p>\n
Backed VC \u2013 which also supported THIS and in the past legal tech platform Legl \u2013 led Keith\u2019s seed round, with Breega and several angel investors also making up the \u00a32m. Breega was a Series A funder of Thirdfort back in 2022.<\/p>\n
Keith is seeking authorisation by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) \u2013 \u201cWe think they might be the better option for the sort of disruptive and cutting-edge technologies that we\u2019re hoping to introduce,\u201d Mr Shovel told Legal Futures \u2013 but will in time look to move to the Solicitors Regulation Authority as it branches into other areas of legal practice.<\/p>\n
The plan is to scale up at a speed traditional law firms could not manage, Mr Shovel explained, because the technology broke the link between taking on more work and having to recruit staff to handle it.<\/p>\n
The expectation is that a fee-earner working at Keith should in time be able to oversee a higher caseload than a counterpart at a traditional law firm, he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Shovel recounted how he turned his focus to conveyancing after having a \u201cshocking\u201d experience in buying a house a year ago, at around the time he and Mr Sharman were taking a step back from THIS.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was blown away by how clunky the process was, and how no technology was being incorporated to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
People will be able to speak to Keith \u2013 so called because Mr Shovel likes the name and also to \u201chumanise\u201d the technology \u2013 even when they are just looking for a quote. The quote will be tailored by the system carrying out instant title and Google Maps searches, among other checks.<\/p>\n
New clients will speak to a human as part of the onboarding process but will be introduced on the call to Keith, which in fact is a network of 38 specialised AI agents that handle different parts of the process, in many instances simultaneously, rather than waiting days for a fee-earner to action.<\/p>\n
Keith\u2019s client service agent will be available 24\/7 via phone and WhatsApp, able to answer questions, provide updates and take actions instantly. Administrative tasks that take up a lot of conveyancers\u2019 time, such as educating clients on the process and chasing the other side, will be handled by the technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe level of sophistication of these agents is way beyond what most, if not all, people would expect,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone to the stage really quickly in a period of a few months where it\u2019s quite difficult to discern between a person and Keith.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Shovel stressed that the agents were built to operate within \u201cstrict parameters\u201d that will flag any issues to a member of the team, and with human oversight built in where required by the CLC.<\/p>\n
The expectation is that about 80% of the process will be automated but critical points, including transferring funds, will at least initially be handled by humans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe regulator will likely want us to have human oversight at more points than are in practice needed, but that\u2019s fine by us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, our first priority is to comply and be safe. And then the second priority is to be super efficient\u2026 We\u2019re convinced that we will be the most automated firm in conveyancing when we launch at the end of summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cConveyancing will still be at times quite frustrating, but I think we\u2019re controlling more controllables than a traditional firm by quite a big margin.\u201d<\/p>\n
They reckon Keith will reduce transaction times by around 70%, even allowing for delays on the other side. Fees have yet to be confirmed but would be \u201cat the lower end of the market, in line with some of the larger volume firms\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another reason to choose the CLC was that it allows licensed conveyancers to act on both sides, subject to strict rules, and Mr Shovel said he and his colleagues were \u201cpretty excited\u201d about how quickly a transaction could be completed in such circumstances.<\/p>\n
The mooted government reforms to the home-buying process would also be a boost and Mr Shovel said the next iteration of the Keith later this year or next would be \u201ca \u2018Keith Turbo\u2019 type offering where we will encourage sellers to get searches done and have as much information upfront as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n
Keith is currently recruiting lawyers \u2013 it hopes to have three on board for launch \u2013 as well as other staff like engineers. A head of conveyancing has been appointed but their name has not yet been disclosed.<\/p>\n
Mr Shovel was also encouraged by the response of the professional indemnity insurer he was negotiating with. \u201cTheir attitude is that, if your tech works, and we don\u2019t see a reason why it won\u2019t, you\u2019ll make fewer mistakes than a traditional firm.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was confident too that lenders would not seek Keith\u2019s risk profile as different from other law firms. \u201cWe plan to be no different in the eyes of stakeholders than a forward-thinking traditional firm that\u2019s got some software tools that they use to help make them more efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was no \u2018black box\u2019 and the firm was transparent about how the technology worked.<\/p>\n
Acquisitions were unlikely while Keith focused on conveyancing work but Mr Shovel predicted that they would form part of the growth strategy in other practice areas, \u201cbasically taking firms, adding efficiency, adding Keith\u2019s technology, and then rolling them up essentially into one bigger firm\u201d.<\/p>\n
This would enable them \u201cto reach much bigger scale, much, much quicker\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI can be very cocky about it in theory, but let\u2019s see how we go and practice because I\u2019m sure it will be really difficult. But that is our plan anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andre De Haes, partner at Backed VC, added: \u201cFor most people, dealing with a solicitor means waiting, chasing and not knowing what\u2019s going on. Keith removed those pain-points using technology, and we\u2019re hugely excited to back the business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shovel: Major growth plans An AI-first law firm that is planning to automate much of the conveyancing process…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-496813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}