Amid the traditional and complex legal services industry, a startup story born from personal hardship is unfolding. Julien Emery, co-founder and CEO of Superpanel, has created a revolutionary platform that helps law firms seamlessly onboard new clients, drawing on his own family's experiences with the legal system.

Emery's relationship with the legal system is emotionally charged. As a Canadian, he understands the difficulty and high cost of accessing legal help. More striking was his mother's experience after a car accident, which provided financial relief during a tough time. However, during this process, he found the legal intake process—how law firms assess new clients or requests—to be unnecessarily complicated and frustrating.

Emery described the pain points of the industry to TechCrunch: for consumers, it's a maze of forms, phone calls, and abandoned leads, with most people giving up before getting help. For law firms, it's a costly and error-prone bottleneck.

Before significant breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, the legal intake process was considered too complex to automate. But times have changed. Emery previously worked at Hootsuite, a social media management giant, and later founded Allay, a health insurance underwriting platform, which he successfully sold to Novo Benefits. In 2024, he partnered with his friend Dingyu Zhang, who has an AI background, to launch Superpanel.

Investment, funding, money

The core value of Superpanel lies in automating half of the legal intake work, primarily handling information collection and feedback processing. This platform provides plaintiffs' law firms with a digital teammate that assists with case escalation and compliance matters. Emery explained: It interacts with clients through multiple channels such as phone, text, email, and forums, guiding them to tell their stories and share relevant documents. For law firms, it helps categorize case types, jurisdictions, and related documents.

The system's level of intelligence is impressive. When there are ambiguous risks, the system automatically escalates the case to a human team member. The end result is a unified multi-channel workflow that not only delivers measurable results but also provides a reliable system for law firms, akin to a real employee.

This week, Superpanel announced a $5.3 million seed round led by Outlander VC and Field Ventures. Emery revealed that he met some of the investors through his previous startup, and these early investors introduced him to the lead investors of this round. Other participants in this round include LOI Venture (founded by the founder of Hootsuite), Zenda Capital, 8-Bit Capital, and Behind Genius Ventures.

Emery stated that the company will use the funds to accelerate hiring and expand the capabilities of Superpanel for plaintiffs' law firms. This investment will help the company establish itself in the competitive legal tech market.

The legal industry is one of the key areas undergoing transformation through artificial intelligence. Superpanel is not alone in this space; its competitors include well-known platforms such as Clio Grow, LegalClerk.ai, MyCase, and Whippy.ai. Each company is vying for a share of this multibillion-dollar market.

However, Emery is confident about Superpanel's unique advantages. He pointed out that modern consumers are accustomed to instant and self-service answers and solutions, shaped by AI tools and daily online experiences. Superpanel provides continuous guidance throughout the customer journey, which is what makes it different.

This entrepreneurial story reflects the broader trends in the legal tech industry. Traditional legal services are being redefined by technology, from document review to case management, from compliance checks to client communication, as artificial intelligence permeates every aspect of legal practice.

For law firms still using traditional methods to handle client intake, Superpanel represents a new possibility. It not only improves efficiency and reduces costs but, more importantly, enhances the client experience, enabling those who might have otherwise given up on seeking legal help to receive the service they deserve.

As artificial intelligence technology continues to mature and become more widespread, platforms like Superpanel are likely to become standard in the legal industry. For Emery, this is not just a business opportunity but a personal mission to make legal services more accessible and efficient. In his view, the power of technology should be used to solve real human problems, and optimizing the legal intake process is a perfect embodiment of this philosophy.