This browser extension could spare you from carelessly clicking “I agree”

Global Legal Hackathon finalists created LexLucid to help keep companies accountable and make consumer contracts more transparent

Survey says nearly half of people would rather gouge their own eyes out than read a consumer contract! At least that’s what Global Legal Hackathon team LexLucid discovered when they asked 80 non-attorney consumers to provide feedback on company service agreements.

But hyperbole aside, it’s a fact that most people don’t read the contracts they’re presented with before clicking “I agree.” How then can we ensure these contracts are fair if we don’t know what’s in them?

Global Legal Hackathon finalists in Denver came up with a solution. It’s called LexLucid, and it’s a browser extension that grades consumer agreements based on reviews from attorneys. With just one click, users can see how a given company’s contract stacks up without leaving the company webpage.

“Providing transparency helps consumers make educated decisions about the products and services they use, while motivating businesses to make fairer and simpler contracts,” the team explains in their mission statement.

LexLucid will face off against 13 other global finalists on April 21 in New York at the Global Legal Hackathon finals. (You can even join them there.)

We spoke to attorney and LexLucid team member Katherine Snow about their hackathon experience so far and how they developed their browser extension. But before we get into the details, let’s meet the team!

Katherine Snow: Katherine Snow is an associate attorney at Sherman & Howard. She assists clients in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, securities regulation, corporate operations, and digital currency and blockchain technology matters. Prior to joining the firm, she worked as a summer associate with the firm’s Corporate practice. While in law school Snow was a member of the Transactional Law Team, participated in the annual Technology Policy Challenge, and served as a teacher for the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project.

Otto Hanson: Otto Hanson is an associate in the Finance & Acquisitions Department of Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP. Before pursuing a legal career, he worked in business management roles at startups in Boulder, Colorado and Silicon Valley. Among other roles, Hanson spent three years selecting and managing outside counsel for those companies. His practice focuses on financing, technology, and commercial transactions as well as general matters of corporate law including public benefit corporations. He is fluent in Spanish, conversational in Portuguese, and is the co-chair of the New Lawyers Subsection of the Business Law Section of the Colorado Bar Association.

Chad Jolly: Chad Jolly is the senior software developer for Legal Talk Network and its parent company. He enjoys building and fixing all types of things while striving to find simple and elegant solutions to complex problems.

Nathan Benes: Nathan Benes is a web applications developer at Lawgical.

Carlos Gochez: Carlos Gochez is a web developer for Lawgical. He was born in Honduras where he got his MBA and was an University professor for 10 years; teaching the new generation of students how to program. Now he lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife and two beautiful daughters. He loves programming, watching movies and Soccer.

Jeremy Church: Jeremy is a web designer who works in the Denver, Colorado office of Lawgical. For over 15 years he has built websites for both large and small companies. Jeremy considers himself a web generalist, with an emphasis on front-end design and development.

What specifically inspired you to address the TL;DR principle most people abide by when it comes to consumer contracts?

Katherine Snow: When you have lawyers drafting complicated contracts, littered with legalese, a knowledge gap is created where the company has information that the customer can’t understand or doesn’t have interest in reading.

Businesses are keenly aware of this and they often exploit it; but — we sign them anyway without reading or understanding what exactly it is we are agreeing to.

We confirmed this generally accepted notion with our survey and know from personal experience, as attorneys, the kinds of consumer unfriendly provisions that are often rampant in contracts.

What was the biggest challenge for the team when creating LexLucid and how did you overcome it?

Our biggest challenge has been pivoting from a multi-sided platform, one for consumers and one for attorneys, to a single, consumer facing platform.

We realized that obtaining hundreds of attorney reviews for each contract would be an insurmountable obstacle and our grading rubric was simply too subjective.

To overcome these issues and ensure objectivity, we formulated an algorithm to allow a handful of attorneys to provide fair and unbiased reviews.

“When you have lawyers drafting complicated contracts, littered with legalese, a knowledge gap is created where the company has information that the customer can’t understand or doesn’t have interest in reading. Businesses are keenly aware of this and they often exploit it” — Katherine Snow, Sherman & Howard attorney & LexLucid team member

Your Chrome extension is already available for download. What kind of feedback have you had so far?

We have had very positive feedback, as evidenced by the reviews. However, we will certainly be listening to users’ feedback as we grow and continue to get more reviews.

What was the most exciting part of creating — and launching — LexLucid?

Otto and I brought together a team that worked incredibly hard in support of our projects vision — to clarify the terms of online contracts by providing unbiased attorney reviews. It was incredibly rewarding for us to go from pitching an idea and forming a team, to producing an MVP and winning the first and second rounds of competition. More importantly though, is that we truly believe in our idea and its ability to make the law more accessible to the public.

How do you plan to expand LexLucid?

Our next move will include a large marketing push to get the product into consumers hands, refining our algorithm for different verticals (like product warranties, privacy policies, or loan agreements) and establishing a small vetted pool of attorneys.

We have more development to do on the tech side, including the possible incorporation of AI, and expanding to all popular browsers!

“[We] truly believe in our idea and its ability to make the law more accessible to the public.” — Katherine Snow, LexLucid

For more information on LexLucid, visit their website or follow them on Twitter (@LexLucid). Want to watch the team compete in the finals? Join the Global Legal Hackathon community for an evening of legal innovation on April 21 in New York, New York! (Tickets available for the Global Legal Hackathon Gala & Finals here).