MY LIGHT BULB MOMENT
Tech entrepreneur Tetiana Bersheda
TeTiana Bersheda, 34, is the founder of Lexsnap, an online legal marketplace. she is single and lives in west London. FROM the first day of university I loved the law, and the idea that justice should be blind. After doing my masters at Cambridge, I started practising as a lawyer in 2005.
I was involved in international divorce cases that were more like commercial disputes. One lasted for seven years! But even though both sides had the financial means, I could see how much people’s lives are affected when they go through divorce.
Most of my clients were in business and I learned a lot from their attitude to risk. So, after four years of practising in a big firm in Geneva, I decided to take the risk of setting up my own firm, in 2010.
Then, in 2011, I got divorced myself. I was 19 when I met my husband and 21 when we got married. Both of us changed.
However, our divorce was stressfree. The fact we are both lawyers made it extremely simple. We represented ourselves in court and stayed on good terms. I realised that the stress of divorce multiplies when people can’t afford professional support. That was the lightbulb moment for me. I asked myself, what can I do to help more people follow in our footsteps?
When I started my career, partners would often ask me to research the same legal questions. All the law firms have databases, so basically you’d just use the database to provide the same advice again and again.
I realised that technology could make this legal knowledge available to an unlimited number of people — especially those who could not afford a lawyer.
So, when I moved to London two years ago, I started hiring people for my business, LexSnap.
People come to our website and are asked some basic questions: Are they married? Do they own property? Do they have children? Then we can give them basic advice for free.
We’ve identified the legal questions asked most often and have the answers automated. Those who have extra questions can send them online to be distributed through a network of lawyers. Fees are agreed in advance, so there are no surprises.
No one wants a marriage to end, but I was very happy the day I got married, and I was happy the day I divorced. Now, I am helping other people feel the same way.
Lexsnap.com