Two former BigLaw M&A attorneys have launched a legal tech startup aimed at addressing one of the profession\u2019s most persistent challenges \u2014 the gap between law school education and the practical skills needed to succeed in transactional practice. Rubi Legal Training, founded by co-CEOs Madison Keeble (pictured left above) and Geetika Jerath (pictured right), officially [\u2026]<\/p>\n
Two former BigLaw M&A attorneys have launched a legal tech startup aimed at addressing one of the profession\u2019s most persistent challenges \u2014 the gap between law school education and the practical skills needed to succeed in transactional practice.<\/p>\n
Rubi Legal Training<\/a>, founded by co-CEOs Madison Keeble<\/a> (pictured left above) and Geetika Jerath<\/a> (pictured right), officially launched last week with a virtual apprenticeship platform designed to train junior lawyers in transactional law.<\/p>\n The Austin-based startup has already secured a significant institutional partnership, with the University of Texas School of Law providing its entire student body with access to the platform.<\/p>\n The founders built rubi \u2014 they lowercase the name \u2014 based on what they learned from their combined experiences as M&A associates at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, which is that new transactional lawyers often struggle without structured training in the practical aspects of deal work.<\/p>\n \u201cMadison and I drew on the most valuable lessons from our 25,000+ billable hours in BigLaw, reverse-engineered them into exactly what a junior M&A lawyer needs to know, and built a platform that teaches it all upfront,\u201d Jerath said in announcing the launch.<\/p>\n The platform\u2019s flagship program, \u201cThe Transactional Practice Guide: M&A,\u201d aims to take a new lawyer and train them to operate at the level of a second-year associate. During two years of curriculum development and pilot testing, the founders discovered demand for the training extended beyond new associates to include boutique firm attorneys, in-house counsel and experienced lawyers switching practice areas.<\/p>\n Rubi\u2019s approach simulates the experience of working as a junior associate on a BigLaw transaction, the company says. Participants are \u201cstaffed\u201d on Project Rubi, a comprehensive mega-deal designed specifically for learning, with step-by-step guidance from the founders through every task, decision and document.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s as if Geetika and I are at their desks, teaching not just substantive concepts and what to do, but why they\u2019re doing it, what questions to ask, and how everything fits into the bigger picture, using a full purchase agreement and transaction documents to build judgment in context,\u201d Keeble said.<\/p>\n The program is structured in digestible units that take 10-15 hours to complete and fit into busy schedules. Assignments progressively build on each other, covering everything from managing competing priorities to analyzing change of control provisions and drafting transaction checklists and ancillary documents.<\/p>\n The University of Texas School of Law, working with its Texas Law and Business Program, has signed on to provide all law students with access to rubi.<\/p>\nApprenticeship Reimagined<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Texas Law Partnership<\/strong><\/h3>\n