Backed by Outlander VC and Field Ventures, the AI startup aims to modernize how plaintiff law firms onboard clients — replacing bottlenecks with seamless automation
Making Legal Intake Less Painful
Superpanel, a legaltech startup co-founded by Julien Emery and Dingyu Zhang, has raised $5.3 million in seed funding to tackle a notoriously broken process: legal intake.
- Legal intake is the front-end workflow where law firms evaluate and onboard new clients.
- For most consumers, it’s a frustrating experience filled with forms, delays, and dead ends.
- For law firms, it’s time-consuming, error-prone, and often leads to dropped leads and missed revenue.
“It’s a maze of forms, phone calls, and dropped leads that cause most people to give up before getting help,” said CEO Julien Emery.
The Superpanel Solution: A “Digital Teammate” for Law Firms
Superpanel leverages AI to automate up to 50% of the legal intake process, acting as a multi-channel digital assistant for both law firms and clients.
For consumers:
- Engages via phone, email, text, and web forms
- Guides users through telling their legal story
- Collects and shares documents and personal information
For law firms:
- Automatically determines case type, jurisdiction, and required documentation
- Flags ambiguities for human escalation
- Ensures compliance and smooths handoffs between staff and systems
“The result is a unified, multi-channel workflow that delivers measurable results and gives firms a system they can trust like a real employee,” Emery said.
Who’s Backing Superpanel
The $5.3 million seed round was co-led by Outlander VC and Field Ventures, with participation from:
- LOI Venture (co-founded by Hootsuite’s founder)
- Zenda Capital
- 8-Bit Capital
- Behind Genius Ventures
Emery, who previously founded Allay (acquired by Novo Benefits), said some investors in this round came through connections from his prior startup. The new capital will go toward hiring and expanding features for plaintiff law firms.
Why Legal Intake Is Ripe for Disruption
Legal is one of the top sectors adopting AI, especially in client-facing roles where paperwork and communication create friction.
Superpanel joins a growing field that includes:
- Clio Grow
- LegalClerk.ai
- MyCase
- Whippy.ai
But Emery believes Superpanel’s AI-first, consumer-friendly approach gives it an edge.
“Consumers now expect answers and solutions to be instant and self-serve,” he said. “Superpanel guides them continuously across that journey.”
Human Story, Tech-Driven Fix
For Emery, the mission is personal. Growing up in Canada, he saw firsthand how legal access was slow, expensive, and intimidating.
- His mother’s legal settlement after a car accident helped support his family.
- That experience shaped his understanding of why intake matters — and why fixing it matters even more.
With Superpanel, he hopes to make legal services more accessible, efficient, and client-friendly, starting with plaintiff law firms.
