theJurists Europe - businessplan - a publication by deJuristen bvba - june 2014.

THEJURISTS
EUROPE
The ambition

TO INTRODUCE EUROPE TO A NEW

WAY OF LOOKING AT LAW

The ideas

THAT LED TO TAKING THE

FIRST AMBITIOUS STEPS

The story

BEHIND THE SUCCESS OF THE

BELGIAN PILOT-PROJECT

The difference
between an idea and
a plan is the same as
the difference
between a story and
a fact.

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Prelude

When I first enrolled at law school, my biggest dream was to one day run a traditional law firm,
just like the famous big firms out there. I wanted to service the biggest companies around, with
traditional legal material that only a few would understand.
However, as my education and ambition progressed, I began to obtain a more critical look on, our
law systeman, and more generally, the world. I realized that trying to be one of them wasnt the
way forward. I became convinced that I dindt want to blend in, I wanted to stand out.
People today arent really fond of law, and that has his obvious reasons. I believe one of the main
influences of the succes of traditional lawyers is the fact that they have a monopoly on the legal
market today. I wanted to break this monopoly and bring something fresh. Thats when I came up
with deJuristen, a firm of specialized jurists, not lawyers, trying to look for solutions, not problems. The success weve expierenced in Belgium during the first couple of years was pretty overwhelming. In less then 4 years we had to move our business to Brussels and were continuously
hiring new ambitious and like-minded people.
Today, I feel like I know how to position myself in the market, I feel like people know what we do,
and above all why our clients appreciate the fact that were different. Thats why I want to bring
my ideas to something bigger than just Belgium. I want theJurists to discover Europe, and Europe
to discover theJurists.
Thats why, I am exicited, proud and cheerful to unfold my plans for theJurists Europe.

Matthias Dobbelaere-Welvaert.
Managing Partner at theJurists Europe

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Why theJurists is
doing great in Belgium

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1. People dont have faith in the classic legal system

anymore.
2. Law needs to be fast, we are fast.
3.

Our communication rocks.

4. We deliver quality.
5. We focus on customer satisfaction.
6. Our legal documents are waterproof, yet readable.
7. We think like entrepreneurs, not like lawyers.

We look for solutions, not problems.
8. Were young, we know what young IT-startups want.

They dont want boring lawyers.

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Why theJurists works in

Belgium
Lets Explain.
The classic legal system in Belgium has its defaults and
it has had these same defaults for many years now. The
biggest problem is the huge and annoying delays. File an action today and you can expect a ruling a couple of years from
now. This is a big problem, definitely in the area of IT-law, an
area that changes and shifts faster than light. The solution
to this problem: us. We solve problems before they occur by
writing waterproof legal documents and advising our clients
in the best way possible. We dont tell our clients what they
expect or hope to hear, we tell them whats best for them.
Of course, there are times clients approach us when its too
late for a pro-active approach, a conflict-situation has come
up. Again, when this is the case, we stay away from courtrooms. Not only because were not allowed to plead in court,
but far more important, because it is our vast belief that
there is always another way. It is always in both parties best
interest to find a quick solution. This allows all parties to be
able to get on with their business much faster, they will also
save a lot of money. Its never very difficult to convince both
our client as well as the counterpart of this insight. Of all
conflict-situations handeled by us over the last year, we only
had to forward 2 cases to a court-lawyer. Extrajudicial solutions
are the future: defenitly in the everchanging area of ICT-law.
A lot of law firms are trying very hard to look like a lot of
law firms. They want to blend in. They choose a name
consisted of the surnames of the founding partners,
use a classical serif-font and setup a grey and boring
website. We believe thats not the way to go. Why would
anyone want to blend in in an already saturated and inefficient
market. We would rather stand-out. Thats why we think out of
the box. We wanted to call our company something that wasnt
commonplace, yet very clear: THEJURISTS, perfect right?
On top of that, our logo looks like no-one elses logo in our sector. People see us, they remember us, know were different. We
like to keep this same principle in mind when thinking about
our brand-communication. Social media, unlike any other law
firm in Belgium, is extremely important to us. With a facebook
page with over 1400 fans, all of which organically grown,
were absolute top of our class in Belgium. Also, questions
asked on twitter by our (potential) clients are always answered
within 24 hours. We feel this is highly appreciated by the public.

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PAGE 5
so easy and and with a big reach, no company can afford to leave a client unhappy. This works in both ways
of course. A happy customer tweeting about how good
we are is a very important aspect of our businessplan.
Again: the combination of exposure and credibility.

One of the things people really hate about lawyers

is the language they use. You read a letter written
by a lawyer and youre confused after the first two
sentences. No one uses these words. So why would we?
We want our documents to be readable to the enduser. Since a lot of our clients focus on e-commerce,
trust is a very important factor. The best way to
obtain trust is by transparency. Writing terms and
We also love to keep a finger on the pulse of the conditions, privacy statements and disclaimers no one
topicallity. When something even remotely can read isnt very transparant, so we dont do that.
related to our area of expertise makes it to the news, we
always write a readable opinion on our website (which Of course, that doesnt mean we compromise in
is visited very often). Our opinions have a very high terms of legal waterproofing. Once again, finding
reach and are very often picked up in national me- the right people is the key to succes here: people that
dia. Thats why were also top of mind for many me- can combine solid legal writing with a readable style
dia-channels for anything ICT/IP-related. VTM, of writing arent very frequent, but we find them.
VRT, De Tijd, De Morgen, Datanews, Bloovi, et
cetera. As soon as somethings moving, they call us.
This allows us to achieve great exposure, its also a way
to build up credibillity, and thus a solid client-base.

Not an empty box

Of course, communication without a quality
product is nothing but an empty box. No matter
how beautiful the box may be, if shes empty, it wont
work on the long term. Thats the reason why we
put a lot of effort in recruiting people that not only
fit in our companys philosophy, but are also great
at what they do. We dare say that all of our legal
documents, our advice, our IP-protection is
absolutely top-notch. It takes a lot of energy to find and
train employees in such way that all the work is excecuted nicely, but on the long term, it pays off. No doubt.
In the end, what matters most to us is that our client is
happy. Not only because were so kind-hearted that we
like to see people happy (trust us, we are) but also
because a happy customer is the best billboard one can
imagine. The number of clients we get through mouthto-mouth advertising is immense. In times where
unsatisfied customers can express their dissatisfaction

Entrepreneurs build the future. We love this, which is

why we like to think of ourselves as entrepreneurs as
well. Sometimes the solution to a problem can be very
obvious and non-juridical. By thinking outside the
box, we can also offer our clients solutions like these.
We also offer our expertise in the fields of marketing,
communication and social media. In combination
with our legal skills, this is something pretty unique.
So, to sum things up: were young, we think like our
clients and with our clients, were good at what we do
and were awesome. Thats why theJurists is doing great
in Belgium and it will work in the rest of Europe as well.

THEJURISTS EUROPE - THIS IS OUR PLAN.

Why we can export

theJurists to Europe

PAGE 6

THEJURISTS EUROPE - THIS IS OUR PLAN.

1. Europe is the future.

2. Were ahead of things, Europe is ahead of things.
3. Were great at recruiting the right people.
4. IT/IP law is harmonized accross Europe.
5. Were from Brussels.
6. We have the experience.
7. We can provide a complete framework.
8. Were confident entrepreneurs.

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PAGE 8

The Belgian plan, implemented in the

European Union

Lets kick things off with an

understatement: Europe is the future.
Nations are a thing of the past.
With the attendance of the internet
and social media, borders fade. Its easy
to have a friendship with someone
whos over a thousand miles away, so
why wouldnt it be possible to do
business with someone from a
different country?

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PAGE 9

Ready for Europe

Most of the trans-European projects that succeed
have one thing in common: theyre ahead of things.
We strongly believe were ahead of things as well,
so we strongly believe our project will succeed.
The main key to succes in the whole theJurists
Europe project will be to find the right people. Since
it will be impossible for us to be everywhere all
the time, we will have to put a lot of trust in those
responsible for our brand abroad. Finding the right
people for the job will be our most important task if we
want the whole project to work. Luckily, finding the
right people is something we tend to be really good at.
Of course, if we would provide our services in the
area of for example family-law, tax-law or labor-law,
things would be a lot more complicated since every
member state has its own specific legislation. In
the area of IP/ICT-law this isnt the case. 90% of the
applicable legislation is issued on a European level,
which means the legislation is largely harmonized
across Europe. This means its easy for us to train the
new employees, we can use the experience we gathered
in Belgium to explain how things work across Europe.
Having our main office in the capital of Europe will
of course help as well. The number of companies
who hold their main (European) office in Brussels is
uncountable.
Not
only
are
almost
all
of the most important European political
institutions situated in Brussels, the city also is one
of the most important traffic intersections in Europe,
making it the ideal place for a big business to hold
its offices. Since we have the ambition of becoming

a pretty large business enterprise, we feel like were

in the right place at the heart of the European Union.
After having worked in the sector for a little over
four years now, we think we know what our
potential clients are looking for. Not only do
they want the service theyre looking for fast
and understandable, they also want the persons
providing the service to be easily approachable, and
they want a lot of information, very accessable. These
are just a couple of examples of things we like to
provide. For example, by building a very user-friendly website, we feel we can reduce the gap between the
agency and the client. This has a huge positive
impact on the trust the client puts in the office, of course.

Were in the right place at

the heart of Europe.
By providing what we like to call a complete
framework, we can put the new offices across Europe
in a very privileged situation right from the start.
Theyll be able to compete with established values
right from the start, because well compensate the
possible lack of experience with our own experience
and new and innovative tools of communication.
There are two characteristics that define
almost every succesful enterpreneur: they are
confident, and incredibly stubborn. We like to
believe that we possess both qualities. Were
confident the project will work, and if it not
immediatly, well keep trying until it does!

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PAGE 10

Our clients
testimonanials

Dont take
our word
for it...

McDonalds
Legal framework for their mobile application

theJurists were asked to draft the Terms of Use, Privacy Statements, and other
relevant legal documents for their brand new mobile application. The aim was to
provide transparency and clarity, both in the recognizable placement of legal texts,
as in the wording. When the user for the first time opens the application, he gets
a readable overview of the rights and obligations associated with the application.
McDonalds Belgium must therefore rank as an example, when it comes to legal
transparency within a mobile application. Respect for the rights and privacy of
the user is of course an additional reason to download and trust the application.

Samsung Electronics
Implementation of the new cookie regulation

theJurists were asked to draft the cookie and cookie policy statement for the
English (.be / en) and French-language website (.be / fr) to edit. The aim was to
transparency and clarity, both in the placement of legal texts, as in the words. The
banner at the top provides a transparent view into the cookie policy of the Belgian
Samsung website. The website also obtained the legal quality mylabel. For the
Dutch market Samsung.nl website was addressed by our friends at ICTRecht.nl,
partner of deJuristen. The new cookie policy of Samsung Electronics also obtained
the legal quality mylabel, after careful review and drafting of legal documents.

THEJURISTS EUROPE - THIS IS OUR PLAN.

E-ON
Drafting all legal documents for their website

E.ON AG is a German energy producing and supplying company that serves over
30 million customers worldwide, with headquarters in Dsseldorf. It is one of
the largest utilities in the world, with strong market positions in the European gas
and electricity markets theJurists were asked to draft the cookie and cookie policy
statement for the Dutch, French and English website. We also updated various
other legal documents. The aim was to transparency and clarity, both in the placement of legal texts, as in the words. The banner at the top provides a transparent
view into the cookie policy of the Belgian EON website.

Omega Pharma
Trademark Portfolio Monitoring

Omega Pharma is a Belgian Pharmaceutical company, founded in 1987 by Marc

Coucke (born 1965) and Yvan Vindevogel, both former Pharmacy students at the
Ghent University. The company has a yearly revenue of 878.7 million. theJurists
were asked to draft the all relevant legal documents for their first webshop, focussing on sport supplements (Etixx). The aim was to provide transparency and
clarity, both in the placement of legal texts, as in the words. Weve succeeded. We
were honoured to be part of their first e-commerce adventure.

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THEJURISTS EUROPE - THIS IS OUR PLAN.

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how we will

ORGANIZE
theJurists Europe

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PAGE 13

PHASE 1:
STARTUP

EVALUATION

REMAIN AT
PHASE 1

PHASE 2:
PROFESSIONALIZE

TERMINATE
OR REBOOT

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PAGE 16

Who are we
looking for?
1. Youre a third year, or fourth year, law student.
2. Youre ambitious.
3. You are looking forward to start your own firm.
4. You want to earn money. Then again, who doesnt?
5. You have a keen interest in ICT & IP Law.
6. Youre ready to meet a very new experience.
7. You want to be part of an European framework.
8. You can surprise with new ideas and teamspirit.

Are you ready to

stand out and make a
difference in this ol
legal world?
Get in touch today.
contact@thejurists.eu
www.thejurists.eu