Richard Granat

Richard Granat calls himself an “explorer of the outer limits of legal space,” and rightly so. Richard has been an innovator in the delivery of legal services for more than 30 years, since his work forming what is now the Legal Services Corporation. Not only a serial entrepreneur, Richard is something of a serial processor, with multiple projects proceeding at once at the frontier of law. As of this writing, he runs (at least) Granat Legal Services, one of the nation’s first virtual law offices; a self-help website for Maryland family law; SmartLegalForms, a legal forms company; and DirectLaw, a company that helps lawyers provide legal assistance as a service, among other ventures. He also sits on the board of advisors for four early-stage legal startups. Richard also has been pressing for liberalization of the regulation of the legal profession, especially in unauthorized practice of law and nonlawyer investment in law firms, as means to better serve middle-class consumers of legal services.