For Julien Emery, the journey behind AI company Superpanel raises $5.3M seed to automate legal intake is deeply personal. Emery, co-founder and CEO of Superpanel, has long understood how overwhelming and expensive legal access can be. From his mother’s accident settlement to his own challenges navigating Canada’s legal system, he saw firsthand how broken the intake process was.
Image Credits:Superpanel
The Legal Intake Problem
Legal intake — the first step where law firms evaluate new clients and requests — is a notorious bottleneck. For consumers, it’s often a maze of forms, phone calls, and delays that discourage people from seeking help. For law firms, it’s costly, error-prone, and time-consuming.
“Most people give up before ever getting the legal help they need,” Emery told TechCrunch. “For firms, it’s a bottleneck that drains resources.”
How AI Makes Automation Possible
Until recently, the complexity of legal intake made automation seem impossible. But with advances in artificial intelligence, that barrier has fallen. Emery, who previously worked at Hootsuite and founded health insurance platform Allay (later acquired by Novo Benefits), teamed up with AI expert Dingyu Zhang to launch Superpanel in 2024.
Their vision: build a “digital teammate” that could automate much of the intake process while still escalating complex cases to humans.
What Superpanel Delivers To Law Firms
Superpanel now automates nearly half of legal intake work. It engages with clients across multiple channels — phone, text, email, and online forms — guiding them through their story and helping gather the right documents.
For law firms, the platform sorts case types, checks jurisdictions, and ensures compliance. When there’s any risk of confusion, the system escalates seamlessly to a human attorney or staff member.
“The result is a unified, multi-channel workflow that delivers measurable results,” Emery said. “Firms get a system they can trust, almost like a real employee.”
Why This Matters For The Legal Industry
The $5.3M seed round is not just funding for growth — it’s validation that AI-driven automation is coming for one of the legal industry’s most stubborn inefficiencies. With legal tech adoption accelerating, platforms like Superpanel could redefine how firms onboard clients and manage cases.
For law firms struggling with client drop-offs, compliance headaches, and slow processes, Superpanel promises speed, accuracy, and trust. For clients, it means smoother access to justice — without the maze of paperwork and endless calls.
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