When COVID-19 began to hit the United States hard in the spring of 2020, Janine Sickmeyer was among those in the bankruptcy world who believed there would be a tsunami of cases.
NextChapter, the Sickmeyer-founded company that provides online bankruptcy software for legal professionals, even hosted a week-long virtual conference to help lawyers unfamiliar with bankruptcy law to educate themselves on the subject and that they can witness the planned deluge.
But contrary to the predictions of many, the influx of bankruptcy cases never materialized. In fact, bankruptcy filings in the United States hit their lowest level in 35 years last year as government aid programs helped keep many Americans afloat, according to Reuters.
Nonetheless, Sickmeyer reports that NextChapter saw its revenue increase by 86% in 2020, which she admits came as a big surprise to her and her team.
She says the firm’s strong performance was fueled in part by the addition of additional products for bankruptcy attorneys, including NextChapter Payments, NextMessage Client Texting and the NextChapter client portal.
NextChapter also focused on its Virtual Paralegal Program in which experienced bankruptcy paralegals prepare documents for lawyers on a case-by-case basis.
“As bankruptcies have continued to decline, we have continued to do everything in our power to help lawyers find other ways to grow their practice and save money by doing so,” said Sickmeyer said.
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The success of NextChapter last year also came in its first full year after its acquisition by legal research firm Fastcase.
Sickmeyer says she had always hoped to partner with Fastcase, and NextChapter’s growth since the acquisition has confirmed her intuition that a partnership would be mutually beneficial.
For example, she reports that 99% of users of Fastcase’s previous bankruptcy software, Fastcase BK, migrated to NextChapter.
“It says a lot about how our products complement each other and that customers were just as excited about it as we are,” says Sickmeyer.
Sickmeyer says being part of Fastcase has also allowed NextChapter to expand its reach beyond bankruptcy law, a timely transition given the decline in bankruptcy filings.
She has done this by launching a product called NextChapter Docs, which helps users in different practice areas automate legal forms and documents. Law firms can upload and customize existing documents they use or create new ones from scratch.
“They can create a template once and then use it over and over again for their clients or their case,” says Sickmeyer.
As for the specific practice areas where NextChapter focuses on external bankruptcy, Sickmeyer says immigration is a key target. Immigration lawyers can now use the software to manage their cases and new features will be added.
NextChapter also provides software tools for lawyers in the areas of inheritance, inheritance and family law, which Sickmeyer calls the markets adjacent to bankruptcy.
Other ways NextChapter is looking at how to expand its offerings include Sickmeyer’s ongoing discussions with the founders of other companies in the Fastcase network about connecting their products. As an example, Sickmeyer says that the dispute analysis information held by Docket Alarm could potentially prove very useful for NextChapter users.
Meanwhile, outside of his NextChapter and Fastcase roles, Sickmeyer focuses on supporting the founders of legal technology and beyond under-represented groups.
One initiative she has launched in this direction is Overlooked Ventures, a venture capital fund that aims to raise $ 50 million to support companies with “one or more historically ignored founders.” Since the fund’s launch two months ago, Sickmeyer says more than 500 startups have applied for funding.
“We’re really excited to start leveraging what we can do and what we’ll invest in,” she said.
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