Voluntarily leaving the security of a steady paycheck during a recession may not appeal to all, but a global pandemic only stoked former DLA Piper trusts and estates associate Leah Del Percio's ambition to streamline estate services with legal tech.

Earlier this month, Del Percio left DLA Piper to launch Trustate, an online service that automates estate administration, such as requesting the decedent's credit score, canceling their accounts and other tasks.

Along with working at DLA Piper, Del Percio previously practiced estate law at Fein, Such, Kahn, & Shepard and worked in-house at JPMorgan Chase & Co. where she provided estate counseling to high-worth clients.

Below, Del Percio discusses why she left Big Law and why more lawyers need to become technology developers. This interview was edited for clarity and length.

Legaltech News: Why did you decide to leave DLA Piper?

Leah Del Percio: I think it was a number of reasons. One being I had an idea for a business and while researching my idea and talking to people who were going through the process of administering an estate, I saw the pain they were going through, and they were looking for a solution.

When doing my research on [the] product market fit for my company, I essentially realized the market need is there and they need it now. It propelled me to grow my company as quickly as possible [and] launch it as soon as I was ready. I couldn't do that while working at my firm. 

Were you nervous about leaving your job during COVID-19 and a recession?

I think in Big Law you have to grind a career there. I felt like I wanted to help people in a profound way and I thought the estate industry was ripe for disruption.

It was more about I knew I needed to start this business and start it now because what's going on in the world. Unfortunately, it's sad to say, but people are passing away and there are people that need help administering the estate of their loved ways. … I felt propelled to accelerate the launch of my company because I knew there was a need and that need would be amplified by everything going on.

Has estate-focused legal tech evolved during your in-house and private practice experience?

At my prior law firm I had used a lot of legal technology on the estate planning side. I had worked with software to help draft wills and trusts for people, but I noticed there was nothing on the administration side and nothing for clients.

What was the process like developing a legal tech tool?

A lot of the technology I'm using for the platform already existed, but they weren't applied to the administrative estate industry. Part of that is because lawyers typically do this and they charge you billable hours and they don't have an incentive to be more efficient. … We ultimately landed on using project management software to help build out this customizable portal so we can interface with clients in a secure fashion.

Is the billable hour the only hindrance to lawyers adopting legal tech?

I think that legal tech is a growing field but I feel it's stagnant from a lawyer's perspective because there's a lot of great tools that help with research or drafting documents, but most lawyers like to do their own work because of how they're trained. I think more software as a service products have to be created for lawyers. I don't think it's been utilized to the extent it can be leveraged by lawyers and law firms. 

Does being a lawyer in Big Law add more legitimacy to your software when marketing to potential clients?

Ultimately the good thing about being a lawyer in this field for so long is I typically know the demographics of my customer base. I know the specific trust companies that would benefit from white labeling our service, I know the financial advisers that reach out when a client dies because they call me for questions. I knew from a customer segmentation standpoint who my ideal customer is, if it's an individual, a wealth manager or even a trust company.

Do you think more attorneys will launch legal tech products?

I really hope so. I think when you come at [matters] as a practitioner, you know what you need. I think it's interesting when tech entrepreneurs want to create legal tech software. They don't have that close of a relationship to the end client because they aren't the attorney representing them. They don't know what that attorney needs to effectively represent the client. Attorneys have that knowledge from their experiences with clients, they understand clients' pain points a lot better and can better tailor their solution through the use of technology to that client's need.