Ryan Keeney, a seasoned lawyer turned tech entrepreneur, has founded TrustReq, a web application designed to help lawyers and paralegals in Ontario navigate the complex regulatory landscape set forth by the Law Society of Ontario (LSO).
Keeney's journey to creating TrustReq is one of reinvention and a desire to merge his legal expertise with a growing passion for technology. After spending nearly a decade practicing law in Southern Ontario and co-founding a successful mid-sized law firm, Keeney found himself burned out by the demands of the profession, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Seeking a change, he sold his firm at the end of 2022 and moved to Sault Ste. Marie, a place he had often vacationed in, with the intention of taking a break and reassessing his career.
"I thought to myself, ‘Okay, what have I been doing? Where are my strengths, and where have I been adding value to my profession?’" Keeney recalls.
It wasn’t long before the idea for TrustReq began to take shape. With a background that included legal practice, digital marketing, and IT infrastructure management, Keeney saw an opportunity to create a platform that would ease some of the administrative burdens faced by lawyers, particularly in the realm of compliance.
A niche solution for Ontario lawyers
TrustReq is not just another legal tech product; it is a specialized tool built specifically to address the unique regulatory requirements of the Law Society of Ontario, as outlined in documents like By-Law 9.
One of the app’s standout features is its advanced biometric AI technology, developed in partnership with Plaid, a global leader in fraud detection and identity verification.
This feature allows lawyers to comply with the LSO’s new client identity verification rules, which came into effect at the beginning of 2024. These rules require lawyers to use sophisticated methods to authenticate government-issued identification documents during virtual meetings, a task that TrustReq simplifies significantly.
Keeney’s app also tackles other pain points for legal professionals, such as managing referral fees and trust account transactions. For example, the app’s referral fee management infrastructure ensures that lawyers can easily comply with the stringent rules surrounding referral fees, which became more regulated following the high-profile Diamond and Diamond scandal in 2017.
Additionally, TrustReq streamlines trust account management, helping lawyers avoid common pitfalls that could lead to audits or even disciplinary action by the LSO.
A vision for integrity and trust
Looking to the future, Keeney hopes to expand TrustReq beyond Ontario, creating variations of the app tailored to the specific regulatory environments of other provinces in Canada and potentially the United States.
However, his ambitions don’t stop at geographic expansion. Keeney envisions TrustReq as a tool that can help improve the public’s perception of lawyers, a profession that, he notes, often suffers from a lack of trust due to the actions of a few bad actors.
To this end, Keeney plans to introduce an "Integrity Badge" that law firms can earn by demonstrating their commitment to ethical practices and compliance with regulatory requirements. This badge, which could one day become a symbol of trust for legal clients, would be awarded to firms that go above and beyond in their use of TrustReq and their overall practice management.
"One day, I’d like TrustReq to be something that indicates to clients that lawyers are properly and ethically managing their practices in a compliant way," Keeney explains. "If a client sees a TrustReq badge on a lawyer’s website, they can be confident that this is a lawyer who has gone the extra mile to ensure they comply with all their obligations."
A Sault Ste. Marie success story in the making
TrustReq is still in its early days, having only launched a few weeks ago, but it has already gained positive feedback from the few law firms that have signed up.
Keeney attributes part of the app’s early success to the slower pace of life in Sault Ste. Marie, which gave him the space and time to teach himself programming and fully immerse himself in the development of the app.
Beyond the legal community, Keeney is also eager to contribute to the local economy of Sault Ste. Marie. He sees TrustReq as an example of how innovation can emerge from small, often overlooked communities and hopes his story will inspire other entrepreneurs in the area.
"More and more people are moving to the Soo, slowly but surely. With that comes new skills, and there’s a lot of exciting potential here," Keeney says. "I want people to know that there are people right here in town who have these skills and are ready to help others succeed."
As TrustReq continues to grow, Keeney remains committed to offering a level of personalized attention that larger legal tech companies simply can’t match. Early adopters of the app not only get access to a powerful compliance tool but also have the opportunity to directly influence its development by providing feedback and requesting new features.