Black-owned Courtroom5 is one of 5 firms to receive backing from women’s investment community SheEO

RALEIGH – Courtroom5 is scaling quickly after landing the backing of the women’s investment group SheEO.

The Durham-based, Black-owned legal tech startup that offers a “legal toolbox” for people who can’t afford a lawyer in court, confirmed it has been named a SheEO U.S. Venture for 2021.

SheEO is a global community of “radically generous women” building a $1 billion perpetual fund to support women and non-binary entrepreneurs. It selects just five organizations each year to provide activation resources, coaching and funding to aid in growing their businesses.

Debra Sloane and Sonja Ebron

As an official SheEO U.S. Venture, Courtroom5 will receive access to SheEO’s activators, a global community of women who activate their buying power, networks and expertise to support the selected ventures. In addition, SheEO will provide a zero percent interest loan to advance Courtroom5’s mission to make the often-complex legal system more accessible to those without means.

The exact sum of the loan was not disclosed.

“[It was] very generous and more than we anticipated,” Courtroom5’s founder Sonja Ebron told WRAL TechWire.

“The guidance and support we will receive from the activation network will be invaluable in growing Courtroom5 and helping it to become the best possible resource for those it serves,” she added.

Traffic surging

Ebron, an electrical engineer, and her business partner, Debra Slone, a Ph.D. librarian, know first-hand how tricky navigating the civil justice system can be for the average person.

Both had to represent themselves in court “too many times.”

“We got beat up,” Ebron recalled. “As academics, we felt a responsibility once we figured out how to navigate the system to share it with others.”

So they built Courtroom5 — an educational site launched in 2017, which eventually grew into a full-fledged case management platform powered by artificial intelligence.

For a $30 monthly fee, members can access video courses, workshops, and community forums — covering everything from how to file a motion to how to address a judge in court.

The platform also keeps tabs on individual cases, providing specific legal forms and instruction at every stage.

Since the start of the pandemic, Ebron said the site has seen a surge in traffic — “probably tripling” since April — with almost 1,000 active users.

Many are disproportionately people of color, she added, facing the threat of foreclosure and eviction.

“This is not ‘Judge Judy.’ Folks are losing their homes, or having their wages garnished for years on end,” Ebron said.

“If we could get everybody a lawyer, that would be great; but that’s not the reality,” Ebron says. “So it’s important for us to be able to stand in the breach.”

Courtroom5 recently landed an undisclosed sum from Silicon Valley-based Precursor Ventures.

This January, it also launched a revamped site to bring small and solo law firms onto the platform to serve customers on a “piecemeal basis.”

Along the way, Courtroom5 has also earned some accolades along the way. It landed an NC IDEA grant, as well as coveted spots in the Techstars Kansas City Accelerator, and Google for Startups Black Founders Exchange.

It also won the Black Founders Exchange Demo Day competition last November.

“There are so many people who need what we’re offering. It’s just a question of making them aware of it,” Ebron said.