Investor overview · October 2026
Your client files should never be held hostage by your practice software
Portwell is a product in development for Independent Solicitor Practices and Small Law Firms.
The problem
Independent Solicitor Practices and Small Law Firms
For independent solicitor practices and small law firms whose legal practice management platform makes it difficult — or expensive — to get your own data back when you leave.
- Firms report being blocked from the system after choosing not to renew, with no way to access their own client data.
- Basic data export is deliberately hard to use — some firms describe weeks of full-time manual work just to get their files out.
- Even after giving proper termination notice, some firms are told they owe a five-figure exit fee to leave.
In their own words
Real quotes from the people who have this problem
we could not access our own data after choosing not to renew our license
[Competitor] makes it purposefully difficult for you to move data around...even basic export techniques were either over-engineered, buggy and dysfunctional
I gave my termination notice well within the first 6-months. They now say I owe them £12k to terminate
The evidence
Researched before anything is built
How it scores
1 documented complaints about the tools they use today
Based on 6 direct quotes from 1 public site, each recorded with its source. Scores are 1–5, rated from that evidence.
The product
Portwell
Portwell copies your matters, contacts and documents out of your practice software every night into storage your firm owns, in open formats. You always hold a current copy outside the system itself, so a provider can never block you from your own data — a small ongoing cost instead of a surprise exit bill when you finally decide to leave.
- 01
Connect your practice software once; a read-only connector links to your account.
- 02
Every night, your matters, contacts and documents are copied into storage your firm owns, in open formats.
- 03
You always hold a current copy outside the practice system, so if you're ever blocked or decide to leave, there's nothing to wait on and nothing a provider can hold hostage.
Market size
TAM, SAM and SOM
- TAMTotal market
- A$9.7M a year16,514 private law practices in Australia × A$588 a year. Law Society national profile, 2022 ↗
- SAMServiceable market
- A$4.9M a yearAn assumed 50% that are small firms on cloud practice software, where the data lives with the vendor.
- SOMObtainable in 3 years
- A$97K a year2% of the serviceable market — about 165 firms — within three years.
The practice count is from the 2022 national profile. Sizes assume the working price of A$49 a month per firm (A$588 a year), which isn't validated yet. The 50% and 2% shares are assumptions, not forecasts.
Competition
What they use today, and where it falls short
| Today’s option | A copy outside the vendor's system | Open formats you can read anywhere | Up to date every night | In place before you decide to leave |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Practice software's built-in backupStays inside the vendor's system; firms report losing access when their contract ends. | No | –Not known | –Not known | Yes |
| Migration by the next vendorOnly at the point of leaving; one firm reports a free migration service was stopped. | Yes | –Not known | No | No |
| Manual exportsFirms describe export tools as over-engineered, buggy and dysfunctional. | Yes | Partly | No | Yes |
| PPortwella nightly copy of your matters, contacts and documents in storage your firm owns, so no provider can hold your data hostage. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Business model
A flat monthly subscription per firm
A small ongoing cost instead of a surprise exit bill.
A year of Portwell against one firm's exit bill
The exit figure is one UK firm's report, in pounds (roughly A$23,000); bar lengths use that conversion. Law firm review, Trustpilot
Go to market
How we reach them
- NowThe founding-access page is live, with a Google search ad campaign built for practices worried about their data.
- NextLaw society practice-management events and small-firm networks.
- LaterBackup for more practice-software platforms.
Where we are
Validating demand before building
- Problem researchReal complaints collected from public sources and scored
- Demand test · nowFounding-member applications open at portwell.thinksimple.app, with a targeted search ad campaign built for it
- BuildOnly if the demand test shows people will sign up
Signup numbers will be shared here once there are enough to mean something.
Get in touch
Interested in backing Portwell?
We’re happy to talk through the research, the demand test and the plan.
For information only. This is not an offer of securities or financial advice. Portwell is in development; nothing described here is available yet. Market figures and charts are estimates built from the sources shown.