LegalZoom Teams With Defy Ventures for Formerly Incarcerated

Glendale-based LegalZoom.com Inc. has formed a partnership with Defy Ventures to support the nonprofit organization’s mission to train formerly incarcerated people to become entrepreneurs.LegalZoom will fund the first women’s prison cohort at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla as part of the partnership. The online legal tech company will separately provide funding for Defy Venture’s Entrepreneurs-in-Training program, which makes accessible grants for program graduates to help start and grow their businesses.LegalZoom will also provide its products at no cost to help those who graduate from Defy’s Entrepreneurship Pathway program.“At LegalZoom, we recognize the systemic inequities in our society and the particular struggles current and formerly incarcerated individuals endure,” Chief Executive Daniel Wernikoff said in a statement. “Our partnership with Defy Ventures enables us to do our part to level the playing field and address the tremendous need to help one of America’s largest overlooked communities.”The partnership is one of three collaborative projects LegalZoom announced in August; the other two are partnerships with the Accion Opportunity Fund and the USC Marshall School of Business.