As our firm’s Chief Technology Officer, I focus on adopting technology that will better and more efficiently serve clients, particularly early-stage clients.
Below is a list of companies, most of them early-stage tech startups themselves, that are transforming legal practice and, in some cases, the lawyer-client relationship. Others exist, many of which I haven’t tried (yet), but these are the ones I think are winning. Our firm has adopted many of them into its processes, making my life a whole lot better and our clients a whole lot happier. Others I’m still working on. And of course, I’m not laying down all my cards here. Never good to fully open the kimono.
If you have any questions as to why law firms are hiring fewer lawyers and support staff, may this list put your questions to rest. As I like to say, cottage industry thinking won’t disrupt law; technology and process innovation will.
- Clerky – Think high-quality “Turbotax” but for early-stage startup legal work.
- Brightleaf and ContractExpress – Intelligent Document Automation
- DealProof – Automated Contract Proofing
- Diligence Engine – Automated Contract Review
- eShares – Electronic Stock Certificates and Cap Table Management
- NeotaLogic – Legal Expert Systems
- Exemplify – Find precedent/market-standard language and compare lightning fast.
- Docracy – Open Source Contracts
- TrakLight – IP Strategy as a Service