For centuries, the legal profession has been one that is largely conservative, traditional and only understood by those on the inside. Understandably, in most jurisdictions, the law is a complex assembly of rules and regulations, necessitating its practitioners to complete three years or more of graduate study and certification by exam to demonstrate mastery and competency. Understanding the law and interpreting it for the benefit of society is one of modern civilization’s most revered traditions. The legal world has not been one that is inclusive or welcoming to outsiders, but a number of tech-based firms are disrupting and transforming the legal industry and how it relates to the rest of us.
FindLaw
For nearly 25 years, FindLaw has been committed to making legal knowledge and resources accessible to consumers and professionals alike. As an early disrupter to the industry, FindLaw provides updated and understandable tools as well as a comprehensive online legal directory, connecting people to the right solicitors and firms. With over 11 million visitors each month, FindLaw.com offers extensive articles, news, case law and statutes on a wide range of topics and discipline areas, making it the most popular site for free information regarding the law. The FindLaw website provides resources to individuals and entities seeking legal guidance as well as resources to attorneys and firms, including marketing solutions and support.
Lexoo
As with many industries, the legal industry is also experiencing a shift to a mindset of accomplishing more with fewer resources, leading to a questioning of traditional means and methods of big legal firms. Lexoo was founded in 2014 by Daniel van Binsbergen and Chris O’ Sullivan, an ex-attorney and developer respectively, in the United Kingdom. It initially was an online marketplace for attorneys looking for subject matter experts. It has since evolved into a new type of law firm, offering services in over 65 countries. Staffing over 1,000 lawyers, Lexoo is a go-to for legal resources, delivering services at about 50% of the cost for similar services from a traditional firm. Lexoo attorneys are mostly ex-big firm personnel with a minimum of six years of working experience. This new firm provides services for major businesses, including Travelodge and Vodafone. Lexoo represents a shift wherein law professionals are focused more on providing good value to their clients and less about amassing billable hours.
Advokatguiden
Traditionally when individuals are in need of legal services, they tend to rely on word of mouth referrals from people. With the spread of the Internet, it is not uncommon for users to check popular websites for reviews of restaurants, films and hotels in deciding where and how to spend their money. Advokatguiden is shaking up the legal industry by providing a vehicle for users to leave reviews about the services they’ve received from lawyers. Based in Norway, this company brings transparency to an industry whose inner workings have been concealed from outsiders. It was founded by entrepreneur and attorney, Erling Løken Andersen. Advokatguiden allows former clients to leave detailed, confidential reviews of actual lawyers for the benefit of future clients. This company also connects individuals and companies to solicitors, which serves the legal practice. Advokatguiden currently has operations in Norway, Sweden and Denmark with plans for continued expansion.
CrowdJustice
In 2015, UK attorney Julia Salasky was inspired to leave her job to provide a new inroad to justice. She launched CrowdJustice, a company that allows crowdsourcing for legal funds for cases of public interest. In her former role as a litigator, she did quite a bit of pro bono work and noted how much of an obstacle funding often proved to be for clients. CrowdJustice selects public interest cases and invites individuals, organizations and communities to offer financial support. The company uses a team of legal experts to review the details of each campaign, making sure that a qualified attorney is involved and that donated funds are sent directly to the trust account to fund the legal needs for the client. Since 2017, CrowdJustice has been headquartered in the United States. Since its creation, CrowdJustice has been involved in high profile cases on both sides of the pond, including a challenge establishing that the UK parliament vote on Brexit, and Stormy Daniels’ case to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement regarding President Donald Trump.
InCloudCounsel
Some startups have disrupted the legal industry from within. InCloudCounsel is a technology startup that enables attorneys to work on a freelance or gig basis and reduces the high volume of routine legal work through outsourcing. Typically, attorneys working for big law firms can expect a career full of countless hours of perfunctory work that can crush passion for the practice. Founded in 2014 by lawyer Ben Levi, management consultant Troy Pospisil and software engineer Lane Lillquist, this company has reframed legal services as a gig economy-based model using an app. Corporate lawyers are now freed up to focus on the work they love in a flexible yet steady schedule. InCloudCounsel currently has operations in the US and the UK with plans to expand to the Asia-Pacific region.
Farillio
Business owners and entrepreneurs at every level quickly learn how much the law is involved with their operations. From employment issues to tax implications, any enterprise that doesn’t have legal assistance and support can inadvertently run afoul of the law. Attorney and entrepreneur, Merlie Calvert recognized the need for small businesses to have access to certain legal information. In 2018, she launched Farillio, an online resource for legal guidance and other advice when it comes to running a business. Wisdom and experience sourced from a team of experts has been compiled into an online Google Docs-like environment for the benefit of small enterprises. Acknowledged as one of the leading UK startups in 2019, Farillio provides instructional videos, infographics and a la carte expertise for individuals and businesses. In doing so, it helps tear down the wall of mystique and uncertainty that has characterized the legal industry.
Luminance
Attorneys around the world can tell you that a major part of legal work includes researching documents to pull out relevant information. Luminance is an artificial intelligence startup based in London. This company harnesses the power of AI in the development of its core technology Legal Inference Transformation Engine (LITE), which uses supervised and unsupervised machine learning and pattern recognition techniques to quickly scan and analyze thousands of legal documents and contracts in seconds. Solicitors and legal professionals can focus on the aspects of their business that require a unique, human touch and saving money by not having junior staff and paralegals do time-intensive document review and research. Luminance also uses its LITE’s pattern recognition to flag potential risks or special language to alert lawyers. The company is currently valued at $100 million in USD and hopes to expand into the United States soon.
Atrium LTS
Recognizing that many tech firms were contracting with traditional law firms that didn’t take advantage of technology to better serve their clients, the founders of Atrium LTS sought to create a tech-enabled law firm to fill this gap in the industry. Atrium LTS offers a collection of tech tools to increase transparency and price predictability for corporate legal services. Some of the more commonly used tools include document creation, e-singing and management of project workflows. Atrium LTS merges the expertise and know-how of a big law firm with the efficiency and innovation of a tech firm to provide cost-effective options for legal services.
Lex Machina
Lex Machina is a company that uses AI to provide legal analytics to businesses and law firms to help develop case strategies and better predict rulings and outcomes. Their Lexpressions engine uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyze data from court documents, judges and attorneys to create data sets for use by clients. Lex Machina is based in the Mecca of the tech world, Silicon Valley. It originated with Stanford University’s Law School and Computer Science department. Lex Machina is a part of LexisNexis who has been a leader in supporting the legal industry with information and industry insights through processing of data. Lex Machina is used by corporate legal teams for major corporations such as Microsoft, LG and eBay as well as a host of startup companies.
Ravel Law
Similar to Lex Machina, Ravel Law is another company that is disrupting the legal industry through AI-based legal analytics. Ravel is also a part of LexisNexis, and it uses AI and machine learning to analyze data records and cases to show attorneys and counselors how cases interrelate for better crafting of legal strategy and approaches. Ravel seeks to support professionals by efficiently scanning thousands of documents for trends and data, freeing up junior staff to focus their efforts on activities that cultivate development of legal intuition and judgment. Ravel Law began in 2012 from Stanford University’s Computer Science department, Law School and d.school, a hub for innovative approaches to design.
The tech industry is characterized by startup companies and businesses that have transformed operations in a number of traditional industries such as education, finance and medicine. The legal industry, one of the oldest and most essential industries has also been impacted by several companies that aim to disrupt through adding transparency, cost-effectiveness and agency to individuals seeking support and guidance. These tech firms are transforming the legal profession on both sides, first by increasing clients’ access to resources and funding and by supporting attorneys and firms with cutting edge technology that increases the efficiency of processing large amounts of data that results in useful insights of the law. Considering that the general aim of technology is to leverage innovation, engineering and design to elevate the quality of life, the trend of companies disrupting the legal industry is very much in line with this aim. It also points to a future progression at the interface of the tech and legal worlds.
