Menu
Practice
5 Legal Tech Startup Areas to Watch in 2017
January 1, 2017
While 2015 was marked by major investments in legal tech organizations like Avvo and kCura (who raked in $71 million and $125 million in venture capital investments, respectively), 2016 lacked the same the same robust investing climate. That said, venture capitalists, accelerators, and other investors in legal tech demonstrated some continued interest in a few areas that are likely to carry into 2017. Legal tech entrepreneurs may want to look into these 5 areas for their next big project:
January 1, 2017
While 2015 was marked by major investments in legal tech organizations like Avvo and kCura (who raked in $71 million and $125 million in venture capital investments, respectively), 2016 lacked the same the same robust investing climate. That said, venture capitalists, accelerators, and other investors in legal tech demonstrated some continued interest in a few areas that are likely to carry into 2017. Legal tech entrepreneurs may want to look into these 5 areas for their next big project:
The 10 Most Important Legal Technology Developments of 2016
December 31, 2016
THE LEGAL INDUSTRY GETS SMART ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. CHATBOTS START CHATTING ABOUT LAW. LEGAL STARTUPS FIND STARDUST. ANALYTICS EXPAND THEIR REACH. TECH FOR A2J GOES MAINSTREAM. INTERNET OF THINGS BECOMES A THING IN LAW. TECH CLE BECOMES MANDATORY. ALL U.S. CASE LAW GETS DIGITIZED. AT LAST! AVVO PUSHES THE LEGAL SERVICES ENVELOPE. AS SECURITY BURNS, LAW FIRMS FIDDLE.
December 31, 2016
THE LEGAL INDUSTRY GETS SMART ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. CHATBOTS START CHATTING ABOUT LAW. LEGAL STARTUPS FIND STARDUST. ANALYTICS EXPAND THEIR REACH. TECH FOR A2J GOES MAINSTREAM. INTERNET OF THINGS BECOMES A THING IN LAW. TECH CLE BECOMES MANDATORY. ALL U.S. CASE LAW GETS DIGITIZED. AT LAST! AVVO PUSHES THE LEGAL SERVICES ENVELOPE. AS SECURITY BURNS, LAW FIRMS FIDDLE.
The ABA’s Proposed 75% Bar Passage Rule And The Coming Legal Job Destruction Caused By Artificial Intelligence
December 30, 2016
The issue of ABA law school accreditation and the passage rates achieved by law schools is obviously quite volatile. The arguments pro and con the proposed ABA rule on accreditation and the need for law schools to achieve a 75% bar passage rate over a two year period contain hidden agendas that involve preset political positions and the self interest of a variety of groups, including the ABA, HBCU’s and law teachers who are already threatened by sharply falling enrollments. I have tried to stay...
December 30, 2016
The issue of ABA law school accreditation and the passage rates achieved by law schools is obviously quite volatile. The arguments pro and con the proposed ABA rule on accreditation and the need for law schools to achieve a 75% bar passage rate over a two year period contain hidden agendas that involve preset political positions and the self interest of a variety of groups, including the ABA, HBCU’s and law teachers who are already threatened by sharply falling enrollments. I have tried to stay...
MIT Profs Push Moneyball Approach For Faculty Hiring And Tenure Decisions
December 29, 2016
Michael Lewis’s 2003 book, Moneyball — later made into a movie starring Brad Pitt — tells the story of how predictive analytics transformed the Oakland Athletics baseball team and, eventually, baseball itself. Data-based modeling has since transcended sport. It’s used in hiring investment bankers, for example. But is academe really ready for its own “moneyball moment” in terms of personnel decisions? A group of management professors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
December 29, 2016
Michael Lewis’s 2003 book, Moneyball — later made into a movie starring Brad Pitt — tells the story of how predictive analytics transformed the Oakland Athletics baseball team and, eventually, baseball itself. Data-based modeling has since transcended sport. It’s used in hiring investment bankers, for example. But is academe really ready for its own “moneyball moment” in terms of personnel decisions? A group of management professors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
With $100 Mediators, Sometimes You Get What You Pay For
December 28, 2016
Where I practice, all Family Matters cases are required to attend mediation. This is a common practice, as I understand it, in most states. It has been my practice — unless the case has highly complex financial issues, or the attorney on the other side is truly unreasonable — to counsel against paying a private mediator. Instead, I suggest using the services of a court-appointed mediator for which each side pays an amount less than $100. This entitles my client to at least two mediations...
December 28, 2016
Where I practice, all Family Matters cases are required to attend mediation. This is a common practice, as I understand it, in most states. It has been my practice — unless the case has highly complex financial issues, or the attorney on the other side is truly unreasonable — to counsel against paying a private mediator. Instead, I suggest using the services of a court-appointed mediator for which each side pays an amount less than $100. This entitles my client to at least two mediations...
The Value of Using Visuals
December 27, 2016
Over at Attorney at Work, Susan Kostal catalogues the reasons why lawyers should think about improving their documents with visuals, like photos, graphs, and videos. Most people can read 200 words per minute. But we can take in visual information 60,000 times faster than we can absorb text. Do the math. Our eyes are drawn to photographs, colors, even graphically pleasing type treatments. It is refreshing. New visuals on evergreen content make it new to your audience. This gives your content...
December 27, 2016
Over at Attorney at Work, Susan Kostal catalogues the reasons why lawyers should think about improving their documents with visuals, like photos, graphs, and videos. Most people can read 200 words per minute. But we can take in visual information 60,000 times faster than we can absorb text. Do the math. Our eyes are drawn to photographs, colors, even graphically pleasing type treatments. It is refreshing. New visuals on evergreen content make it new to your audience. This gives your content...
Taylor Wessing Joins With France’s Predictice to Calculate Litigation Outcomes
December 26, 2016
Today seems to be a very French day for legal tech news. Here is a second story about French legal tech in the shape of Predictice, which is a French start-up working in the field of litigation analytics and case outcome prediction. Predictice has teamed up with the Paris office of UK law firm, Taylor Wessing, to explore what the legal tech company’s software can do, which has several aspects to it, such as intelligent search of case law and the utilisation of machine learning. However, probably...
December 26, 2016
Today seems to be a very French day for legal tech news. Here is a second story about French legal tech in the shape of Predictice, which is a French start-up working in the field of litigation analytics and case outcome prediction. Predictice has teamed up with the Paris office of UK law firm, Taylor Wessing, to explore what the legal tech company’s software can do, which has several aspects to it, such as intelligent search of case law and the utilisation of machine learning. However, probably...
The Death of the Billable Hour Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
December 26, 2016
The billable hour is very much alive and well according to a new study by legal consultant The Blickstein Group Inc. which conducted a survey of more than 100 law department representations and found that the billable hour is still the most prevalent billing arrangement compared to alternative fee arrangements ("AFAs"). Corporate Counsel has more details. The Billable Hour Just Won't Die, Report Finds While alternative fee arrangements are gaining popularity, data recently collected...
December 26, 2016
The billable hour is very much alive and well according to a new study by legal consultant The Blickstein Group Inc. which conducted a survey of more than 100 law department representations and found that the billable hour is still the most prevalent billing arrangement compared to alternative fee arrangements ("AFAs"). Corporate Counsel has more details. The Billable Hour Just Won't Die, Report Finds While alternative fee arrangements are gaining popularity, data recently collected...
LexisNexis Launches Legal Tech Startup Accelerator in Silicon Valley
December 17, 2016
LexisNexis has launched an accelerator in Silicon Valley designed to give startups a leg-up in the rapidly expanding legal...
December 17, 2016
LexisNexis has launched an accelerator in Silicon Valley designed to give startups a leg-up in the rapidly expanding legal...
Medical Malpractice Litigation and the Market for Plaintiff-Side Representation: Evidence from Illinois
December 12, 2016
How concentrated is the market for medical malpractice (med mal) legal representation? Do successful plaintiffs’ lawyers start off with better cases to begin with, do they add more value to the cases they handle, or both? How do top plaintiffs’ lawyers market their services, and where did they go to school? How large are the “wages of risk”—the compensation to plaintiffs’ lawyers for working on contingency? How often do plaintiffs proceed pro se, and with what results? We address these...
December 12, 2016
How concentrated is the market for medical malpractice (med mal) legal representation? Do successful plaintiffs’ lawyers start off with better cases to begin with, do they add more value to the cases they handle, or both? How do top plaintiffs’ lawyers market their services, and where did they go to school? How large are the “wages of risk”—the compensation to plaintiffs’ lawyers for working on contingency? How often do plaintiffs proceed pro se, and with what results? We address these...
