Tech is revolutionizing the old-school legal industry. Here are the startups to watch, and how they plan to tackle growth.
- The legal industry is seeking to digitize to boost efficiency and meet client demand.
- Insider is tracking the latest innovations across the legal industry.
The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated virtually every industry's path to digitize, and the notoriously old-school world of law is no exception.
Legal firms are demanding more innovation in a bid to improve efficiency and as clients seek lower costs. VCs are seeing promise in the space, opening their wallets to fund legal tech startups.
Insider has been tracking the latest in legal tech, from startups looking to disrupt the complex and paper-dependent industry, to how legacy companies are adopting new digital tools. See the latest below.
Legal tech startup news
From contracts to e-discovery, buzzy legal tech startups are snapping up investments and making big plans for growth. Ironclad, a major player in the contract space, recently raked in a blockbuster $100 million in its Series D, and plans to use the fresh capital to double down on its in-house product development.
In January, e-discovery company Reveal announced both an acquisition and a $200 million investment from the private equity firm K1 Investment Management, signaling growth as it seeks to take on the e-discovery giant, Relativity.
Read more:
- The CEO of legal tech firm LawGeex - which helps automate contract review - lays outs how its new AI patent could turbocharge demand
- Legal tech company UnitedLex hires Big 4 execs as it seeks to build off momentum of businesses embracing tech
- E-discovery company Reveal just got a $200 million investment and bought a data firm. Its CEO lays out its roadmap for beating out a major rival.
- AI-powered contracting platform Ironclad just snapped up $100 million in its Series D. Here's how it plans on using its funding - and a strategic partnership with Google - to boost its tech.
- Legal tech company Exterro just snapped up a forensics data startup - and is eyeing a potential 'unicorn' IPO
- Litigation funding startup Legalist is seeing a boom in demand to back lawsuits - and is hoping to attract hundreds of millions of dollars from investors to keep up with the need
- Trustate, a new startup launched by an ex-DLA Piper attorney, is looking to disrupt a key part of an 'inefficient' $194 billion industry by easing the pain points of estate administration
M&A and VC investments in legal tech
Venture capitalists' interest in legal tech has been surging as more companies seek to digitize aspects of their businesses and shed costs. As some of these startups move beyond the early stage, big-league players like Clio and DocuSign are also making strategic investments and acquisitions in the space, while others, like the Big Four accounting firms, may also be poised to get in on the action in the future.
Read more:
- Billion-dollar legal tech giant Ironclad just made its first-ever acquisition. Here's what it means for the competition.
- 5 companies snapping up legal tech startups, like DocuSign and Wolters Kluwer, lay out their M&A strategies as the space heats up
- Meet 10 investors who are pouring money into legal-tech startups, from Silicon Valley VCs to Big Law firms
- Legal-tech startups are catching the eye of DocuSign and other big strategic investors. These 21 deals showcase how a huge consolidation wave is underway.
- These are the 10 hottest legal tech startups that have raised a combined $1.4 billion in VC funding from investors like Bessemer Venture Partners and Andreessen Horowitz
- Meet 9 legal tech startups that top VCs say are poised to take off as law firms look to cut costs and boost productivity
Legal tech pitch decks
Pitch decks are often instrumental to a startup's ability to attract investors' attention, offering insight into the company's mission, tech, and visions for growth. CEOs and founders of some of the hottest legal-tech companies walked Insider through their decks.
Read more:
- Here's the small but mighty pitch deck that nearly doubled legal tech Athennian's Series A to $12 million
- Evisort's CEO walks through the 11-page pitch deck that the contract software startup used to nab $35 million from investors like General Atlantic - and lays out its path to an IPO
- Here's the 13-page pitch deck that Contractbook, which wants to take on legal tech giants like DocuSign, just used to raise $9.4 million from investors like Bessemer Ventures
- This 20-page pitch deck helped legal tech company Disco rake in $60 million from investors like Georgian Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners
- Check out the 14-page pitch deck that a contract-editing startup used to nab $3.2 million from investors including DocuSign
Law firms warm up to tech
Though lawyers have long been described as risk- and, by extension, tech-averse, more firms are embracing tech solutions to streamline workflow and boost productivity. Some have launched their own innovation arms, or are partnering with legal-tech companies to give themselves a competitive edge. There's also a business case for tech adoption: Innovative firms tend to perform better, make more revenue, and maintain better client relations than their older-school counterparts.
Read more:
- Tech has been transforming the legal industry at lightning speed. Here are the 5 big trends to watch in 2021.
- 'This is adapt or die time': Tech-savvy law firms make nearly 40% more in revenue than old-school ones - here's how new tools are helping lawyers get ahead
- How Big Law firms like Baker McKenzie and Polsinelli are teaming up with legal tech companies to battle a $10 billion threat to the market
- The head of the biggest immigration law firm in the US explains how a recently acquired Y Combinator-backed startup will play a key role in its plans to compete with the Big 4
- How Dentons, the world's largest law firm, is using tech to boost its pro-bono caseload by nearly 40%
- A virtual law firm is hiring freelance lawyers to create a Netflix-style subscription legal service that could disrupt the US legal industry
- Top law firms are starting to share exclusive data with clients to help them win legal disputes and clinch M&A deals. Here's why they're giving it away for free.
- The notoriously old-school legal industry is finally warming up to tech. Here are the winners and losers as law firms turn to startups to cut costs.
- How top law firm Mintz is using AI to help reduce costs for clients and alleviate work for associates