Since it’s the end of the year, I am offering my predictions concerning legal innovation in 2015.1 In case you aren’t already aware, legal innovation and legal technology has been ramping up in a big way over the last couple of years. Overall, my general sense is that the pace of legal innovation in 2015 will pick up speed as legal entrepreneurs gain product development experience and attorneys become more inclined to incorporate legal technology into their practice.
Predictions for Legal Innovation in 2015
Legal Marketplaces Will Get More Tailored.
Over the past few years a number of platforms have arisen to match attorneys with clients.2 The concept is not a new one and the value of these platforms depends upon their execution. All of the ones that I have seen are well done and probably do what they are supposed to: match lawyers with clients.
In 2015, the legal marketplaces will become more refined, targeting specific legal needs or industries. Many legal clients want lawyers who understand their circumstances well, or have certain personality traits or backgrounds that go beyond the law. In such a context, price becomes less important and many legal clients are willing to pay a premium for attorneys who have domain-specific knowledge and connections.
Legal marketplaces will develop stronger brands that will make them the go-to spots for particular kinds of lawyers.
Law Firm Ownership Rules Will Begin to Change
In many jurisdictions in the United States, non-lawyers cannot have an ownership stake in law firms. While there might be good ethical reasons for this, there is an opportunity for some change. This has already happened in the UK with the Legal Services Act and the conversation is under way in the United States.
Allowing non-attorneys to have a stake in law firms would create opportunities for law firms to develop better in-house tools that could be kept within the firm or spun off into separate ventures.3 Either way, legal innovation in 2015 gets a boost because then lawyers will have more resources to develop their own tools rather than wait for those tools to be developed by non-lawyers, who may or may not always understand the nuances of law practice.
In 2015 we will see more formal proposals for opening up law firm ownership to investment.
Practice Software Evolves
This is the most exciting area for legal innovation in 2015. Practice software has been around for a long time, but in the past few years it has begun to evolve and I feel like it is only at the beginning. Aided by advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence, entrepreneurs are creating software that helps attorneys become much more efficient.
Whether that’s software like Ravel Law for analyzing case law or Diligence Engine for analyzing contract terms, more lawyers will adopt technology that allows us to do more and better work more quickly (with corresponding changes in price). Similar advances will come to other tools such as practice management software or legal marketing software.
In 2015, there will be more sophisticated entrants and better tools for lawyers, with many of them becoming de rigeurin any competent, contemporary law firm.
What Are Your Thoughts?
Curious to know what you think about all of this, and to hear your predictions for legal innovation in 2015. You can always get in touch via Twitter or email. If you are in the Los Angeles area, you can join the Los Angeles legal innovation/legal hacking group (or any similar group in your city) to get involved.
- Be sure to read Robert Ambrogi’s run-down of all of the important legal technology developments of 2014 to get oriented. ↩
- Check out sites like Lawdingo, LawTrades, and LawKick. ↩
- I touched on the issue of investment in law firms in an earlier post about misconceptions in the legal marketplace. ↩
