First UK LegalTech Trade Mission a Success

The UK Legal Tech trade mission to Switzerland and Austria took place this week, with businesses pitching their solutions to lawyers at events in Zurich and Vienna.

Representatives from a legalTech companies Amiqus, Cognitiv+, Genie AI, Juralio, LPA, Miso, QuoteXpress, Tonic Works, RegChain and SnapDragon were part of the trade delegation, with the Scottish companies supported by the Law Society of Scotland.

In Zurich, UK legalTech firms delivered five minute product pitches to Swiss law firms, and Paul Mosson from the Law Society of Scotland spoke about their LawScotTech Initiative, which aims to “stimulate legal technology innovation in Scotland which will deliver practical benefits for those working in the justice and legal sectors and their clients”. In Austria, the delegation had exhibition space at the Vienna LegalTech Conference.

Miles Fisher, Deputy Head of Trade and Investment, DIT, Austria, told Technomancers that the legalTech Trade Mission was a result of feedback from a finTech Trade Mission earlier in the year. Law Firms at the finTech event had expressed disappointment that there were no legalTech vendors present, as such the legalTech Mission was created.

Technomancers spoke with some of the delegates from the Trade Mission, to find out more about why they were here:

“On the trade mission, we were able to meet new business partners in international markets, and learn about the local landscape in Switzerland and Australia. It always helps having local relationships.” — Rafie Faruq, Genie AI

“The Department for International Trade has done an outstanding job in arranging this well organised and successful Trade Mission. We have met many dynamic, innovative and game changing companies in both Vienna and Zurich. We hope this is the first of many Trade Missions MISO can be part of ” — Lisa Henderson, QC Miso

“The trip has allowed us to gather a very clear understanding of the nuanced opportunities for rapid growth into both Swiss and Austrian markets. The facilitated introductions have saved us significant time and effort whilst the collaboration between companies attending has also been excellent.” — Callum Murray, Amiqus.

“The trip has been be very productive in meeting a variety of different organisations with the support of the British Embassy in Zurich and Vienna to further our RegChain + Atlas City offerings. The workshops and 1:1 sessions have been invaluable!” — Alkesh Acharya, RegChain

Both Switzerland and Austria have a strong legalTech scene, with Legal Hackers chapters that meet regularly in both Vienna and Zurich, along with a Swiss LegalTech Association and the Legal Tech Initiative Austria.

A number of law firms in Austria have also just come together to launch a legalTech hub in Vienna. Philip Dudsky of Herbst Kinsky explained how the new initiative came about:

“We started the initiative because we felt that each firm individually was too small to invest in and build their own legatech. The idea of the hub is to attract tech partners in order to build and create what all of us need in terms of digitizing our legal services and at the same time provide a platform for more legatech companies to come to Austria.”

Switzerland and Austria have also both held sizeable legalTech conferences this year, with the Swiss LegalTech Conference earlier this month attracting over 200 delegates, and the Vienna LegalTech Conference this week attracting over 300.

Vienna Legal Tech Conference event host Sophie Martinetz, told Technomancers:

“This conference is really special because it brings together people from all over the industry — lawyers, judges, general counsel, startups, legal tech companies and established big companies like publishers. This creates the right mix of people so that we are not just waiting for the digitisation [of legal services] to happen, but we are able to make it happen, and also steer it too”

The Trade Mission was a great success, with future LegalTech missions being planned — the next mission likely heading to Madrid in the new year.

Originally published at Technomancers — LegalTech Blog.