Sunday LawTech Review — 14th January 2018
LegalSifter partners with specialist healthcare law firm
The Pittsburgh Business Times reports on a new partnership between LegalSifter and Oakland based law firm Horty Springer & Mattern, who focus on legal services to the healthcare industry across the US. The partnership will offer a product helping hospitals and health systems nationwide review contracts faster.
Interview with Jennifer Hourihane of Document Notary LawTech Startup Oathello
Interview in the Irish Legal News with Jennifer Hourihane, CEO of Oathello, a legaltech platform for notarising and witnessing documents. Hourihane was last year named as one of the most exciting Irish business stars under 30 by the Irish Independent.
Oathello works a bit like Uber but for notaries — you load an app, find available notaries in your areas, make a booking and then either you go to the notary or they come to you. The Oathello app is currently only available in Dublin, though there are plans to launch in the UK in the future.
Oathello is an excellent example of a simple elegant technology based solution to a common legal need, and a strong demonstration of what is possible when lawyers look beyond the way things are currently done and at how technology could improve legal processes. Expect to hear more about Oathello this year.
Mishcon de Reya opens applications for second MDR LAB
Legal IT Insider reported on Tuesday that Mishcon de Reya has opened the second round of applications for its MDR Lab. The MDR Lab allows lawtech startups access to MDR’s lawyers and in order to gain expert knowledge in order to help develop their products. According to Caroline Hill, Editor of Legal IT Insider, Legaltech companies are often criticised for “not knowing their clients well enough or how their technology fits in with law firms’ long-term ambitions”.
The MDR Lab is one of a number of lawtech incubators launched by prominent law firms last year, others include Slaughter and May’s Fintech Fast Forward and Allen & Overy’s Fuse incubator. Incubators allow tech companies to work with lawyers to ensure their products actually meet the needs of their target market.
Simulator predicts who gets what in divorce
The Straits Times reports on Lex Quanta, a startup with an application that predicts the division of assets in a divorce case. Lex Quanta has secured a place at Singapore Academy of Law’s Future Law Innovation Programme (FLIP), which is lawtech incubator and accelerator supporting law firms and legaltech startups. FLIP itself was only launched this week, and is billed as southeast Asia’s first legaltech accelerator.
Jerrold Soh, co-founder of Lex Quanta is quoted by the Straits Times:
“We started hearing lawyers saying that junior lawyers would be replaced by AI (artificial intelligence) … so I thought I better find out what it is and know how it works.”.
Excellent advice for all practicing lawyers, and good to see the impact of AI on the legal sector is being taken seriously and making it onto the syllabus in university law departments.
What is blockchain?
Good collection of opinions/explainers on what blockchain is from Legal Geek this week.
More Predictions for what we can expect to see from legaltech in 2018
Kemp IT Law: Trends in information technology law: looking ahead to 2018
AI is out, augmented intelligence is in for 2018
Blockchain: The Unchangeable Game Changer
Plus a list of ten books to help you hit your legaltech goals in 2018 compiled by Andrew Arruda, CEO of Ross Intelligence.
Originally published at Technomancers — Legal Technology Blog.
