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ABA TECHSHOW Startup Alley Part 2
RICHARD WEINER
Technology for Lawyers
Published: February 7, 2020
When I first started this column a couple of decades ago, there was not really any such thing as a “legal technology startup.” In fact, that whole concept is just a few years old.
It is now a thing, and several top-flight legal tech startups will be on display in “Startup Alley” at the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago in February. When it’s cold.
I bet half of these startups and their funders are from Silicon Valley and they’ll be in Chicago in February. HA.
So last week I wrote down five of them that looked interesting.
Two access to justice problems because of money companies:
LawCo (https://getlawco.com/) is an app that connects people looking for lawyers to small and solo firms at no cost—something that the company claims is a solution to access to justice problems. For lawyers who need to build business and clients who don’t know where to turn or who have cash problems that may prevent them from seeking justice, this looks like one small step.
Justice for Me (https://justiceforme.com/) approaches the access to justice/ money problem in a unique way (as far as I can tell) by financing legal costs for clients who can’t afford an attorney. The company has a network of attorneys but will also finance a BYO lawyer. Kind of like Care Credit, I guess.
Two legal workflow companies:
FirmTRAK (https://www.firmtrak.com/) creates maps of the interior flow of the firm. From a dashboard, the user can track firm financial trends, analyze revenue drivers, be forewarned about potential problems, drill down into high-level to-do lists, manage accounts receivable, and more. All with colorful maps. I am all about colorful data maps (not kidding, I love them).
Proxy (https://proxylegalapp.com/) is a workflow platform that says that it optimizes four key day-to-day legal functions: (1) organizing and managing legal tasks; (2) delegation and status tracking; (3) visual prioritization; and (4) effective reporting and search. With a colorful map-like dashboard.
And finally, keep up with and keep track of your legal training with DueCourse (https://www.duecourseapp.com/), which delivers “bite-sized” bits of learning which help lawyers map and advance their professional development (see, there are those maps again). The app creates a personalized path through a law career. Maybe some of you Akron Law students could check it out and see what you think.