Rising demand on legal tech startups

In today’s global era, law, order, and justice have become necessary factors for maintaining certitude. The demand for legal document preparation approved applications, intellectual property management, and company structure has skyrocketed since the time legal services have emerged as a global phenomenon. Consequently, there’s no doubt that the ever-evolving technology has saturated the entire commercial world in general, making every aspect of life technologically dependent, with the legal technology services and the demand for legal tech startups market being no different.

This advancement of technology in the law field has resulted in the adoption of Legal Technology or as commonly known as Legal Tech that has rapidly changed the legal landscape. We’re interested in describing what’s been termed the Legal Tech market in broad terms. Legal innovation is frequently used to refer to the application of innovation and programming to assist legal advisors and law firms by making their work easier, providing legal services in a much faster and efficient manner, making legal content more accessible to the general public.

What is legal tech startups ?

Legal tech Startups, like its elder and more recognized ‘brother’ FinTech (Financial Technology), is a subset of the larger companies which make use of these legal innovations as a means of providing full legal services through an online platform. These start-ups were aimed at superseding the traditional legal procedural work methods adopted by the legal professionals with newer tech-driven alternatives. In a way, amendments were being made to the legal field’s consumer experience by making it more distinctive.

One of the key consequences and aims of the legal tech business, in terms of technology, is to incorporate a stronger tech dimension into legal practice, so improving the way lawyers do things. It is critical to determine whether these changes or deployments will cause genuine disruption in the industry or simply a slight increase in the time required to provide services to clients.

Why legal tech startups ?

 

Moving away from tradition

The legal technology is intended to reduce the number of physical meetings required for client consultations. Customarily while the aggrieved parties approach lawyers for advice about their difficulties, modern technology allows them to meet online and at any time, even while they are sitting at their computers. This is where the conventional law firm’s practices faced quite a big challenge in the market. A typical law office is bustling with activity and perhaps twice as much administrative work where it takes about 18 to 20 hours for a lawyer to prepare a report in totality.

This expresses the influence on new-age entrepreneurs as well. Legal tech start-ups have the potential to provide something unique in comparison to huge, traditional legal firms: flexibility, which enables businesses to modify their employees’ work processes, aiding in the retention of talent and the stimulation of employee engagement. As young, skilled, and recently graduated lawyers follow entrepreneurial pathways and careers in legal start-ups, this effect will progressively become obvious within traditional law firms’ human resources departments.

Law companies are warming up to technology

The growing demand for the usage of such legal start-ups is evident from the fact that law firms, which are not generally linked with the fast-paced world of tech start-ups, are seeing the value of being near to the action. Even though lawyers have traditionally been labeled as risk-averse and, by extension, tech-averse, more organizations are embracing technology to improve workflow and boost productivity. To achieve a competitive edge, several organizations have formed their innovation arms or partnered with legal-tech firms. Innovative firms tend to outperform their conventional counterparts in terms of performance, revenue, and client relations.

The evolution of legal technology

Legal technology has evolved into a critical component of competition among legal-market entities. Various findings showing that legal technology enables lawyers to generate affordable and accessible innovative solutions and operate in a more comfortable setting, adds to the literature on how the surging demand led to the emergence of new services and business models in the legal industry. Legal tech companies are in high demand in India since they provide diverse and improved options such as education, legal services, technological advancements and play a key role in the economy’s development and progress.

Along with that, they provide a wide range of legal services in a timely, cost-effective, and efficient manner, which benefits not only the customers but also the firm. Heavy investment in this industry is also allowing legal tech businesses to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to innovation. “Legal tech is increasingly receiving money from several sources, including law firms themselves, private equity and venture capital funds,” Jim Leason, Vice President, Customer Markets at Thomson Reuters, stated , “This enthusiasm has provided start-ups with the necessary boost to get their goods off the ground”.

Legal tech startups during the pandemic 

Another cause for an increase in demand for legal tech services is the pandemic, wherein the netizens restricted to their homes welcomed internet online remedies to their so-called physical concerns. Because office visits and actual meetings were forbidden, Legal issues, which have previously been resolved by office visits and face-to-face meetings, are now resolved through the internet. People who were in a state of legal distress were asking for immediate legal advice on divorce and property disputes.

The digitalization of legal profession

As the Coronavirus restricts individuals to their homes, netizens welcome internet remedies to so-called physical problems. Legal issues, which have previously been resolved by office visits and face-to-face meetings, are now resolved through the internet. People who are in any form of legal trouble are looking for ways to obtain immediate legal advice on divorce, property disputes, and other legal matters. Likewise, lawyers who are apprehensive about physical proximity are also seeking ways to take their practice online using well-known technologies as the pandemic has forced the legal profession to rely on technology, such as virtual hearings or videoconferencing, in which counsels and lawyers can appear online for their cases while sitting in their own homes.

It also becomes easy for the bidding lawyers as they’re well equipped with the various technological aspects. “However, with the current generation of lawyers who are themselves tech-savvy, it is much easier to express and exhibit the potential of our platform,” said Himanshu Gupta, founder of legal tech firm Lawyered. COVID-19, on the other hand, has taught everyone throughout the world about the value of digital. Adding on to that, it can also be said that legal technology might just be the answer to the current dilemma, with normal judicial services under strain.

The pandemic has prompted the legal profession to develop and strive toward digitalization, and it has streamlined itself for the better. Such a far reached program also acts as a catalyst in solving the day-to-day legal matters involving families or organizations in the rural arena where it is far more difficult to consult legal professionals physically.

A few legal tech startups in India are listed below

▪ LawRato

LawRato, founded by Rohan Mahajan is an interactive online platform for a real-time video consultation with lawyers, where consumers especially female victims of violent crimes and war widows can get free initial guidance. Its most notable accomplishment was to supply Nirbhaya’s parents with senior lawyers who worked on a pro gratis basis when the case reached the Supreme Court, regardless of financial success.

▪ iPleaders

Launched by Ramanuj Mukherjee and Abhyudaya Agarwal in 2010, iPleaders is an education company that develops and offers online legal and business courses to make legal education more accessible to everyone in the law field through the internet. It maintains an online Business Diploma course in Entrepreneurship Administration and Business Law in collaboration with NUJS, Kolkata along with providing an online training material called Bar Hacker for the All-India Bar Examinations.

▪ Presolv360

A popular legal-tech platform located in Mumbai, Presolv360 that specializes in resolving financial issues using digital and media means. Founded by Bhaven Shah and Aman Sanghavi in June 2017, it gives an excellent platform for commercial conflicts to be discussed. For commercial conflicts, it provides an online arbitration option. It assists disputants in reaching an out-of-court settlement that is less expensive, quicker, and more effective.

▪ LegalKart

In the year 2018, Arvind Singhatiya started LegalKart as an online platform that offers legal advice and documentation assistance through an app by paying as low as rupees 249 onwards. Having over 8,000 lawyers in over 800 places, the organization has seen consumers purchase 20,000 minutes per month to discuss legal questions and procedures. It aims at evolving Legal Kart into an AI-enabled system performing advanced case analytics, smart research work, auto contract drafting employing Machine Learning, and integrating an ecosystem of all stakeholders, including clients, lawyers, and enterprises.

Such businesses are also challenging the perception that certain services, such as legal advice, come at a high cost. Instead, legal technology has facilitated the end-users who are financially precarious, to save money on legal counsel. But at the same time, many legal professionals
are apprehensive that digital technology such as AI, machine learning, and others would put their professions at risk. However, there is no confirmation that these risks exist; instead, such technology will supplement lawyers’ powers.

Future Scope

For a few years now, even though legal tech has pervaded the whole legal sphere, every aspect of life must be increasingly technologically advanced. It was observed that well-established firms adopted the strategy of improving these cheaper, simpler services as they attracted fewer profit margins and restrictive mental models which however failed to owe to a lack of emphasis on customers’ needs, a refusal to learn and adapt technologies, and a lack of experimentation. A better way of adopting these new technologies was recognized which implied that there was a need to design the path for the future and acceptance of legal technologies.

Conclusion

It’s no surprise that the future of legal practice will increasingly rely on new technologies, with some sessions possibly taking place electronically. The sector will move beyond traditional law practices or courts to some kind of diagnostic system that will advise
consumers on their legal options, how to gather evidence, and provide alternative conflict resolution methods.

Legal tech is a wanted element emerging into the legal sector, that has rapidly transitioned from a niche market to a major player in the legal profession. Thus, technology law should be taken as a team sport promoted by all for the sake of all shareholders rather than a competition, that must be instead. A game that we must all promote for the sake of our clients and the future growth of the industry.

Credits: Aakash D.