4 Legal Tech Trends To Watch For In 2016

As 2015 comes to a close, it’s only natural to peek ahead to see what’s in store for 2016.  As a whole, legal technology is still just a baby of an industry which pales in comparison to the technology revolution going on in the financial industry. It remains an open question whether legal-tech startups will be attractive targets for early stage venture capital companies.  But 2015 began to show some serious promise with some of the biggest Silicon Valley VCs placing bets on legal tech. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, or if you’re thinking about joining or starting a startup, it’s important to start identifying trends. Here are four trends that I think are going to be hot in 2016.

1.  Artificial intelligence. I’ve not hidden my enthusiasm for companies like Kira Systems and Lawgeex, and I’ve identified both as “companies to watch.” Both Kira Systems and Lawgeex are examples of growing companies that are using artificial intelligence to help make the lives of lawyers better by improving due diligence and contract review respectively. If artificial intelligence can improve these two processes, what’s to say that it can’t improve others?

2.  Analytics. Although the fact that numbers were not disclosed in Lexis Nexis’ purchase of legal analytics company Lex Machina, the acquisition itself is significant. Will Lex Machina be able to scale its business with the backing of Lexis Nexis and will analytics be a tool that every firm begins to use in order to get a leg up? But that’s not the only reason the acquisition is meaningful. In 2016, every CEO trying to build an analytics startup will point to the Lex Machina acquisition as evidence of potential acquirers.

3.  Legal marketplaces. At the moment, the most noteworthy company has to be UpCounsel, but two big questions face legal marketplaces: (a) whether they can prevent lawyers and clients from working around their system and making side deals and (b) whether or not the frequency of use will provide enough volume to make these marketplaces profitable.  But if UpCounsel is able to create a market that can effectively connect lawyers with clients, then the opportunity could be massive.  I find it hard to believe that UpCounsel can build a protective moat making it the only game in town, but they definitely have first mover’s advantage. I’m betting we see other legal marketplaces popping up in 2016.

4.  Non-lawyers starting legal startups and lawyers starting non-legal startups. I may be biased here, but I speak with many lawyers who are working on interesting apps and/or companies that are not in the legal space.  Anna Santeramo is a former biglaw attorney who started Stylebee, a beauty on demand service that was backed by Y Combinator. On the other hand, Eliam Medina (co-founder of Willing) has no experience in law.

Those are trends I’m watching, but I’m sure there are others. Let me know what I missed in the comments sections or shoot me a tweet or an email.

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Zach Abramowitz is a former Biglaw associate and currently CEO and co-founder of ReplyAll. You can follow Zach on Twitter (@zachabramowitz) or reach him by email at zach@replyall.me.