Technology

3 Legal Start-ups I'm Watching This Summer

Here are three legal tech companies legal tech columnist, Zach Abramowitz, is watching this summer.

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money technologySince I began covering legal tech companies many moons ago, my email inbox has been overwhelmed every day with press releases and tech CEOs writing me to let me know about something cool they are building. I try to learn about as many companies as I can both in the ReplyAll conversations I publish here on ATL and through phone calls with many of the companies. But there are many companies that I just haven’t gotten around to covering, despite the fact that they are rapidly growing businesses and, therefore, worth knowing. I am going to try moving forward (at least once a season) to release a list of companies that currently have my attention. And with that, here are three legal tech companies I’m watching this summer.

1. Beagle. Those who read my posts regularly know that I’ve raved about Lawgeex on several occasions. Well it would appear that Lawgeex has some competition in the form of a Beagle. Hey, it’s a dog-eat-dog world. Beagle, which was a participant in the Microsoft Venture Accelerator in Seattle, is built for in-house legal departments to be able to shave time off the review process plus collaborate with people in sales. Using machine learning, Beagle will highlight certain key clauses and ask you whether or not you want to reject or accept them. But what’s really neato (it’s a word!) is that the system will attempt to learn your preferences based on which clauses you are accepting or rejecting. Beagle is still early, but so is machine learning applied to contract review. As a bonus, while you’re checking out Beagle, you should also check out eBrevia, another player in this space. I’m hearing good things.

2. Lexicata. In the great salesforcization of our economy, companies are continually searching for ways to make sure that business does not fall through the cracks. Businesses all use a CRM because the idea that a sale could have been made but for a missed follow up or a lost email keeps executives up at night. Lexicata wants to apply the concept of a simple cloud based CRM to client intake for law firms. The company, which has been growing rapidly, helps automate so many of the clunky processes involved with client intake from tracking leads and entering client information to generating letters of engagement. Practice management software like Clio helps you manage your work, but as CEO Michael Chasin says, “Think of us as pre-Clio.”

3. Casetext. They were on one of my last lists, and they belong on this one as well because the Silicon Valley based company just added a really cool feature that could be a game changer. Litigators (or anyone who does legal research for that matter) can relate to the fear of wondering whether or not, after all of your late nights at the office, you have somehow missed an important case. Casetext has a tool called CARA that aims to eliminate that dreadful feeling and it is now available in beta (like Pied Piper). Simply take any brief and upload it to CARA via drag and drop, and CARA will tell you if there is other relevant case law you might want to cite. How does all this work and why is it such a big deal? Stay tuned, because I’m going to have CEO Jake Heller on ATL to discuss CARA at greater length. In the meantime, I would love to hear what my readers think of the new feature or any of the companies on this list, so shoot me an email or a Tweet.

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.

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