February 26, 2024 -- Issue #278

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Hi, Charlie Uniman here, host of Legal Tech StartUp Focus ("LTSF"), the online community for everyone involved with legal tech startups. You're reading the latest digest of articles, opinion pieces, and other thoughts posted during the past week at the community.
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If you enjoy reading this digest, please forward it to others with an interest in legal tech startups. Readers who aren't already members of the LTSF community and who wish to join can do so here. Please do send me feedback here with any questions, comments or other ideas for this digest . If you're not already a subscriber to this newsletter and would like to subscribe, please email me here to join the subscriber list.
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Conferences and Other Events

-- “Join [LawtechUK] for a discussion on how Generative AI will shape the future of legal services, with a particular focus on Access to Legal and the consumer perspectives.” https://lawtechuk.io/events/lawtechuk-generativeai-series-roadmap-to-2030/​

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-- “For an annual conference known to cater to solo and small law firms, the buzz around the mid-market was noticeable, while generative AI remained the industry’s legal tech darling of the moment.” https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2024/02/22/ai-dominates-while-midsize-firms-gain-steam-takeaways-from-aba-techshow-2024/​

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-- Legal tech startup Henchman is co-organizing a webinar with Microsoft and iManage on how Copilot, iManage, and Henchman can work together. The webinar will take place on Thursday, March 14, at 5 pm CET/11 am ET. Registration link is here: https://henchman.io/webinar-unlocking-copilot​

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Hiring/New Hires​
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-- Raymond Blijd posts: "Layoffs will hit legal jobs soon but...we actually need at minimum 8x more legal professionals than we now have.

"We ran a simple simulation and we need between 8 to 12 times more legal professionals. What's the catch? Legal professionals won't be doing the traditional stuff. If they still do, they'll only do it at an unimaginable scale. But mostly, they will be doing something different. https://www.legalcomplex.com/2024/02/15/layoffs-after-a-i-takes-our-legal-jobs-what-will-lawyers-do "

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LegalEd

-- Cyrus Johnson speaks of a new Substack article: "My new article on Substack makes a bold proposal . . . " https://ailawbot.substack.com/p/a-modest-proposal-for-ai-its-time​

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LTSF Site and Membership Matters

-- Cyrus asks: "anyone suggestions for new tools for client-lawyer document saving and interaction (i.e. not dropbox/box)" Reply to Cyrus's query here: https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/anyone-suggestions-for-new-tools-for-client-lawyer-document-saving-and-interaction-ie-not-dropboxbox?utm_source=manual​

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Member Introductions/Questions

-- Missed including this post in last week's newsletter - LTSF community member, Dixon Melitt James introduces himself: "VISION. RESOLVE. COMMITMENT.

"Dixon Melitt James is a seasoned professional with 16 years of experience in various cross-functional roles. He specialises in driving the development of products, services, and initiatives, particularly in the transition to Web 3.0. His expertise includes emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, and immersive experiences. Dixon is known for identifying market opportunities, creating strategic plans, and implementing transformative initiatives to boost organisations' success in the digital landscape."

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-- Here's an introduction from new LTSF'er, Ian Goddard: "Ian is the chairman of Dazychain, the provider of matter management software for in-house legal teams. A former Big law partner he went on to found a number successful on-line businesses which help tens of thousands of people to manage their daily work lives across legal operations, telco construction and smash repairs. Along the way he has launched new products, attracted shareholders, executed growth strategies and sold businesses. He now concentrates on helping the Dazychain team expand the business."

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-- This IS a week from member introductions. Andy Fergusson, who just became a community members, posts: "Andy is the Co-Founder & CEO of SAVIGNY, a legaltech startup that builds AI tools to centralize legal exposure. SAVIGNY helps legal professionals in mitigating legal risks with greater precision."
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Partnerships/Business Development​

-- “Earlier this month, integrated law company Factor joined forces with the general counsels of several global corporations to create The Sense Collective, a “collaboration community aimed at accelerating the adoption of Generative AI (GenAI) in the corporate legal realm,” according to a press release.”
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The linked article is most definitely worth a complete read for its detailed description of how this collective will operate to promote GenAI’s use for business success. https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2024/02/20/factor-top-gcs-form-sense-collective-to-create-recipe-book-for-corporate-gen-ai-success/​

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Product Development

-- Cyrus Johnson posts: "at project gist, we have built our fourth bespoke lawbot. this one very interesting as a guide to the due diligence process w specially selected inputs architected in a lima orientation. in all the news of llms we think that small is the new big." Reach out to Cyrus on his post by going to this link: https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/51102082?utm_source=manual

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Cyrus also posts: "#AI is not going to change the law. AI is going to build #NewLaw." https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/51118002?utm_source=manual (And be sure to subscribe to Cyrus's newsletter about AI and the law by going here: https://t.co/T9rRcvDUQT​

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-- “Go big or go home might sum up Intapp’s raft of announcements today (22 February), as it unveils new generative AI capabilities, plus Walls for Copilot, and reveals that it has agreed to acquire Berlin-based AI software company delphai.” https://legaltechnology.com/2024/02/22/intapp-launches-new-gen-ai-capabilities-plus-walls-for-copilot-and-is-set-to-acquire-delphai/​

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Purchasing/Using Legal Tech

-- Here is a recent legal tech rundown from Legaltech News that escaped my notice. https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2024/02/15/legal-tech-rundown-new-unitedlex-and-casepoint-hires-more-legal-ai-assistants-and-more/​

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-- “Perez-Llorca became the first Spanish law firm to adopt Leya, a Swedish generative AI assistant [and Y Combinator company], earlier this month. For the firm, the tool struck the right balance between being able to operate in Spanish-language and being compliant with the GDPR.
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“In a conversation with Legaltech News, Marisa Delgado, the head of knowledge management at Pérez-Llorca, talked about why the Swedish tool was the right fit, how Spain’s legal system is dealing with stringent regulations and the state of AI tools in Spanish language.” https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2024/02/23/spanish-law-firm-perez-llorca-on-why-a-swedish-gen-ai-assistant-was-the-right-fit/​

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Sales

-- Ambitious thoughts from Clio CEO, Jack Newton, at article linked below.
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$$ quote: "[Newton's] [e] ventual goal for Clio is to serve firms of all sizes, from the smallest to the largest. Clio’s mission statement, he notes, is to transform the legal experience for all, and that means that eventually, not only midsized firms, but the Am Law 200 and Am Law 100 will be using Clio, he hopes." https://www.lawnext.com/2024/02/updates-from-ceo-jack-newton-on-recent-clio-news-midsized-firms-gen-ai-legal-aid-and-clio-draft.html​

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-- Read about TR's CoCounsel's arrival in Canada and Australia and read too about CoCounsel's market growth in the US. https://www.lawnext.com/2024/02/as-thomson-reuters-expands-the-casetext-cocounsel-ai-legal-assistant-to-canada-and-australia-it-provides-details-on-u-s-growth.html​

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-- “Some believe [Africa] has an opportunity to grow more quickly [when it comes to legal tech adoption], in the same way as it did with mobile phone adoption, but a lack of data and law firm scale could be an issue.” https://www.law.com/international-edition/2024/02/20/could-africa-leapfrog-other-regions-on-legal-technology-like-it-did-with-mobile-phones/​
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Startup Management

-- Hey, legal tech startup leaders (in fact, “hey” to all startup leaders), get out of your own head and get into the heads of the people to whom you’re talking about your startup and its products.
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Or, as better put in the article linked below: “. . . you need to stop making every conversation about your product because the people you’re talking with don’t care about your product. They care about themselves.” https://open.substack.com/pub/aarondinin/p/a-hard-truth-lots-of-entrepreneurs?r=1cv2&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post​

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