Technology
From lawyer marketplace to global law firm?
An online lawyer-matching service for companies has secured £3.4m in funding, with an investor predicting that it could become “a virtual and distributed tech-driven global law firm”.
SRA urges firms to engage with online reviews
Responding to online reviews is more important than ever, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has told law firms. It also urged solicitors not to be afraid of negative reviews.
Law firms join forces with university in lawtech initiative
A collaboration between a leading university and two major law firms has been unveiled with the aim of looking at the impact of technology innovation in the legal sector.
LeO urges lawyers to ditch web email providers
The Legal Ombudsman has urged law firms that use web-based email such as AOL and Hotmail to invest in a more secure corporate email solution or risk paying out to victims of cybercrime.
Sheffield looks to put itself on lawtech map
A conference in Sheffield later this year will attempt to bring together tech start-ups and lawyers across the north of England to put the city on the map as a lawtech hub.
MoJ halts enforcement upgrade due to cash shortage
The Ministry of Justice has suspended the £58m project to change the way court orders are enforced and historic criminal debt is collected because it does not have enough money.
Investment and blockchain fuel digital legal giants’ expansion
A major developer of contract review AI software has raised $50m in investment from venture capitalists, while Rocket Lawyer is to introduce blockchain security.
Free wills website recruits firms in bid to become top brand
The founder of an online service centred on free wills is recruiting law firms and national charities in a bid to become “the leading will-writing brand in the UK”.
The challenge of digitising the courts
CaseLines, whose digital bundling software is used widely in UK criminal and civil courts, has gone from a start-up to major supplier in a matter of a few years.
Legal spend start-up secures £7.5m investment
A legal tech start-up focused on transforming the way companies analyse their legal spend has raised £7.5m in its first major funding round.
Lawtech tipping point coming, says new incubator resident
Next year will be the tipping point for law firm’s adoption of new technology, one of the first residents of a major lawtech incubator has predicted.
Legal tech project recruits big City firms
South-east Asia’s first lawtech accelerator has attracted three major UK law firms amid of flurry of technology related activity among City practices.
AI “to help lawyers make sense of complex evidence”
The company charged with digitising the courts is to deploy artificial intelligence to assist lawyers in understanding complex evidence, its chief executive has revealed.
Regional firm’s motoring law chatbot “first of many”
A regional law firm has launched a motoring law chatbot, with its solicitor creator saying he wanted to stop non-lawyers from deciding the direction of legal technology.
Blockchain and AI “could underpin” future law firms
A future where law firms are ‘distributed entities’ based on blockchain and smart contracts and lawyers will add value by being trusted advisers assisted by AI.
Blog
Change in regulator shouldn’t make AML less of a priority
While SRA fines for AML have been climbing, many in the profession aren’t confident they will get any relief from the FCA, a body used to dealing with a highly regulated industry.
There are 17 million wills waiting to be written
The main reason cited by people who do not have a will was a lack of awareness as to how to arrange one. As a professional community, we seem to be failing to get our message across.
The case for a single legal services regulator: why the current system is failing
From catastrophic firm collapses to endemic compliance failures, the evidence is mounting that the current multi-regulator model is fundamentally broken.
