“Hello World…” The Global Legal Tech Report Launches

In what looks to be the largest research project ever launched in this sector, the Global Legal Tech Report is seeking to assess the state of the legal tech industry across the planet.

In a strong show of collaboration, the research project, initially developed by the Australian Legal Technology Association (ALTA) and innovation company Alpha Creates, is bringing together a host of legal tech organisations, supported by a range of businesses, plus the Law Society of England and Wales, all in the name of finding out:

• What is the state of Legal Tech in your region and globally?
• What growth trends can be observed by product category and by jurisdiction?
• What are the different types of business models deployed by Legal Tech companies?
• What are the growth opportunities for investment?
• What is the product market outlook for Legal Tech?
• And more…

Some of the organisations signed up to support the major research project include: International Legal Technology Association (ILTA), the European Legal Tech Association (ELTA), the UK Legal Tech Association (UKLTA), ASEAN Legal Tech (ALT) and Legal Tech NZ (LTNZ). While Macquarie, KPMG and Toro Digital are also giving support.

Stevie Ghiassi, ALTA Director and CEO of Legaler said: ‘It is the first global study that directly surveys the companies behind the booming sector, and we invite every legal tech company to get behind this important initiative by completing the online survey.’

The output will take the shape of a series of regional reports, culminating in a global report towards the end of 2020. Participating legal technology companies will receive their regional report free and a substantial discount on the global research which will see a cross-jurisdictional comparison of the trends from each jurisdiction, the organisers said.

If you’d like to get involved or know more, check out the website, or you can also contact: gltd@alta.law

This looks to be a valuable endeavour. As the Artificial Lawyer rallying call goes: ‘Legal tech knows no borders!’ And this report will hopefully show just how much of a global phenomenon it is – plus it will show what’s really going on across a range of markets.

—

As a taster of the kinds of things the report will look at and report back on, here is some early data gathered through field research conducted in Australia. It shows that:

• Founding a legal tech company is often a solo endeavour. Most respondent Australian legal tech firms have one founder (50%).
• Age is just a number when it comes to founding a legal tech company. A third of Australian founders are aged between 31 to 40, a third are over 50 and the remainder are spread across age brackets.
• Law firms are the primary target market: Close to half (48%) of respondents in the Australian study have earmarked law firms as their primary target market, while 25% have developed their solutions primarily for corporate legal departments.
• Legal tech companies are using a mixed bag of technologies. For example, 41% of the underlying technologies used are databases, 19% are artificial intelligence, and 3% are blockchain-based.