Interesting and on the mark piece by O’Keefe about the emergence of new tech players in the global legal industry that we all hope will temper the centrally planned socialist economies of Lexis Nexis & Westlaw.
We say that half in jest but the reality is that year in and year out since the arrival of the CD on the scene around 1990-91 these two have held sway chipping away at law firm budgets and using acquisition to control the market. But now we’ve reached a point where there are just too many start ups in the market or them to keep using the tried and tested methods and they will have to start being a little bit smarter in order to compete.
It’s also worth adding that a company like Kluwer that was almost on its death bed a few years back ( until McKinstry came in) has understood the gaps and has taken on the two giants on their home turf.
Law and technology has hit the reset button over the last 14-18 months and both publishers and law firms not ready to enter the new age will be left behind fairly quickly.
Here’s a bit of what O’Keefe says in his latest piece
It’s different than from just a year or two ago. Being in Amsterdam a couple weeks ago for the Lexpo legal tech and innovation conference and a Dutch Legal Tech Meetup the feeling was palpable.
A combination of things appears to be accelerating the movement.
- Pressure from consumers of legal services (corporations or consumers) who are not going to accept work from unaccountable law firms who are not driven by data and predictions.
- Legal tech companies with much lower costs of tech development seizing an opportunity.
- Use of data is being demanded by smart consumers of legal services – don’t tell me what you think, but what you should know based on the data in your hands.
- Younger professionals (tech, law, business, finance) who abhor inefficiencies and see how humans + machines are better than humans alone.
- No longer accepting from law firms an attitude (intended or not) that this is the way we do things because we’re a special group exempt from the sound business practices of 2017.
- The demand for access to legal services/access to justice no longer accepting lawyers, state bar associations and the American Bar Association saying they care and that they are acting when in fact the number of people without access to legal services continues to rise, and are likely protecting their own, the lawyers.
More at http://kevin.lexblog.com/2017/05/22/legal-tech-movement-underway-big-time-and-world-wide/
