An increasing number of low tech lawtech companies has been growing rapidly. The trend marks a new era for the lawtech sector and might mark the start of the digital transformation for the conservative legal industry.
Legal practitioners and lawyers alike have been worrying about the eventual digital disruption for years. The recent global pandemic might be the tipping point that they all have been waiting for.
It’s a decade since the first lawtech companies were launched, and the global legal industry has yet to meet it’s Facebook or iPhone. For many years, experts have touted artificial intelligence and machine learning as the main threat to the status quo. The new trend of low tech lawtech startups is making many questioning that sentiment. The death of the 100 dollar paper copy is probably not a robot, but something much simpler.
Transparency through reviews
For years, travelers around the world have been able to read and compare everything from hotels, to tour providers, to which restaurant serves the best lunch and which bar has the best price/value gin tonic. TripAdvisor.com was a revolution in the travel industry and changed the way billions are traveling each year forever through its own service and localized copycats.
The same level of transparency has later been successfully transformed to a range of niches. Curious about whether or not the professor teaching the course you’re considering is any good? Head over to RateMyProfessors.com!
The last man standing has again been the lawyers. In some jurisdictions, rating your lawyers online and reviewing them honestly, might have severe consequences for the former client. Litigators are no stranger to taking disagreements to court, and who wants to risk that for the sake of sharing your opinion online? In most cases however, it’s just been a question of supply.
The legal industry is notoriously conservative, but a few law tech entrepreneurs are looking to change that and disrupt the way we choose lawyers forever.
One of them is a former lawyer in Norway. Advokatguiden.no has already made waves in the legal community in Norway. When being interviewed by the journal for the Norwegian Bar Association, he said “I expect to be sued at some point”.
Who needs an office in 2020?
2020 is the year will be described in history books as the year everyone went remote working. Remote working has several benefits, and one of them is cutting expensive office costs. Rent, furniture, technical hardware, staffed receptions, and catered lunches – it all adds up to quite a bill. And at the end of the day, that bill is paid by whoever is the customer.
Lawyers around the world have been infamous for their swanky offices and their expensive taste. Lawyers found themself in a luxurious position, where they only had to be cheaper than the alternative; getting fined, losing that license, or not being able to close that deal.
There was no need to cut costs, as everyone kept the spending up at the same level, and thus required the same profit margin on their already hefty salaries. And who cares anyway? The client is the one being shafted with the bill when the party is over either way.
An American startup is looking to change that radically. Rocket Lawyer has already made waves with its 100% online lawyers. You never meet them physically, you never sit in their waiting room, you’re never offered coffee by their receptionist, you never call their secretary. But you do save money – and time. Rocket Lawyer has moved everything online, and with everything digital – it means cheaper prices and quicker services.
The technology is as simple as it gets. There is nothing revolutionizing to their UX or their process flows. It’s all off-the-shelf solutions; tried and true. And why bother experimenting with fancy highrisk and high-cost tech platforms, when low tech is good enough? There is yet again a change in tide in the legal industry, and this time it’s benefitting the clients.
