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{{image|Kids say the funniest things|png|An occasional column devoted to gems from the IT profession}} | |||
}}{{quote|“We ''love'' automation. We love automating [[complex]] things. Our app can handle anything with its structured questions: it can add new clauses, new schedules. The complexity is mind-bending.” | }}{{quote|“We ''love'' automation. We love automating [[complex]] things. Our app can handle anything with its structured questions: it can add new clauses, new schedules. The complexity is mind-bending.” — [[Cass Mälstrom]], [[CEO]] of [[Lexrifyly]], live on ''Legaltech Entrepreneurs Say the Funniest Things!{{tm}}''}} | ||
At the bottom of this page is an interesting task for the [[neural network]] to parse: the ''two hundred and seventy | {{quote|{{d|{{PAGENAME}}|/ˈliːgəltɛk ˈstɑːtʌp ˈkɒnfərəns/|n}} An opportunity for [[Reg tech entrepreneur|fantasists]] to meet the [[General counsel|credulous]] to flog them [[Legal tech landscape|stuff they don’t need]] out of [[When budget allows|budgets they don’t have]]. }} | ||
At the bottom of this page is an interesting task for the [[neural network]] to parse: the ''two hundred and seventy odd [[vendor]]s listed in the Legal Geek 2021 “Startup Map”<ref>I am not making this up: https://www.legalgeek.co/startup-map/. There could be more: the bamboozling way it is set out made it hard to be sure I had go them all. I have not had the heart, or spleen, to repeat the exercise for 2022 but perhaps I should.</ref> | |||
Now, sure: not ''all'' of these are ''for-profit'' businesses (by which I mean ''intending'' to make a profit; a large portion of them, however well disposed to that idea, ''won’t'') — there are some, even at a quick scan, that don’t even try. And some are, ''sans doubte'', unique and different. But they are the great minority. | Now, sure: not ''all'' of these are ''for-profit'' businesses (by which I mean ''intending'' to make a profit; a large portion of them, however well disposed to that idea, ''won’t'') — there are some, even at a quick scan, that don’t even try. And some are, ''sans doubte'', unique and different. But they are the great minority. | ||
And there can be no doubt that the amount the average multinational is prepared to spend in the pursuit, defence and analysis of its legal rights and obligations is, as far as makes any difference to a [[legaltechbro]], infinite, but the ''categories of problem'' it encounters when doing that, that [[legaltech]] can profitably solve, are not. | |||
A tiny fraction of an enormous number is still, for a couple of guys in a WeWork office in Shoreditch with laptop, a SquareSpace account and a [[Bulgarian freelance coder|Bulgarian coder they found on ''UpWork'']], a very big number. That is the [[legaltech]] promise. | |||
But, and even leaving aside the [[JC]]’s usual perorations about scale and [[rent-extraction threshold]]s — plainly these are to be ignored — the very length of this list ought to prompt some questions. Two hundred and seventy seven startups. There weren’t that many in the dotcom boom.<ref>Hyperbole, I am sure. You needn’t write in.</ref> | But, and even leaving aside the [[JC]]’s usual perorations about scale and [[rent-extraction threshold]]s — plainly these are to be ignored — the very length of this list ought to prompt some questions. Two hundred and seventy seven startups. There weren’t that many in the dotcom boom.<ref>Hyperbole, I am sure. You needn’t write in.</ref> | ||
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====1. Consolidation is coming==== | ====1. Consolidation is coming==== | ||
Perhaps the sector is simply overdue for the consolidation that will push a couple of winners into the mainstream. | Perhaps the sector is simply overdue for the consolidation that will push a couple of winners into the mainstream. There are 270-odd undoubtedly good little ideas but, un-knitted, too tepid to get anywhere. Once the power of affiliation dawns on the founders of the dozens interchangeable [[contract automation]] tools and they pool resources, expertise and clients, then an apex predator might emerge. | ||
One or two vendors have done this half-heartedly, but in the main, we are still on the frontier, where footloose imagineers can pursue their crazy dreams. ''This can’t last''. | One or two vendors have done this half-heartedly, but in the main, we are still on the frontier, where footloose imagineers can pursue their crazy dreams. ''This can’t last''. | ||
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But, simplifying is hard: it takes deep expertise, risk-awareness, a sense for psychology and market experience. The [[legal eagle]] [[paradox]]: the more expertise you have, the less inclined you are to simplify. ''Mastery of the ineffable is your unique selling point''. | But, simplifying is hard: it takes deep expertise, risk-awareness, a sense for psychology and market experience. The [[legal eagle]] [[paradox]]: the more expertise you have, the less inclined you are to simplify. ''Mastery of the ineffable is your unique selling point''. | ||
But there is, too, the legaltech paradox: just as the [[meatware]] is disinclined to simplify, ''so is legaltech''. Of the | But there is, too, the legaltech paradox: just as the [[meatware]] is disinclined to simplify, ''so is legaltech''. Of the offerings below, how many dedicate their [[machine learning]], [[natural language processing]], [[neural network]]s and general [[artificial intelligence]] to ''making things simpler''? | ||
=== On inhouse versus private practice=== | === On inhouse versus private practice=== | ||
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===These solutions cannot all be different=== | ===These solutions cannot all be different=== | ||
Many of these startups have had, more or less, the same idea. Most have a variation on one of about five ideas. Each of these ideas is, in the abstract, a sound idea. But it is not enough for your idea to be sound, if a lot of other people have had the same idea. And if, for every [[Legal tech entrepreneur|tech entrepreneur]] who has had a bright idea, there are others who have ''also'' had that idea, but just not acted upon it — possibly on the pretext that, while it is a good idea, it is also an obvious one, people all over the world have been having it for years, and it would be hard to monetise — | Many of these startups have had, more or less, the same idea. Most have a variation on one of about five ideas. Each of these ideas is, in the abstract, a sound idea. But it is not enough for your idea to be sound, if a lot of other people have had the same idea. And if, for every [[Legal tech entrepreneur|tech entrepreneur]] who has had a bright idea, there are others who have ''also'' had that idea, but just not acted upon it — possibly on the pretext that, while it is a good idea, it is also an obvious one, people all over the world have been having it for years, and it would be hard to monetise — | ||
== | ===Legaltech roll of honour=== | ||
<small> | |||
{{legaltech roll of honour}} | |||
</small> | |||
{{ref}} | {{ref}} | ||
<references /> | <references /> |