No There There For The Legal Tech Industry?
Which law-focused companies are among the fastest-growing companies in the United States?
“New Here” responded to my column “From Windows 7 to 10 and Back” by commenting, “So wonderfully relevant to ‘business and industry news and information in the legal profession.’” It ’tis, really.
Lawyers often think the legal industry is unique. It is, but legal technology is not so unique. Lawyers put on clothes like other business professionals and use the same technology to accomplish work on computers running operating systems from Apple Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., or a Linux distribution.
On the application layer, when you look under the hood to software peculiar to lawyers, such as practice management and electronic discovery systems, it’s often highly specialized (read: easy-to-use) interfaces to common database and content management systems, file viewers, and enterprise search engines.
The Global Legal News You Need, When You Need It
Lawyers talk legalese, which warrants a specific version of Nuance Corp.’s Dragon NaturallySpeaking. But when speaking plain English, which should prevail over legalese, lawyers aren’t much different than other professionals who talk to Cortana and Siri and other organizations that originate content via transcribed dictation.
For business-to-business services, legal has its own placement services tuned into the lucrative practice of lateral moves by partners in large law firms. But the legal technology industry is often understated or not stated. Although Blue Hill Research dedicates a practice area to legal tech, 451 Research, Forrester Research Inc. and Gartner Inc. and others do not distinguish the legal industry. And when I complete surveys and questionnaires for many technology companies, I often register my industry as “Other” and type in “Legal.”
Inc. magazine recently unveiled its 34th annual list of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S.: The Inc. 5000. Leigh Buchanan, editor-at-large at Inc., said this year’s list “mirrors the most robust sectors of the U.S. economy,” including health care, financial services, and technology. Legal, however, was neither on her list nor used by Inc. as an industry category. But some noteworthy members of the Inc. 5000 are focused on legal.
No. 2033: Uptime Legal Systems. The Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based company provides cloud services to law firms that include Exchange, document management, phone and file sharing services, and support for hosted practice management systems, such as Amicus Attorney, PC Law, ProLaw and Tabs3. Its three-year revenue growth from 2011 to 2014 was 194 percent and its total 2014 revenue came to $3.5 million.
Sponsored
The Global Legal News You Need, When You Need It
Legal Knowledge Management To Drive Dealmaking
What Do Millennials Think Of Law Firm Life?
What Do Millennials Think Of Law Firm Life?
No. 2081: Abacus Data Systems. Founded in 1983, the San Diego, California-based company had a three-year growth of 189 percent and $18.2 million in total 2014 revenue. The company recently unveiled Abacus Private Cloud, an infrastructure-as-a-service platform with a turnkey, online law office featuring Abacus Law and Office 2013 in the cloud over the Remote Desktop Protocol.
No. 2527: LDiscovery. The McLean, Virginia, company provides legal and technology consulting services to law firms, specializing in e-discovery, data collection and analysis. Among the company’s 167 employees are administrators and analysts certified with kCura Corp.’s Relativity platform. LDiscovery had a three-year growth of 148 percent and a total 2014 revenue of $55.3 million.
No. 3886: Smarsh. The Portland, Oregon-based company manufactures a cloud-based content archiving system for email, social media and instant and mobile messaging systems with application support for e-discovery (early-case assessment and first-pass review) and legal hold processes. Smarsh’s previous three-year growth was 77 percent with a total 2014 revenue of $35.4 million. Founded in 2001, the company has been on the Inc. 5000 year after year since 2008, when it first appeared at #184, well inside the magazine’s exclusive Inc. 500 list.
No. 4094: LawLogix Group. The Phoenix-based company has been listed in the Inc. 5000 every year since 2007 when it first appeared at #413, within the Inc. 500 club. The company provides electronic I-9, electronic verification, and immigration-case-management software. LawLogix’s software-as-a-service products, which include EDGE, Globetrotter and Guardian, automate immigration paperwork processing and related compliance concerns. The company’s clients include Fortune 500 companies like 3M, Pfizer and US Airways.
Besides Abacus, LawLogix, LDiscovery and Smarsh, many companies in the Inc. 5000, such as Box (#919), Gimmal (#3857), and Hyland (#4863), maker of OnBase, have lawyers and law firms as clients but don’t specifically market their wares and services as legal technology. What makes these and other vendors relevant to the legal industry (and topics of future ATL legal tech columns) is not their technology qua technology but their insight into the legal industry and what lawyers do.
Sponsored
Stuck Drafting A Tough Brief? This Tool Can Help.
Lawyers input client data and unique intellectual property into systems, analyze and prioritize data according to legal requirements, and output data to conform to client requirements and court rules. Any technology that facilitates these processes should interest lawyers and law firms, from new processors, nonvolatile memory and fast printers to content management, docketing, messaging and operating systems.
I noted the absence of legal tech vendors in the Inc. 500. Although the Costner Law Office appeared at #407, there remains a lot of opportunity in the legal industry for vendors to provide customized software and services to lawyers. I will be on the lookout for new wares but also be vigilant for general technology that lawyers and law firms can use to provide legal services.
Attorney Sean Doherty has been following enterprise and legal technology for more than 15 years as a former senior technology editor for UBM Tech (formerly CMP Media) and former technology editor for Law.com and ALM Media. Sean analyzes and reviews technology products and services for lawyers, law firms, and corporate legal departments. Contact him via email at sean@laroque-doherty.net and follow him on Twitter: @SeanD0herty.
