(Photo: Shutterstock)The Top 10 Emerging Legal Tech Hot Spots: The Surprises and Debatable Omissions
Cities across the U.S., Europe and Asia were listed as emerging legal tech hot spots by a new report from the U.K.'s Law Society. But the list was equally notable for the localities it left out as those it included.
December 10, 2019 at 01:30 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Legal Tech News
If you want to experience emerging legal tech innovations, you better get a passport, according to a new report from the U.K.'s Law Society.
Atlanta, Belfast, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, London, Madrid, Tel Aviv, Toronto, San Francisco and Singapore were the Top 10 emerging cities for legal tech, according to the report. The Law Society created the list by looking at private investments, media posting, and several business indexes.
Some may expect jurisdictions with looser regulations regarding law firm ownership to experience greater levels of legal tech innovation, but not all of the Law Society's Top 10 cities have such laws.
The result highlights a growing global need to address legal challenges with technology across the board. As Kim Bennett, founder of K Bennett Law and co-founder of tech adoption and wellness organization Atlanta Legal Tech, explained, "The restrictions are there, but that doesn't take away the need for legal technology."
Still, less restrictions on who can own or invest in a law firm could lead to more innovations, observers said.
"In London that is the case. We now allow nonlawyers to be business owners in law firms," said Law Society public affairs and campaigns head Alexandra Cardenas. "That's definitely been a model that has enabled different sources into firms and different skills in management and has encouraged innovation."
Indeed, London and Singapore, which made the Top 10 list of emerging legal tech, are both jurisdictions that allow nonlawyers to have equity in law firms. But notably absent from the Law Society's list is Australia, a country that also allows nonlawyers to own law firms and has a booming legal tech scene.
When asked why Australia didn't make the list, Cardenas said the rankings were based on quantitative and qualitative research, and Australia simply didn't make the cut.
Erin Gerstenzang, co-founder of Atlanta Legal Tech and founder of the EHG Law Firm, said she was surprised Australia with its less-restrictive law firm ownership regulations wasn't included, she also thought a few U.S. cities could have made the list. Those U.S. cities include New York City and its "huge" legal tech community, and Chicago, where the American Bar Association is headquartered and where it hosts its annual legal tech conference. She was also equally surprised Seattle didn't make the list as the home of legal marketplace platform Avvo and more broadly "it's one of the tech-friendly cities, very similar to San Francisco."
Despite some omissions, Gerstenzang said she doesn't expect the Top 10 hot spots for legal tech will budge in the coming years—in fact, she hopes it will grow.
"My hope is that it's contagious and instead of dropping out, more cities catch on and we move forward," she said.
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