Lupl logo. Courtesy of Lupl.com.

Representing one of the largest collaborations in law, a group of law firms and corporations announced today the formation of Lupl, a platform that looks to synchronize everything that goes into a legal matter. And it comes with a major sticking point: It's open to everybody.

Lupl is a legal matter management platform that looks to bring together all parts of a legal matter, including people, documents, information, communications and technology applications, in a single, secure space.

Notably, Lupl is expected to be open access, meaning that any legal department and law firm will be able to use the technology as they wish. It will feature open APIs, allowing other legal technology providers to plug into the Lupl system.

But the new platform isn't aiming to replace any the current software legal teams already use. "The core of what Lupl is trying to do is provide this platform to enable people to bring their own systems and integrate them," said Matt Pollins, chief commercial officer of Lupl. He stressed that Lupl is not open source, but instead "open in the sense of Open APIs."

Given the diversity of software used by legal offices, however, Pollins said the company approaches integration as an ongoing task. "We focused at the outset on what we think are the most widely used technology solutions in our industry. … We're going to be looking to build out that partner ecosystem. That's something we anticipate growing and will also be a big area of focus for us in the coming months."

He added that in addition to enabling more integration, the development of Lupl was also fueled by a desire to address the "lack of good mobile-first digital tools that really reflect modern ways of working." The platform is expected to be available via both the web and mobile; the company notes on its website that an iOS app is already running, with an Android app coming soon.

For now, the platform itself is currently in the process of being finalized in a private beta, with a public release expected in 2021. While the beta test is invite-only, Lupl is asking anyone interested to reach out to the company via its website.

Lupl's technology has also been in development for a few years, with the company touting a number of high-profile developers with an international flair, spanning the worlds of Big Law, corporate legal departments, legal technology providers and legal education.

The platform was incubated by three major law firms—CMS, Cooley and Rajah & Tann Asia—with input from an advisory board of 16 in-house lawyers. Heidi Gardner, faculty chair and distinguished fellow at Harvard Law School, also aided Lupl's development. What's more, the platform has an international reach in its wider testing, with Magic Circle firm Slaughter and May, Corrs in Australia, Khaitan & Co in India and One Essex Court, a leading barristers' chambers in London, participating.

Adam Ruttenberg, partner at Cooley, explained that Lupl is being funded by his law firm, CMS and Rajah & Tann Asia. However, Pollins stressed that the beta is free and Lupl is funded through its public release. "Beyond that, we're conscious that this is something that is going to have to stand on its open two feet and be self-funding," he explained.

Lupl's aim to allow more integration has resonated with many of its backers. "From a law firm perspective, it was critically important for us, when we were getting people started, to make sure that if this was going to work it had to be open to all law firms, all clients, all legal tech vendors," Ruttenberg said.

Given the variety of law firms and legal departments that helped provide input for the tool's development, Lupl is also hoping to help enable more cross-legal data sharing. Pollins explained, "One of the pain points we heard was the feeling was that there is a lack of good [legal matter] data… It's hard to get access to that kind of data in a user-friendly way, and we think there's a big opportunity for Lupl to play a role in that."

He specifically noted the company is building capabilities "around diversity and inclusion data, so if Lupl is a place where people work together on legal matters there is an opportunity—subject to compliance with all applicable privacy regulations—to actually surface ops and diversity inclusion dashboards."

Michelle Fang, vice president and chief legal officer at Turo, also touted the tool's open nature in the company's press release. "Lupl's open industry platform has the potential to enhance transparency and collaboration and deliver better, more modern ways of working within our department, with other business functions, and with law firms."

The release also included statements from major legal technology companies, notably major document management providers iManage and NetDocuments.

This article has been updated with additional details following an interview with Pollins and Ruttenberg.