Accelerating the Funding for Diverse Legal Technology Startups

Miguel Willis is the Innovator in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s Future of the Profession Initiative (“FPI”). Miguel concurrently serves as the Executive Director of Access to Justice Tech Fellows (“A2J Tech Fellows”), a national nonprofit organization that develops summer fellowships for law students seeking to leverage technology to create equitable legal access for low-income and marginalized populations.

Immediately prior to joining FPI, Miguel served as the Law School Admissions Council’s (“LSAC”) inaugural Presidential Innovation Fellow. Willis previously held posts at the City of Seattle, Office of Immigrant & Refugee Affairs, where he assisted on legal content and strategy for the creation of a Citizenship web portal. He also worked with Alaska Court System to develop its Justice for All Project.

Miguel was recognized by the American Bar Association as a 2018 Legal Rebel, and 2019 Fastcase 50” honoree. Willis currently serves on the advisory board of the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law’s Innovation for Justice (i4J) program, as well as on The Legal Services Corporation’s Emerging Leaders Council.

Raj Goyle is the CEO and co-founder of Bodhala, a software company focused on managing legal spend. Goyle served two terms in the Kansas House of Representatives after working as a policy analyst and civil rights attorney at the ACLU. A graduate of Harvard Law School and Duke University, Goyle is the co-founder of the Indian American Impact Project and has served on numerous boards, including Planned Parenthood NYC, the State Innovation Exchange, and Hunger Free America. He lives in NYC with his wife and two daughters.

Alcide Honor? is always looking for ways to maximize efficiency. Co-Founder and CEO of Billseye, an app with the potential to be used by lawyers around the world.

Honor? moved to Atlanta and began working in finance after graduating from Duke University in 2000. He first became familiar with Georgia State University by earning his master’s degree in political science, before hearing about GSU’s College of Law and deciding he wanted to pursue his J.D. as well.

Nicole Black is a Rochester, New York attorney, author, journalist, and the Legal Technology Evangelist at MyCase, legal practice management software. She is the nationally-recognized author of "Cloud Computing for Lawyers" (2012) and co-authors "Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier" (2010), both published by the American Bar Association. She also co-authors "Criminal Law in New York," a Thomson Reuters treatise. She writes regular columns for Above the Law, ABA Journal, and The Daily Record, has authored hundreds of articles for other publications, and regularly speaks at conferences regarding the intersection of law and emerging technologies. She is an ABA Legal Rebel, and is listed on the Fastcase 50 and ABA LTRC Women in Legal Tech.

As Global Head of Corporate Development, Haley Altman is responsible for strategic business initiatives and its merger and acquisition efforts. She also partners with various business units across the company on market development opportunities to strengthen how customers engage with the Litera brand and overall product suite.

Prior to the company’s acquisition by Litera, Haley was founder and CEO of Doxly. She has over a decade of experience working on complicated transactions in the corporate, private equity, and venture capital verticals. Her practice has extended from the Midwest at Ice Miller to the West Coast at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Haley previously served as a member of the finance committee and co-led the venture capital vertical at Ice Miller. She holds a J.D. from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law and obtained a BA, Chemistry and Political Science while a science research fellow focusing on cancer research at DePauw University in Indiana.

Dan is the CEO and Managing Director of Nextlaw Ventures (NLV): he has a rare combination of entrepreneurial, professional services and investing experience. As a serial entrepreneur, Dan has helped to conceive, fund, grow and/or sell disruptive businesses in many diverse sectors, including social media, financial services, and on-line recruiting. He also has almost twenty years of professional services experience including roles leading the Global Media Practice for the Boston Consulting Group and with Arthur Young & Company advising start-ups. As an investor, Dan leads Nextlaw Ventures, which focuses on early stage investing in the legal tech space. NLV has now completed the investing activity of NLV Fund 1 with a portfolio of ten leading legal tech companies from around the world. A larger NLV Fund 2 is underway. NLV’s early stage focus and value added ‘invest and pilot’ approach leverages subject matter experts from Dentons, Nextlaw Labs and the Nextlaw Global Referral Network (with over 500 small to mid-size law firm members from around the world) to vet, test, shape, pilot and launch the legal tech solutions in the NLV portfolio.

Prior to Nextlaw Ventures, Dan was the CEO of Nextlaw Labs, an autonomous and wholly owned subsidiary of Dentons, the largest law firm in the world. Dan built a global collaborative innovation platform focused on developing, deploying, and investing in new technologies and processes that can transform the practice of law around the world. The simple goal is faster, better, cheaper legal solutions. Before leading Nextlaw Labs, Dan founded Virtual Greats, an online business selling branded virtual items utilized by over 200 well-known global brands and 25 on-line communities to promote products and services through a number of different digital channels. He serves on several for profit and non-profit boards, has recently served as the Mayor of his small ski hamlet, and speaks regularly on the re-invention of the legal profession.

Dan holds a BA in Economics from UCLA and an MBA from the Wharton School, where he specialized in Marketing and Finance. He splits his time between Manhattan Beach, California and Telluride Colorado where he lives with his wife, three children and golden retriever.