The legal industry is often thought to be hostile to the idea of new technology, some believing it will swoop in on their jobs. Others, however, are coping with new demands to adopt technology into their practice by keeping their friends close and their technologists closer.

London-based global law firm Fieldfisher recently contributed to a £1 million investment round for SeedLegals, an online platform enabling startups to create and negotiate their own fundraising round legal documents. While the investment does not guarantee the firm an advisory role within Seed­Legals, it does give it a stake in its development and a closer eye on its role in the industry.

Anthony Rose, co-founder of SeedLegals, explained that the online platform generates a set of automated documents accessible through a collaborative platform, with permission settings allowing founders, investors, legal advisers and other players to make changes to document inputs and outputs and sign in real time. Since the SeedLegals platform launched four months ago, Rose estimated that it has handled over 500 starting rounds with an average of about two rounds per day.