When Matthew Horn first launched Legal Services Link, the online attorney marketplace he'd dreamed of while a practicing attorney, he built a core user following in the Chicago area where the startup is headquartered. When Horn started looking to scale Legal Services Link out into the national arena, however, he found he needed more access to attorneys and clients who might be interested in the platform.

“We quickly realized that it was going to be very difficult for us to get the attorney and the client interest that we wanted without some form of partnership. We've been able to do it on our own, but, to really get a national platform, you really need more than that. You need more attorneys you need more clients,” Horn said.

State and local bar associations have historically been the primary go-to source for companies looking to building inroads to attorneys; they also tend to be about as tech-savvy as your average grandparent. But just as Grandma has been warming up to that iPad she got for her birthday, bar associations, too, have started to warm to the idea of bringing technologists and their products into the fold.