Editor's Note: This story was amended on November 20 to clarify how the technology works and the intended audience.

NMBL Technologies, a legal tech startup, is partnering with blockchain developer Dragonchain to create cloud-based legal workflow and document management products powered by blockchain.

The partnership was announced Nov. 12 and the platforms are scheduled to be released in late 2019.

NMBL's Big Law co-founder, Daniel Farris, who also chairs Fox Rothschild's technology group from its Chicago office, said the software will differ from other workflow programs offered because most platforms are tailored to private practice lawyers, have a limited scope or are task specific.

The NMBL-Dragonchain software will also provide workflow management and legal operation integration specific to all in-house needs, Farris said. He added that the target market for the software is in-house departments of 15 to 20 lawyers that need technology to “do more with less.”

“We are targeting those in-house lawyers who are decent-size companies, have sophisticated legal issues, are responsible for protecting hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue but may have budgeting constraints and are running lean.”

Farris added the idea for the software stemmed from his legal practice, when he noticed in-house clients all seemed to struggle with a challenge “to be more effective, efficient and have departmental control to do better reporting.”

Farris further explained that Dragonchain's proprietary enterprise-grade blockchain as a service platform can improve NMBL's legal workflow and document management solutions by improving security and confirming transactions in real time. Beyond smart contracts, blockchain has been difficult to implement in the legal industry because of the distributed network required to validate transactions.

Many law firms are exploring ways to deploy blockchain, but “the problem is law firms have attorney-client privilege obligations which make it difficult to validate transactions because it would require a firm to see another firm's or clients' transactions,” he added.

Farris also said that blockchain should provide users with greater security and efficiency over their data. He noted that NMBL chose to partner with Dragonchain specifically because of the security and authentication capabilities Dragonchain's blockchain provides.

The partnership between Chicago-based NMBL and Seattle-based Dragonchain Inc. started after NMBL co-founder Matt Wolf worked with Dragonchain to create software for another company. In addition to Farris and technologists Wolf and Justin Eaton, NMBL's other founders include Chicago-based Fox Rothschild IP and tech partner Christopher Hines and data security associate Nicole A. Poulos.

Although the company was founded in part by Fox Rothschild attorneys, it is a standalone entity not connected to the firm. NMBL was started in 2018 as a way to improve efficiency and technology for in-house counsel, after witnessing firsthand Big Law's slow adoption of technology and change, according to a press release.