Technology

Lawtech company Legl – set up by the team behind pioneering funding platform CrowdJustice – has raised $7m (£5m) in Series A funding.

Six entrepreneurs looking to develop lawtech start-ups have joined a new programme at the incubator MDR LAB, created by London law firm Mishcon de Reya.

Cambridge and London law firm Taylor Vinters is taking an equity stake in online legal services business LawBite as they collaborate to provide SMEs with international advice.

The more innovative use of technology like artificial intelligence by unregulated providers of legal services is raising questions of whether there is a widening consumer protection gap.

Global law firm Jones Day has reportedly had 100 gigabytes of data stolen, with some of it appearing on the dark web, after a third party that provides it with file transfer software was hacked.

The time has come for the Ministry of Justice to consider whether lawtech companies, along with other unregulated legal services providers, should be regulated, ACSO has said.

Law societies and Bar associations should draw up principles for software developers and the lawyers who use their products to guarantee access to justice, according to the head of a team of experts.

The courts system is failing to collect vital information about the performance of judges and trials during the Covid-19 pandemic, an expert has told Parliament, leaving observers “flying blind”.

A software platform aimed at bringing together the various apps used by corporate legal teams is launched today, while another product aimed at the same market has raised $14m.

Senior in-house lawyers at large private equity firms are responsible for the cost of instructing law firms but lack the power to control it, a study has found.

A top National Audit Office official has asked fundamental questions of the government’s court reform programme, even as the head of the courts service extolled its performance during the pandemic.

A pioneering lawtech business is shutting down in the face of litigation from Thomson Reuters that it says means it cannot raise funds.

Five lawtech businesses are to join a ‘sandbox’ designed to “fast-track transformative ideas, products and services” with the help of legal and financial regulators.

The challenge facing traditional law firms from artificial intelligence is not a lack of finance to invest in technology but having the right “human capital”, a study from Oxford University has argued.

A future justice system could use AI technology to inform people of their chances of success and even provide automated determinations, according to futurist Professor Richard Susskind.