LawNext

The $500 million secondary investment announced recently by online legal services company LegalZoom is the largest investment ever in a legal technology company. It comes as the company continues to expand both its services and its geographic reach. With a valuation of $2 billion and a customer base of 4 million, what will this investment mean for LegalZoom now and into the future?   In this episode of LawNext, host Bob Ambrogi speaks with Chas Rampenthal, general counsel and corporate secretary of LegalZoom. In a wide-ranging conversation, they talk about the investment, LegalZoom’s mission, it battles with state bars, its expansion overseas, its growing network of outside attorneys, and the need for disruption in legal services delivery.

Five years ago, legal research platform Casetext launched with a goal of making legal research more affordable and more intuitive. In the years since, the company has attracted $20 million in venture financing and won the 2017 award for new product of the year from the American Association of Law Libraries for its AI-driven research tool CARA.   In this episode of LawNext, host Bob Ambrogi sits downs with two of the company’s founders: Jake Heller, chief executive officer, and Pablo Arredondo, chief legal research officer. They talk about starting the company in 2013, the evolution of their platform, their thoughts about artificial intelligence for legal research, the state of their company today, and where they see themselves heading during their second five years.

On July 12, Thomson Reuters formally launched Westlaw Edge, its next-generation legal research platform that uses artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to help legal professionals find answers and perform research more efficiently. This was arguably the biggest news to come out of Thomson Reuters’ legal division since its launch eight years ago of Westlaw Next.The day before the official announcement, I had the opportunity to speak with two of the executives who led the development of this new platform, Mike Dahn, senior vice president, Product Management, who led the project overall, and Jeff Arvidson, director of product management, who was responsible for bringing Litigation Analytics to Westlaw Edge. This episode features highlights from our conversation.

I am very pleased and honored to kick off my first episode with guest Nicole Bradick. A veteran legal technology innovator and entrepreneur, Nicole is CEO of Theory and Principle, the technology design and development company she founded last January. Formerly partner and chief strategy officer with legal-technology development firm CuroLegal, Bradick is a 2014 Fastcase 50 honoree, recognizing “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders,” and was profiled by the ABA Journal as a Legal Rebel in 2012. In this inaugural episode of LawNext, I talk with Nicole about technology development and design, what makes legal technology “bad” or “good,” the process of developing technology from problem to prototype, and why Nicole believes technology is not the answer to all of our problems. Click the player above to listen to the show. And if you like the show, leave a kind word on iTunes.