ReinventLaw Silicon Valley
ReinventLawSiliconValley is happening next Friday, March 8 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The brain child of Professors Daniel Martin Katz and Renee Knake, co-founders and co-directors of the Reinvent Law Laboratory at Michigan State University Law School, the event promises to be quite a bash. The event is free, but attendance is limited to 400 participants and you have to register to get in. Over 40 innovators, founders, policymakers, venture capitalist and other change agents interested in reforming the legal services industry will be speaking in 6 - 10 minute presentations.
Think of this as a TED Talks event about innovation and change in the legal industry-- a crash course about disruption in the legal profession.
Here is the full detailed schedule with the speakers and the titles of their presentations.
Some of the speakers I am especially looking forward to listening to are:
- "ABA Journal LegalRebel" Stephanie Kimbro discussing her new book: The Consumer Law Revolution: The Lawyers’ Guide to Online Marketing Tools (2013).
- Colin Rule, CEO, Modria, Online Dispute Resolution: Improving Access to Justice
- Henry Jones, Managing Director of AxiomLaw (founded by Mark Harris, ABA Journal Legal Rebel), discussing the Axiom business model. I am interested in how they were able to raise $28 million in a Series D Round from Carrick Capital.
- Karn Kerkonian, Principal at Velawsity --a new cloud-based practice management system that is launching at ReinventLaw. Velawsity is aiming at the same target market that CLIO and RocketMatter and other cloud-based practice management solution providers serve. I am interested in learning how they are different.
- Raj Abhyanker, founder of LegalForce about law firm redesign and the nationwide network of law firms he is creating under the Legalforce brand.
- Dan Lewis of Ravel Law, a spin out from Stanford Law School, that is creating a new visualization approach to legal research. Ravellaw is another start-up that looks like it is about to fully launch.
- ABA Jounral Legal Rebel Kingsley Martin, CEO and Founder of KMStandards about his company's unique and patented approach to contract analysis.
- ABA Journal Legal Rebel Bill Henderson, from Maurer School of Law, Indiana University, discussing his ideas about change in the legal profession.
This is just a sampling of the range of talks at ReinventLawSiliconValley - 2013.
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Yours truly is giving a talk on Private Investment in US Legal Services: New Business Models. I am interested in how to get private capital into law firms, given the restrictions of ABA Professional Rule 5.4 which prohibits non-lawyers from taking an equity interest in a law firm. Are there ways of getting around this rule? What kind of law firm structures can be created that enable private equity investment? Is it wise to enable private investment in law firms? Will it ever happen in the United States given the present position of the ABA and state bar associations? What can small and medium size law firms do to access capital to make them more competitive? Are Clearspire and AxiomLaw ethically compliant models that can be replicated?
