It has been almost 15 years since legaltech first appeared on the legal market in France.
Without talking about disruption, an exaggerated term because this sector has long protected itself from the impacts of digital transformation, we can affirm that the observation is now unanimously shared: technological developments are profoundly transforming both the practice of law and the exercise of justice.
In fact, there is no innovative solution that does not display, like a leitmotif, this virtuous promise of "facilitating access to justice and reducing costs and delays"!
Penalized at the start by a semantic misunderstanding – in marketing we know the importance of words and the meaning they project – legalTech is transforming and allying itself with business players.
Literally "legal technology", the term Legaltech comes from usa mobile database Anglo-Saxon countries which have been using it since 2000 to designate companies which provide lawyers with the toolsmartechmanagement assistance, such as invoicing, document filing, accounting, etc.
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However, in France, this term has arrived with a new generation of entrepreneurs offering services directly to litigants! Also, these startups that we have therefore called "legaltech" - from the name of their technology - by addressing first the end customer have greatly worried, not to say "put off" most of the traditional players!
The confusion between the terms " legaltech" and " uberisation" or even " legal startup" and " disintermediation" has become entrenched.
This is a misunderstanding that has affected the entire ecosystem. The adoption of these new productivity-generating solutions by legal professionals has been slowed down, as has investor confidence. Not to mention the communication of historical business software providers, which had to be corrected to explain to the public that they were at the heart of the legaltech ecosystem, without being a startup. This is what is expressed very wellDan Kohn, director of prospective, saying: " Secib is the first of Legaltech, but at the time we said: publisher of technological software for legal professions.