The Legal Tech Startup Awards 2018 is a competition for technological startups with potential for the legal sector. The organisation brings these startups and the market together and ensures that they speak each other’s language. Linking products and ideas to concrete issues leads to innovative solutions that make a real difference. The competition opens on 14 February 2018.
‘We at Dutch Legal Tech noticed that a lot of young entrepreneurs were turning to law firms for assistance with what we saw as promising ideas. Unfortunately, they were invariably being turned away. Too risky! And that’s a pity, as our sector could certainly do with some innovation’, says Jelle van Veenen (Dutch Legal Tech) about the creation of the Legal Tech Startup Awards. ‘With these Awards we’re encouraging startups to introduce technology that law firms perceive as being truly relevant. But you have to make sure that they have a meeting of minds.’
Seal of approval
The Legal Tech Startup Awards gives promising startups a ‘seal of approval’. Jeroen Zweers (Innovation Director at Kennedy Van der Laan): ‘This sends out a signal to law firms to keep an open mind. To invite the startup to a meeting to talk about where technology can meet a need.’
Assessment in practice
The legal sector has much to gain by opening the door to promising legal tech startups. They are able to breathe new life into the sector and guarantee their right to exist. This can only be done if the products make real improvements to the approach or the service. The best way of doing this is to test it in practice. Richard Faas (Director of Innovation & head of the Legal Tech Studio ARAG Netherlands): ‘We see that young companies like to work with large, well-known organisations to sell their product or develop a proof of concept. At the same time, it often proves difficult to quickly enter into a partnership. We’ve developed programs at our studio that make it possible to quickly establish whether we can generate value for our clients together.’
Organised by a team of specialists
The competition is being organised by Claudia Heemskerk (Event Manager PLEIT), Hendri van Norden (Partner Lexxyn Groep), Rens Rozekrans (Partner Risk & Regulatory KPMG), Jelle van Veenen (initiatior of Dutch Legal Tech), Jeroen Zweers (Innovation Director at Kennedy van der Laan), Richard Faas (Director of Innovation & head of the Legal Tech Studio Arag) and Peter Backx (Segment Director Tax Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory Netherlands). All of them are experts with a successful track record in the legal sector. Peter Backx (Wolters Kluwer): ‘The Legal Tech Startup Awards competition is being organised by a group of critical experts with very different ways of looking at the business. It is these different angles that are so valuable for a startup. Whereas the one judges on efficiency, the other is more interested in the degree of innovation.
PLEIT: podium for pitches
PLEIT, the biggest IT event for the legal sector in the Netherlands, will be giving the selected startups the opportunity to pitch their ideas on 5 June 2018. More than 500 visitors from the sector will judge the ideas according to their needs. ‘Startups have big ideas. PLEIT offers them a podium and pointers that they can use to inspire the legal sector and take the next step’, says Claudia Heemskerk (PLEIT).
Registration
The Legal Tech Startup Awards 2018 invites startups to sign up and register via: www.legaltechstartupawards.nl.
Download the press release.