Darwin Talk -“Tech’s Peculiar Relationship with Legal Access

Technology & Legal Industry

• Revolutionized the Industry
• $254 Mil invested in 2014(Angels list)
• Legal Hackers Meetups
• Legal Hackathons
• Nearly 1000 legal startups & companies

Every Aspect of Legal Industry

• Delivery
• Marketplace
• Managing Practice
• Document Production
• Legal Marketing
• Cloud Services
• Social Media & Blogs
• Education & Research

What About Legal Access

Untitled Slide

80% of Poor &
2/3 of Middle Class Legal Needs are going Unmet!
50% of eligible are turned away

2015 Study
Civil Legal Needs Tripled in WA Since 2003

What Happened?

Recession & Housing Crisis

• Legal Industry- Spurred innovation for the need to drive cost down.
• Poor & Middle Class- Exacerbated legal needs.

Providers of Tech Access

• Legal Services Corporation awards grants to legal service providers
• Technology Initiative Grants (15 yrs awarded $46 mil for more than 570 projects, 4 mil, 2015)
• Pro Bono Innovation Fund (2 yrs awarded 6.5 mil, 4 million 2015)

Implementation?

• Online Legal Portals
• Document Assembly
• Mobile

Tech's Legal Access Problem

• Assumptions - Every legal Need & User are the same.
• User Centered- Not designed for targeted user
• Barriers- Content, legalese, digital divide
• Bad business process/analysis- Leaves large room for inefficacies

SOLUTION

User's Legal Journey

• Full Representation-
• Brief Advice-
• Legal Clinic-briefly talk to an attorney about your legal problem.
• Pro Se Clinics- shown how you can "help yourself"
• Self-Help
• Other (workshops, referrals to private)

BIG PICTURE: ECOSYSYSTEM

• Law School (CodeX, Iron Tech Lawyer, CAJT, LWOW)
• Legal Aid Organizations
• Legal Tech Companies
• Federal & Local Government
• Private Attorneys
• Legal Tech Advocacy

Why Act Now?

• Gap Will Increase!
• Chance to Do Something Great!
• Will Compliment legal tech industry's growth
• Use Technology to its potential

Thank you!