Legal technology, also known as Legal Tech, refers to the use of technology and software to provide legal services and support the legal industry. Legal Tech companies are often startups founded with the purpose of disrupting the traditionally conservative legal market.
Different approaches and technologies have been used for legal tasks. Traditional software architecture and web technologies have been used for tasks like providing access to case law. Machine learning approaches have been used to help find documents for due diligence or discovery. Work on making contracts easier to use involves aspects of user experience design.
Legal technology traditionally referred to the application of technology and software to help individual lawyers, law firms, medium and large-scale businesses with practice management, document automation, document storage, billing, accounting, and electronic discovery. Since 2011, Legal Tech has evolved to be associated more with technology startups disrupting the practice of law by giving people access to online software that reduces or in some cases eliminates the need to consult a lawyer, or by connecting people with lawyers more efficiently through online marketplaces and lawyer-matching websites.
