Home to K Street—a fiefdom of lobbying, legal and financial influence that's rivaled only by New York City—the District has long been known for the prowess of its lawyers and legal industry. Perhaps unsurprisingly: in the background of this brigade also stands a growing niche of legal tech startups that are using software to create innovative products to both attract customers and make the legal process, in some cases, easier for clients.
Here’s 5 D.C.-area legal startups to watch:
LawIQ (Washington, D.C.)
Based in Northwest D.C. just a football field away from K Street is LawIQ, a startup that has developed a predictive modeling engine for litigation and regulatory proceedings. This platform is sold to financiers, executives and attorneys, as it provides them with insight into how a certain case will pan out by using big data analytics.
LawIQ’s platform is able to collect, organize and aggregate public data from litigation and regulatory proceedings.
The system creates effective and accurate models, the company says, by scanning millions of documents related to specific companies, judges and attorneys. The engine is also “curated by a team of experts who turn otherwise noisy data into actionable intelligence,” the company writes on its website. LawIQ is led by CEO Chip Moldenhauer, a former attorney with D.C. giant Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. Former longtime Rosetta Stone CEO Tom Adams is also an advisor.
DocEx Legal (Washington, D.C.)
Founded in 2013, DocEx offers its clients a suite of cloud-based legal documents that can be filled out online to begin a legal process. Once customers add a specific case/document to their cart, they can then be connected with DocEx’s network of attorneys and consultants.
Basic, pre-written legal documents like lease agreements, private sale agreements of automobiles or household times are sold via a sort of e-commerce stylized shop. These documents are recorded in the cloud and can viewed by clients and advisors in realtime.
In addition, user’s can also purchase services like on-demand legal/case research and digital forensics for their devices to “mitigate risk.” The startup, which is located just a stone’s throw away from the White House, writes on its LinkedIn profile “principals bring you more than a century of combined experience in big law, in-house counsel, legal technology and training.”
Gracular (Columbia, Md.)
This startup provides what it calls a secure, cloud-based platform for evaluating and monetizing patents. Gracular can qualitatively analyze a client’s patent versus a similar version, and also provides insight to determine the market value of said patent.
By tapping into a public bank of existing patents—Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)—and scanning the language used to detail related inventions, Gracular has created a product it calls a “Patent Percentile Ranking (PPP).” The product is sold in combination with a suggested retail price listing.
According to Gracular, PPP looks at a number of factors, including the number of claims in a patent, how many references are cited in it, how many citations it received and a categorization of International Patent Classification (IPCs) to see how an invention is viewed, among other things. Granular markets its product—which scans vast patent databases—to corporate assignees, entrepreneurs, individual patent owners, brokers, commercialization consultants, IP attorneys, insurers of patents and investors.
SpeedyCounsel (Baltimore, Md.)
Baltimore-based SpeedyCounsel created a specialized platform that helps connect startup founders and entrepreneurs with “verified” local consultants and attorneys.
“Many avoid hiring an attorney when they really need one because they are afraid of incurring exorbitant legal fees. We understand and so, we would like to make legal services accessible and affordable to all. We know that time is of the essence and for this reason, we utilize innovative technology to ensure that you can instantly consult with an attorney in your area,” SpeedyCounsel writes on its AngelList profile.
The company has yet to create a website but already owns the speedycounsel.com domain name. It is an early-stage startup with fewer than five employees. There is limited information, currently, regarding how the platform works and if it connects users in realtime with attorneys. In addition, it is unclear how SpeedyCounsel’s revenue model works—whether, for example, attorneys pay to be listed or users pay a fee to access the network.
LegalLogs (Baltimore, Md.)
LegalLogs, previously named Depot Services, offers a specially tailored cloud-based storage system to securely organize and present documents/information related to legal cases. The technology is used and purchased by mediators, attorneys and clients who are representing themselves. This information can be shared easily via customized privacy options. LegalLogs was also created to be mobile-friendly.
Users access the startup’s platform to log in everything from emails, texts, journal entries, events, financials, docs, videos, voicemails, social media posts and photos, into a database that differentiates and can search for information based on a number of filters. “Ingest it all, build a strategy, repurpose and restructure until the ultimate argument is crafted and ready for presentation,” LegalLogs writes on its website.
