Section News

ABA Techshow 2024: Startup Alley Pitch Competition

mark i unger

Life is a funny thing. It’s ironic, perplexing, and like a conundrum on steroids. All that taken together simply means that all the cliches that our parents got from our grandparents and great-grandparents before them were semi-truisms meant to be passed on in ways that we had to, well…learn for ourselves.

Wednesday was yet another funny thing. I’ve been fortunate to be included in some things, excluded from others, and given the fortitude to know the difference in their worth.

I’ve previously posted on ABA TechShow 2024’s Startup Alley Pitch competition, how cool it was and is, and believe it’s symbolic of change.

It’s brought forth ingenuity, a pushing of the envelope, and often the enigma of knowing what you thought you believed as opposed to the changes and agility of others that might either call those into question or simply keep you swimming (nod to Nemo). In all senses, change is constant, and chasing it is healthy.

These were the healthiest chasing change, and the top 15 vote-getters in this year’s competition, along with my take —

1. BriefCatch https://briefcatch.com: At Legal Week, BriefCatch was introduced. This tool enhances legal document editing by providing expert guidance. This innovation aims to improve both writing skills and case outcomes. It allows users to upload legal documents (such as rules, regulations, or cases) and specify the intended audience and their concerns. The tool then generates client advisories with relevant links and recommended action steps. Notably, it was mentioned that AI inventions could now be patented, provided they involve innovative prompts.
2. Ai.Law https://www.ai.law: This AI-powered tool streamlines the creation of various litigation documents. Users can input basic claims to receive a list of possible courses of action, upload complaints for analysis of missing elements, and receive auto-generated drafts and suggestions. The system can also generate discovery responses with objections in about five minutes, which are editable. Features include robust chat functionality, deep search capabilities for medical records, and a contract drafting module that facilitates dynamic interaction with the system before exporting to a Word document.  While this technology was scary, it also might foretell the commoditization of law, or even the ‘robotization’ of practice, if you will. Its significance in theory is why lawyers are afraid, but its implementation may or may not be valid as it seemed literally to take over the practice as we currently believe it to be. With that said, this was definitely above average.
3. Lexamica https://lexamica.com: Designed to optimize practice and revenue growth, Lexamica facilitates case referrals within a network of law firms. It addresses the inefficiency of traditional advertising spends by ensuring each lead is maximized, particularly in industries where firms can recoup up to 50% of their advertising dollars.  This seemed to be more pitch than fork in the road kind of change agent. It may be more significant than credit given but it wasn’t quite there for me.
4. Resolutn https://www.resolutn.com: Founded by a litigator, Resolutn aims to expedite settlements through digital mediation. The platform facilitates faster case settlements by allowing parties to make initial offers and engage in negotiations through a double-blind process guided by a proprietary algorithm. Settlements are reached when offers overlap, with a 2% charge to each party capped at $500. Despite a lackluster presentation, the product’s potential for increasing access to justice (A2J) was emphasized. While I thought this end-thought might have been pandering a bit, it was to me significant. This was one of the major spaces ripe for change and for that reason, one of the more significant attempts at innovation (though it has been attempted now in different ways for several years). For those reasons, I had this near the top of my list and could see where this, if presented in a more robust way (grain of salt: presenters were given 3 minutes), could have won the day;
5. Recital: https://recitalapp.com/ Canadian company provides a contract negotiation platform that integrates with Word, streamlining the organization of contracts and emails. It claims to address common frustrations among lawyers regarding document version control and accessibility, offering a solution that allows fast access to documents and redlines without the need for extensive file management. While this was pitched with a lexicon of verbiage not often found in professional presentations (i.e. curse words), I found the shock value fine the first time (“where the F is my Sh t?”)..thrice made me feel a little more dumb for listening to the ‘effect,’…However, for what it promised, without explaining how, was worthy of 8.8;
6. LexSelect: https://lexselect.io/ LexSelect, which significantly reduces the time required to review transcript evidence, thus boosting productivity in trial preparation. The technology transforms the tedious task of reformatting and retyping citations, offering a potential time saving of up to 92%. While the stats were significant (along with the name dropping in motivation) the time savings provided by efficiency within product were significant if scalable (i.e. if all could do them) and so it was worthy of 8.3;
7. AltFee: https://www.altfeeco.com/  CEO Scott Lee introduced AltFee, a platform that enables law firms to adopt alternative fee structures more efficiently. The system assists in scoping, pricing, proposing, and auditing alternative fees, addressing the inefficiencies of traditional billable hours through AI-enhanced workflows.  While I thought this was a possible throwback to prior presenter Kimberly Bennett’s Fidu, which was very persuasive, a friend of mine Kenton Brice pointed out the significance of the analysis aspect of this, which reminded my of my analogy to alternative billing possibles similar to the medical field’s RVU model. Until, we have a good measure of value that is alternative to the billable hour, at least to Judge’s who make these rulings when asked, I have to defer, though I want more. I gave this an 8.0. This was the Startup Alleys 2024 winner and continues a trend of claimed access to justice motivated startups,
8. Henchman: https://henchman.io/ This tool, originating from Belgium, saves time by integrating relevant contract clauses and definitions directly into Word or Outlook, facilitating more efficient contract negotiation for legal professionals. This pitch claimed that the product was more proactive by utilizing your own data as opposed to the claimed reactive nature of something like Copilot. I’m interested to see where this goes as I’ve attempted to drill down on this concept with other AI offerings. I gave this an 8.0
9. Skribe.ai: https://skribe.ai/ Skribe.ai offers a solution to reduce the costs and time associated with legal testimony, enhancing attorney efficiency and providing rapid Court transcripts and real time video testimony playback. I have to admit bias, as this startup is from Austin.   This offering came in second in this pitch competition and is in an area that, in this writer’s opinion is in a space that is so ripe for enhancement and modernization that the need can not possibly be overstated, given the inability to timely get court transcripts at reasonable prices and while, there is much potential competition and there are bells and whistles and laws needed to be added or changed respectively, this tech is massively significant. This was in my top three. I gave this an 8.3, only as it really needed to be shown how it could work a little more in slides and workflows;
10. Gretchen: https://www.gretchenapp.com/ Developed by CEO Blake Adam, Gretchen is a generative AI-powered tool that integrates with email inboxes to improve response times for inquiries, particularly beneficial for solo practitioners and small law firms. This tech was also launched in other products somewhat as a sidebar add-on in Outlook and with claim to require access to all of your documents (DMS), something which still gives me some concerns. I did give this an 8.0 for the efficiency effect to reply to clients’ questions;
11. 2nd Chair: https://2ndchairtrialsupport.com/ 2nd Chair is an AI tool designed to analyze extensive case materials quickly, providing key facts and document links, and alleviating concerns about potential sanctions from judges. Named David, I loved the source/citation of same aspect, as I’ve repeatedly considered this need, however the claim to be ‘summaritive’ and generative seems a little in need of the next level of its capability.
12. Beagle: https://discoverbeagle.com/ Beagle is presented as a new best friend for document review, utilizing AI and machine learning to improve accuracy and efficiency in e-discovery, significantly reducing time and costs.  I’m not sure this has the current sophistication, at least in the way presented to challenge current eDiscovery vendors’ pitches and the analogy to being ‘cruelty-free’ seemed off to me, despite my love for dogs/animals;
13. Civille: https://getciville.com  This company offers digital marketing solutions for law firms with AI-powered forms and chat tools, aimed at capturing and converting relevant prospects effectively. I gave this a 7.8, based on it’s claimed performance stats and while the representations were a bit conclusory, I think, if true, it’s exemplary, but perhaps not a change agent for a market underserved;
14. Altumatim: https://altumatim.com  CEO David Gaskey highlights Altumatim’s focus on narrative in eDiscovery, using AI to identify key evidence efficiently and tell compelling stories in litigation.  This really triggered my frontal lobe in the sense that key facts and evidence in a timeline format is massive in litigation and the fact that it claims, via autonomous review, to format in relation to your case ‘story.’ Also, the speed of review of documents to get there is significant. I gave this an 8.5 and perhaps undervalued it.
15. Paxton AI: https://www.paxton.ai  Paxton AI is developing AI-powered legal research tools to enable faster access to laws and case law, aiming to transform legal work and establish firms as leaders in AI adoption. This offering won third in  startup alley and it’s players have paper and street cred like you wouldn’t believe; however, just based on the presentation, I’m at a loss to understand it’s success. Either I missed the boat on this one or they connected with many in the audience that I didn’t. Either way, kudos to them and I look forward to the future.

Mark I. Unger

https://twitter.com/miunger

ps

The opinions herein are those of the author and no one else.

The presentations and content presented are all inextricably linked to the germane aspects of the practice of law.

They are all grain-of-salted and to be taken as such.