The LawtechUK platform, a project founded by the UK Ministry of Justice and hosted by Tech Nation, has selected eight companies, all specialising in legaltech, to participate in its Lawtech Sandbox initiative. 

Legaltech firms are experiencing exponential economic growth, with UK legaltech firms growing by 101% in the last three years. Among the fastest growing legaltech sectors are climatetech, fintech and healthtech. 

Legaltech is set to revolutionise the legal sector, bringing lawyers together with IT and software experts. The Impact Lawyers addressed this groundbreaking issue in a webinar together with legaltech experts.

"Lawtech is the way we evolve legal services to meet the changing needs of business and wider society - there is a £22bn unmet demand for lawtech in the UK alone," explained Jenifer Swallow, LawtechUK director of Tech Nation. "Despite triple digit growth in the UK lawtech sector over the last three years, there are barriers we need to tackle collectively, to unlock the full potential of lawtech," she warned.

In turn, Swallow commented that Lawtech Sandbox will bring together practitioners to address existing barriers and to help legaltech pioneers successfully run their projects.

Following last year's successful edition, for which they selected five tech companies, LawtechUK has selected the following firms:

Avvoka

Avvoka is a document automation, negotiation and analytics tool designed to help law firms, in-house legal teams and businesses of all sizes draft documents, negotiate them, and leverage data insights to draft better documents, and get to “yes” faster.

Feesier

Feesier makes buying legal services easier for everyone. Businesses and individuals can split the cost of legal services into instalments at no extra cost. The legal services provider receives their fees upfront to secure payment and protect their cash flow. With Feesier, legal services become more attainable and paying for them more manageable.

Hunit

Hunit allows any law office, financial group or enterprise to write natively digital legal agreements. Their platform transforms today’s analogue investment agreements into legally binding smart contracts by enabling lawyers to embed self-executing actions directly within MS Word documents.

LegalMe

LegalMe is an online platform that helps tenants facing housing disrepair pursue their own legal claims without the need for a lawyer. Using document automation and case management technology, LegalMe generates legal filings, manages correspondence, and walks tenants through every step of the complex claims journey.

Lexyfi

The use of electronic communication by employees exposes companies to a series of risks that can result in litigation, cause significant reputational damage and financial loss, and damage employee morale. Lexyfi leverages the power of artificial intelligence to prevent these risks in real time, provide ongoing training, and increase trust and productivity within organisations.

Smarter:Contracts

Smarter:Contracts’ data privacy and consent management platform Pulse, enables businesses to manage their customer consents around data with greater transparency, security and control. Utilising blockchain and machine learning, Pulse allows people and businesses to manage their data in the same way they manage their money.

Valla

Valla is on a mission to make legal support accessible and affordable for everyone, starting with unfair treatment at work. Valla’s DIY law platform helps people resolve employment issues themselves without spending thousands in legal fees. Using Valla, people can collect evidence, generate forms and send legal letters.  When they need legal advice, they can connect with a lawyer through the Valla platform at an affordable fixed price.

WhatVisa

What Visa? seeks to combat the complexities of the UK’s immigration system. Their self service visa evaluation enables businesses and individuals to see at a glance whether a potential employee is eligible for a work visa, without needing an expert/lawyer. The tool provides assessment, guidance on processes, and workflow tools to help employers that sponsor visas.