It’s interesting because the article correctly points out the existence of barriers to tech adoption in the law — but, as justin and others point out, the coverage of real innovation usually misses the devil in the details.
A number of possible explanations, but the most prevalent I’ve encountered:
• Differences between the variety of ways a given attorney goes about practicing create inherent barriers to a one size fits all B2B software solution. Attorney personas vary wildly based on factors such as practice area, firm size, region, jurisdiction, client demographics, the list goes on and on. This makes it very difficult to build out products that scale rapidly industry-wide. While this sort of end user diversity isn’t inherently unique to the legal industry, it’s probably where its most entrenched, dictated by regulation and long-standing custom, etc etc — all things very startup/entrepreneurial unfriendly.
• Even accounting for legitimate industry-based reasons, there’s a second very real, risk-averse layer: both legal education and practice are very hierarchical, such that aspiring attorneys are being ranked and learning to guard their interests well before they ever begin practice. Once they do, protecting partnerships, colleagues (intra-firm / former pals), profits, rolodexes, business processes, etc is well entrenched in a given attorney’s MO. News writeups usually include a bit about how the Great Recession started to prompt innovation, which it did, but it also created a margins race that further drives attorneys to protect their book of business and profits, further entrenching mindsets which reject disruption, consciously or not.
Regardless of whether you buy these reasons or have your own, the nuance quickly exceeds what captures readers in the mainstream or tech press. Yet the rise of automation in other industries does justify coverage of how those trends would be affecting the law, and the not-uncommon “Let’s kill all the lawyers!” Shakespearean mentality fuels the fire. The result? Every new startup aiming to disrupt the law gets some pretty gloating coverage…and then they need to start acquiring users and scaling. In fairness, that’s what real startups have to do, so not all sanity goes out the window.
Post-2008, the real driver for innovation has been client demand, so Atrium’s approach makes sense there. Also, shoutouts to A2J nonprofits, they’re doing really meaningful work for clients that need it most (albeit with their own set of complexities that aren’t inherently tuned to startup culture)
Obligatory 1: Attorney, but IANYL. Work in the industry, currently building software for firm/legal services ops and biz processes. Previously involved in A2J efforts. Views above are my own, not those of my employer or previous initiatives.
Obligatory 2: If you’re the type with a respect for the industry, but a drive to use tech, product, and entrepreneurial methodologies to break through these types of barriers — we’re hiring! Engineers, product, QA, project, or attorneys that have some meaningful experience in both worlds: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15148885