Ask HN: Why are there so few law startups?

Another one that was posted on HN recently was https://www.lawgeex.com/

Well, it depends on what you mean by "law startup."

There are plenty of document-processing startups that help with what lawyers call e-discovery. There are also some startups that will help you do some standard legal tasks, like incorporate in Delaware and issue stock. I think one of those is Clerky, a YC-funded company. Avvo is a matchmaking/profile aggregation startup that comes to mind.

I worked with Fenwick and West to incorporate https://recent.io/, in part because I've had a relationship with them for a few years. But I see why people today use Clerky and pay ~15% as much.

A few other thoughts:

* Lawyers are some of the most conservative and risk-averse professionals you'll find. So it will take a while for any newfangled innovations to become adopted.

* Those "enormous fees" are already being whittled down as part of a multi-decade shift away from Big Law in its traditional form, including fixed fees rather than hourly rates.

* Bar associations act as a cartel and try to restrict competition. Nolo, which publishes self-help software and books, was actually sued for daring to compete with lawyers ("Unauthorized Practice of Law"): http://blog.nolo.com/blog/2011/04/11/the-brief-story-of-texa...

* When you want tailored advice, a website with a bunch of forms (even forms created by smart lawyers) is likely insufficient. I know one trust attorney in the SF bay area who told me she had to figure out how to handle cryopreservation after some Silicon Valley execs wanted it; that required original research. When you're in a situation where mistakes can cost you millions, hiring an attorney for tailored advice is cheap insurance.

this looks to be dead (?)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakemasters

"May 2012 – April 2014 (2 years)San Francisco Bay Area"

Judicata is very much alive. We're tackling a hard problem, with little margin for error, and focused on doing it right. It's a very different model than most startups, but then again, law is a very different beast.

I'm the lead developer at Contractually (a Vancouver-based startup): http://www.contractual.ly. We take contracts out of Microsoft Word and email and put them in an online format that understands the business data and process that is involved. We're solving problems form the low level (version tracking, redlining, commenting) to the high level (renewal reminders, workflows, tagging, reporting). We're currently focussed on large businesses and enterprise.

To answer your question, there's not many startups in the legal space because people and businesses are really worried about their contracts. The conservative nature is one that needs to slowly be eroded, and that's where we're at now. E-signature providers have taken away a lot of concerns and we're starting to see opportunities in areas outside of just signing.

At Contractually, we're seeing more competition (a good thing, of course) targeting small businesses right up to enterprise. Typically, they solve some small part of the contracts problem: Assembling documents, or e-signatures, or workflows, etc. The competition isn't just coming from startups (e.g. glider.com, acquired last year), it's also coming from large incumbents (e.g. Merrill DataSite for contract management, launched last month).

It's an exciting time and I think we'll start to see big chunks of the problem solved over the next few years.