12 companies win spots in new 'Startup Alley' at ABA Techshow
Robert Ambrogi
A company that aims to simplify the way litigation services are bought and another that automatically tracks a lawyer’s billable time were among the 12 winners of a competition to participate in the first-ever “Startup Alley” at the ABA Techshow legal technology conference March 15-18 in Chicago.
Winners of the competition, which has been underway since October, were announced Monday. The 12 companies get to show off their wares in a special Startup Alley portion of the Techshow exhibition hall. They will also participate in a March Madness-themed pitch competition on Techshow’s opening night.
The winning startups were selected from among 20 finalists based on votes cast in a readers’ poll conducted at the blog Above the Law. The 20 finalists had been selected from a pool of applicants by a panel of judges composed of Evolve Law co-founders Mary Juetten and Jules Miller and myself.
The winners, in order of their vote tallies, are:
- ClariLegal, a cloud-based litigation management platform that is simplifying the way litigation services are bought, sold and managed.
- Ping. Ping is automated timekeeping for lawyers that will automatically track, categorize and describe all of a lawyer’s billable actions.
- Court Buddy. Court Buddy is a wholly automated platform that matches solo and small firm attorneys with small businesses based on preselected à la carte flat rates.
- LawTap. Like ZocDoc for doctors and dentists, LawTap is the booking engine for attorneys.
- Doxly. Doxly is a cloud-based platform that transforms the chaotic process of managing legal transactions into a singular tool.
- Paladin. Paladin helps law firms, companies and law schools manage their pro bono with streamlined sourcing, tracking and outcome reporting on a modern, tech-forward platform.
- UniCourt. UniCourt is a nationwide case research, tracking, management, and analytics platform that integrates court data from federal and state courts into a cloud-based application.
- LegalClick. LegalClick is a software as a service (or SaaS) platform for lawyers to sell their legal services directly to clients with a document assembly shopping cart in an app or online.
- TrustBooks. TrustBooks takes a scary thing like trust accounting and makes it drop-dead simple.
- LawBooth. LawBooth connects people and attorneys online, making it easy for consumers to find the right attorney and schedule a free initial consultation.
- Alt Legal. Alt Legal’s software helps companies and law firms create, track, and analyze intellectual property filings.
- Aggregate Law. Aggregate Law quickly and efficiently connects skilled project attorneys to legal work.
The Startup Alley is new to Techshow. The idea for it came from the chair of this year’s conference planning board, Adriana Linares.
“I think it’s important for lawyers to see and appreciate the incredible amount of creativity and development being introduced into the profession,” Linares says. “I want them to recognize that technology and progress can truly help them run their businesses and practices better.”
The 12 startups will be provided space at a discounted cost to exhibit their product or service within a designated portion of Techshow’s exhibit hall. Each startup will be responsible for a display fee of $1,500—which is a significant discount from the standard fee—and for its own travel and hotel expenses.
Planning of the Startup Alley and the opening night pitch competition has been a cooperative effort of Techshow, Above the Law, Evolve Law and Lawsitesblog.com.
