The marquee event at this year’s CBA Legal Conference in August will give CBA members the chance to witness first-hand the kind of vibrancy and creativity that backstops legal innovation in Canada.
Legal tech startups will be invited to present their products to a group of investors in front of an audience made up of conference-goers and invited members of the business and investment community.
“Beyond entertainment value, lawyers will have the opportunity to challenge what they hear and offer feedback to the budding entrepreneurs,” says CBA President Janet Fuhrer.
This showcase of startups from across the country is part of the CBA’s year-long partnership with the LegalX team at Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District, one of the world’s largest urban innovation hubs. While MaRS “supports promising young ventures that are tackling key societal challenges in the health, cleantech and information and communications technology sectors,” MaRS LegalX targets innovations in the legal services realm, and “connects the technologists, designers, engineers and lawyers who are driving change.”
The groundwork for this partnership was laid in the2014 report Futures: Transforming the Delivery of Legal Services in Canada, which recommended that the CBA take a leadership role in promoting innovation, including supporting and facilitating innovation incubation, and considering the development of an investment fund for innovators, among others.
“The CBA and their Legal Futures work have really resonated with us,” says Aron Solomon, head of LegalX. “We feel that what we’ve built at LegalX matches perfectly with the mission and vision of such a forward-looking organization.”
Many of the details of the August event have yet to be nailed down but the broad strokes have been outlined: Startups will submit a presentation deck of 12 slides by June 15, which will be reviewed by an online panel of judges. These judges will select finalists to pitch to the investors in August. And CBA members will have an advance look at thrilling new legal innovations when attending CLC.
Are you a legal entrepreneur looking for some seed money to put your idea into action? This might be just the opportunity you’re looking for. Keep an eye on the CBA Legal Futures Initiative page at cba.org for updates.