Aiming to create a community that brings together developers, investors and buyers of legal technology products in order to expand opportunities for all three groups, the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) will launch the ILTA Innovation Hub Aug. 22 during its annual ILTACON in Las Vegas.
“ILTA sits at the center of the legal services ecosystem,” says a brochure describing the Hub. “To better meet the changing needs of its members and the legal community, ILTA is planning to launch an ILTA Legal Innovation Hub to bring together key buyers of legal services, with the providers, talent and the investor community.”
The Hub will launch in three phases, beginning with the ILTA Investment Hub, where select investors will be invited to have priority access to legal tech and services providers for potential investments and vetted talent.
Subsequent phases of the Hub will include the Talent Marketplace, bringing together vetted legal and business talent, and the Innovation Marketplace, designed for smaller corporations and law firms to identify vetted technologies and services.
The first-phase Investment Hub, launching Aug. 22, will include:
- An industry expert liaison to work with each investor to understand their needs and interests.
- Quarterly pitch sessions with legal tech start-ups. The first one is slated for October 2021.
- Monthly panel discussions with subject matter experts and talent with legal expertise to share insights on the industry.
- Monthly newsletters covering investor activity, firms looking for investments, up and coming start-ups, and areas of growth.
- Access to expert talent with legal industry, business, growth and investment expertise.
- Special events and networking sessions organized each year around ILTACON.
Nita Sanger, director of the Digital Advisory Practice at Cherry Bekaert, has worked with Joy Heath Rush, ILTA CEO, and Jason Stookey, ILTA’s vice president of partner development, to develop the program.
“We want to bring together the key players in the legal tech ecosystem,” Sanger told me during a recent call, “the investors, the legal tech companies who are part of ILTA, and then the buyers of services, the corporate GCs and law firms.”
She envisions that local get-togethers in various U.S. cities will be a key feature of the Investment Hub going forward, where startups can showcase their products to potential investors. For now, however, those events will remain virtual.
The Hub will also begin to publish weekly interviews and articles for members, showcasing successful companies, founders and investors, Sanger said.
While ILTA has not set a firm timeline for launching the subsequent stages of the Hub, Sanger said the Talent Marketplace will not be a job board, but rather a place where venture capital and private equity firms can tap into select individuals with the industry skills and expertise they need.
In a separate call, Stookey told me that a goal of this project is to better amplify ILTA’s work within the legal startup community.
“Our goal is to plant a flag in the ground that we are a resource for startups to grow into being more successful companies,” he said.
More information will be posted at: www.iltanet.org/resources/hub.