🏆 Launching the 2021 American Legal Technology Awards: Honoring Legal Innovators Making Law Better
What a difference a year makes. When we launched the American Legal Technology Awards last year for the first time, it was truly into the unknown.
At first, we thought COVID would be temporary. We thought it might all clear up by the summer. And, as the goal posts kept moving, the legal industry was forced to adapt to the new reality of working from home, remote court appearances, depositions and trials, and all the new legal crises facing Americans as a result of the pandemic: potential eviction, bankruptcy, unemployment, and medical debt, to name a few.
The legal industry as a whole had to face a new reality and rush headlong into the future.
Winners of last year’s American Legal Technology Awards helped to make a difference. Judge Scott Schlegel won the Courts award category for innovative approaches he employed to keep the courts in New Orleans and its programs accessible even in the face of COVID restrictions. Pro Bono Net won the Technology and Access to Justice awards for using online tools to help people get legal help virtually.
The legal technology sector is maturing if funding is any measure. No code automation platform, Bryter, raised $16 million, contract review platform LawGeex $20 million, e-discovery platforms DISCO and Everlaw raised $60 million and $62 million respectively. Cloud-based case management system Clio raised $110 million at a $1.6 billion valuation, becoming a legal tech unicorn.
Honoring Legal Innovators Making Law Better
For our second annual American Legal Technology Awards, our theme is to honor those making law better.
As a grassroots movement, founded by legal tech entrepreneur (Tom Martin), a lawyer (Patrick Palace) and an academic (Cat Moon), the experience last year of creating and launching an awards event was a bit like building a plane while flying it, but we learned a lot and have even bigger plans for this year.
Award Categories
Honors will be awarded in eight categories: Access to Justice — Court — Enterprise — Individual — Technology — Law Department — Law Firm — Startup. For further information, please visit our newly launched website, AmericanLegalTechnology.com.
Mission
The lens that we will be looking at nominations through is guided by our mission (which is also our judging rubric):
“To hold up examples of excellence in creative innovation and technology in the legal industry for the purposes of (1) expanding understanding of what is possible, (2) encouraging a virtuous cycle of improvement, and (3) creating a more just society.”
This year we are asking applicants to address how his or her nomination meets these goals so that we have this information available for when the judges make decisions.
Judges
We have 25 judges for our 2nd go round; that’s 5 more than last year and all are exceptional: Janine Sickmeyer*, Miguel Willis, Shannon Salter, Nick Rishwain, Maya Markovich*, Gabriela Cubeiro, Sam Glover*, Yvonne Nath, Jean Clauson, Dan Lear*, Tiffany Graves, Colin Levy, Irene Mo, Ed Walters*, Ivy Grey, Daniel Rodriguez, Natalie Anne Knowlton*, Amanda Brown*, Quinten Steenhuis*, Felicity Conrad*, Alex Su*, Nicole Morris*, Scott Schlegel*, Dorna Moini*, Bahar Ansari* (*New judges)
Sponsors
We are proud to announce that this year’s Platinum sponsors are Clio, ARAG Legal, LegalZoom and GNGF. We are eternally grateful for their support both as industry leaders and because we couldn’t do it without them.
Launched
We are officially launched! We got coverage on both sides of the pond on May 4th, with Bob Ambrogi and Richard Tromans reporting as our official media partners:
Ambrogi: https://www.lawsitesblog.com/2021/05/nominations-open-for-2021-american-legal-technology-awards.html
Artificial Lawyer: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2021/05/04/2nd-american-legal-tech-awards-calls-for-nominations/
Schedule
Our schedule of events is:
- March 18, 2021 — Access to Justice Genius Panel
- May 4, 2021 — Official Launch and Nominations Open
- June 30, 2021 — Past Winners Genius Panel
- August 31, 2021 — Deadline to Submit Nominations
- September 2021 — State of the Industry Genius Panel
- October 2021 — Award Finalists Announced
- November 1–10, 2021 — Awards Events and Announcements
Nominations will close August 31st to start the judging period. The award videos will be released to the public one award category each work day, November 1–10.
Genius Panels
Something new this year are our “Genius Panels.” Not your ordinary panel, our Genius Panels slated for this year are on the following topics: Access to Justice, Last Year’s Winners, and State of the Industry. The topics are intended to be evergreen and to build awareness and anticipation for the Awards event.
The first, on Access to Justice, was held in March, an access to justice panel moderated by Felicity Conrad and featured panelists Dorna Moini, Miguel Willis, Renee Danser, Brian Hill and Natalia Anne Knowlton. It was well-received with over 65 attendees on Clubhouse.
The second panel will be moderated by Professor Caitlin Moon and is set for June 30, 2021. It will showcase past winners Judge Scott Schegel (Court Award Category), Rita Blandino (Individual) and Mark O’Brien of Pro Bono Net (Access to Justice and Technology). This will be both a retrospective of what they accomplished and their experience with the Awards as well as catching up with them as to what they’ve been up to.
The third panel will be moderated by Patrick Palace and is set for September 2021. It will feature our industry leader sponsors: Jack Newton (Clio), Jean Clauson (ARAG), Chas Rampenthal (LegalZoom), and Mark Homer (GNGF). They will discuss latest developments in legal technology and the legal industry more broadly. Don’t miss this highly anticipated discussion!
Submissions Are Now Open. Nominate Today!
To submit a nomination to the American Legal Technology Awards, just follow this link → https://americanlegaltechnology.com
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please email me at tom [at] lawdroid.com
Thank you and good luck!
Tom Martin, Co-Founder
American Legal Technology Awards
