Spain’s IE Law School Launches Legal Tech Startup Competition + Incubator

IE Law School, a leading international legal education centre based in Madrid, has launched a global legal tech competition in conjunction with a group of other legal and innovation backers. The winning startup will qualify for an incubator programme in Spain.

The goal is to attract and help support innovators and startups that are using technology ‘to solve important legal challenges faced by governments, public institutions and civil society in a wide range of areas’.

The project is supported by a global network of law schools, Law Schools Global League, an international law firm group, ONTIER, and an innovation platform focused on the South of Europe and South America, called South Summit.

Three regional events, called Venture Days, will lead to a final startup competition in Madrid (pictured above) on July 25. The first Legaltech Venture Day has already taken place in Singapore, where the Malaysian startup EasyLaw, committed to making law efficient, affordable and simple, was crowned the winner.

The following Legaltech Venture Days will take place in Chicago on June 15 in collaboration with Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, and in México on June 20, in collaboration with ITAM, the Mexican higher education institute.

Then, the three regional winners will be invited to Madrid, all expenses paid, to compete at the Global Legaltech Venture Day Final on July 25.

In addition, the final prize consists of a residency programme tailored to the winning startup’s specific needs.

The winners will work with IE and ONTIER, the global legal group, for up to three months, starting September 2018.

During this time IE and ONTIER will ‘help the team develop its product and/or adapt it to the legal market and carry out pilots with real users, allowing the winning team to align the product with the needs of the legal market and gain insights on matters that might not seem significant to tech founders’, said the project leaders.

The winning team will also have access to all events hosted by Area 31, EI’s entrepreneurship centre, as well as have access to investors, professional advisers, potential partners and customers. In short, the winner will be hopefully propelled onto a commercial footing.

Applications for the remaining two Global Legaltech Venture Days are now open:

For the Legaltech Venture Day in Chicago see here.

For the Legaltech Venture Day in Mexico see here.