News Wrap, Feat. Epiq, LexisNexis + TermScout

Epiq Wins Microsoft US Modern Work + Security Partner Award

Process-focused legal services business, Epiq, has won the FY20 Top Microsoft 365 Compliance Partner prize for this year’s Microsoft US Modern Work and Security Partner Awards.

While it’s always nice to win prizes, this one is important for Epiq as it comes at a time when the company is increasing its focus on what it calls ‘the left hand side of EDRM‘, with an emphasis on the information governance space as more and more companies rely on cloud-based solutions.

Hence, recognition from Microsoft in this area is useful. Epiq noted that many companies apply for these awards, including their peers, so they were especially chuffed to win it.

In this case, Microsoft recognised Epiq for ‘providing exceptional solutions and services in leading all partners in compliance engagements, [such as] workshops, proof of concepts and assessments’.

Roger Pilc, president and general manager for legal solutions at Epiq, said: ‘We are proud to receive this honour from Microsoft. Together, we are solving complex regulatory compliance and security issues for our clients.

‘Helping organisations to migrate data to the cloud easily and begin using the advanced built-in security and compliance features within Microsoft 365 is just part of what we do. Through these efforts, we’re also working alongside our clients globally to overcome their biggest information governance challenges: ever-expanding data sources, increasingly rigorous compliance and privacy regulations, and the need to reduce costs.’

LexisNexis Accelerator Calls For New Legal Tech Cohort Applications

LexisNexis is calling for applications to join the fifth cohort of its Legal Tech Accelerator. The programme is designed for start-ups and will run virtually from September to November 2020

It will again be led by Owen Byrd, Lex Machina Chief Evangelist & General Counsel, and Jeff Pfeifer, LexisNexis North America Chief Product Officer.  Josh Becker, Lex Machina Chairman and other LexisNexis leaders will actively participate in learning sessions. 

The lucky startups that get through the application process will receive:

  • Mentorship: Weekly sessions with LexisNexis executives on growing legal tech companies, and ad hoc discussions with other LexisNexis executives about technology, user experience & design, product development, product marketing and other topics
  • Education: One-hour strategy sessions on a variety of topics, including marketing and selling to legal departments; running an agile product development organisation; leveraging legal data; best practices in customer service, employee management, marketing and funding 
  • Connections: Leverage relationships with Stanford and other Bay-Area schools, businesses, VCs and other influencers

Commenting on this year’s programme, Pfeifer said: ‘After four successful programmes with 26 startup participants, we will be executing in a new format this year.

‘While fully virtual, we will deliver an exciting curriculum for this cohort.  Participants have commented on the value each company receives in the programme sessions and from the networking with other legal tech startups. Each year, we are increasingly impressed by the depth and quality of applicants to our programme.’

For more information, or to apply to the LexisNexis Legal Tech Accelerator programme, you can find more here:

www.lexisnexis.com/accelerator

The deadline for applications is August 14, 2020….so get your skates on!

TermScout Contract Review Startup Bags $1.6m

TermScout, a doc analysis start-up that helps lawyers and sales teams with contract review, has bagged $1.25m in a new seed funding round, along with $350,000 in convertible note funding, to give a combined $1.6m boost to the company’s growth plans.  

This is further proof that investors are still putting money into legal tech and are betting on growth in demand especially in areas related to the partial automation of legal processes.

TermScout (which AL covered by coincidence in relation to the LexisNexis Accelerator last year – see here) is based in Denver, Colorado.

TermScout offers contract review services using NLP and human reviewers for ‘under $100 per contract’.  

The seed round included investments from Hilltop Venture Partners, Techstars, and EonCapital.

Otto Hanson, CEO and co-founder of TermScout, said: ‘The world desperately needs a better way to make sense of the contracts we sign – what we’re building will transform the contract review process for businesses and, eventually, for people, too.’

Brad Greenwald, managing partner at Hilltop Venture Partners, added: ‘TermScout is working on a solution to one of the world’s biggest unsolved problems – how to make sense of the billions of contracts that are signed by US businesses every year. Their team has deep experience with this problem and includes one of the co-founders of a similar business in the healthcare space – Healthgrades.’


That’s all folks. Have a great weekend!