The American Legal Tech Awards Winners Are…

Here are the overall winners and runner-ups of the first American Legal Technology Awards, which concluded this week.

Award CategoryWinnerRunner UpHonorable Mention
Access to JusticePro Bono NetUpsolveVeronica L. Canton
CourtJudge Scott Schlegel (24th Judicial District Court for the Parish of Jefferson, Louisiana)The Utah Regulatory Sandbox initiativeThe New York Family Offense Petition Program
EnterpriseLiteraUnicourtLegal Decoder
IndividualRita Blandino (Director, Domestic Violence Division at Superior Court of the District of Columbia)Connie BrentonJonathan Pyle
Law DepartmentARMVillageMDRedfin
Law FirmHarrity & Harrity (Patent specialists)Lopp Mathias LawMy Virtual Lawyer
StartupLegalMationBlawxLuminance
TechnologyLawHelp InteractiveLegal DecoderBlackBoiler

The awards were launched in April, just as the pandemic was accelerating, but have been a success nevertheless. The team behind the project has been: Tom Martin, the founder and CEO of LawDroid, law firm founder, Patrick Palace, and US legal academic, Cat Moon.

As you can see, there has been a strong A2J aspect. For example, outside of the specific A2J category, the winner of the main technology award was LawHelp Interactive, which enables people to fill out legal documents for free.

And, staying with the A2J theme, ProBono Net won that category, which helps those in need connect with those lawyers wishing to provide pro bono legal services.

LegalMation, a startup that Artificial Lawyer has been covering since they got going, won the prize for its work in the disputes space and its use of NLP/NLG and machine learning approaches.

And, little-known company 🙂 Litera won the enterprise award, beating off Legal Decoder – which does legal billing analysis, and Unicourt – which provides litigation analytics. Legal Decoder almost won in the main technology category as well.

Speaking to Artificial Lawyer, one of the three organisers, Martin, said: ‘If ever there was an example of building a plane while flying it, organising the American Legal Technology Awards felt just like that.

‘While not without turbulence, having Cat Moon and Patrick Palace as co-founders made the ride exhilarating and fun. In a time filled with bad news, we had the pleasure of working with amazing judges and media partners to shine a light on the best examples of legal innovation. They make me hopeful for the future, and, in times like these, that’s welcome encouragement.’

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