Access to legal services goes global at Legal Innovation Zone
The LIZ invites legal tech entrepreneurs from around the world to join their community of companies who want to provide innovative solutions to the industry’s challenges. Photo credit: Founded.
Designing a legal system that’s right for the 21st century has been at the forefront of the Legal Innovation Zone’s (LIZ) work since its inception five years ago. And in an announcement on December 4, LIZ shared that it will support even more legal tech entrepreneurs, now worldwide, with two new programs open for online enrolment this winter.
Concept Framework and Sprint Studio, LIZ’s brand new programs, increase its offerings to support entrepreneurs and startups at four stages of development. Both Concept Framework and Sprint Studio are designed to be accessed online from around the world to support the innovative agenda of entrepreneurs worldwide - not just here in Canada.
“Over the past five years we have engaged with the international community and realized the need for more support for those who want to make an impact in the industry,” says Chris Bentley, co-founder and managing director of the LIZ. "Innovators are going to have to fill the gap that the standard approaches to legal service delivery has left. We know there is a huge market for entrepreneurs to dare and consumers who are willing to try.”
Both Concept Framework and Sprint Studio will welcome their first cohort in winter 2020, and the team is excited to take its reach further. “LIZ is helping the global community address a global problem -- that people and businesses aren’t getting the justice they have a right to by supporting those who would dream, design, build and grow their business solution,” says Bentley.
As the world’s first incubator dedicated to legal tech, LIZ has been making a name for itself worldwide by supporting legal tech entrepreneurs. “[LIZ] is this really unique community of legal tech entrepreneurs, and it’s unique to the world to have this focus on legal technology,” says Laura van Wyngaarden, co-founder of Diligen, one of LIZ's first companies, who started off here in Toronto and has itself grown into a global legal tech company with Fortune 15 companies as clients worldwide.
Van Wyngaarden and her co-founder, Konrad Pola, connected with Bentley back when LIZ was just getting off the ground. The two were in the initial stages of building their business, which uses machine learning software to speed up the contract review process for lawyers. Getting involved with LIZ from its launch helped Diligen’s co-founders build a community around their work. “We really enjoyed being with other entrepreneurs who were solving similar problems. We had lots of conversations with other entrepreneurs who were going through some of the same stages around product development and growing their teams and customer bases.”
Derek Hopfner, co-founder of Founded (external link) , also a LIZ graduate, agrees. A lawyer by trade, Hopfner and his co-founders saw an opportunity to answer their clients’ oft-repeated questions through Founded, their software that automates the incorporation process and provides ongoing legal services to growing businesses, saving their customers tons of time - and money. Now, Founded has grown to help thousands of businesses throughout Canada.
“Our sole focus at Founded is making the legal side of business easy and affordable,” he says. “We need more people to be able to access legal services and we’re dedicated to being part of the solution. At LIZ, both Chris Bentley and Hersh Perlis are true advocates for change in the legal profession. It adds legitimacy to young companies when you’re associated with them - Chris is the former Attorney General of Ontario, and for him to be batting on your side really elevates your company in terms of getting in front of the right organizations and law firms.”
Cracking open the legal realm to make room for innovative approaches to justice has been a major theme for Ryerson in 2019, with the new Faculty of Law welcoming its first cohort next year and LIZ’s expansion in program offerings. “The same interactive online approach LIZ is using to build entrepreneurial capacity can be used by them to deliver justice,” says Bentley. “The 21st century gives us the capacity to overcome barriers. LIZ says let's use it.”
If you’re interested in learning more about the programs at LIZ or applying to participate in the first cohort for the new programs, visit the LIZ website at www.legalinnovationzone.ca/join/ (external link) .
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