The year 2020 was a big year for the legal industry. Virtual hearings and electronically witnessing documents, once considered difficult or impossible, are now the norm. No wonder legal tech companies have been reaping the rewards.
In October 2020, RBC Ventures bought Founded, an app that helps entrepreneurs with incorporation documents and legal agreements. The very same month, DoProcess, a popular real estate software provider based in Toronto, acquired NoticeConnect, a website where lawyers and trustees can post notices to creditors and others looking for wills. Two months later, the software giant Dye and Durham snapped up DoProcess for $530 million.
In many ways, 2020 ushered in a long-overdue tech revolution. The surge in legal tech acquisitions also illustrates how fast law firms, legal departments, and courts can shift. Alternative legal service providers, a catch-all term encompassing legal startups, established tech firms, innovative law firms and other niche organizations, are poised to make new inroads in the Canadian legal industry.