Last year the legal market saw 31 venture capital deals for legal tech start-ups receive around $100 million funding. The deals ranged  from data-driven LexisNexis alternatives to eDiscovery analytics platforms with funding around the $100 million mark, according to cbinsights.com. One deal, forensics company AccessData accounted for £45 million of this - leading the analysts to conclude that, in a market estimated to be worth in excess of $300 billion, funding activities to the legal sector were 'limping along.'

Legal ecosystem

Whilst there was a 41 per cent increase in year on year deal activity, the figures represented a 16 per cent decline in year on year funding. The research pointed out that the delay of LA-based LegalZoom's IPO last year added to the M&A exit of companies not doing well, was reflected in the figures showing that the legal tech ecosystem was not blooming in accordance with market needs. The figures also showed that Silicon Valley accounted for more thant one of every four deals in the past two yuears with cmpanies including Lex Machina, Y-Combinator alum Lawdingo and Goodle Ventures-backed Rocket Lawyer.

Entrepreneurism continues

Despite this, former practitioner Cari Sommer sees entrepreneurialism as a continuing theme in the sector in an article in Forbes Magazine and advises those heading to law school to seek out a course in entrepreneurship. She predicts more consolidation in the legal market, continuing disruption to the traditional law firm model and lawyers continuing to be entrepreneurs. She says: 'Whether by choice, or in reaction to the economy, the proverbial lawyer hanging up a shingle is back with an entrepreneurial vengeance.  And these days, running a start-up law firm is not too far from running a tech start-up, but with the added responsibility of regulation and ethical scrutiny.'