Dentons launches NextLaw Labs and creates legal business accelerator

Global News

20
May
2015

Editor

Dentons, the global law firm, today announced that it is launching NextLaw Labs, a global collaborative innovation platform focused on developing, deploying, and investing in new technologies and processes to transform the practice of law around the world.

"The market has talked about Big Law and New Law, but we want to be Next Law," said Dentons' Global Chairman Joe Andrew. "We don't just want to be the world's largest law firm, we want to transform the legal profession, drive innovation in legal services and bring clients what they want with better quality, more responsiveness and greater value."

The goal of NextLaw Labs is to develop a suite of technologies that will fundamentally change the practice of law, improving client service and enhancing client solutions, supporting seamless cross-border service in today's global economy. Dentons—along with its thousands of lawyers and professionals around the world—will be the accelerator's lead supporter and investor, serving as the global testing ground for new products, services and other ideas to be vetted, piloted and scaled.

Leading the new venture is CEO Dan Jansen who has a rare combination of entrepreneurial and professional services experience. Jansen has helped to conceive, fund, grow and/or sell disruptive businesses in many diverse sectors, including social media, financial services and online recruiting. He also has almost twenty years of professional services experience including roles leading the Global Media Practice for the Boston Consulting Group and with Arthur Young & Company advising startups.

"NextLaw Labs is focused on one business vertical—the legal profession," said Dan Jansen, CEO of NextLaw Labs. "Ideas and inspiration can come from any source, but only one accelerator can draw from the world's largest law firm to help source and refine product ideas, while our partnerships with leading startups, thought leaders and other technology providers will help bring them to life."

While growth in the legal tech sector has been substantial, only NextLaw Labs will be able to draw on the experience of the world's largest law firm—with thousands of lawyers and professionals helping vet and develop products and services—to create solutions that assist real lawyers, working with real clients on real issues around the world.

"Finding new technologies to reinvent the legal profession and reshape how business is conducted is what NextLaw Labs is all about," Jansen explained. "We are looking for startups, entrepreneurs, VC’s, established vendors—anyone who wants to join our innovation ecosystem and work together to build and bring to market new products and services, whether through direct investments in existing companies or by building our own suite of services within NextLaw Labs."

“The legal industry is entering a period of enormous change and innovation," said Professor William D. Henderson, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, who will sit on the advisory board of NextLaw Labs along with academics, general counsels and other thought leaders from around the world, and who earlier this year was named the most influential person in legal education by The National Jurist. "NextLaw Labs has an ingenious design and structure that gives legal entrepreneurs and Dentons' lawyers the running room needed to get ahead of this curve. NextLaw Labs could be the place to go to see the future of law.  Kudos to Dentons for its willingness to go first."

Professor Daniel Martin Katz of IIT- Chicago Kent College of Law who will also be joining the advisory board of NextLaw Labs noted, “This is an exciting development for the legal industry as it will help Dentons leverage current and future cycles of legal innovation and integrate into them into the workflow of the world’s largest law firm, and others. Everyone in the legal industry should take notice."

For Dentons, NextLaw Labs will assist in fulfilling its pledge to reinvent and improve global client service by harnessing new technologies, new business analytics and new service delivery models that enhance client support and deliver higher quality services, while improving confidentiality and data security.