Nate's News

This is Nate’s News issue four and we’re already at over two thousand readers around the world! Now we have an ask of you: to spread the word even further! Please send this to your friends and encourage them to subscribe!

🔥 Also, if you haven’t already, check out our recent briefing about the New Normal.

• Lawyers are seeing significant drops in demand, with a 30% drop in new matters filed over the past month.
• While overall matters drop, some areas, like cybersecurity and privacy law, are thriving amidst elevated risks of fraud and financial crimes.
• Firms are running out of cash: some of the UK’s biggest firms can cover only one month's operating expenses and 71% of small British firms may close in the next six months.
• These cash needs are leading to increased demand for litigation funding, including financing one-off cases or purchasing old receivables. eBilling solutions are also seeing increased demand to manage billing guidelines and control costs.
• While cash is tight, technology is offering new ways to be efficient: witnesses in FL are testifying virtually and lowering litigation costs.
• Legal teams’ budgets may have tightened, but startups have become essential tools, especially for legal research, litigation, and eSignatures.
• 👩‍🎓 States (NJ, NY and PA) are allowing new law graduates to temporarily practice before taking the bar exam. CO and others may follow suit.
• Judges like Scott Schlegel and Sohail Mohammed are creating tech-enabled courts and training many others to do the same.

• An annual study of legal spend management shows that 71% of in-house teams expect privacy law compliance to be a top priority in 2020, yet 65% of respondents believe their budgets for compliance will shrink, as many are waiting to see how CCPA is enforced.
• Meanwhile, a new CA ballot measure plans to expand users’ rights over the use and sale of their data even further, while four US senators are considering legislation to protect individuals’ health and geolocation data.
• 📈 A survey of Australian law firms shows that fixed-fee arrangements combined with document automation yields higher per-hour returns for complex matters rather than simple ones.
• Research in the UK shows that video hearings are more likely to lead to criminal convictions in certain cases.
• Studies by Thomson Reuters and the Association of Corporate Counsel show that legal teams are focusing on cutting costs by bringing more work in-house, even though in-house teams’ core functions are still maturing.
• ⚖ The Utah Supreme Court has proposed reforms on how the state regulates legal services, including fee-sharing with non-lawyers and outside ownership.
• Thomson Reuters sues legal research platform ROSS Intelligence for copyright infringement over its Westlaw product, a claim that ROSS’ co-founders vigorously deny.
• British tech company Advanced Computer Software exposed over 190 law firms’ sensitive data to outside access by leaving it on a legacy server (pro-tip: these firms should have used 📣 Privva to assess ACS’ data storage practices).
• 🎤 The entertainment law firm representing artists like Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen, and Nicki Minaj was also hacked, exposing large amounts of sensitive client data.
• While everyone seems to be creating silly videos on TikTok, the company is facing a class action lawsuit under Illinois’ Biometric Privacy Act for illegally storing scans of users’ faces.

Fundings:

• Beyond Identity, a company providing passwordless authentication for employees, raised $30M in funding co-led by Koch Disruptive Technologies and New Enterprise Associates.
• Blue J Legal, a legal research and predictions platform, raised $1.4M CAD from CIBC Innovation Banking.
• Bodhala, a legal spend management and analytics platform, raised $10M in Series A funding led by Edison Partners.
• Clear Skye, an identity access management platform, raised $4.95M in Series A funding led by Toba Capital with participation from Inner Loop Capital and existing investor ServiceNow Ventures.
• Double Secret Octopus, a (different) company providing passwordless authentication for employees, raised $15M in Series B funding. It also has a standout name.
• Dtex, an enterprise cybersecurity platform that focuses on detecting internal threats, raised $17.5M in funding led by Northgate Capital with participation from Norwest Venture Partners  and Four Rivers Group.
• Guru, a collaborative knowledge management platform, raised $30M in Series C capital led by Accel.
• LexCheck, an AI-powered contract drafting and review platform, raised $3M in funding led by Kli Capital.
• Muve, a company helping individuals with residential conveyancing, raised 1.1M GBP in funding led by Origin Capital.
• Templafy, a document and template creation platform, raised $25M in Series C funding led by Insight Partners with participation from Dawn Capital, Seed Capital, and Damgaard Company.
• Tonkean, a no-code automation platform, raised $24M in Series A funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Foundation Capital, Magma Venture Partners, and Slow Ventures.

Acquisitions:

• Filevine, a company providing case and matter management solutions, has agreed to purchase Lead Docket, an intake management platform.

• David Lat, founder of Above the Law, speaks with LawNext about his battle with COVID-19 (30 min).
• Freelance lawyers could see an influx of COVID-19-related work, as demand skyrockets for specialties like employment or insurance-related law (24 min). 
• Fordham Law’s Benjamin Zipursky highlights potential lawsuits that customers and workers may bring against stores and employers once the country opens up again (16 min).
• Mike Hewitt of vTestify chats about how litigation, and the role of remote depositions, is changing under social distancing (10 min).

• 📕 Congrats to Lucy Bassli for releasing her new book!
• Congrats to Leon Goldstein on being named CIO at Hughes Hubbard & Reed.
• Cornelius Grossmann of EY writes about his firm’s (and, by extension, the Big 4’s) role as an enterprise legal service provider that combines both legal advice and professional services at scale for large organizations.
• ⚖ Judge Scott Schlegel, chair of the Specialty Treatment Courts in Jefferson Parish, La, speaks with Lawnext about creating a web-enabled court using off-the-shelf technology (43 min).

• 🎤 Pitbull, international music superstar and legal journal author
• Eric Schmidt is bringing Silicon Valley to the US defense industry.
• 🎮 Nintendo has not only survived, but thrived, during the pandemic.
• A handy guide for editing your own writing (helpful as a newsletter writer!).