Spotlight on: The Pitch

  • July 05, 2016

A month and a half before the first-ever legal innovation competition hosted by CBA and LegalX, The Pitch had already exceeded expectations.

Even the folks at LegalX, where it’s all about working with legal startups, were surprised that by the time the June 15 midnight deadline passed we had received a total of 31 submissions – 12 of which arrived in the last 10 hours before the cutoff.

Over the summer, as we count down to the event at the CBA Legal Conference, CBA National Magazine and CBA.org will be featuring each of the finalists and providing background on the judges who will be present at the event.

The finalists were chosen by an expert committee consisting of: legal futurist and author Mitch Kowalski; investor Randall Howard, General Partner of Verdexus; Monica Goyal, founder of My Legal Briefcase; Carla Swansburg, Director, Professional Development, Pricing & Knowledge Services at Blakes; and Karim Benyekhlef, Director of the Cyberjustice Lab at Université de Montréal.  At the time of this writing the final in-person judging panel was still being lined up.

The five finalists are: Beagle, blue J Legal, Loom Analytics, Rangefindr and Knomos.

The finalists will get seven minutes to make their pitches at the August event, and then will spend another five minutes in a Q&A with the judges before awaiting the final decision. The audience will be able to participate in a worldwide Twitter conversation about the event, and will also get the opportunity to vote on the People’s Choice. The post-Pitch cocktail party offers audience members, investors and innovators an opportunity to mingle.

Winners will receive a two-week residency at LegalX in Toronto, which includes desk space for two team members, LegalX mentorship and most importantly, access to investors. All of the finalists will get a chance to network with potential investors at The Pitch and elsewhere during the conference, and a guaranteed interview with the Chinese Angels Mentor Program.  If selected by CAMP (and pending due diligence), they will receive an equity investment of no less than $200,000.

Tickets to The Pitch, which will be held Friday, Aug. 12, are included in the full conference registration fee. They’re also available as a separate item on the CBA Legal Conference website.

The cutting edge of legal technology innovation will be on display this summer at the CLC in Ottawa. Don’t miss it.