LegalTech: what do we mean?
Do you sometimes get confused by terms like LegalTech, LawTech, RegTech, or even Low Tech ? We’ve designed this glossary page around the term LegalTech, to give you a clearer idea of the scope of professionals such as start-ups, offering Legal Technology services. We also explain the differences with other terms. They all refer to the legal field, i.e. the law, whether it’s an act or a regulation.
What is LegalTech or Legal Technology?
A LegalTech company leverages new technologies in the legal sector to offer online services to lawyers and law firms in the course of their work. This type of start-up, sometimes called Legal Technology, offers online features that facilitate the work of legal professionals.
The aim is to save time for lawyers so that they can concentrate on higher value-added tasks. LegalTech also improves work efficiency and digital collaboration within a law firm or legal team. The automation provided by technology also reduces the risk of errors or omissions.
What is the difference between a LegalTech and a LawTech?
The term LawTech may seem equivalent. However, it also refers to another category of company focused on legal technologies. This time, however, they target the clients of legal professionals. These companies leverage new technologies to give individuals access to online services. The aim is to democratise the field of law by making it understandable and affordable.
For example, some LawTechs enable notaries or lawyers to lower the cost of basic legal services that do not require extensive consultation. These may include digital solutions for creating contracts online. In this way, the general public benefits from a moderate bill for such a service. On the other hand, entrepreneurs in the form of LegalTech do not target end customers, but rather legal professionals.
What is the difference between RegTech and LegalTech players?
RegTech stands for Regulatory Technology. We have given the precise definition of RegTech on another page of the glossary. The essential difference lies in the end goals and users of the services offered by these companies. LegalTech is aimed at legal professionals, i.e. those who work with the act.
RegTech covers a broader field, that of regulatory activities. This type of company is aimed at banking institutions, as well as all legal professionals who provide advice to the financial services sector. Our e-Reg online platform is therefore a LegalTech, but primarily a RegTech, given the functionalities offered to our various clients, including lawyers, consultancy firms and banks.
What new technologies are common to the legal profession?
A LegalTech, LawTech or RegTech company uses similar technologies:
- Artificial intelligence, in particular machine learning ;
- the digitalisation and automation of processes, not forgetting gamification (Plug & Play or PnP systems) ;
- semantic or vector search ;
- Big data for large-scale data processing ;
- biometrics for customer identification ;
- NPL (Natural Language Processing) ;
- LLM (large language model) ;
- content generation solutions (artificial intelligence such as GenAI or chatbot systems).
Why do we sometimes talk about LowTech for the legal function?
With just one letter difference, LowTech could be confused with LawTech. However, these technologies have nothing to do with the legal sector. “Low” here represents Tech that responds to ecological concerns. Innovations in low-tech or LowTech mode, for example, favor repair over replacement. They are therefore the opposite of high-tech systems.
The legal professions do not use LowTech technologies; however, the field of justice is sometime still perceived as such in terms of solutions. Although a traditional and secular sector by essence, the legal function is nonetheless constantly evolving in the management of its missions. Even though tradition endures in the world of lawyers, innovation and modernity exist, thanks to technology. LegalTechs, LawTechs and RegTechs are perfect proof of this.
👉To discover other definitions around RegTech, we suggest you return to our glossary table of contents.
👉If you’d like to find out more about easyReg, take a look at our RegTech solution.