Legal firm Lander & Rogers partners with YBF Ventures to open LawTech Hub

Legal firm Lander & Rogers has partnered with Melbourne coworking community YBF Ventures to open a LawTech Hub.

The space will be open to the firm’s staff and clients, and startups, with startups to be accepted for set periods through two intakes a year.

Genevieve Collins, chief executive partner at Lander & Rogers, said the hub “reflects new ways of working”.

“It will give our people and clients the opportunity to step out of their day-to-day environment where they can approach problems differently and focus on driving solutions,” she said.

“We are delighted to partner with YBF Ventures to establish this lawtech hub. YBF shares our passion for business-focused innovation and technology. With an impressive community of startups from a broad range of sectors and its prominent fintech hub, YBF is uniquely experienced to support us in realising our innovation vision.”

With applications for the first 2019 intake to open next week, the hub is looking for startups working in the areas of blockchain, artificial intelligence, smart contracts, predictive analytics, automation and robotics, smart connectivity platforms, and those working on legal sector issues requiring an innovative tech solution.

Beyond this, startups must have a solution that is in market or that has gone through an accelerator or incubator program, have either secured seed funding or raised a Series A round.

Startups, in turn, will receive, among other things, access to industry mentors, the opportunity to run trials and proofs of concept with Lander & Rogers and its clients, and introductions to the firm’s wider network.

Farley Blackman, CEO of YBF Ventures, said, “The lawtech hub will be joining a stable of powerful federal and state government-backed hubs within YBF and an influential group of corporate partners. Our mission of being Australia’s number one hub for tech and innovation is propagated by partnerships such as these.”

YBF Ventures is also home to a fintech hub, Stone and Chalk, supported by the Victorian Government. Global accelerator program Startupbootcamp will be running a fintech accelerator, its first in Australia, from YBF Ventures this year.

It also houses YBF Mesh, a hub focused on innovation in the space of Web 3.0.

Elsewhere in the legal space, the University of NSW (UNSW), law firm Allens, and the Law Society of NSW in 2017 teamed up in a bid to prepare the legal system for the challenges presented by technological advancements.

The Allens Hub for Technology, Law, and Innovation sits within the UNSW Faculty of Law, allowing academics and Allens staff to work to explore the disruptions already facing the legal system and those to come, such as the focus on data-driven decision making, new kinds of biological, artificial, and legal ‘persons’, and threats to cybersecurity.

Image: Genevieve Collins. Source: Supplied.