When's the last time you woke up in the middle of the night and thought "I wish there was more innovation and market disruption in legal technology, and, how do I get involved?!" At the end of the day, who actively looks for the 'new and cool' versus most of us who just end up playing the technology cards we are dealt? InsideLegal has been pushing the innovation envelope (i.e., encouraging those 'wake up in the middle of the night' moments) for several years through our ongoing 'In Their Own Words' thought leadership series; our Thought Leadership Digest publication; and Ignite Law (now LexThink.1), the innovation event series we have co-produced with Matt Homann since 2009. In June, our Legal IT Today article "Welcome to Legal Market Disruption. Are you Ready?" discussed the value of new technology and to what extent the legal market is even ready (or willing) to embrace new technologies.
Ponder this ... would more of us care about innovation and next generation legal technologies if we could actively and easily get involved from the ground-up/idea incubation stage with minimal risk or committment? Probably. Thanks to crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, virtually anyone with a great idea and viable business plan can appeal to the masses for support and help fund their innovation.
This all leads up to today's InsideLegal exclusive conversation with Lev Rosenblum, the co-founder of Lexprompt and co-creator of LP Writer, "intelligent writing software for everyone", currently campaigning for start-up funds on Kickstarter. We think Lev (currently an associate with Dorsey & Whitney LLP) and his business partners' new technology invention is rather clever, its origins peculiar, and the Kickstarter fundraising campaign definitely unique in legal.
While the LP Writer software 'value proposition' (see below) is quite appealing, we are equally intrigued by Lexprompt's creative approach to raising awareness (and funds) via Kickstarter, which since its origins in 2009, has funded 49,000+ creative projects backed by 4.9 million people pledging more than $800 million. Music, film & video projects make up over 50% of all ventures. Of the 49,000+ sucessful projects (a 42% success rate based on all funded projects), less than 2% (947 as of September 26) are technology-focused, with LP Writer possibly being the sole (if not one of a few) legal technology-specific innovation.
IL - What’s in a name? Please shed some light onto the LP Writer name. Why now? Why use Kickstarter to promote the technology?
LR - Our initial focus was on helping attorneys prepare documents more efficiently. “LP” is short for Lexprompt, our company name, and “Writer” implies that the software will have some level of intelligence capable of assisting the actual writer (i.e., the user). Why now? While computing power has increased exponentially over the past few decades, the basic functionality of word processing systems has largely remained unchanged. Today, personal computers have sufficient computational power to allow our application to provide suggestions essentially instantaneously as the user types. For example, using LP Writer, an attorney writing a brief will be able to get suggestion sentences or paragraphs from other briefs, while a writer working on a research paper may get suggestion sentences or paragraphs from previously written papers and research materials.
While our focus was on how LP Writer will help attorneys, we realized that the software can be useful for non-attorneys as well. We launched on Kickstarter to introduce our software to the broader public and to discover new applications and markets for LP Writer. In fact, initial feedback from Kickstarter backers has already helped us identify markets and uses that we have not focused on to date. For example, we realize now that LP Writer is not just a writing tool - LP Writer can manage information and knowledge; it can help users research; it can be an open innovation tool that can help companies explore and sort through existing research and many others uses.
IL - What came first … the solution to the ‘problem’ or the ‘problem’ that led you and your partners to invent a ‘better mousetrap’?
LR - The problem led us to the solution implemented in LP Writer. At the time, I was doing commercial litigation work and was annoyed by the amount of time I spent rewriting existing sentences and paragraphs as well as by being unable to effectively search through existing documents. We wanted a better way to locate useful information, essentially in real time, as the user types in their working document.
IL - You are an engineer and experienced in tool and die design … how has your background helped conceive LP Writer and how are manufacturing tools and building technology solutions similar or different?
LR - All of us have engineering and science backgrounds in hardware and in software, and like most engineers, we love solving problems. We have software and algorithm development experience that we could tap into to develop a solution for effectively finding and using information from existing documents.
IL - You mention algorithms ... this reminds me of (big data) analytics? Do you see LP Writer as a useful tool for handling and utilizing existing data (small or large) that firms have to keep up with?
LR - There is data and there’s DATA (petabytes, exabytes). Law firms typically deal with the former, largely because most of law firm information or knowledge is in textual form, which is very compact as data goes. However, we use some technologies that are also applicable to big data analysis.
Editor's note: At first glance, what I like about LP Writer is that it can serve as a workhorse with existing documents and pulls in text and content as you create new documents. It seems like Word's 'Add to Dictionary' on steroids. Plus, like Lev mentioned, there are many potential uses, from helping authors break through writers' block to assiting non-native speakers formulate more cohesive documents and content.
IL - Your Kickstarter campaign is based on reaching a $30,000.00 funding goal by October 18. What happens if you meet the goal? And if you don’t succeed?
LR - If we meet the goal, we will have LP Writer available for our backers in February of next year. We are excited to be able to get LP Writer in our backers hands, get their feedback and implement changes they want to see in LP Writer. We will have a dedicated channel for feedback just for them (either via a dedicated email account or a backers-only page on our website). However, we welcome everyone to submit feedback and suggestions through the Contact Us page on our website. If we do not meet our goal, it may take us longer to fully develop LP Writer plus we won't be able to offer the same level of 'backer incentives' currently advertised as part of the Kickstarter campaign.
IL - Along those lines, peek into your crystal ball and tell us where LP Writer and Lexprompt might be in three years from now?
LR - We see Lexprompt as a sustainable business continuously innovating our software platform, and LP Writer tailored to serve the evolving needs of our customers. Our main focus is the legal market and especially cost-conscious law firms and attorneys, and we expect to see substantial growth in this market.
Take a few minutes and peruse the Kickstarter campaign page. It includes short prototype demos, benefit lists, essential features & functions, the founders' back story, and of course ample options to donate. In fact, we counted 10 pledge options ranging from $5 to $5,000. You can also see who has already backed the project and the comments section which includes enhancement suggestions and the like.
We really enjoyed meeting Lev and the Lexprompt team and seeing their innovative approach to launching their product in legal. We look forward to hearing a lot more from Lexprompt and LP Writer in the future.