The LegalTech Ecosystem in Wales

Pillar 2: Knowledge This pillar requires collaboration to identify business needs and use cases, support co-development of LegalTech products, and explore cutting-edge technologies: • Law firms need to (i) develop policies to collect and record internal data and determine their business needs in a demonstrable way, (ii) in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, identify concrete ways to share such data and disclose business needs, (iii) collaborate with start- ups and scale-ups in relevant forums to facilitate a dialogue aimed to support the co-development of LegalTech products, (iv) engage with regulators and other stakeholders to address potential regulatory concerns or other barriers to collaboration with start-ups and scale-ups, (v) actively seek collaborations with local universities, adopting a long-term view of the benefits of such collaborations, and (vi) assess their propensity for LegalTech innovation on the basis of an objective evaluation of costs, rewards, and client demand. • Start-ups and scale-ups need to (vii) offer direct or indirect incentives for local law firms to participate in co-development (such as favourable conditions for using the resultant innovation), (viii) allocate intellectual property rights in accordance to the contributions received and in a fair and constructive way, (ix) adopt open innovation strategies where possible, (x) collaborate with universities to develop cutting-edge technologies, while accepting the higher risk profile that this may imply, (xi) adopt business processes to determine outsourcing and insourcing needs, which may be addressed by other Welsh start-ups and scale-ups, (xii) identify routes to funding that value co-development consortia, (xiii) take an active role in industry forums and actively seek a constructive dialogue with regulators and industry organisations (e.g. the Law Society). • Universities need to (xiv) identify routes to translate academic research into concrete outputs (proofs of concept, prototypes, demos, etc.) to incentivise collaboration, (xv) develop a culture of innovation internally, for example by creating ad hoc research institutes or networks of like-minded academics in Law and other relevant disciplines, (xvi) make a concrete effort to include law firms and start- ups in academic networks, involving them in funding bids and designing collaborative research projects that offer mutual benefits, (xvii) make effective use of existing research centres, incubators, accelerators and other spaces for entrepreneurship and business support within universities, (xvii) engage in a constructive regulatory dialogue that seeks to identify opportunities for innovation, rather than emphasise obstacles to it. Pillar 3: Market This pillar requires collaboration in the sector to ensure that the efforts developed under the first two pillars reach their intended results: • Law firms need to: (i) adopt business processes to determine the best way to develop legal technology, including outsourcing to local start-ups and scale-ups, (ii) adopt business processes to determine the best way to insource commercial LegalTech solutions, including assessing the

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