#AI Conference Kyiv results

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Dana Summers

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 11, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 12, 2024

When Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addressed a joint meeting of Congress today, he tried to remind lawmakers of who Americans are. “The U.S. shaped the international order in the postwar world through economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power,” he reminded them. “It championed freedom and democracy. It encouraged the stability and prosperity of nations, including Japan. And, when necessary, it made noble sacrifices to fulfill its commitment to a better world.”

He explained the bigger picture. “The United States policy was based on the premise that humanity does not want to live oppressed by an authoritarian state, where you are tracked and surveilled and denied from expressing what is in your heart and on your mind,” he said. “You believed that freedom is the oxygen of humanity.” 

Keenly aware that MAGA Republicans have rejected the nation’s role in protecting freedom and democracy and are standing between Ukraine and U.S. aid, Kishida said: “The world needs the United States to continue playing this pivotal role in the affairs of nations.”

“Freedom and democracy are currently under threat around the globe,” he said. “Climate change has caused natural disasters, poverty, and displacement on a global scale. In the COVID-19 pandemic, all humanity suffered. Rapid advances in AI technology have resulted in a battle over the soul of AI that is raging between its promise and its perils. The balance of economic power is shifting. The Global South plays a greater role in responding to challenges and opportunities and calls for a larger voice…. China's current external stance and military actions present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge, not only to the peace and security of Japan but to the peace and stability of the international community at large.”

In the midst of all this dramatic change, Kishida said, “the leadership of the United States is indispensable. Without U.S. support, how long before the hopes of Ukraine would collapse under the onslaught from Moscow?” he asked. “Without the presence of the United States, how long before the Indo-Pacific would face even harsher realities?”

He noted that Japan has pledged $12 billion to Ukraine and “will continue to stand with” the vulnerable country. In this fraught hour, he said, “[t]he democratic nations of the world must have all hands on deck. I am here to say that Japan is already standing shoulder to shoulder with the United States. You are not alone. We are with you.”

As Kishida gently warned lawmakers that the United States is abdicating its role in world affairs by its apparent abandonment of Ukraine, Russian forces last night destroyed the largest power plant in the Kyiv region. U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bridget A. Brink reported that “Russia last night launched more than 40 drones and 40 missiles into Ukraine…. The situation in Ukraine is dire; there is not a moment to lose,” she wrote. 

House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) surely knows the situation in Ukraine is dire; he has held up U.S. aid for six months. The Senate passed a national security supplemental bill that would provide aid to Ukraine back in February, but while Johnson has said he would bring the supplemental bill to the House floor, where it will certainly pass, somehow it has never been the right time.

American refusal to support Ukraine is causing global concern. When British foreign secretary David Cameron came to the U.S. this week, he not only met with lawmakers and State Department officials, but also traveled to Florida to meet with former president Trump at Mar-a-Lago in hopes of persuading him to support additional U.S. military aid to Ukraine. That Johnson refused to meet with Cameron when he returned to Washington, D.C., the next day suggests that Cameron’s effort achieved little. 

Johnson is facing pressure from extremists in his conference like Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene who oppose aid to Ukraine and who are threatening to challenge his speakership if he brings the bill to the floor of the House. Those extremists fired another shot across his bow today when they blocked a law to extend a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after Trump urged them to kill it. 

When the measure failed, security expert and former Trump administration official Miles Taylor wrote: “The House’s failure to renew FISA is *BAD.* If these powers lapse, it would be like blind-folding U.S. spies and tying their hands behind their backs as they try to protect Americans from China, Russia, terror groups & beyond. Get it together, Congress.”

To enable Johnson to ignore the extremists if it means getting aid to Ukraine, Democrats have thrown Johnson a lifeline, if only he will use it. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) suggested today that Democrats would vote against a challenge to Johnson’s speakership, keeping him in place. Jeffries said: “If the speaker were to do the right thing and allow the House to work its will with an up or down vote on the national security bill, then I believe there are a reasonable number of Democrats [who] would not want to see the speaker fall as a result of doing the right thing.” 

But instead of actually doing the people’s business and passing a measure the White House, Pentagon, and a majority of Congress think is vital to our national security, MAGA Republicans appear to be consumed by the effort to get Trump back into the presidency. 

Today the House Rules Committee got a new chair as Michael Burgess (R-TX) took the reins from Tom Cole (R-OK). Burgess will oversee his first hearing on Monday as the committee meets to examine six bills that appear to be designed to feed the Republicans’ culture wars by denying the secretary of energy’s power to establish new energy conservation standards. Those bills are the “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act,” the “Liberty in Laundry Act,” the “Clothes Dryers Reliability Act,” the “Refrigerator Freedom Act,” the “Affordable Air Conditioning Act,” and the “Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act.” 

Johnson is also in on the act. He is scheduled to visit Mar-a-Lago tomorrow to promote a bill to prevent noncitizens from voting. This is purely political theater: it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. Trump seems eager to push the idea of “election integrity” to bolster his lie that the 2020 election was stolen and the 2024 election will be too, evidently trying to chum up distrust of American elections.

Under its new co-chairs, Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump and Trump loyalist Michael Whatley, the Republican National Committee last week sent out a robocall to voters’ phones saying that Democrats committed “massive fraud” in the 2020 presidential election and that “If Democrats have their way, your vote could be canceled out by someone who isn’t even an American citizen.” This is a straight-up lie, of course—Trump and his loyalists have never produced any evidence for their accusations and lost more than 60 court cases over it—but Trump clearly intends to make it a centerpiece of his campaign. 

While Republicans are pushing the Big Lie, in The Bulwark today, conservative commentator Mona Charen noted that Ukraine president Volodomyr Zelensky this week warned the U.S. that Ukraine will lose the war against Russia’s aggression if it does not get U.S. aid. 

“Putin seems to have pulled off the most successful foreign influence operation in American history,” Charen wrote. “If Trump were being blackmailed by Putin it’s hard to imagine how he would behave any differently. And though it started with Trump, it has not ended there. Putin now wields more power over the [Republicans] than anyone other than Trump…. [T]hey mouth Russian disinformation without shame. Putin,” she said, “must be pinching himself.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[syndicode]

Artificial Intelligence can give business competitive advantage. Results of AI Conference Kyiv 2019

On June 4, Smile-Expo held the second AI Conference Kyiv, a conference dedicated to the application of artificial intelligence in businesses. Today, we’d like you to read about how Artificial Intelligence can give business competitive advantage. Results of AI Conference Kyiv 2019! The...

[interregnum-intermarium]

From Acca Larentia to Deputy Premier Salvini: CasaPound's Merit?

January 7, 2019 the most famous Italian right-wing movement, CasaPound Italia, once again performed an honorable role of the recognized guardian of the Acca Larentia annual rite bridging the struggle of Italian nationalists in the Years of Lead to their modern successors' activities.

In far 1978, on this day happened a terror attack on activists of Youth Front of The Italian Social Movement, which was carried out by leftist extremists around their headquarters. Two of them, Franco Bigonzetti, aged 20, and Francesco Ciavatta, only 18 years old, died on spot of gunshot wounds. Third member, 19-year-old Stefano Recchioni, was killed by a policeman (who has never been charged with murder) during the riots in the aftermath of the attack.

A plaque at the site, which reads "Murdered by communist hatred and the servants of the state," sums up pretty well a huge blow dealt to the leftist mantra about the unspoken alliance between "cops and fascists, dogs of the regime" as a result of this event. However, Acca Larentia marches have become an all-Italian sacramental rite only thanks to the organization capacities and spirit of CasaPound Italia which annually gathers the participants not only from all over Italy but also the entire world.

This time, supporters from France, Quebec, Poland, Ukraine, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Czech Republic, Greece and many other countries arrived to Rome to join the powerful Italian "Presente!" choir in response to triple "Onore ai camerati caduti!" (Honour to fallen comrades) chant. Some countries were even represented by several movements (Der III. Weg and identitarians from Germany, National Corps and Karpatska Sich from Ukraine). Again, thanks to the international fame of CasaPound Italia, the authentic headquarters of Youth Front with well-preserved nationalist-themed graffiti from the 70-s, at which the ceremony took place, has turned into a genuine shrine of the paneuropean political resistance.

The party and the movement of CasaPound Italia has always been in the center of attention of European nationalists, identitarians, third positionists and those on the alternative Right. Since recently, Italy has hit the headlines as a Western European country where the right-populist forces in the person of Matteo Salvini decisively came to power.

One may only speculate about the real relation between Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and CasaPound Italia. Although CPI and Lega Nord did enter the tactical alliance, and in the not so distant past Salvini could be spotted at the events of CasaPound Italia, this connection is more obvious, and more interesting, in another sense.

It is widely known that Matteo Salvini came to power on the wave of the refugee and economic crisis in the EU. However, previously, he was far more obsessed with the separatist scenario for Northern Italy, quickly dropping this program and renaming the party as simply "Lega" on the eve of 2018 election. Mainstream media often mentioned another major winner in the election, The Five Star Movement co-founded by a former Italian comedian Beppe Grillo, as a coalition political force sharing and reinforcing The League's euroscepticism. At the same time, the real pioneers of the anti-EU politics in Italy, CasaPound, remained in the shadow.

In this respect, the post-election situation in Italy largely resembles the immediate political results of the Maidan revolution in Ukraine. Nationalists heading and organizing street protests in revolutionary Ukraine should unequivocally be credited for overthrowing Yanukovych's regime, yet the power was usurped by the "patriotic" liberal opposition constantly booed by the national revolutionaries. It is true that influence and opportunities of the nationalist movement in Ukraine significantly increased, but the price for this transformation was the takeover of the populist patriotic agenda by the liberals and even pre-revolutionary oligarchs who try to marginalize real historical agents by other means.

Depending on the perspective, many either spread rumors about fake Ukrainian nationalists backed up by the government, either label Ukraine a country run by Neo-Nazis. Both extremes are false and reflect the complex process of entering the next phase of the incomplete revolution when the nationalist subject alters its strategy while striving for power on the surface.

Returning to the Italian case, all main political slogans which brought popular sympathies to Salvini were put forward by CasaPound Italia: "Italy First!", which was previously considered "fascist," firmly replaced Salvini's separatist threats; an anti-refugee stance of CPI, which once attacked a refugee center inhabitants of which caused trouble for the locals, is overshadowed by fresh news about the migrant rescue boats rejected by a new security expert Salvini; spectacular anti-EU rallies of CPI members, who were taking down the EU flags from the administrative buildings while wearing masks painted in national colors of Italy and carrying the ropes around their necks, have become an official Italian policy.

These parallels were confirmed and highlighted by Alberto "Zippo" Palladino, CasaPound's longtime member and foreign correspondent, during his speech at the Second Paneuropa conference in Kyiv on October 15, 2018.

Simultaneously, the Italian side of this comparison also sheds light on the possible changes in the political course of the current Ukrainian authorities, for the populist promises of Salvini were not lasting. Soon enough, he assured the world that he was against "Italexit," preparing to operate within Steve Bannon's alliance of right-populist forces of Europe.

Another recent political move by Salvini is more praiseworthy: during his January trip to Poland, he suggested PiS, the ruling Polish party, to replace the dominant "Germany-France" axis in the EU with a new geopolitical axis, "Italy-Poland," thus making a long-anticipated Western European response to the Intermarium geopolitical initiative. In this respect, Salvini's inconsistency when it comes to the seeming departure from pro-Putin policies, or at least refraining from apparent pro-Kremlin lobbyism, was very timely.

Italian Premier Conte's refusal to veto the prolongation of Russia sanctions, as suggested by Salvini, and the arrest of Italian mercenaries fighting alongside Putin-backed invaders in Donbas in August 2018, when Salvini has already become Interior Minister, was a clear warning to him that this agenda was not as popular among the Italians as fiscal independence from the EU. Poland, which was ready to implement new sanctions against Russia in response to the crisis in the Sea of Azov, as well as withdrew problematic "Ukraine nationalists" provision from the recent "Law on the Institute of National Remembrance," will hardly tolerate pro-Putin sympathies of a possible Italian ally.

[kennethmjoyner]

Vote Now: Help Pick the Startup Alley Finalists for ABA TECHSHOW 2020

We need your vote! Help pick the legal technology startups that will be selected for the fourth-annual Startup Alley at ABA TECHSHOW 2020. Fifteen companies will be selected to face off in a pitch competition on TECHSHOW’s opening night and to exhibit in a special portion of the conference’s exhibition hall.

In September, we issued a call for entries. From all the entries we received, a panel of judges whittled the applications down to 26. Now your votes will select the final 15. The 15 startups with the most votes will get the opportunity to be featured at TECHSHOW, which will be held Feb. 26-29, 2019, in Chicago.

Below are the contenders, listed in alphabetical order. Read their pitches, check out their websites, then vote. For those that have a demo video, I’ve included the link.

Deadline for voting is Dec. 6, 2019, at 11:45 p.m. Eastern time. Winners will be announced on Dec. 9, 2019.

BALLOT IS ON THE NEXT PAGE. Trouble with the ballot? Go directly to Survey Monkey.

ADR Notable

Founded: 5/20/2015.

Headquarters: Columbus, Ohio.

Elevator pitch: ADR Notable is the first SaaS platform to provide mediators with a single, complete tech solution. Case management tools are combined with “in the room” features that include prep checklists; time tracking; notes captured by party and type that can be edited, combined, sorted, and searched; document access; saved forms/clauses to draft final terms; and digital signature, all with an intuitive UI that won’t distract the mediator. Variable note deletion and secure storage complete the process.

How we’re unique: ADR Notable is a technology platform for mediators, an underserved part of the legal market. Its core replaces the legal pad with a novel note-taking feature the mediator uses to capture the note content, party and note type, then manage them logically by topic and edit notes into final terms of agreement. This feature resides within a secure cloud-based case-management system for the mediator’s entire practice, with an intuitive UI for ease of use that avoids distraction during sessions.

Demo video (if any): https://vimeo.com/369975500.

Pricing: $39.99 per month per user for unlimited cases or $34.99 per case for infrequent users.

Outside funding: No outside funding.

AXDRAFT

Founded: 10/31/2017.

Headquarters: HQ: New York, N.Y.; Development office: Kyiv, Ukraine.

Elevator pitch: AXDRAFT helps enterprises draft and approve legal documents 10 times faster, avoid mistakes and safely delegate more to non-legal teams. Customers include Carlsberg, British American Tobacco, Louis Dreyfus Company, Glovo and five financial institutions, including bank of BNP Paribas group.

How we’re unique: AXDRAFT has four main competitive advantages:

Onboarding experience. We onboard any customer in less than two weeks at no cost for the customer and with minimal involvement of the customer.

Security. AXDRAFT stores only your template, while the final sensitive document is created only on user’s machine and never goes to the cloud.

AXDRAFT can automate documents in any language.

AXDRAFT integrates data from public registers and internal databases directly into the document.

Demo video (if any): https://youtu.be/7z3JwWtKtD0.

Pricing: AXDRAFT charges a subscription based on the number of documents created by users in the system. The cost is roughly $10 per document and goes down as the number of documents increases. There are no additional payments. Our subscription includes on-boarding (including automation of customer’s documents), tech and customer support and all document and software updates.

Outside funding: $1M-$5M in outside funding. AXDRAFT is Y Combinator W19 alumni.

Billseye

Founded: 1/12/2018.

Headquarters: HQ: Atlanta, Ga.; Operations Center: Columbia, S.C.; Development Team: Indore, India.

Elevator pitch: Say for instance you’re working out, running an errand, or picking up your daughter from daycare and you receive a call from an important client. Do you stop what you are doing to document the call? I bet you’re too busy to stop and you end up losing hours of billable time as a result. This dilemma can be solved with one touch. Download Billseye for automatic, real-time call tracking, documenting, and billing solutions that can integrate into your existing case management software.

How we’re unique: Our patent-pending client button allows the user to immediately identify incoming and outgoing billable calls. At the end of the call, our software prompts the user to document the call with a text or voice memo. With Billseye, you are one touch away from billing thousands more dollars on mobile calls.

Demo video (if any): http://onetouchbilling.com/media/BillseyePromo2.mp4.

Pricing: A tiered SaaS model.

Outside funding: No outside funding.

CaptureCast Legal

Founded: 4/7/2019.

Headquarters: San Antonio, Texas.

Elevator pitch: CaptureCast Legal is a rich media video documentation platform to automate and streamline litigation support efforts with transcribed HD video captures from local and remote testimonies and legal affairs. It enhances trial strategy for witness preparation and trial practice using video-based capture and replay.

How we’re unique: Laser focus on delivering smart video solutions to automate, enrich, and streamline legal video and transcription services. We offset and enhance litigation support needs by delivering a smart, meta enriched video capture and library backed by AI/ML to enhance case discovery.

Demo video (if any): None.

Pricing: One-time up-front cost, then annually based on transcription and video volume.

Outside funding: No outside funding.

Corvum

Founded: 6/1/2017.

Headquarters: Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

Elevator pitch: Corvum is the first cloud-based communications service designed specifically for lawyers. We understand the unique pressures that lawyers face with time management and work-life balance. Corvum provides the extremely responsive customer support needed for law firms to continue to operate smoothly. Corvum’s service stays online with our three geographically redundant data centers. Corvum’s integration with Clio automatically tracks lawyers’ billable time on calls.

How we’re unique: Telephone providers typically offer “everything to everyone” services, without being able to focus on the needs of any specific user. Corvum is different because of our focus on the needs of lawyers. Legal professionals require more timely and helpful support, they require rock-solid uptime, and they require the tools they need to run their legal practice to all work together.

Demo video (if any): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzatElTvT6U.

Pricing: Monthly fee per user (SaaS/UCaaS).

Outside funding: Debt financing with the Business Development Bank of Canada (https://www.bdc.ca).

Crosselerator

Founded: 1/1/2019.

Headquarters: Exeter, U.K.

Elevator pitch: Turn your everyday email into new income, every day. Crosselerator adds targeted messages to your outgoing emails intelligently and collects the data.

How we’re unique: We are run by a successful ex-partner with 40 years’ professional experience and a long track record of success, not by young techies, so our products are designed with precise needs of practitioners in mind.

Demo video (if any): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGgqR3r1rN4.

Pricing: Approx $25 per month minimum, then by seat at $3 per seat per month.

Outside funding: We have funded all development out of our own funds and profits but will be going into the market for development funding (via Bath University business school) soon.

Discovery Genie

Founded: 6/1/2017.

Headquarters: Denver, Colo.

Elevator pitch: Discovery Genie solves the document production problem facing 750,000+ lawyers and paralegals litigating cases involving 35,000 pages or less: reviewing, producing, organizing and indexing emails, attachments and efiles. The Genie’s lawyer-designed system automates conversion to PDF, Bates numbering, privilege-log generation, and more, saving 75-90% of the time, cost and tedium of using Acrobat — but without the overkill costs and complexity of an e-discovery system. No IT department needed.

How we’re unique: We make document production inexpensive, fast and simple for the 90% of lawyers and paralegals who litigate small- to mid-sized cases (35,000 pages of production or less). Manual document production is slow, soul-crushing, and wasteful of professional talent – but e-discovery platforms, designed for big law, are cost prohibitive and unworkable for the vast majority of lawsuits. Discovery Genie serves the huge overlooked legal market with powerful but simple and affordable document production tools.

Demo video (if any): https://vimeo.com/294695282.

Pricing: On-demand, per document pricing. Custom pricing is available for large jobs, such as one case that involved 380,000 pages of production. (We have partnered with the DC Bar and the Colorado Bar Association to provide discounted services as a member benefit.)

Outside funding: No outside funding.

DueCourse

Founded: 8/11/2019.

Headquarters: San Francisco, Calif.

Elevator pitch: DueCourse is a learning platform that empowers attorneys to take control of their career by helping them map and advance their professional development through personalized learning. We’re building an adaptive learning platform that designs personalized development paths, allows lawyers and professional development teams to track their progress, and pushes incremental, custom content that encourages consistent learning and professional growth.

How we’re unique: Our adaptive learning platform replaces the outdated, impersonal training and development models that rarely fit the busy schedules of distracted learners, and do not meet lawyers in the online mediums where they’re spending most of their time.

Our model also uses real-time data and various accountability methods to provide on-demand learning and help lawyers stay on track with their professional development, rather than leave it up to ad-hoc mentoring and goal setting.

Demo video (if any): None.

Pricing: We have a subscription-based pricing model.

Outside funding: Less than $1M in outside funding.

ECFX

Founded: 1/28/2019.

Headquarters: Los Angeles, Calif.

Elevator pitch: ECFX is a one-stop, enterprise-class solution for electronic court filing (ECF). ECF is a time-consuming and complex process that varies from court to court. ECFX solves this problem by providing a SaaS B2B platform that automates the processing of receipts of service and the filing of documents with the court with firmware administration and control. ECFX obtains huge efficiencies and cost savings for the firm, eliminates the risk of missed receipts, and reduces filing rejections.

How we’re unique: ECFX distinguishes itself over competing solutions by offering a firmwide, enterprise class solution for all of a law firm’s jurisdictions. Firms today must cobble together products from multiple vendors, and that patchwork of products may still be incomplete. ECFX focuses on automating work that falls into the gaps between the other products in the market and provides a consistent user experience across multiple jurisdictions.

Demo video (if any): https://docsend.com/view/ru3gbs6.

Pricing: We charge per transaction for each receipt or filing, with price per transaction depending usage volumes. To obtain discounts, firms can pre-pay for usage bundles on a monthly or annual basis.

Outside funding: Less than $1M in outside funding.

FamilyDocket

Founded: 12/15/2016.

Headquarters: Dallas, Texas.

Elevator pitch: FamilyDocket streamlines communication and evidence gathering for family law cases. Text messages between ex-spouses/co-parents are tracked automatically. Clients can communicate efficiently, and those messages are stored securely in real-time to be used in court, if needed. Important files such as tax documents, pictures, and final decrees can be shared. Lawyers can also assign tasks to be completed, and clients can upload expense items to be reimbursed by their ex-spouse/co-parent.

How we’re unique: We looked at what was missing in the family law market and what the pain points were for both the lawyers and the clients. We developed a simple, easy-to-use, mobile-friendly, web-based application that allows these lawyers, often in small practices, simple case management tools while also tying in co-parenting tools that clients need from the outset of the case. No other tool is tracking these text message communications and that is how most people are communicating in their personal lives.

Demo video (if any): https://www.linkedin.com/company/familydocket/?viewAsMember=true.

Pricing: Yearly subscription-based fee paid either by the law firm or passed on to the client.

Outside funding: Less than $1M in outside funding. We raised money from private investors as well as friends and family. Two of the investors are owners of well-known legal tech companies with different clientele. One, is a payment processor and the other targets in-house legal departments to assist them in analyzing their legal spend.

Faster Law

Founded: 9/1/2015.

Headquarters: Omaha, Neb.

Elevator pitch: We solve the three main problems lawyers face: document management, email management, and time tracking. Our Faster Suite includes email management, passive time tracking, document management, PACER Saver, mass document automation, print tracking, scan-to-Clio, split billing, conflict checker, meeting transcriber, request tracker, invoice reminders, Clio document backup, advanced data export and a whole lot more.

How we’re unique: We make crazy-simple solutions to complex problems. We are the number-one suite of apps for Clio and we have 3,500 paying customers.

Demo video (if any): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49HJetclR48.

Pricing: $300 per year per human for every single feature.

Outside funding: No outside funding.

FirmTRAK

Founded: 2/1/2019.

Headquarters: Bloomington, Ill.

Elevator pitch: FirmTRAK seamlessly integrates with your practice management system and other strategic vendors, automatically generating diagnostic and predictive KPI visualizations designed to accelerate performance, increase efficiencies and drive profits.

How we’re unique: We not only have the ability to provide strategic reporting to larger law firms, but we have also unlocked the necessary data for lawyers down market by providing a full set of ready-made reporting at the click of a button. Our motto is to become the one-stop shop for all law firm reporting needs by bringing together practice management system data with accounting, marketing, and other data sets to create dynamic metrics to really move the dial within the business.

Demo video (if any): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz_5kpUZ2PY.

Pricing: Since we are running analytics on all employees tracking time in the practice management system, we base price on total number of employees: 1-3 =$49/month; 4-9 = $129/month; 10-19 = $299/month; 20+ needs to be reviewed as they will tend to have very specific customization requests.

Outside funding: No outside funding.

Hugo Analytics

Founded: 3/3/2017.

Headquarters: Denver, Colo.

Elevator pitch: Hugo enables litigators to test any variety of case theories and strategies using virtual jurors. Litigators can submit material over our JuryMeter website to conduct initial pilot studies and see how 25 mock jurors react to their case. Hugo also provides more customized services that allow litigators to conduct experiments to optimize their case strategies and estimate more precisely the likely outcome of a given case.

How we’re unique: Traditionally, litigators make live presentations to a small number of mock jurors (6-30). Using crowdsourcing, we can recruit more mock jurors at a fraction of the cost. We run pilot studies and obtain initial reactions to cases on our website, www.jurymeter.com. As the numbers of mock jurors increase (think hundreds), we also conduct experiments and use statistical analyses to gain a more scientifically valid estimate of likely outcomes, including both liability and damages.

Demo video (if any): None.

Pricing: For our www.jurymeter.com solution, $500 with volume discounts. For customized experiments, prices as quoted (approximately eight customized experiments for about $50,000).

Outside funding: No outside funding.

Intaker

Founded: 1/2/2019.

Headquarters: Los Angeles, Calif.

Elevator pitch: Intaker uses artificial intelligence to capture and qualify prospective clients for consumer law firms on autopilot and 24/7; saving attorneys time, money and frustration.

How we’re unique: In comparison to traditional live chat solutions, Intaker AI:

Captures 2-3 times more leads.

Qualifies every lead thoroughly using machine intelligence by looking at over 16 million data points.

Is incredibly easy to set up, run and personalize — setup takes 15-20 minutes.

Is much more affordable, while turning better results.

Demo video (if any): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwbhoX5-QfA.

Pricing: Monthly plans: (1) Ignite, (2) Lift-off, (3) Thrust, and (4) Zero Gravity.

All four plans come with unlimited qualified leads (flat-rate pricing) but tiered based on features like multiple languages, instant call, number of websites, number of Intakers, etc. There are some limits on the number of visitors.

Outside funding: No outside funding.

Josef

Founded: 7/1/2019.

Headquarters: Melbourne, Australia.

Elevator pitch: Josef is a legal automation platform that enables lawyers and legal teams to create and launch their own conversational bots. Lawyers have already built more than 5,000 automation tools on the platform to streamline processes, improve client experience and eliminate repetitive tasks. Bots built on Josef automate lawyer-client interactions, draft documents and provide legal guidance and advice.

How we’re unique: Using legal automation platforms usually requires a level of training and expertise that is beyond most lawyers. In law firms and in-house teams, these technologies end up being used exclusively by technical experts. Josef turns that model on its head by driving adoption of its visual logic builder and no-code-document-automation among practitioners across legal organizations. We see adoption and bot-building by everyone from paralegals to partners, assistants to legal operations.

Demo video (if any): None.

Pricing: Customers pay for a subscription to Josef. Subscription levels may vary based on the number of bots launched or distribution of access to the platform.

Outside funding: Less than $1M in outside funding.

Justice For Me

Founded: 1/1/2018.

Headquarters: San Antonio, Texas.

Elevator pitch: Justice for Me (JFM) exists to close the justice gap. JFM removes the financial obstacles that prevent clients and attorneys from connecting, by using technology and a network of lawyers and financial partners that work with clients who cannot afford traditional legal representation. We provide a line of credit that gives clients affordable monthly payments and we pay attorneys quickly and directly, simplifying billing and collections. We enable customers and attorneys to focus on outcomes.

How we’re unique: We are the only company offering payment plans for civil cases in the market today. Justice for Me is opening a new segment in the legal market, those that have not been served to date. Our main mission will continue to be to close the Justice Gap and provide legal assistance to those who cannot access it today.

Demo video (if any): https://www.justiceforme.com.

Pricing: Justice for Me makes money by earning a service fee from the overall engagement. The attorney receives their invoice amount less this service fee. The client pays the full amount plus interest.

Outside funding: Less than $1M in outside funding.

Knovi

Founded: 9/11/2018.

Headquarters: Philadelphia, Pa.

Elevator pitch: Knovi was created by attorneys for attorneys to ease their caseload and bring an influx of valuable leads. Using artificial intelligence, Knovi matches clients with the right legal representation. Knovi then streamlines client communications with messaging and video chat capabilities, all the way from inquiry to settlement. An intuitive, built-in CRM documents the case from start to finish, so attorneys can focus on what truly matters: their client’s case.

How we’re unique: Powered by machine learning, Knovi’s chatbot creates client engagement before the first phone call or meeting. Knovi seamlessly initiates the client-attorney relationship and even starts the process of building the new case — all while providing great customer service, too.

Demo video (if any): None.

Pricing: Knovi costs $150 per month for up to five users. Each additional user is $30 per month with a 10% discount for annual subscribers. These prices are for an unlimited number of chats, which distinguishes Knovi from the competition which charges per completed chat.

Outside funding: No outside funding confirmed at the moment of this application.

LawCo

Founded: 8/15/2017.

Headquarters: Chicago, Ill.

Elevator pitch: LawCo was developed to efficiently and ethically solve the access to justice problem by creating a way to connect live leads to lawyers instantly. LawCo’s platform matches people in need of legal help with lawyers on-demand, in real-time, and at no connecting cost to the consumer. With no monthly commitment fee to the attorney and no lengthy sales pitch, we built LawCo for small firms and solo lawyers, seeking to cost-effectively and rapidly build their books of business.

How we’re unique: LawCo is the only platform available that instantly connects lawyers to live leads. Unlike other lead generation products, LawCo takes out the wait time for connection. Lawyers will find our signup process quick and easy. Lawyers merely visit the website or download the free app, enter name, phone number, email, and ARDC information. They are verified via the ARDC and then approved to use the LawCo platform; instantly getting notified of live leads in real-time. Zero commitment; pay per lead.

Demo video (if any): https://bit.ly/2qczRp1.

Pricing: People in need of legal assistance use LawCo to notify all of our registered attorneys that someone is looking for help. The attorneys are notified via text and email that leads are available, in real-time. The first attorney that chooses to accept the lead pays a fee to LawCo to connect with the person in need. The leads are normally $65 per lead, but to gain traction, there are many promo codes available, making the leads $20.

Outside funding: No outside funding.

Lawgood

Founded: 1/15/2019.

Headquarters: Los Angeles, Calif.

Elevator pitch: Lawgood is a web app that makes it easy for lawyers to draft and review contracts by allowing them to adjust important clause language with the push of a button and tap into crowdsourced best practices and trends.

How we’re unique: We give lawyers access to market intelligence while making it easier for them to work faster so that they can better service their clients. Lawyers don’t have to upload precedent libraries, learn a complicated new system, or have access to expensive practice resources. They can easily change the favorability of clause language based on client and deal specifics without time-consuming research. And they can see what other lawyers do in similar situations to better understand market standards.

Demo video (if any): https://youtu.be/n_SybiVffQw.

Pricing: Saas monthly subscription of $89 sticker price with discounted pricing for partners such as bar associations, legal companies, and practice management software companies.

Outside funding: No outside funding.

Litify

Founded: 10/1/2016.

Headquarters: Brooklyn, N.Y., with offices in Orlando, Fla., and New Orleans, La.

Elevator pitch: Litify, is an intuitive, fully integrated SaaS platform for law firms that transforms how legal services are rendered through integrative technology. The singular platform streamlines and automates task management, document generation, intake management, and client communications while providing data-driven insights to help law firms scale and increase their bottom line. Built on Salesforce.com, Litify is a secure, extensible and rapidly evolving platform that helps lawyers stay one step ahead.

How we’re unique: Litify helps law firms function as modern day businesses by providing an end-to-end solution through an intelligent and user-friendly platform. Instead of functioning on different platforms for different tasks or documents, Litify streamlines everything under a single umbrella. The platform is built on Salesforce.com to provide a secure environment to store client data and leverage its infrastructure to implement new functionalities, accommodate changes and integrate extensively.

Demo video (if any): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5Vm_IG_AVI&feature=youtu.be.

Pricing: Priced per-user license.

Outside funding: More than $5M in outside funding.

Parley Pro

Founded: 4/15/2015.

Headquarters: Los Altos, Calif.

Elevator pitch: Parley Pro is the contract management platform that automates documents and workflows around them. It is the only solution that enables real-time, multi-party contract negotiation powered by our proprietary, modular product design and architecture. This approach provides unprecedented visibility into a contract at a clause level. In addition, Parley Pro maintains a detailed audit trail for all contract changes throughout negotiations and after, preserving the history of all negotiations.

How we’re unique: Parley Pro is the only contract solution that provides:

Structured real-time collaboration.

Multi-party negotiation working on a single document.

Real-time dashboards and actionable analytics.

Integrated end-to-end contract process automation.

Unprecedented ease-of-use.

Demo video (if any): https://vimeo.com/337402797.

Pricing: We charge per user/seat.

Outside funding: $1M-$5M in outside funding.

Proxy

Founded: 4/25/2018.

Headquarters: Chicago, Ill.

Elevator pitch: NMBL Technologies was founded by a diverse group of AmLaw 100 lawyers and technologists. WE recently released our first product, Proxy. Proxy is a cloud-based legal workflow management tool that supports the more effective adoption of legal operations concepts. Proxy optimizes four key day-to-day legal functions: (1) organizing and managing legal tasks; (2) delegation and status tracking; (3) visual prioritization; and (4) effective reporting and search.

How we’re unique: Three factors make us unique:

Our products are targeted at in-house counsel, not law firms or consumers.

We have not deployed over-hyped buzzword technologies. Instead, Proxy provides an intuitive UX to meaningfully implement legal ops concepts. We do not purport to do a lawyer’s job for her. We enable her to do it better herself.

Proxy allows users to track and manage structured and unstructured tasks. Users can manage ad hoc legal tasks side-by-side with structured tasks that are part of a larger workflow.

Demo video (if any): None.

Pricing: We have a customizable pricing tool available at https://proxylegalapp.com/pricing/.

Outside funding: Less than $1M in outside funding.

SimplyConvert

Founded: 9/15/2019.

Headquarters: Edwardsville, Ill.

Elevator pitch: SimplyConvert is the first automated intake legal case qualification platform powered by an “all-knowing” AI chatbot. Casey, our chatbot, is currently versed in the legal criteria of 50 practice areas/litigations and her knowledge has no limit. Casey is also backed by a robust CRM that automates the entire legal intake process from initial conversation to signed contract, resulting in increased efficiency and conversion rates on signed cases.

How we’re unique: Casey, the smartest virtual legal assistant, makes our company unique. Unlike any other legal bot, live chat or online form, Casey gives instant legal guidance to web visitors. The SimplyConvert legal intake process is more efficient and streamlined – law firms follow up only with “qualified” potential clients, leaving more time to practice law.

Demo video (if any): https://simplyconvert.com/index.php.

Pricing: $30 per engagement plus $70 per signed contract.

Outside funding: No outside funding.

Text A Lawyer

Founded: 4/27/2017.

Headquarters: Beaverton, Ore.

Elevator pitch: We provide captive client leads for lawyers that have at least $21 of skin in the game. These leads convert at a high rate. Lawyers actually get paid to field these leads in real time. For the person who has a legal question, they are able to get legal advice from a local, verified attorney for $21 without having to wait. We’ve gone to great lengths to remain compliant with ethical rules, using our credit card processor to handle the funds, avoiding retainer issues and fee-sharing.

How we’re unique: We’re the world’s fastest way to hire a lawyer, period. We also go to great lengths to appeal to the ethically-conscious lawyer, like deleting encrypted client conversations off our server on a daily basis, providing a full transcript via email, and giving lawyers various options to reject a client mid-chat (scope, ethics, wrong state/category).

We launched Aug. 31, 2019 for landlord/tenant issues in Oregon. We will soon be opening in new cities and with new categories, including personal injury, family, business, and immigration.

Demo video (if any): www.textalawyernow.com.

Pricing: We have three:

The first question costs $21, with $10 to the lawyer as an earned fixed fee, $5 as a once-per connection attorney verification fee, $5 as a per-question software license fee, and about $1 for the credit card processor we use.

The lawyer and client chat until the lawyer gathers enough info to answer the question. They toggle to “”Final Answer”” mode. Upon receiving a final answer, the client has three minutes to read and decide whether to ask a follow-up question for $11. Follow-up questions for $11 can continue “a la carte” indefinitely. The lawyer earns $5 on each follow up, with the $5 per-question software license fee remaining the same.

We charge lawyers a $100 per month access fee on a renewable contract subscription. Lawyers earn $10 on the initial question and $5 on each follow-up. Answering a small handful of questions each month zeros out our fee, allowing lawyers to net a small nest egg answering questions and interviewing new clients.

Lawyers only give out their contact info in a final answer, and only if they want that client to re-hire them off platform. This is our real value – and it’s free for lawyers, an incredible deal!

Outside funding: Less than $1M in outside funding.

Virtual Pricing Director

Founded: 9/26/2017.

Headquarters: England, U.K.

Elevator pitch: VPD is the only holistic end-to-end legal pricing platform on the market spanning the entire pricing process from inception to house-styled proposal that enables partners to confidently eliminate guesswork and provide clients with unprecedented price transparency and budgetary certainty.

How we’re unique: Three ways:

Unlike all the other products built by technologists, VPD has been built by lawyers for lawyers with product development led by Richard Burcher, managing director of Validatum, widely regarded as the leading legal services pricing consultancy in the world.

VPD contains 40 years of Richard’s legal pricing IP.

VPD is the only pricing platform using machine learning to guide users through the entire pricing process from scoping to realistic client-facing detailed proposals.

Demo video (if any): https://vimeo.com/340043802 (Password: VPDPromo3.5).

Pricing: SaaS – annual subscription based on firm gross revenue bands.

Outside funding: No outside funding.

Woodpecker

Founded: 6/7/2017.

Headquarters: Boston, Mass., with an office in Chicago, Ill.

Elevator pitch: Woodpecker is an AI-enabled legal document automation platform that helps lawyers get back to doing what they love. Our platform enables firms to automatically turn frequently used legal documents into standardized “smart-templates,” all from the comfort of Microsoft Word with no implementation or training overhead.

How we’re unique: We’re solving the biggest problem in legal document automation: the onboarding process. Instead of taking 6-24 months to convert existing documents and onboard our software, this same process takes days. Our patent-pending AI-enabled auto-template engine automatically converts existing templates (HotDocs or Contract Express) into Woodpecker templates with the click of a button. Additionally, our 1,500-plus integrations enable firms to seamlessly connect with existing tools and services.

Demo video (if any): https://youtu.be/odKvKQnL78E.

Pricing: Software-as-a-service subscription model.

Outside funding: Less than $1M in outside funding

THE BALLOT IS ON THE NEXT PAGE.

from Law and Politics https://www.lawsitesblog.com/2019/11/vote-now-help-pick-the-startup-alley-finalists-for-aba-techshow-2020.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

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AI Conference Kyiv results. AI, IoT, and chatbots as tools to increase profit and work efficiency

As Syndicode used to share the information about the results of the events we support, AI Conference Kyiv is no exception. It took place on November 14 in Kyiv, Ukraine, and was dedicated to the practical use of artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and chatbots in business processes....