The Legal Forecast’s Victorian President Bori Ahn had the opportunity to attend ALTACON. Bori writes.

Last Friday 29 May, Australian Legal Technology Association (ALTA) launched the inaugural ALTACON. ALTA members came together to demo their best products and services, chat with prospective clients, and share their experiences contributing to the ongoing development of the Australian legal tech ecosystem. A sold-out conference, this experience spotlighted the visible growth of the Australian legal tech community, with:

270+ delegates from all over Australia;
40 speakers from around the world;
28 Australian legal technology companies exhibiting; and
11 Partners (led by ALTACON’s major partners, KPMG Law and Fincap Law).

Incisive presentations were given by:

Leading luminaries from all over the world, including Christian Lang from Reynen Court in the US and Meera Klemola from Observ in Finland;
Australian thought leaders, including Nick Abrahams and Peter Dunne; and
Legal tech innovators and entrepreneurs, including Andrew Mellett from Plexus.

AlphaCreates’ Eric Chin on analysing the data to diagnose the state of legal innovation in Australia

ALTACON participants also had the benefit of hearing start-up founders’ origin stories. As they shared their successes and failures in launching and growing organisations, one common thread in their journeys was the acute frustration experienced as a practising lawyer, and the desire to do better by the client and themselves.

ALTA also shone a spotlight on the crucial but challenging early stage of a legal tech start-up in its pitch competition, won by Cynapse Legal.

Stuart Clout, Founder of thedocyard, on his start-up story.

ALTA’S strength lies in its members’ collaboration and commiseration.

ALTA comes at a time where Australian legal tech companies need a peak body to represent them, collectivise their voices, and build their presence on the global stage. Moreover, up until now, much of Australian legal tech has developed in isolation, without a dedicated space for professionals to foster a close-knit community, openly exchange information and ideas, and identify market trends.

ALTA ‘wanted to create a sense of community, collaboration and excitement about what is possible for lawyers, law firms and in-house counsel thanks to legal tech innovation. And have some fun along the way,’ says Nicki Hauser, Executive Manager at ALTA.

ALTACON also showcased the spectrum in maturity of legal tech companies, with well-established companies like Neota Logic featured alongside budding new enterprises. There were surprising numbers of law students and recent graduates launching legal tech start-ups. Many of these offerings were founded as recently as last year. Though there’s no well-trodden path to success or sustained growth in legal tech, access to these ‘later stage’ start-ups can be important. It can serve as a great reference point and source of support. ALTACON, and ALTA membership more generally, stand as a particularly helpful resources in this regard.

Overall, ALTACON achieved its goal to ‘bring together the legal community to explore the cutting-edge of law and technology at a unique event that was not your ordinary legal conference.’

AUSTRALIAN LEGAL TECH ASSOCIATION launches its first legal tech conference