The bar for innovation in the legal industry is low. Davis Wright Tremaine won the Ilta’s Distinguished Peer Award in 2015 for innovative law firm of the year for its research and development arm DWT De Novo. According to its website, DWT De Novo has three main components: (1) a client portal, (2) data analytics, and (3) a streamlined document review service that leans heavily on technology. These are GREAT things to come to the law. However, they are not innovative features in almost every other industry. Innovations like these are low-hanging fruit that better serve an existing market. Commendable and important? Sure! Award winning innovation? Only in legal.

The innovations of DWT De Novo also will largely serve consumers who already have access to the justice system. Innovation to better serving existing clients is tinkering in the margins of reform in the industry. There is opportunity for truly disruptive, revolutionary innovation. Say what you want about companies like Avvo and Legal Zoom, but those companies have tried truly disruptive innovation. Sure, they have problems and are hopefully not the last generation of the services they have created. However, they have validated a market that previously did not exist. Before Avvo the top lawyer rating system was Martindale Hubbard. The vast majority of potential clients have no idea what that is. Whatever your opinion about Avvo, they brought lawyer ratings to the masses and validated a market that previously did not exist. Similarly, before Legal Zoom nobody had tried to provide bulk, volume, large scale transaction services. Again, regardless of you opinion of the effectiveness of the work Legal Zoom does, what cannot be denied is that they have validated the market for such a service. The lawyer, firm, or other company that can improve the service provided to these newly validated markets will effectuate true disruption in legal.