What a difference a day makes or, as we all have experienced, a month for that matter.

COVID-19 brought the entire legal industry to a standstill. The courts closed, law offices closed, even legal aid organizations closed their doors. And with that, the doors of innovation opened to working from home, remote hearings and video conferences.

Not all of it has been easy. Some of our colleagues went along with it kicking and screaming, highlighting the fact that while we have more technology available to us, not everyone is comfortable with it. Change does take time, as they say, except when there is no time to waste.

Yet, the stay at home orders did something more. When legal tech innovators saw that lawyers were struggling, many stepped up to help. They offered their solutions for extremely affordable rates or for free, came up with technological wonders to fill the gaps as they occurred, and offered webinars and online meetings to help educate the industry on how to make the work from home world a little less scary.

As Professor Richard Susskind asked recently of fellow legal technologists, “How are you contributing to the war effort?” Having seen innovators across the country rise to the occasion of this crisis to help others, we thought it fitting to honor those who have tried to make a difference.

Introducing the First Annual American Legal Technology Awards to Honor the Legal Tech Innovators of COVID-19

You may not have known until now, but the United States didn’t have an American Legal Technology Awards. This year, 2020, will be the very first one. A grassroots movement, founded by a legal tech entrepreneur (Tom Martin), a lawyer (Patrick Palace) and an academic (Cat Moon) to shine a light on the leaders and innovators in our industry that are moving the needle.

Honors will be awarded in several categories: Access to Justice — Startup — Enterprise — Technology — Law Firm — Individual. For further information, please visit our newly launched website, AmericanLegalTechnology.com.

Judges who have agreed to participate include: Carolyn Elefant, Kevin O’Keefe, Shannon Salter, Dennis Kennedy, Miguel Willis, Jean Clauson, Lori Gonzalez, Phil Brown, Gabriela Cubiero and Nick Rishwain. All are exceptional leaders in the legal industry and we are proud to have them on board.

Originally planned as an in-person awards dinner to be held in Seattle, Washington, the event will now be held online in August. And what better way to honor technology that helped so many during a pandemic than to host it virtually?

Lawyers, We Want to Hear Your Stories

If you are a lawyer who used a legal tech solution specifically because of the pandemic and had a positive impact on your experience, we want to hear about it. Your direct experience helps us learn more about which legal tech solutions are the ones that are truly making a difference in the daily lives of the legal community. You can help us by contacting us and telling us the name of the solution, the website, and (if you have it) an email address for the company or individual who makes the solution. We also want to hear what makes it so great. How did it make a big difference for you?

Are You a Creator of Exceptional Legal Tech That Helped the Community During the Pandemic?

Legal tech creators, we want to hear from you, too. Did you use your exceptional creation to help the legal community make it through the pandemic? We’d love to hear your story. We are so very impressed with how the legal tech community came to the aid of the legal community so that they could continue to serve the public as best as they could while courts had limited functionality. We’d love to know more about you to honor what you’ve done, but we can’t do that if we don’t know your story!

Submissions Are Now Open

To submit a legal tech company to the American Legal Technology Awards, just follow this link → https://americanlegaltechnology.com

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please email me at tom [at] lawdroid.com.

Thank you and good luck!

Tom Martin, Co-Founder

American Legal Technology Awards