Slaughter and May will launch Legal Tech Incubator

Slaughter and May confirmed it will launch a legal technology incubator in the next year.

In a highly symbolic move for the industry, Magic Circle firm Slaughters has confirmed the launch of a law tech programme it flagged earlier this year, to sit alongside its existing Fast Forward fintech incubator.

The new incubator will focus on developing legal tech and is expected to open by mid-2019, joining the lengthening list of law firms with similar initiatives. Slaughters holds a 5% stake in legal tech darling Luminance, but the firm does not expect to take further equity stakes in start-ups through the new initiative.

Slaughters head of technology Rob Sumroy told Legal Business: ‘We are now firmly on the path of designing a second incubator, which will be based on the first one, but will be more focused towards legal tech. When we created fintech Fast Forward, we were open to legal tech applicants, but some of the legal tech start-ups have shied away from applying to it.’

Magic Circle counterpart Allen & Overy has its own legal tech space called Fuse while Mishcon De Reya and Dentons have similar ventures. Earlier this year, banking giant Barclays entered the legal tech space through its Eagle Labs programme.