Mid-Year LegalTech Highlights: Big funding rounds, M&A activity, Leadership changes + Looking ahead
Influencers, celebrities, pro sports, film premieres, parties and cash to burn. A reality TV series? No (although I’ve been tempted to write one inspired by this sector). It’s LegalTech!
Having been a first-gen LegalTech founder, developing early innovations such as AI chatbots and collaboration and clause repositories back in the 2010s, I vividly recall the puzzled reactions that my tech-forward peers and I would receive in response to the idea of leveraging technology for the famously traditional legal field.
Fast forward to June 2026, and legal is the star of the enterprise AI show – complete with Hollywood glitz and glam.
Monica Zent is a LegalTech pioneer, entrepreneur, investor, and founder of ZentLaw, one of the first Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs) in the United States. She writes about LegalTech, artificial intelligence, legal operations, venture capital, enterprise innovation, and the future of legal services. Through her thought leadership, speaking engagements, and advisory work, Monica helps organizations and investors navigate emerging technologies and the evolving legal landscape. Learn more about Monica, her work, and her latest insights at MonicaZent.com.
-
LegalTech, Venture Capital & AI for Good
Startling statistics from the Legal Services Corporation reveal the degree to which low-income Americans report not having received any or enough legal assistance for civil legal problems. Specifically: Could AI-powered LegalTech innovation help address such needs? While the vast majority of VC funding and startup activity in LegalTech is focused on the enterprise sector, for…
-
Alternative Legal Services Providers (ALSPs): A Look Back, and What’s Ahead
Professional services, including legal, stand at an AI inflection point, with rapid changes ongoing and even greater transformations on the horizon ahead – and sometimes, in order to look forward, it helps to first also take a look back. For this edition of Venture Legal, I wanted to look back at the evolution of a…
-
The Future of AI + LegalTech @ SF Tech Week
As cloud computing and AI expert David Linthicum recently wrote, “AI is often described as a transformative technology, but transformation is anything but easy.” That’s why, as AI transforms the legal sector, it was imperative to convene a panel during SF Tech Week composed of legal industry leaders who’ve made AI work – Okta’s Russell…
