LawVu, a startup dedicated to enhancing the efficiency of in-house legal teams, has appointed David Lancelot as its inaugural Chief Legal Officer and Head of Advocacy. Lancelot, formerly the General Counsel for QVC’s UK division, joined LawVu recently. In his new role, he serves as an advocate for the company’s platform, which utilises Microsoft Corp.’s Azure OpenAI artificial intelligence software.
“In order to be a really integrated, strategic business partner with a vision and purpose that gets you in leadership team meetings, you need to have a scalable engine room,” Lancelot said. “It’s only recently the technology to do that has become possible for the majority of in-house legal functions.”
LawVu, based in New Zealand, is entering a highly competitive market where several companies claim to possess software that can address the legal industry’s efficiency challenges. In the realm of enterprise legal management, potential competitors include Themis Solutions Inc.’s Clio and Thomson Reuters Corp.’s HighQ.
A critical test for LawVu will be its ability to leverage generative AI to create a unified technology stack that can be marketed to legal departments. LawVu’s 2023 technology report found that 61% of in-house legal teams spend more than an hour each day navigating between various systems and tools to prioritize and gain a comprehensive view of pressing matters.
LawVu aims to be a comprehensive “single codebase solution” for legal technology requirements, with plans to expand its suite of products beyond contracts.
The company, established in 2015, recently announced a venture capital investment, bringing its total fundraising to $40 million. While this is a substantial sum, it is only a fraction of LawVu’s ambitious goal to capture a share of what it estimates will be a $40 billion legal technology market by 2030.
LawVu established a hub in Seattle for its growing US business in the previous year following an investment from venture capital firm Insight Partners.
LawVu boasts clients such as Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dentsu Inc., Estée Lauder Cos., Etsy Inc., Instacart Inc., and Microsoft’s LinkedIn. The majority of its business, 93%, comes from companies outside of New Zealand, primarily from Australia, the US, and the UK.
David Lancelot, 50, a resident of Los Gatos, California, has observed numerous legal technology service providers come and go during his 25-year career. He brings a wealth of international legal leadership experience, having held key legal positions at Walmart and eBay.
LawVu’s mission is to help corporate lawyers streamline their operations by offering solutions for various tasks, from analytics to contract management, knowledge sharing, workflow management, electronic discovery, and billing services. Lancelot expressed his desire to remain at the forefront of this transformation, emphasising that AI improves with increased use.
Read full article: Bloomberg Law
