Slaughter and May, the international law firm based in London, Brussels, Beijing, and Hong Kong, has recently opened the fourth application window for “Fast Forward,” its incubation program for startup companies. Applications are welcome by the 31st of August.
The program targets UK startups that utilize emerging technologies. Namely, those with “strong ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), diversity credentials, and those using cutting edge technologies in areas such as IoT, telematics, quantum, and biometrics/genomics.”
Also, “Fast Forward” targets early and mid-stage ventures rather than established businesses. However, Slaughter and May will accept applications from newly-formed companies through to the pre‑IPO/exit stage.
“Fast Forward is our emerging tech incubation program which supports the work of technology entrepreneurs and innovators. Through the program, we share our market-leading expertise with a new generation of tech entrepreneurs and innovators whose businesses have the potential to deliver meaningful improvements or increased competition across a broad range of business sectors...”
Previous Fast Forward cohorts included, per Slaughter and May, some of the most innovative UK companies. Namely:
The program provides services of potentially immense value to early-stage companies. As estimated by Slaughter and May, these amount to 30,000 British Pounds of direct value:
While “Fast Forward” has a broader scope, Slaughter and May also has its legal tech innovation focus. Namely, their “Collaborate” exclusively targets legal tech companies.
“Collaborate” was launched in 2019, and has currently closed its 2020 cohort (you can see the participants here).
Benefits include:
advice from VC funds and other legal tech entrepreneurs – giving you opportunities to receive advice on securing funding and other practical tips for start-ups and scale-ups;
access to legal tech and innovation specialists based in Europe, the US and APAC to help you set your sights beyond the UK legal tech market;
Access to Slaughter and May lawyers - with opportunities to discuss product development and use cases with lawyers from across our firm. You will have two dedicated mentors – one lawyer and one member of our Knowledge and Innovation Team - who will design a tailored program for you and support you through that program.
Networking and demo opportunities;
Access to our tech sandbox and dummy data - the right environment to test and develop your product in a typical law firm infrastructure.
It is exhilarating to see legal tech incubators picking up speed, despite the current macro factors.
Likewise, it is encouraging that biglaw started to open their knowledge-base. With support from biglaw, entrepreneurs could potentially shape the delivery of legal services and access to justice alike.
Recently, we have covered another example - potentially the first-mover NextLaw Labs. We will be watching with great excitement at what other firms will get into the legal innovation race.
Ivan Rasic holds the Transnational Trade Law and Finance LLM, a program by Universidad de Deusto (Bilbao, ES), Universiteit van Tilburg (Tilburg, NL), and Goethe Universität (Frankfurt, DE). After his work in law firms and inhouse, he started a legal tech company.
Nowadays, Ivan leads STP Informationstechnologie GmbH's Sofia RnD center with project/development management, culture, strategy, and special project initiatives.
Ivan is an Ambassador at European Legal Tech Association (ELTA). He closely follows and writes on future of law, legal tech, ALSPs, and new ways of delivering legal services.
CL News Team closely follows events that could potentially shape legal services delivery, the business of law, and influence the transformation of the legal space.
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