Dentons has been awarded the top honor in the "International Law Firm Innovation" category at the Legal Week Innovation Awards 2016.

Dentons took home the top prize at a ceremony in London on May 27, 2016 in recognition of Nextlaw Labs, the Firm's global collaborative innovation platform, focused on investing in, developing and deploying new technologies to transform the practice of law. Nextlaw Labs is an autonomous, wholly owned subsidiary of the Firm with physical and virtual locations in technology centers worldwide.

Commenting on the win, Dentons' global chairman Joe Andrew said, "Nextlaw labs is unique because it is the first company formed by a law firm dedicated to providing a working toolkit for lawyers to better serve their clients. This most recent award demonstrates that the collaboration between Dentons and Nextlaw Labs places us at the forefront of creating the legal professional services of the future. Nextlaw Labs enables us to bring together external and internal sources of innovation, to incubate legal services innovations and accelerate their deployment into the marketplace.”

Dentons’ global CEO Elliott Portnoy said, “Our commitment to investing in technologies is clear, and Nextlaw Labs is the platform that is making that happen. Our aim is to revolutionize the practice of law – continuing to generate faster, cheaper, better legal solutions that will benefit lawyers and our clients."

Dan Jansen, CEO of Nextlaw Labs, added, "Dentons really understood the need for this venture, and since launching we have sourced more than 150 ideas. Many of those ideas came from Dentons partners and clients, with the remainder from legal tech companies that are interested in working with us. Legal services are ripe for investment and reinvention, and Nextlaw Labs is helping to drive new innovations in the sector.”

Since its launch in 2015, Nextlaw Labs has invested in two portfolio companies. The first investment was in ROSS, an IBM Watson-powered legal advisor app that will streamline legal research, saving lawyers’ time and clients’ money. In March 2016, Nextlaw Labs also invested in Apperio, a legal tech start-up that is changing the way law firms handle matter management.

Dentons continues to innovate and challenge the way the legal sector operates. In May 2016, the Firm announced the launch of its Nextlaw Global Referral Network, which will enable member law firms to easily connect and track referrals via an online platform.

The Legal Week Innovation Award for "International Law Firm Innovation" follows Dentons' win in North America in December 2015 when the Financial Times recognized the Firm in its FT North America Innovative Lawyers 2015 report. At that time, Nextlaw Labs was described as an “outstanding example” of law firms’ “willingness to seize the future,” and the Financial Times recognized the Firm as the “Most Innovative North American Law Firm”, awarding Dentons the top honor in the “Forward Thinking Firms” category.

About Nextlaw Labs

Nextlaw Labs is a business accelerator focused on investing in, developing and deploying new technologies to transform the practice of law. It is an autonomous, wholly owned subsidiary of global law firm Dentons with physical and virtual locations in technology centers worldwide. Through complementary and strategic partnerships with leading technology companies, startups, other business accelerators and established legal vendors, Nextlaw Labs will invest in promising companies and develop a suite of new technologies that fundamentally change the practice of law, improving client service and enhancing client solutions.
www.nextlawlabs.com

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