What is legal tech?
Legal tech is technology built for legal work: the software and AI that lawyers, in-house legal teams, courts and people with a legal problem use to research, draft, review, manage and resolve legal matters. It spans legal AI assistants; contract, litigation, IP and compliance tools; practice management software; AI-native law firms that deliver legal work on technology they build themselves; and established law firms that build their own.
The tests
- It's built for legal work. Its main business, or a business unit with its own brand and website, serves legal work: law firms, in-house legal teams, courts, compliance and IP professionals, or people and businesses with a legal need. General software with a legal module doesn't count.
- Technology does the heavy lifting. It sells legal software or legal AI, or it delivers legal work on technology it builds itself. An established law firm counts when it builds and runs its own legal technology: a named product, a tech subsidiary, an engineering team or a venture arm. Buying licences alone doesn't.
- It's a real company. It has its own website, a team rather than one freelancer, and public evidence: named clients, funding, a regulator's licence, a partnership or press coverage.
- It's still going. The product or service is live. Acquired companies stay on while their brand and website do; one folded into its buyer comes off.
Not on the map
- General software with a legal module: CRM, e-signature, generic GRC and security tools, general AI assistants
- Law firms that use legal tech without building any of their own
- Lawyer directories, referral marketplaces and legal marketing agencies with no technology of their own
- Solo consultants and freelancers
- Investors themselves (they're listed from their funding rounds, under Investors)
The Legal Tech Map is published by Eilla AI. Map criteria · What's new · Summary for AI tools