Legaltech's ‘great Latin American leap’

A wave of digitalization, powered by the pandemic, has swept across myriad industries in Latin America this year.

Companies have tightened their embrace on technology to resolve logistical problems associated with sanitary measures in place. Many changes, as they result in cost reductions and make previously cumbersome processes more agile, are here to stay.

The legal industry is no exception. Indeed, the crisis has turbo-boosted the digital transformation of the sector, which was already underway prior to the spread of the virus.

Among the technology companies mining this seam of business is Chilean-headquartered regional player Lemontech, majority owned by Silicon Valley private equity firm Accel-KKR. 

To find out more, BNamericas spoke with Lemontech CEO Mariano Werner. 

The two main products of Lemontech are SaaS solutions geared toward tracking and managing billable hours to clients. as well as judicial case management.

BNamericas: How has Lemontech been impacted by the crisis?

Werner: In general, for those of us who facilitate the adoption of technology and digital transformation, no matter the area in question, the pandemic – and in the case of Chile also the social unrest – has been a boost. At Lemontech, we help lawyers with their day-to-day workloads and we’re in a sector that had lagged behind in adoption of technology. But this year we see a true digital leap, which is here to stay.

With mobility restrictions and quarantines, legal firms were forced to adapt their work model and many were encouraged to incorporate technology to operate better.

Our CaseTracking [software solution], for example, facilitates monitoring and control of the legal cases that each lawyer has, without having to leave home. TimeBillingX, on the other hand, facilitates the logging of billable hours, the billing process and business intelligence, all of which were especially useful when implementing remote working solutions.

For all the above, we saw that demand increased 250% for TimeBillingX and 350% for CaseTracking compared with a year earlier.

BNamericas: What trends are you observing in the legaltech world in Latin America?

Werner: There’s tremendous value to be released through legaltech: from the “consumer” perspective, faster, higher quality and potentially cheaper justice or advice. From the perspective of lawyers or firms, a greater work capacity – by being able to serve clients more quickly – and consequently higher income and also the possibility of focusing work on the most interesting parts of the profession, those that generate the most value.

The year 2020 has been one in which we can say legaltech took a great leap in the entire region. We’re present in 19 countries and we see this trend in all of them. And we believe not only that the technological leap will continue, but also that it will accelerate, even post-pandemic.

However, the speed of digitalization doesn’t only depend on lawyers in the private sector; it also requires the public sector. And here, notwithstanding exceptions such as Uruguay, we haven’t seen great progress.

BNamericas: We spoke in September 2019, when your predecessor told us that Lemontech had a couple of M&A prospects. Have some been closed or are you still looking?

Werner: Although we evaluated several alternatives, we didn’t find any that made us believe that it was going to provide us with something different. We remain very active in this field, supported by our majority shareholder Accel KKR.

BNamericas: Can you share some growth figures for Lemontech, etc., and summarize your strategic goals?

Werner: We’ve set a very ambitious goal of increasing demand for our products by 300% over the next year, with a main focus on Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia. We’re going to substantially increase our sales teams in these countries.

On the other hand, we’re going to invest heavily in our two products, CaseTracking and TimeBillingX, which we want to continue expanding and deepening. We are making a difference in the management work aspects of the lawyers we work with and we want to do it better and better.

BNamericas: In which countries does Lemontech currently operate and are there plans to expand further?

Werner: We currently have clients in 19 countries in the region. We’re physically present in Peru, Chile and Mexico and we’re on the way to opening in Colombia. We have more than 1,300 clients and more than 12,000 lawyers using our solutions. The medium-term plan is to enter more countries and innovate and to continue adding value for the firms and legal departments that currently trust us, as well as for new chambers and companies.

BNamericas: Lemontech leverages AI. What's new in this regard?

Werner: We’ve made great strides in all of our products. One thing was the possibility of obtaining data on the number of hours worked, monitoring the judicial processes, knowing, in real time, the status of the trials, and another is software where can see the lawyer's calendar, understand how much time the lawyer dedicates to a certain procedure and proactively make a proposal of how to optimize his or her time. 

One can follow the recommendation or choose to enter more data, which the machine can use to make another proposal. The truth is that the difference is huge. It’s a major labor-saving solution: the machine can even tell the lawyer what document to deliver at a certain moment of the trial, with the name of the text, the specific paragraph, etc. With that, the intervention of the lawyer is practically limited to having to make any adjustments deemed necessary.

We believe that this will be a significant change in the industry, since lawyers won’t only save time, but will also be able to focus on tasks with greater added-value for their clients.