Dentons Launches Nextlaw Labs and Creates Legal Business Accelerator

Dentons, Kyiv, Ukraine, 
Mon, May 18, 2015

18May 2015 - Dentons, the global law firm, todayannounced that it is launching NextLaw Labs, a collaborative innovationplatform focused on investing in, developing and deploying new technologiesthat will transform the practice of law. 

"The market has talked about Big Lawand New Law, but we want to be Next Law," said Dentons' Global ChairmanJoe Andrew. "We don't just want to be the world's largest law, we want totransform the legal industry, drive innovation in legal services and bringclients what they want with better quality, more responsiveness and greatervalue." 

The goal of NextLaw Labs is to invest inpromising companies and to develop a suite of technologies that willfundamentally change the practice of law, improving client service andenhancing client solutions. Dentons—along with its thousands of lawyers andprofessionals—will be the accelerator's lead supporter and investor, serving asthe testing ground for new products, services and other ideas to be vetted,piloted and scaled. 

Leading the new venture is CEO Dan Jansenwho has a rare combination of entrepreneurial and professional servicesexperience. Jansen has helped to conceive, fund, grow and/or sell disruptivebusinesses in many diverse sectors, including social media, financial services,and on-line recruiting. He also has almost twenty years of professional servicesexperience including roles leading the Global Media Practice for the BostonConsulting Group and with Arthur Young & Company advising start-ups. 

"NextLaw Labs is focused on onebusiness vertical—the legal industry," said Dan Jansen, CEO of NextLaw Labs."Ideas and inspiration can come from any source, but only one acceleratorcan draw from the world's largest law firm to help source and refine productideas, while our partnerships with leading startups, thought leaders and othertechnology providers  will help bring them to life." 

"Finding new technologies to reinventthe legal industry and reshape how business is conducted, is what NextLaw Labsis all about," Jansen explained. "We are looking for startups,entrepreneurs, VC’s, established vendors – anyone who wants to join ourinnovation ecosystem and work together to build and bring to market newproducts and services, whether through direct investments in existing companiesor by building our own suite of services within NLL." 

For Dentons, NextLaw Labs fulfills a pledgeit made to reinvent client service by harnessing new technologies that enhanceclient support and deliver higher quality services while improvingconfidentiality and data security. 

About Dentons 

Dentons is a global law firm driven toprovide clients a competitive edge in an increasingly complex andinterconnected world. A top 20 firm on the Acritas 2014 Global Elite BrandIndex, Dentons is committed to challenging the status quo in deliveringconsistent and uncompromising quality in new and inventive ways. Dentons wasformed by the combination of international law firm Salans LLP, Canadian lawfirm Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP (FMC) and international law firm SNR Denton. 

In 2015, the Firm announced its intentionto combine with Chinese firm 大成 and US firm McKenna Long & Aldridge. Upon launch, the new firmwill offer clients experience from more than 6600 lawyers and professionals inmore than 125 locations and 50 countries across Africa, Asia Pacific, Canada,Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Russia, CIS and the Caucasus, the UK,and the US. The firm serves the local, regional and global needs of a broadspectrum of clients, including private and public corporations; governments andgovernment agencies; small businesses and startups; entrepreneurs; andindividuals. 

About NextLaw Labs 

NextLaw Labs is a business acceleratorfocused on investing in, developing and deploying new technologies to transformthe practice of law. It is an autonomous, wholly-owned subsidiary of global lawfirm Dentons with physical and virtual locations in technology centersworldwide. Through complementary and strategic partnerships with leadingtechnology companies, startups, other business accelerators and establishedlegal vendors, NextLaw Labs will invest in promising companies and develop asuite of new technologies that fundamentally change the practice of law,improving client service and enhancing client solutions.