India’s largest and leading full service law firm, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, has set up India’s first legal tech incubator ‘Prarambh’.
On setting up of Prarambh, Cyril Shroff, Managing Partner, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, said “Our Firm has a proud tradition of innovating in the Indian legal market. We have been first to adopt a number of new technologies in the legal space, such as artificial intelligence based machine learning, and we are now the first to support and incubate technology start-ups. Our DNA is to be a pioneer in evolving practices and technologies, we believe that we can support our clients, our lawyers and enhance the services provided through this.”
Prarambh will work with young entrepreneurs to come up with new technology-based solutions for the legal industry. This will include areas related to:
- access to justice
- dispute resolution
- transaction efficiencies
- law firm operations
- legal research
- compliance
- contract management
- managing legal talent
- others
Prarambh will initially be housed at the New Delhi office of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, and later extended to other locations.
Discussing the potential of Prarambh, Cyril Shroff explained, “The potential is enormous. During our initial exploration, we found that a great deal of legal technology being used in other jurisdictions is not fully suited to the Indian legal market. This means there is both “need gap” and an “adjustment gap” that we are seeking to fill. CAM also believes that there is a deep pool of undiscovered and under-supported legal and technology skills in India that can be fostered to fill this gap. I am extremely confident that Prarambh has all the ingredients to radically transform legal-tech landscape impacting both transactions and dispute resolution, CAM is setting the ball rolling for emergence of India as an important player in this legal technology domain.”
Applications will be open to technology start-ups developing products or services for the legal industry. Initially, 3 to 4 high-potential startups will be selected. These new businesses will be supported by Prarambh to bring their ideas to fruition, and guided to make them to commercial success. (Click here for details and updates). The incubator will also be guided by a board of “mentors” assembled by CAM for this purpose
Under the guidance of Cyril Shroff, Prarambh will be led by Komal Gupta, Head – Artificial Intelligence & Innovation, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, who said, “With the Firm’s lineage, brand, infrastructure, subject matter expertise across domains, empathy, and expert mentorship, Prarambh is the ideal incubation platform. We are confident that it will truly enable start-ups in India to develop world class legal technology solutions.”
Applications for selection to Prarambh will remain open from 8th April 2019 to 30th April 2019 (form will be available on http://www.cyrilshroff.com/innovation-lab/). The list of shortlisted start-ups will be announced on 31st May 2019. The candidates would be invited for interview and to make a pitch in June 2019, which will be followed by announcement of successful candidates in the 1st week of July 2019. The successful startups will move in to firm’s premises at a suitable date in the next 4 -6 weeks thereafter.
