Nominations open today for the second annual American Legal Technology Awards, a competition launched last year to honor exceptional achievements in legal technology.
Awards will be given in eight categories: access to justice, court, enterprise, individual, technology, law department, law firm, and startup.
Deadline for nominations is Aug. 31, 2021. Self-nominations are welcome. Finalists will be announced in October, and winners announced Nov. 1-10.
The ALTA awards were launched last year by Tom Martin, founder of LawDroid; Caitlin Moon, director of innovation design for the Program on Law and Innovation at Vanderbilt Law School; and Patrick Palace, founder of Palace Law in Tacoma, Wash.
“We stay committed to honoring those making a difference with our mission to hold up examples of excellence in creative innovation and technology in the legal industry for the purposes of (1) expanding our understanding of what is possible, (2) encouraging a virtuous cycle of improvement, and (3) creating a more just society,” Martin said in an email.
In conjunction with the awards, the organizers are hosting three so-called Genius Panels, one of which was last month on access to justice. A panel sometime in June will showcase last year’s winners, and one in September will look at the state of the industry with speakers from each of the award’s three sponsors.
Judges for this year’s awards are:
Bahar Ansari, founder and CEO, 2nd.law; Amanda Brown, executive director, Lagniappe Law Lab; Jean Clauson, director of network relations, ARAG Legal Insurance; Felicity Conrad, founder and CEO, Paladin; Gabriela Cubiero, cofounder and CEO, CASEpeer Legal Software; Sam Glover, founder, Lawyerist; Tiffany Graves, pro bono counsel, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP; Ivy Grey, vice president of strategy and business development, WordRake; Natalie Anne Knowlton, director, special projects, Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System; Dan Lear, team member, Gravity Legal; Colin Levy, director of marketing and business development, WordRake; Maya Markovich, chief growth officer, Nextlaw Labs; Irene Mo, senior associate, Aleada Consulting; and Dorna Moini, cofounder and CEO, Documate.
Also: Nicole Morris, director of TI:GER and professor in practice, Emory University; Yvonne Nath, CEO, ALSP Advisor LLC; Nick Rishwain, vice president of business development at Experts.com; Daniel Rodriguez, Harold Washington professor and former dean, Northwestern University School of Law; Shannon Salter, chair of the Civil Resolution Tribunal; Judge Scott Schlegel, 24th Judicial District, Louisiana; Janine Sickmeyer, founder and managing director, NextChapter; Quinten Steenhuis, clinical fellow, Suffolk University Law School; Alex Su, director of business development, Evisort; Ed Walters, cofounder and CEO, Fastcase; and Miguel Willis, innovator in residence, Future of the Profession Initiative, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.
