This is the season for legal tech announcements, whether they be about new or improved products or significant mergers, acquisitions, and funding. One announcement recently caught my eye, though, not because the product was cool or the merger lucrative. It was because it involved a big legal tech company simply doing good. Doing the right thing.
On October 19, LexisNexis and the National Bar Association (NBA) announced a multi-year agreement to advance the rule of law. The goal is to create programs and initiatives to combat systemic racism and racial inequality. When I dug deeper, I discovered this agreement came about mainly due to the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation’s efforts. We all know about LexisNexis, the behemoth legal tech company with a myriad of products and legal customers. I didn’t realize that LexisNexis also created the Rule of Law Foundation. The Foundation is a not for profit entity whose mission is to advance the rule of law around the world.
The Foundation sees its Rule of Law effort as having four pillars:
equality before the law, independence of the judiciary, the assurance that citizens have access to law, and know what law is and assuring that citizens have access to legal remedies.
Lofty goals.
But I discovered the Foundation is not some pie in the sky nonprofit that pats itself and its donors on the back and