Artificial Lawyer reports that the global law firm Allen & Overy, always on the forefront of law-related technology, has just released three new “legal and RegTech” apps through its growing online subscription service, aosphere. The new apps, created using the Neota Logic platform, offer tools to clients with cross-border legal issues in three specific areas: Marketing Unregistered Funds into Europe; G20 Equivalence; and Initial Thresholds.

These apps add to the arsenal of tools available to clients of aosphere – described by Allen & Overy as an “online affiliate” of the firm – which charges an annual subscription fee rather than hourly rates to help clients “reduce legal, regulatory and operational risk.” Allen & Overy says that the apps “represent an important step towards making complex legal data easier and quicker for clients to access.”

The Artificial Lawyer wonders if, by “creating new tools and services for their client base to make direct use of, without the supervision of their own lawyers,” the aosphere apps may also represent a new stage in the evolution of “Legal Tech as a Service”  (LTaaS) – in the style of the now-widespread concept of Software as a Service (SaaS).

It seems that financial services clients are embracing the aosphere approach. Says executive director Clare Godson, “These apps are already helping persuade clients to choose us over our competitors.”

How does the concept of “LTaaS” coincide with the ways in which your law firm offers legal services in an increasingly self-directed digital world? I welcome your thoughts on this and any other matter relating to the law, either in the comments section below or directly via email.