I was shocked last autumn when Rocket Lawyer, the legal technology company backed by Google Ventures, scored a deal with the ABA to test its services. Now I am fascinated by what brought this experiment to a halt.Had the state bar associations where the program was tested said that the service was not in the best interests of the lawyers they served, that would have been understandable. But according to this article, the bar associations themselves exhibited shameful self-interest:
“ABA Law Connect was tested in California, Illinois and Pennsylvania for roughly three months before being shut down in January. In two of the three test states—Pennsylvania and Illinois—the state bar associations struck back against the program, in part because they feared it would take business away from state and local bar referral services, which generate revenue for bar groups.”
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