Legal.io Newsletter - August 6, 2021

Published weekly on Friday, the Legal.io Newsletter covers the latest in legal, talent & tech.

Legal.io Newsletter - August 6, 2021

News 

Legal tech investment is at an all-time high, with investment at $1.41B in the first half of 2021, while M&A in the sectors hit an all-time high with 87 deals from January to June 2021. More here

Canada Joins Non-Lawyer Legal Service Ownership - Last year, British Columbia launched a regulatory sandbox and now, both BC and Ontario are following in Utah's experimentation with non-lawyer owned law firms. More here

"Yes, AI Can Be an Inventor" - An Australian court has ruled that artificially intelligent machine can be an inventor. Robert Abbot, a University of Surrey law professor, started putting out patent applications in 17 different countries this year - some of which included a creative neural system dubbed DABUS, as the inventor. More here

Amazon Fined Nearly $1B - The European Union has hit the famous internet marketplace with an $888M penalty following the company's violations of the GDPR. More here

Davis Polk Vaccine Mandate - Several BigLaw firms are started to require employees to be vaccinated if they are returning to the office. Davis Polk might have the strictest policy of all; the firm plans to deactivate building ID cards for anyone who doesn't get their vaccination by the end of business Sept. 12. More here

Lightning Law Technologies Raises $1M Seed Round - the Seattle-based, woman-led remote litigation startup is focused on building an end-to-end platform for remote testimony, mediations and legal proceedings. More here

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