The legal system is complex, hard to understand, expensive to navigate, and ripe for disruption.

In the future, we will still need lawyers to help us understand the law, but it look like we are going to need far fewer of them than we have today.

Nozo Tsunoda is an attorney who walked away from a promising legal career to start LegalOn, an AI startup focused on making the practice of law more efficient, transparent, and easy to navigate.

We talk about why corporate legal departments are the early adopters, but why AI technology is forcing its way even into the most traditional law firms, and how it might someday be used by consumers as well.

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Show Notes

Why it's hard to sell AI technology to law firms
How AI is starting to change the way law firms compete

Why Nozo left the law to start a legal startup

The contract review workflow and why it's perfect for AI disruption
How many lawyers will AI replace in the next five years?
Differences in how US and Japanese staff view working from home
A $100M investment in US market entry
Differences between Japanese and American legal systems
Can today's AI understand contracts better than a junior associate?
The big changes AI will force on the legal industry
The need for more immigration in Japan

Links from the Founders

Everything you wanted to know LegalOn

Their US website

Learn about LegalOn's Products

Japan Products

LegalForce
LegalForce Cabinet

US Products

Read about LegalOn's US market expansion

Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan. Straight Talk from Japan's most successful entrepreneurs.
I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.
Of all the industries that are going to be impacted by artificial intelligence, the legal profession is going to be one of the most profoundly transformed.
And today we sit down and talk with Nozo Tsunoda, a licensed attorney and the founder of LegalOn a rapidly growing startup using AI to review and manage contracts. And while their initial clients have been mostly corporate legal departments, Nozo explains how AI is beginning to force changes to the behavior of even traditional legal firms.
Now if you're in the US you might not have heard of LegalOn yet, but you'll be hearing a lot about them soon. Nozo and the team recently raised over a hundred million in large part to fuel their recent US market entry.
Nozo and I talk about the challenges of selling increased efficiency to lawyers who bill by the hour LegalOn’s US expansion plans, and how AI is going to change the entire legal industry.
But, you know, Nozo tells that story much better than I can. So, let's get right to the interview.
 
Interview
Tim: So, I'm sitting here with Nozo Tsunoda of LegalOn, who's using artificial intelligence to simplify and improve contract review and management. So, thanks for sitting down with us.
Nozo: Thank you.
Tim: Well, listen, I gave a really brief description of what LegalOn does, but I'm sure you can explain it much better than I did. So, what does LegalOn do?
Nozo: LegalOn technology is legal tech companies. I found it seven years ago, and now we have three solutions. And globally we have four solutions and globally we have 3,700 customers.
Tim: Well, but to get to the basics for some listeners who might not understand anything about the legal process, so what is the service that LegalOn provides?
Nozo: For contract area we have three product for pre-ex execution process of contract drafting or review. And second product is for contract management.
Tim: So, contracts is a very, very broad subject. So, LegalOn focus is mostly on things like NDAs and purchase agreements and things like that.
Nozo: Yes, of course we can support NDA, purchase agreement or service agreement, but we can review 50 types of contracts for the market.
Tim: Tell me a bit about your customers. So,