India's largest and leading full service law firm, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM), has set up India's first legal tech incubator called 'Prarambh'. 

Filling a gap in India

Prarambh will work with young entrepreneurs to come up with new technology-based solutions for the legal industry, including areas such as access to justice, dispute resolution, transaction efficiencies, law firm operations, legal research, compliance. Prarambh will initially be housed at the New Delhi office of CAM, and later extended to other locations. Cyril Shroff, managing partner at CAM, said, ‘the potential is enormous. During our initial exploration, we found that a great deal of legal technology being used in other jurisdictions is not fully suited to the Indian legal market. This means there is both 'need gap' and an 'adjustment gap' that we are seeking to fill. CAM also believes that there is a deep pool of undiscovered and under-supported legal and technology skills in India that can be fostered to fill this gap. I am extremely confident that Prarambh has all the ingredients to radically transform legal-tech landscape impacting both transactions and dispute resolution, CAM is setting the ball rolling for emergence of India as an important player in this legal technology domain.’

Ideal platform

Applications will be open to technology start-ups developing products or services for the legal industry. Initially, 3 to 4 high-potential startups will be selected. These new businesses will be supported by Prarambh to bring their ideas to fruition, and guided to make them a commercial success. The incubator will also be guided by a board of 'mentors' assembled by CAM for this purpose. Under the guidance of MrShroff, Prarambh will be led by Komal Gupta, head of artificial intelligence & innovation at the CAM. Mr Gupta said, ‘with the Firm's lineage, brand, infrastructure, subject matter expertise across domains, empathy, and expert mentorship, Prarambh is the ideal incubation platform. We are confident that it will truly enable start-ups in India to develop world class legal technology solutions.’ Applications for selection to Prarambh will remain open from 8th April 2019 to 30th April 2019. The announcement of successful candidates will be made in the 1st week of July 2019, and the successful startups will move in to firm's premises at a suitable date in the next 4 -6 weeks thereafter.