Part of it is the inherently risk averse/conservative orientation of the legal field (much of it arguably justified in the sense that in a field where extreme p

Part of it is the inherently risk averse/conservative orientation of the legal field (much of it arguably justified in the sense that in a field where extreme precision of language is a minimum, and strict auditing common, the "fast and loose" approach of agile-centric startup culture runs contra to a lot of legal instincts. Another commenter laid it out well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9528423 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9528423 "Startups practicing law (rather than providing law-related services other than legal practice) are difficult given restrictions on the practice of law, including legal ethics rules (e.g., things like ABA Model Rule 5.4(d) [0].) Also, while in other industries if you break the rules of the industry the corporation pays a fine (which is part of the risk of a startup) and the principals all move on with their lives and livelihoods. Lawyers who break the rules of their industry can be disbarred. While this doesn't completely stop all move-fast-and-break-things in the field, it does limit the willingness of people in the field to engage in it." That said, I think there are areas where some innovation could occur, particularly around e-discovery and in lexical search/dbs.