On Monday, June 18th, the Senate hosted a conference on Legaltech. Among the distinguished speakers was the President of the National Bar Council (CNB), Christiane Féral-Schuhl. As reported by Le Monde du Droit , she considers the CNB to be the leading Legaltech company in France: "Its avocats.fr portal brings together 9.200 lawyers online, generating 32.000 consultations annually for a total revenue of €2 million ." To establish itself as the leading Legaltech company, its President undoubtedly attributes this to the technological tools developed by the CNB, primarily the RPVA ( Virtual Private Network for Lawyers ), also known as E-barreau.
How does the RPVA / E-barreau work?
The French Lawyers' Virtual Private Network (RPVA) is the secure computer network for the legal profession in France. It is used for electronic communications between lawyers, particularly in the context of the digitization of procedures with the courts, which are themselves interconnected through the Justice Virtual Private Network (RPVJ). It was created in 2005. (Source: Wikipedia)
The RPVA also makes it possible to secure electronic communications and the firm's computer network thanks to:
- a firewall certified by the French government
- data encryption, also certified by ANSSI, distributed by the firm to the lawyers' cloud
- strong authentication of lawyers and electronic signature by certificates.
This network presented at the time all the characteristics of innovation at the service of its members: developed by the Order, for the benefit of lawyers throughout France, with the aim of simplifying communication with judges, and simple to use.
Is RPVA a Legaltech feature?
The tool was gradually modernized, first by allowing (partial) interoperability with cloud solutions (Jarvis Legal was the first certified cloud publisher). Then, the removal of the Navista box reinforced mobility and multi-equipment uses.
RPVA is therefore an open and cloud product. From this point of view, its use is worthy of being considered tech and therefore belonging to the legaltech family. The fact that publishers can interface with it, to facilitate the transfer of information and email exchanges, is an important advantage. Likewise, access to the platform has become free of any hardware, which is also good news.
However, several difficulties remain. First, the interface with the RPVA is limited. There is not yet the possibility of completely integrating the folder trees of your management solution with ebarreau. The same goes for email exchanges and their notification, which are difficult to integrate into your practice management software. Finally, the connection key is a barrier to real mobile use, particularly smartphones.
RPVA, digital innovation or Legaltech revolution?
The term Legaltech is very fashionable. Many players claim to be legaltech, including a certain number of software publishers. However, digital and legaltech should not be confused. Otherwise, does developing a mobile application make you a legaltech? Or offer a digital portal?
Beyond functionality, it is also the use and the economic model that defines a legaltech. Some characteristics that legaltechs share:
- be a start-up or at least a young agile company.
- an original economic model
- real data sharing via API (technical protocol for sharing data between applications)
- put the user at the center of the approach (in this case the lawyer)
- ergonomics and new functional ease
From this point of view, the CNB, through the RPVA or the lawyer's act which are useful technological innovations although they require updates, is not legaltech. Simply an organization that is modernizing, which is already remarkable!