The growing adoption of application programming interfaces (APIs) by law firms has led to the diversification of their data sourcing needs. As a result, they are now accessing data from myriad external sources to fulfill a wide range of purposes, which span from building analytics and gathering intelligence on their clients and competitors, to developing proprietary AI tools among others.
This burgeoning use of APIs has, in turn, led to a rise in the number of legal data vendors who offer APIs. This presents a significant challenge for law firms as they must navigate the saturated market to opt for the most fitting vendor. A slew of aspects should be thoroughly evaluated before a decision is made.
Critical questions that law firms need to ask vendors before choosing one have been presented by Josh Blandi, CEO and co-founder of court data provider UniCourt. In his recent article, ‘API Checklist for Law Firms: Choosing the Right Legal Data Vendor‘, Blandi offers a list of ten considerations a firm should bear in mind when picking an API vendor. The foundational take-away from his guidance is that the steady expansion of the legaltech ecosystem intimates a broad array of vendor choices for law firms, making it simultaneously diverse, but challenging to pick the right API partner.
Blandi’s article and similar resources for legal professionals seeking to increase their understanding and evaluation of legal technology can be found in the LawNext Legal Technology Directory‘s resource center. The valuable content is available to legal tech experts and users looking to deepen their knowledge of and effectively navigate the ever-expanding legaltech landscape.