This year’s ABA TECHSHOW will again feature the Startup Alley — the fourth year of what has become a signature TECHSHOW event. Fifteen legal tech startups will be selected to exhibit in a special Startup Alley within the exhibit hall, as well as to face off in an opening-night pitch competition judged by conference attendees.

Again this year, I will be working with the TECHSHOW planning board to organize and moderate the competition. And already this year, I have received a number of inquiries about the competition. So here is an advance look at the schedule.

As a reminder of how this works, we will issue a call for entries. From all the entries we receive, a panel of judges will whittle the applications down to 25. Those 25 will be posted online for the public-at-large to vote on. Your votes will decide the 15 startups that make it to TECHSHOW.

Here are the key dates:

  • Sept. 30: We will post the call for entries, with full details on the criteria and process for applying. This will be posted here on LawSites, on the TECHSHOW blog, and in my column on Above the Law.
  • Oct. 31: Deadline for entries. No entries will be accepted after this date.
  • Nov. 1-Nov. 15: Judges will review the entries and pick the 25 finalists.
  • Nov. 18: Finalists will be posted for reader voting.
  • Nov. 18-Dec. 6: Readers vote.
  • Dec. 9: Final 15 winners named.

If you are a startup interested in entering this competition, watch for the call for entries on Sept. 30. We will provide full details at that time.

This year’s TECHSHOW is Feb. 26-29, 2020, in Chicago.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.