Legal Geek, the main contractor to the government-backed LawtechUK initiative, has been acquired by transatlantic legal information giant Law Business Research (LBR). The deal, announced last week, adds Legal Geek to LBR's events portfolio which includes major US legal tech conference, Legalweek New York. 

Legal Geek's founders Jimmy Vestbirk and Beth Fellner will remain with the business and continue to run the Legal Geek portfolio - including its London event tomorrow. 

Nick Brailey, chief executive of LBR, said: 'We have long admired Legal Geek – the team have built a fantastic business that is unique in the industry. We are excited to support Jimmy and Beth in this next chapter of growth, and explore how we might leverage our multiple brands and existing events over time.'

Legal Geek helped transform the lawtech sector from a niche branch of enterprise technology into a dynamic start-up ecosystem. It was founded in 2015 by Vestbirk, who organised casual lawtech meetups for lawtech start-up founders and innovators in San Francisco and London. These were speed networking sessions featuring 'high fives', beer and pizza. In 2016 he organised London’s first lawtech hackathons (where teams had 48 hours to brainstorm a new idea and a way of delivering it), and launched the first Legal Geek conference with the mission to make London a global hub for lawtech start-ups. It was the first legal tech event to focus on community before content, connecting young founders with investors and traditional pillars of the legal and legal tech establishment.

As Vestbirk said at the time, 'This is not about selling; it’s about giving, and having the right mindset – and having fun.'

Ten years on, Legal Geek’s four events retain the original festival vibe. The flagship Legal Geek conference, which attracts lawtechs from all over the world, and Legal Geek Growth for small and medium-sized firms, are held in London; Legal Geek North America is in Chicago; and Legal Geek Europe is in Amsterdam. Since 2023, Legal Geek, in partnership with Edinburgh-based tech incubator Codebase, has delivered Lawtech UK which in March was awarded an additional £1.5m of government funding to run until April next year. Legal Geek also has its own programme for early stage start-ups from around the world and publishes a lawtech start-up map and a monthly newsletter.

The rationale for the acquisition is the same for many founders: the opportunity to scale up and expand internationally. 'Legal Geek has always been about community and connections,' Vestbirk said. 'With the growth of legal tech globally, now is the right time to be acquired, giving us the support to grow the business. We have a small passionate team who are all based in the UK. As we look to other geographies, it makes sense for us to have a partner that already has a global footprint.

'We will benefit from ALM’s existing event portfolio, which includes Legalweek and the Law.com platform, as well as the Law Business Research portfolio of information services, which includes the Lexology platform. This will give us the opportunity to take Legal Geek to the next level, while continuing to deliver Lawtech UK,' he added.

Vestbirk said he is confident that the acquisition will deepen Legal Geek’s relationship with the UK legal establishment. 'LBR already has multiple relationships and partnerships with professional associations, including the Law Society and we’re excited to strengthen these and explore what we can do together.'

'We are being acquired because of the Legal Geek magic, which is part of our DNA,' Vestbirk said. 'LBR/ALM are not going to change that and want to support our long-term growth. You can expect lots of high fives and speed networking!'