From Munich to Nairobi: Bridging Continents in Legal Innovation

When thinking of Kenya, primarily images of safaris, wildlife and underdevelopment might come to mind. In terms of legal tech, some may consider technology’s role in improving access to justice, while others might dismiss the potential for sophisticated legal technology in what they perceive as a developing market. But these perceptions only scratch the surface. Kenya’s (legal) tech landscape is far richer and more complex than a Western perspective would assume, offering a dynamic reality that challenges stereotypes and showcases innovation. The synergy of the innovative capacity of the Kenyan people and the country’s legal practice demonstrates a path forward that deserves global attention.

I’m Maria Petrat, a German lawyer and legal innovation expert with eight years of experience in the field. My professional journey in Kenya began in January 2023 when I joined a German-Kenyan professional and legal services firm in Nairobi for the last part of my legal training. While I had visited Africa before for safari holidays, this time I wanted to experience life and work in a buzzing African city – and Nairobi didn’t disappoint. The vibrant energy, the warmth of the people, their entrepreneurial spirit, and the rapid technological advancement I encountered captivated me in an unexpected way.

Driven by curiosity and a desire to connect, I reached out to local fellow legal innovators, quickly building a network that would challenge common preconceptions. The legal professionals I met were not just practicing law; they were often actively seeking ways to innovate and improve legal service delivery through technology. They are combining existing legal traditions with an enthusiasm for technological advancement.

What I discovered was far from the stereotypical image of Africa. Nairobi boasts a vibrant and dynamic tech market, teeming with highly educated talent – the “Silicon Savannah”. This nickname is well-earned: Nairobi ranks as one of the top startup ecosystems in Africa, attracting significant venture capital within the continent and hosting numerous active tech startups. The city’s tech ecosystem is supported by a rapidly growing infrastructure, including numerous co-working spaces, innovation hubs, and accelerator programs that foster technological innovation.

While many budget constraints exist, they often fuel rather than hinder innovation. Many Kenyan startups have developed mobile-first solutions that bypass traditional operations, making services more accessible. A prime example is MPesa, the Kenyan mobile payment service that allows money transfers through phone numbers, used by millions daily in the East African region. This innovation has revolutionized financial inclusion in Kenya and serves as a model for similar solutions worldwide, demonstrating how necessity drives innovation in the Kenyan market.

The general openness to new ideas is palpable, even among lawyers who, as in many parts of the world, can be resistant to change. Kenyan legal professionals, particularly the younger generation, demonstrate remarkable adaptability and enthusiasm for technological solutions. This mindset, combined with the growing demand for more efficient legal services, creates fertile ground for legal tech innovation. This exciting environment, coupled with Nairobi’s quality of life, made my decision to extend my stay an easy one.

Though in the beginning, navigating the local job market had its challenges, my network and determination eventually led me to a great opportunity. I came across 637 Capital, where I now contribute as Head of Legal and Business Development. We are transforming the legal tech landscape in East Africa by providing innovative software solutions. Our approach focuses on practical solutions to real challenges faced by legal professionals in the region. Our core technology converts unstructured data into valuable insights, offering digital tools that streamline workflows and enhance productivity. Additionally, we offer financial consulting services across various industries (hence the name of the company). What makes our approach unique is our deep understanding of both the technical possibilities and the practical needs of legal practitioners in East Africa, while developing the solutions out of Nairobi.

Our flagship product, JibuDocs (jibu meaning “answer”), is an AI-powered document digitization tool that intelligently extracts key information from both physical and digital documents, converting them into searchable, well-organized digital formats. What sets JibuDocs apart is its contextual understanding, ensuring a tailored experience for users regardless of their tech background.

We’ve leveraged this technology to create a powerful research tool, preloaded with over 800,000 prominently East African legal documents, including case law, gazettes, court decisions, and legislation, making it one of the most comprehensive legal resources in the region. The platform offers exceptional searchability and features an AI chatbot to navigate these documents, making complex legal research seamless. The system has been specifically trained on East African legal documents, understanding local legal terminology and context in ways that global solutions often miss. It is also interoperable with existing document management systems and can incorporate an organization’s proprietary data, particularly effective with scanned PDFs—which are still commonly used in local legal practice. Already, many leading law firms and most of the Big Four accounting firms have adopted our tool, recognizing its value in streamlining their operations.

Our innovation extends further into practical applications that address specific challenges in the East African legal system. We developed an online tool to automate the tedious process of tenth-lining documents for Court of Appeal filings, a requirement in local procedural code that previously consumed hours of lawyers’ or pupils’ time. This tool alone has significantly reduced the time lawyers spend on document preparation, allowing them to focus on more strategic aspects of their cases.

In collaboration with PwC, we provide AI-generated summaries of Kenyan Tax Tribunal decisions and share them via newsletter. We established a similar project with a tax professional summarizing the tax decisions history in Namibia, and we also offer our AI summaries for various other courts and official bodies. Additionally, we developed a specialized tool for analysing changes in the Kenyan Finance Bill 2024, created at another Big Four’s request.

Our most recent projects focus on making case law more analysable by leveraging our extensive data repository to identify patterns and trends that can inform legal strategy and decision-making. Furthermore, we are working on an HS code classification tool to support tax/customs professionals in their daily workflows.

These products showcase the versatility of our technology and its ability to adapt to various legal and business needs.

While excellent legal research solutions like LexisNexis or Westlaw exist globally, they often don’t make economic sense for local law firms in Kenya and the region. The reasons extend beyond simple cost considerations. These global platforms, while sophisticated, often lack comprehensive coverage of local legal data. There’s little incentive for law firms to invest hundreds of dollars in research tools that don’t include essential local court decisions or understand regional legal contexts. Due to comparatively low profit margins, the African market remains quite untapped.

JibuDocs addresses this market gap by creating tailor-made tools for the East African legal market’s specific needs. We are not just adapting existing legal tech solutions; we are building robust solutions from the ground up with local needs in mind while meeting the requirements of global compliance checks of the Big Four.

Our technology furthermore establishes a foundation for organizations to implement more advanced AI solutions in the legal sector, thereby serving as a stepping stone to further digital transformation, as high-quality data is fundamental for AI solutions.

Implementing legal tech solutions in East Africa presents unique challenges: budget constraints, varying levels of tech literacy among legal professionals, and the need to accommodate multiple legal systems (common law, civil law) and local customary law. However, these challenges create opportunities for innovative, adaptable solutions that could leapfrog more established but less flexible systems worldwide.

The diversity of legal systems in East Africa, rather than being a hindrance, provides an opportunity to develop more versatile and adaptable solutions. Our experience shows that when technology is designed with these complexities in mind, it can better serve diverse legal needs and potentially offer insights for other legal systems worldwide.

Kenya continues to grow as a hub for tech innovation, not only in legal tech but also in many other, more traditional sectors, for example banking or insurance. With its young and tech-savvy population, growing economic importance, and increasingly sophisticated markets, the region offers fertile ground for transformative (legal) technologies. The combination of local talent, market needs, and available technology creates perfect conditions for thriving innovation.

At 637 Capital, we’re excited to be part of this journey, developing solutions that not only meet local needs but can be adapted for other markets worldwide. Our experience shows that innovation often comes from unexpected places, and the future of legal tech might well be shaped by solutions emerging from the Silicon Savannah.