Company’s growth plans include both an upscale in workforce and rollout of new products
Even though Clio set a record for the largest venture investment ever in a Canadian technology company, its most significant growth has been outside of Canada. The Burnaby-based legal tech giant is now looking to change that by doubling down on its operations in Canada.
Clio’s former senior manager for the solutions engineering team, Luke Slan, will spearhead that effort. Slan, whose new title will be general manager, Canada, spoke to Canadian Lawyer about the company’s expansion plans.
Slan, who is also marking his seventh anniversary with the company, says the time is ripe for the company’s major expansion in Canada as an increasing number of legal professionals embrace cloud-based services.
“Clio's had a lot of investment into Canada since its inception back in 2008. We've serviced the markets, serviced legal professionals, and made a lot of inroads with our clients … and this will really just be doubling down on that investment and helping our localization efforts better serving our customers”, Slan says.
“It's a Canada push,” Slan says, adding that the expansion will mean hiring more people across Canada, and not only in Ontario, where it has already grown in its new Toronto office.
“We want to bring localized products to market, and we want to transform the legal experience for all Canadians. We're looking for folks from all over the country to work from one of our hub offices, whether that's Toronto, Burnaby or Calgary”, Slan said, adding that there are 76 open positions in Clio’s Toronto office now.
Based on its careers page, the company expects to expand the workforce by 103 employees.
The expansion will also include opening new positions and rolling out new products tailored for Canada’s legal professionals.
In 2024, Clio added a customer relationship management tool and a payment processing product to its software portfolio. Slan adds that they plan to bring other products in their suite to market over the coming years.
Rather than focusing on a specific metric such as revenue, number of users, profitability, or workforce headcount, he favours “a holistic lens,” to measure the success of Clio’s efforts.
“In a few years, we want to look back and see Clio as a market leader for legal services in Canada,” he says.
Prior to taking on the role of Clio’s main executive for Canada, Slan spent seven years at the company, starting as an account executive and eventually landing a senior manager role in the solutions engineering team.
He hopes this range of functions and tasks will help him succeed in obtaining a more substantial presence for Clio in Canada. He says his role in the engineering team taught him how to effectively interact directly with the product teams and Clio’s customers and bridge the gap between an idea for a product and users’ needs.
While the new role will require a focus on the strategic level, Slan guesses there will be equal opportunity to maintain a hands-on approach.
“Hopefully, the seesaw will be balanced right in the middle. I think both sides are important. I'm not scared to roll up my sleeves and get dirty as I believe that being an operator is one of the most fun things about this opportunity to continue to build out and lead this expansion,” he says.
The legal industry is no outlier in its growing attention to artificial intelligence, and legal software is often mentioned in any conversation about the future of legal practice.
On the other hand, because of all the buzz automation is getting in the legal sphere, Slan thinks that we are still at the early stage of AI. At this stage, assessing what the future brings and what advanced AI systems can do for lawyers isn't easy.
Slan says Clio is currently harnessing AI to allow lawyers to focus more on the practice itself rather than the entrepreneurial side of being a part of a law firm.
“One of the key things we like to focus on is enabling lawyers to focus on the practice of law rather than the business of law, and Clio is very helpful in focusing on the business of law in terms of the automation, the workflows and the consolidation that we offer to our clients,” he says.
He added that security and regulation will become increasingly important as AI adoption unfolds, but he stresses that interest in AI is extremely high. Clio Duo, the company’s foray into the AI arena, had the fastest adoption rate among its entire portfolio of products.
In practical terms, the company uses AI mostly to summarize documents and analyze differences in text.
“It helps lawyers stay on track with what tasks they need to prioritize or gives them updates on certain matters, or reminds them if they have it track their time,” Slan says.
He says law firms “need to focus on finding providers and vendors who can ensure security and ensure they are taking a tactical and measured approach to” artificial intelligence.
In 2021, Clio was valued at US$1.6 billion when the company raised more than US$100 million in a series E financing round. In 2024, Clio announced a record-setting raise of US$900 million, at a US$3 billion valuation, in an oversubscribed series F investment round.
While it may be too early to talk about the next financing round, Slan sees these rounds as a sign that the company is on the right track.
“Ultimately, the goal is to be an enduring, 100-year company. And I think we’re well on our way to being that. … It’s awesome to lead this team that will double down on our investment here” in Canada, Slan says.
