The legal tech market has long pitted the size and scope of well-established legacy companies against the nimbleness of startups eager to bring a new approach to old problems. Still, whether or not smaller entrants to the technology space are truly the David to an incumbent provider's Goliath is likely a question of resources, software quality and, of course, the customer base they are competing over in the first place.

And in the long run, even those dynamics may not be impervious to change. "What made David and Goliath interesting is it's not that Goliath is necessarily better than David. He's just bigger and stronger," said Zach Abramowitz, a consultant and investor in the legal technology space.