At the Legal Geek conference in London, the close link between innovation and culture was explored in depth. So is there a recipe for a Legal Geek? How can the legal sector bring all the ingredients together to deliver on the promise of legal tech?
Waiting for a ‘Kodak moment’
Lawyers tend to be cynics, and the training reinforces that. Nick West, Chief Strategy Officer at Mishcon De Reya, explained that when it comes to technology lawyers tend to focus on the danger, not the benefit. The culture of experimentation, which tends to be required as part of adoption of a new technology, sits at odds with the focus on quality and client experience that are at the heart of how a law firm operates.
But business as usual is not an option. Reviewing 100,000 near-identical documents by hand is not just tedious but counterproductive. Automation won’t remove the need for lawyers; rather, it will stimulate demand and free up lawyer time to focus on more value-adding services. Noah Waisberg from Kira Systems referenced the ‘Jevons Paradox’: technological progress increases the efficiency with which a resource is used, but the rate of consumption increases because of the rise in demand.
The ‘Kodak moment’ for law firms is coming, according to Richard Goold from EY. Not in the original sense of the happy snapshot to remember, but the reality of an opportunity missed, by failing to embrace the potential of a new technology.
We need everybody
David Curle gave a snapshot of what Legal Tech actually means. It isn’t just one thing – it’s highly fragmented: different technologies; different applications; different markets. Tackling the challenges and the opportunities that legal tech presents will require a range of different skillsets to come together: legal practitioners, academics, data scientists, legal operations managers, designers and more. We need everybody.
In a section themed around the important link between culture and innovation, James Moore discussed his experiments bringing together developers and marketers, but forcing them to spend time at the start of a project working jointly, rather than rushing off straight away to focus on what they do best. It’s important to build the mutual understanding within a team and not just rush back to your silo. As Nick West put it, lawyers don’t need to understand how the tech works, but they do need to have had experience of it.
At Thomson Reuters Labs, innovation and partnership are our two guiding principles when we create proof-of-concepts with our customers. Our team is already inherently multi-disciplinary – data scientists mix with data visualisation and user experience design specialists with a range of professional backgrounds, including qualified lawyers. Added to that mix we bring domain expertise from across the business and, importantly, our customers.
Are you a biller? Or are you a builder?
During a panel that discussed the factors investors look for in a legal tech business, Suranga Chandratillake, Marie Bernard, Vanessa Cowling and Anna Hyde all agreed that a founder who has lived with the problem they are tackling is key. If you’re a lawyer, why would you leave to create a start-up? It isn’t the financial incentive; you have to be passionate about what you’re doing.
As Casey Kuhlman put it, are you a biller or are you a builder? Embracing legal tech and delivering on its potential requires a mindset change across a range of groups, including law firms, to do things differently. We all need to be builders.
