Legal tech made simple

In our latest podcast, Dom talks to Christophe Frèrebeau, the co-founder and CEO of Della, a European tech company based in Paris and London whose mission is to democratise the use of AI. 

Della's typical customers are legal departments who want more consistency in the way they manage their contracts, particularly as teams increasingly work remotely; and European law firms who are accelerating the adoption of tech. 

 Della makes AI solutions that lawyers want to use, that are easy to use and that fit in with the way they work. Christophe explains that AI is there to help and support the lawyer but the lawyer remains firmly in the driving seat.  Recently, people have been working with more tools, and integration with other technology platforms and tools is key.  The adoption of tech by lawyers and the tech itself will keep evolving which is super exciting but also means that the legal function will change and studying how to use AI is important for lawyers today.

Tune in to find out more.

This week I had the pleasure of speaking to two of SYKE's brightest sparks, Laura and Becca. Both of whom started out as junior engineers, but since joining the company have had the opportunity to work on some high profile projects.

They tell me what it is like being given responsibility, access to customers, and the trust to try things out and learn by making mistakes.

Becca joined from the University of Manchester where she studied law and politics, having flipped a coin.

Both Laura and Becca have had the courage to say yes, whenever an opportunity to learn has presented itself, and would encourage others in their old shoes at Uni or studying A levels to do the same.

As an old fogie it's inspiring to hear their stories. 

This week I had the pleasure of speaking to Chris Kitchener of HighQ fame.

A driven product leader with over 15 years of product strategy and product management expertise in large organisations.  Chris is now in charge of helping HighQ fit elegantly into the full suite of Thomson Reuters products, be that document automation and Contract Express, or Legal Tracker.

He has a pilot's licence, is a techy from his uni days, and has a passion for the customer - who doesn't really care about the clever tech under the bonnet - they just want it to work smoothly.  

Chris is focussed on delivering  great products, delighting customers and creating business value through operational and strategic excellence. 

He has a great CV, and a track record of delivering results across multiple industries, organisations, functions and teams. 

Tune in to hear what he has to say.

Olga V. Mack, CEO & Chairwoman of Parley Pro, a modern, (and truly!) collaborative, and intuitive contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform that has pioneered online negotiation technology. 

Olga loves legal innovation and has dedicated her career to improving and shaping the future of law. She's convinced the legal profession will emerge even stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive than before by embracing technology.

She is an award-winning general counsel, operations professional, startup advisor, public speaker, adjunct professor, and entrepreneur. She co-founded SunLaw, an organization dedicated to preparing female in-house attorneys to become general counsels and legal leaders, and WISE to help female law firm partners become rainmakers.

Now CEO and Chairwoman at Parley Pro, Olga and her team are using smart collaboration,  speeding up contract cycles by seamlessly bringing together people and data in one transparent workspace. 

This is a short interview, but Olga being Olga, she packs a lot in. Enjoy!

In this episode I caught up with Agiloft’s new (ish) CEO Eric Laughlin. He tells me all about the  company’s recent $45m investment. 

Bootstrapped since its inception in 1990 and profitable, Agiloft’s this is the company’s first round of external funding and will be used to accelerate its product development and expand its vertical and geographic market presence.

Eric most recently served as global leader of legal managed services at EY, where he managed the Pangea3 and Riverview Law teams. Prior to EY he was managing director of the corporate segment within Thomson Reuters and used to run Serengeti, which went on to become Legal Tracker. 

Like me, he's not a lawyer, but unlike me, he's a super smart guy who is at the forefront of legal engineering and enterprise transformation.

He see contracts as the DNA in an organisation - and thinks companies should care about what is deep coded within them so they understand their risks, but also can benefit more fully from what is contained with in them.

He also is passionate about culture and the relationships his teams build with customers.  Eric says being relationship driven and being very transparent, are cornerstones of any good culture and definitely Agiloft's.

Pieter van der Hoeven and Bram Fokke founded Clocktimizer together in 2014. Since then they’ve grown the team to 19 employees.

Pieter set the groundwork for Clocktimizer at university in Utrecht where he studied law. Upon completing his Masters in Law Pieter went to work for international law firm DLA Piper. It was during his time at DLA, and a secondment to KPN, that Pieter thought up the idea for Clocktimizer. 

He'd spent one too many evenings pouring over spreadsheets trying to provide clients with transparency, prompting the need for automation. Instead of manually transferring data from timesheets to Excel, Pieter looked to Natural Language Processing. 

After discussing the idea over 2012’s Christmas Dinner, Pieter and his co-founder Bram shook hands and agreed to start a business together. They began building the MVP in 2013, while Pieter was doing an MBA in Rotterdam and Madrid.

He now feels data is coming of age. Window dressing is not going to cut it anymore. Law firms are going to have to back up what they say with numbers. 

He truly believes the pandemic was the last push that in-house teams needed to stop accepting a situation where someone said, this is going to cost you X and turned out to be 5X . Those days are gone.

Tune in to hear more of what Pieter had to say.

This week I had the pleasure of speaking to Stephen Ball, CEO at Boost Legal. 

Stephen is a General Counsel by trade, with 25 years 'hands-on' in-house experience for companies across US, EU, Middle East, Russia and Africa. 

He has a strong track record of international leadership, designing, managing and coaching high performing legal, risk & compliance and corporate development functions.

He has a passion for leading initiatives to transform and modernize legal functions to realize more value, improve strategic integration and develop legal as a competitive differentiator.
He combines what he learned at Motorola, Six Sigma principles, with an aptitude for creative thinking, white boarding concepts with high performance professionals in the fields of sports and military special forces. 

Tune in to hear what he's got to say.

This week I had the pleasure of catching up with Olga Gezha, who leads the SYKE presence in Russia.

Olga was a customer of SYKE's when she led a team at Pizza Hut UK, having previously worked within the Yum! Brands in Russia at KFC before relocating to London.

She has since returned to Russia and is now a leading figure in the legal tech scene there, having recently appeared at Pravo Tech in Moscow.

Olga has a masters degree in legal tech and has been involved with contract lifecycle management since 2013.

She is passionate about the role technology can play in making lawyer's lives easier - but understands the importance of bringing them with you, and making the case for why they should adopt new systems.

Tune in to hear more.

This week I spoke to Giles Thompson, Head of Growth at Avvoka.

A lawyer by trade (formerly Kirkland & Ellis and Herbert Smith Freehills) he is a tech investor and entrepreneur. 

He has a degree in political science and as the son of a farmer, also thinks of himself as an agriculturalist and foodie.

Giles is excited by the future of legal tech and document automation. This month the company is launching its partnership with the Loan Market Association, giving those in the banking and finance sector the opportunity to use pre-automated agreements when striking a deal.

Avvoka already has experience of multiple banks involved in a dynamic contract negotiation, with 18 parties successfully collaborating on the platform.

Tune in to hear more.

 

Claire is a Principal and National Teaching Fellow of the HEA and a highly innovative lecturer. 

Claire is a Principal and National Teaching Fellow of the HEA and a highly innovative lecturer. She is the Director of External Relations in the School of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Humanities Leadership in Education Awards Programme (LEAP) Champion. Prior to that, she was the Director of Learning and Teaching at the School of Law (2017-2019). 

Claire has a passion for modernisation, developing new skills, new initiatives, and new ways of engaging students academically and professionally. Her efforts are recognised at all levels-regionally, nationally and internationally. 

She runs the Miscarriages of Justice Review Centre-The Manchester Innocence Project, and is currently developing the skills of students in legal tech as part of the Manchester Legal Tech Initiative. 

Claire encourages her students to show initiative, volunteer, and follow legal tech innovators on social media, and offers further advice to students who are considering alternative legal career paths. 

Tune in to learn more.