Technology
Innovators and Disrupters: The Women Leading Lawtech Whether it is creating or using lawtech, women are leading the way in legal innovation, creating new career paths, and disrupting how legal services are delivered Theresa Yurkewich Hoffmann The Lawtech Landscape The UK tech landscape is changing the way lawyers perform legal services and how they deliver those services to clients. Approximately 48% of global lawtech investment is in the UK, with over £61million invested in 20191. The ecosystem is incredibly cutting-edge, bringing together data scientists, innovators, lawyers, and technologies to solve client challenges. Whether it is through incorporating lawtech, or technology more broadly, legal services delivery is becoming increasingly efficient, transparent and accessible. By placing an increased focus on the client and their needs, technology is a useful tool for lawyers to find new ways of delivering value. It has also contributed to a real resilience during the pandemic, enabling businesses continuity and new industry norms. There are vast ways in which technology can assist legal services2. For example, lawtech can include: ■ Basic operations (i.e email, Office 365, video conference tools) ■ Document automation (i.e. template or contract creation) ■ Practice management tools (i.e. billing, case management) ■ Transaction management and collaboration (i.e. checklists, document upload, sign off) ■ Predictive tools (i.e. document analysis) ■ Smart contracts ■ Knowledge management and research systems While some of these areas are more emergent than others, digital transformation has really accelerated over the last year. There is also an increased focus on interoperability between products as the market diversifies, which makes their use easier. For tech solutions looking to scale-up, focusing on userfriendly access in a world where clients have several logins or dashboards to look at will be essential for success. Despite the list of solutions above, this is only the beginning. There is certainly still a lot to be discovered. This includes how lawyers capture and analyse data, incorporate the full functionalities of cloud or AI into their IT systems, or utilise the full range of features already present in common tools such as Microsoft Office. For now, however, the priority needs to be around improving digital skills across the profession and approaching technology with an open mind. These are essential 14 | LegalWomen
pieces of change management that will enable the culture shift needed to digitalise a better client experience. The Many Roles of Women in Lawtech There are many women leading the way in lawtech and legal innovation, but there is still much more room for growth. For example, only 15% of lawtechs report being female founded3, and 19% of UK tech workers are women4. Despite these figures, there are some positive examples of women building communities to help others emerge in this space and using their voices to lead change in the ecosystem. Meet the Women Shruti Ajitsaria Partner and Head of Fuse, Allen & Overy “Being made a partner in a legaltech role whilst working part time, I have had first-hand experience of challenging the status quo and balancing a demanding career with my young children. Without representation in leadership positions, these diverse experiences can easily be ignored or misconstrued. More than ever, it is important that we have good role models who are honest about the struggles and joys of their career, to enable those entering the legal profession to see a role they seek to emulate.” In the public sector, the City Corporation’s Head of Financial and Professional Services Technology, the Director of LawtechUK, and the Ministry of Justice’s Head of Legal Services Innovation are all roles currently held by women. Women are also in leadership positions at the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Law Society of England and Wales and the Law Commission, each of these bodies working to shape policy and with it, legal service delivery. Meet the Women Mary Kyle Head of FPS Technology, City of London Corporation “I look forward to a time when we don’t talk about lawtech and legal services as two separate concepts, but instead simply have a legal industry that is tech enabled and innovative in how it operates and delivers its service to clients.”
