LegalTechTalk Uncovered Ep 15 – Mia Ihamuotila 

Transcript

Robert Hanna: Welcome to the Legally Speaking Podcast, LegalTechTalk Uncovered mini-series powered by Clio. Please introduce yourself.

Mia Ihamuotila: Hi, my name is Mia, I come from Finland. I’m a LegalTech and Design Lawyer in a Finnish law firm called Castrén & Snellman. And I’m also chairing Legal Design Summit that is the biggest Legal Design event in the world.

Robert Hanna: Hugely impressive. And I’m glad that we’ve been able to connect over at the first ever LegalTechTalk conference. How are you finding it?

Mia Ihamuotila: The conference has been really diverse. I think it’s always a great opportunity to bring right minds together and spark inspiration. And yeah, get inspired by each other and find new and old friends, beautiful community.

And there’s also new people always coming in. So it’s just beautiful people coming together.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and I said this on a few other recordings. It’s amazing that you feel like you know a lot of people in the legal world, but you come to places like this and you see so many new people from all around the world. It’s from like Finland to Singapore, Hong Kong, America, you name it, Europe.

It’s a really global event. And I think there’s been some really good energy throughout the two days. Can you describe what you’re focusing on at the moment?

Mia Ihamuotila: I’m mostly focusing on, wow, legal innovation. I approach our field from a very designerly perspective and from a very humane perspective. I find empathy to be something that we should be more focusing on in our field.

When we’re doing legal tech, I think legal design and design thinking is the foundation of everything. So I think that’s something we’re often missing. So when we’re applying legal tech on our companies, we should be thinking of like, how are we actually serving?

Who’s the end users? So I think we should think of starting from the bottom and thinking of the end users. And how do we want to design our legal services and products so that we actually serve the clients or the laypeople and the human.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and we’ve talked about this offline as well, the need for that human to human, H to H rather than B to B, B to C perspective. You touched on it there, but I also know you have a couple of other passions, but what’s been the main challenge you’ve really identified in the legal sector and what are you hoping to do about addressing it and what are you doing?

Mia Ihamuotila: One thing I like to promote is mental health and wellbeing on our field. That’s something you should have an open communication about in our field and vulnerability and again, humanity. So I promote managers to be actually open about and caring how people are actually doing.

So that’s one thing, work-life balance. And another is the design thing that I was saying. So being able to think from zero, our legal services and our legal products and bringing also business closer to the legal part of it.

So interdisciplinary approach is what I’m always emphasising.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and you mentioned before, like people see LegalTech and Legal Design as kind of two different things, right? What’s your view on that?

Yeah, so that’s unfortunate, because I think we’re all, what we were talking about is legal innovation and our change leadership. And LegalTech and LegalDesign are not two things that are separate from each other. As said, they go well hand in hand.

And I think if we’re just applying these fancy tools without thinking of who are they actually serving, we’re missing the point. So, for example, when we’re doing document optimisation, it’s kind of rubbish in, rubbish out if we don’t question the origin. And that’s why I think things should be first designed and then we can put them in and then things can be done quicker.

But yeah, the two things to focus on on the actual needs of the users.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, I love that. And the kind of the way you’re breaking down the process and how it all complements and is all one, I think is very, very good. What’s been a standout moment for you then at the conference?

Mia Ihamuotila: Well, I already touched on the point of mental health and well being on our field. I listened to really good panel discussions on those subjects. So I love when people are authentic and be vulnerable on this field because we need much more of that.

And I think also I’m a really creative person on myself and creativity lives when we’re not pressured and we’re in a safe space and we’re in a psychologically safe space. And that’s why I think when we’re creating this authentic, open space, we also spark creativity and creative thinking and that’s what we need on our field. Creative thinking, critical thinking, and if we’re burnt out, that won’t work out.

So we have to do well so that we can be creative and innovate.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, exactly. There’s mega power in the pause as well. Mia, it’s been great having you on the show.

Love what you’re doing. Big fans here. If people want to know more about you or connect with you, where’s the best place for them to go, feel free to shout out on your websites, any social media handles.

We’ll also share them in this episode for you too.

Mia Ihamuotila: You can find me on LinkedIn, Mia Ihamuotila, and you can also find me on Instagram, Mia Mandi. And I’m also a professional dancer. So I also promote the fact of like, we are being multi-dimensional beings and we can wear a lot of hats and that makes you you.

Robert Hanna: Exactly. There’s more to law than just a lawyer, right? It’s been so good finally meeting you, doing this recording, wishing you lots of continued success.

But from all of us on the Legally Speaking Podcast, over and out. Thank you for listening to this week’s episode. If you like the content here, why not check out our world leading content and collaboration hub, the Legally Speaking Club over on Discord. Go to our website www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com for the link to join our community there.

Over and out!