Legally On the Move: Careers, Tech & Insights from Dubai – Sophie Best – E10

You can hear Rob and Sophie discussing:

– The Rapid Rate of Legal Tech Adoption in the UAE

– AI’s Role in the Expanding Legal Industry

– Challenges in Legal Education

– The Importance of Community and Collaboration

– Empowering the Next Generation of Legal Professionals

Connect with Sophie here – https://ae.linkedin.com/in/sophie-best-17533563

Transcript

00:00

Welcome to Legally On the Move careers, tech, and insights from Dubai.

00:04

In this exclusive miniseries of the Legally Speaking podcast, we’re taking you to the heart of Dubai, a global hub for legal innovation, cutting edge technology, and transformative career opportunities.

00:15

Here’s what you’ll gain Career inspiration, unlock the secrets to thriving, and divide dynamic legal market tech trends.

00:22

Dive into how AI, blockchain, and legal tech are reshaping the industry, diversity and leadership here from Trail Blazers.

00:30

Driving inclusivity and innovation in the UAE and global perspectives, explore how Dubai’s unique blend of tradition and ambition is creating a thriving legal ecosystem.

00:40

Recorded in iconic locations, these episodes bring you the energy and insights of one of the world’s most exciting legal hubs.

00:48

Don’t just listen, experience the future of law.

00:50

Ready to move forward with us?

00:52

Let’s go.

00:53

So welcome to the Legally Speaking podcast.

00:57

Name, title and organisation.

00:58

Thank you for having me, Sophie Best.

01:00

I actually wear 2 hats.

01:01

I am a legal consultant for Jameson Legal Tech and I’m also CEO of Knowledge Nexus, my own legal training company.

01:08

Yes, and very active on LinkedIn as we were just discussing doing some great work there.

01:12

Pleasure to have you on the show today.

01:15

Let’s get into it.

01:16

What are the challenges and opportunities you see accelerating legal tech adoption in Dubai’s corporate and legal spaces?

01:25

So I think years ago it was a bit of a, you know, kind of Dubai wasn’t really ready for it because of the fast pace of, of business.

01:32

You know, everyone coming here, you know, it’s on LinkedIn, you see.

01:35

All the companies are opening offices, everyone’s running an event like things are just full throttle, 500 miles an hour.

01:42

And because of that, teams are growing, you know, legal teams internally.

01:46

They’re not just two people now.

01:47

We’ve seen people grow from 2:00.

01:50

I mean, I was speaking to an in house team recently.

01:52

They’ve gone from 2 to 14.

01:54

They’re going to go up another seven, you know, and with that brings challenges.

01:57

You’ve got, you know, how do you manage people?

01:59

How do you manage workflow?

02:00

Like you can’t do all this on your own.

02:02

The other thing is as business is growing, people are doing more.

02:06

There’s more actual work happening and, you know, that means that you actually can’t always just throw people at it.

02:12

So I think that the tech industry is booming because of the need, but also because AI and tech is so big now.

02:19

I mean, the, you know, the, the government have made a pledge, I think to train like a million people on AI in like the next year.

02:27

You know, it’s crazy.

02:28

That is insane.

02:29

So let’s talk about AI then and this sort of changing landscape because it is reshaping the legal world.

02:34

You can’t deny that.

02:35

But how can lawyers and law firms in Dubai best prepare for basically the next generation of work or the future of work, whatever you want to call it?

02:42

So I think the first thing is that you’ve got to be prepared to change.

02:45

Like, yeah, you know, I always say you’ve got to kind of adapt and evolve.

02:49

And gone is the time of, oh, do I do this?

02:51

It’s a case of what do I do?

02:53

Not when?

02:55

And companies will get left behind.

02:57

I say this, and this will probably be one of my like, you know, kind of.

03:01

Buzz words on the panel later.

03:03

No one wants to be a Kodak.

03:04

Anyone remember Rena?

03:05

Remember them?

03:06

And I felt my age actually ’cause I asked an intern and they were like, I don’t know what phone like is.

03:11

I was like, Oh no, yeah.

03:13

And you know that that’s gonna happen.

03:15

There are gonna be many Kodaks because, yeah, if you don’t get on board with it, you know, it’s not even legal.

03:20

Think of companies, you know, ADNOC have made a big, you know, buzz, you know, media wise about being more AI focused.

03:26

So, you know, you need to do it, you know, and now is the time because the future of law is tech.

03:34

I’m sorry.

03:35

You know, lawyering has changed.

03:37

Back in the day, I used to sit with lawyers in the M&A world reviewing boxes of documents for due diligence, getting things ready for a, for a sale or a divestment or a fundraise.

03:47

No one is going to do that now.

03:48

No lawyer is going to come out of school and want to do that.

03:51

So you have to like, it’s just, and for a lot of us that maybe don’t like change, we just have to accept that.

03:56

And the, the, the hierarchy of a lawyer is going to change.

03:59

It’s not going to be a case of just do the grunt work.

04:01

We’re going to see like a complete flip, flip it on his head style evolution, I think.

04:07

In law and we will and look, the only constant is change in business, right?

04:10

And I feel like with all of this, like you say, you’ve got to have a growth mindset, you’ve got to be prepared to adopt it.

04:16

But to fair, the statistics are encouraging if you look at AI adoption versus cloud adoption within legal.

04:21

So fingers crossed that people get on board and hopefully what you’re sharing today will inspire people to learn more.

04:25

But let’s talk more about knowledge Nexus.

04:28

So with that, obviously you know your aim to transform professional development and collaboration in Dubai’s legal tech community.

04:35

How?

04:36

You know, so it’s an interesting one.

04:37

I think.

04:38

You know, the, and I know lots of companies won’t like me saying this, but it’s a very saturated world.

04:42

There’s lots of legal tech companies.

04:44

Everyone’s out here and actually there’s really great ones.

04:48

I mean, you know, Cleo is 1 is a is a great one.

04:51

And the, you know, the problem is, is that a lot of people out there just don’t know where to go now.

04:55

It’s so saturated.

04:57

There’s so much out there.

04:58

They know they need to get on board with this, but.

05:00

You know, what do we do?

05:01

I’m not even just tech, I’m talking everything the evolution of legal like.

05:05

And for me there’s a real big problem because people are taught, people go to school or school and they learn the letter of the law.

05:11

Yeah.

05:12

And they learn how to do a contract, they learn what data privacy is, but they don’t learn how to put it in practse. So I iwas sat with the GC recently and one of her junior lawyers was saying about a contract and a data privacy clause and a supplier contract got held up because of it, but there was no data going to that supplier.

05:29

It was for.

05:30

Something that was a certain cycle of the flow.

05:33

So actually it was kind of a bit of a moot point.

05:36

And but that comes with practise. That lawyeris probably panicking.

05:39

If I sign off on this contract, data privacy, like we’re going to get kind of, you know, we’re going to get a slap on the wrist or worse.

05:46

When you need to know when things, you know, data privacy is never not important.

05:51

Don’t quote me on that, but when to, you know, when does it become more of a problem?

05:54

And you don’t like, you know, nowadays what lawyers need are real life training like, you know, how to deal with.

06:01

Scenarios like, you know, a risk crisis management type thing.

06:04

Yes, there is a legality to it and it’s a legal problem, but it’s not just about the law.

06:08

It’s about how do you keep a business running.

06:11

And that’s what I’m trying to do.

06:12

I’m trying to kind of, you know, change the game in a way of get these people in rooms together, get them on round tables, get them in events.

06:20

How did you deal with this?

06:21

I mean, I had the G2 of Kafu kind of talking to me about how, you know, they have to look at things that get posted that are, you know, fakes.

06:28

For example, you know, you can Photoshop something.

06:30

You know that that provides a brand problem.

06:33

Yeah, no one really trained you on this.

06:35

Yeah, you kind of have to figure it out as you go away or as the situation happens.

06:38

But one thing I think you’re great at is bringing people together, community events.

06:42

And as you mentioned, you’re moderating 1 today.

06:45

But what has been your most impactful strategy for fostering stakeholder buy in in particular for legal tech solutions?

06:52

So this is a really interesting 1.

06:55

I actually think legal tech at some point should not be called legal tech.

06:58

I think it needs a rebrand and and.

07:01

I don’t know yet and I, I feel like once I’ve known, hopefully I’ll make my million.

07:06

But I think the problem is, is that to get buy in, you need to go wider than legal.

07:11

Because if you go to your CFO or the board and say we’re going to make legal more efficient, they’re just going to cut your head count.

07:17

Like no lawyer needs that, no general counsel needs that, you know, no managing partner or law firm needs that.

07:22

You need to go wider.

07:24

So for an in house team, you need buy in of other, you know, components of the business.

07:28

So if you’re looking at contracts, technology.

07:31

You know who’s doing contracts, is it HR, is it sales?

07:34

Probably.

07:35

And think about it as a company, if you’re going to, if you’re trying to get budget for tech and adoption, ACFO cares about things that are way different to you as a lawyer.

07:44

So if you can go to the CFO and say, you know what, I found out a way to stop that hold of revenue where it gets stuck in contracting and you’re going to hit your quarterly targets, that CFO is going to be flying out the room.

07:57

And because we’re we’re giving it to them in a, in a, in a business speak, we’re speaking to them in the language of the business.

08:04

We’re speaking to them about things that matter.

08:06

So the best adoptions have gone well when that’s happened.

08:10

So getting them involved early on, getting stakeholders in.

08:13

Because the other thing you have to think about is anyone can bring in a technology that’s game changing, but if no one uses it, what’s the point?

08:19

Yeah.

08:19

And it’s so true, isn’t it?

08:20

Adoption act early.

08:21

I massively advocate for that.

08:23

I’ve seen that.

08:24

Yeah.

08:24

Yeah.

08:24

You’ve got a chef chip.

08:25

The cultural mindset to say this is tech for good.

08:27

Always try to use that scenario, tech for good to help you get smarter, faster, more efficient, whatever.

08:31

It would be.

08:32

OK before I let you go as someone who is.

08:34

Involved in education, how can Dubai’s next generation of legal professionals be empowered to embrace this innovation revolution?

08:43

So this is one that’s like very close to my heart.

08:45

I mean, part of creating, you know, knowledge Nexus was my passion for the future legal leaders of the world, as I call it.

08:51

I’m lucky enough to work with about 3 or 4 interns who most of them are at Middlesex Uni and they are brilliant people.

08:58

Like honestly, like I feel like they put me to shame sometimes.

09:01

Reverse learning is a thing and I’m learning that 100%, mainly that I’m really not creative.

09:05

So Canberra, they’re teaching me new things every day.

09:07

They’re bright, they’re switched on and they’re hungry to learn.

09:10

And actually they want to learn about tech, they want to learn about AI.

09:14

So the big thing here is to not scare them with it.

09:17

Because they are a bit conscious of what does it mean?

09:19

And the reason that they’re conscious of what does it mean is because their law degree isn’t teaching them that.

09:24

So they’re, they’re worried that they’re learning the law, but that when they come to an interview, they’re saying to me like Sophie, but how do we prepare for this?

09:31

So we need to give back to them, you know, as lawyers, lawyers need to help them.

09:36

You know, we need to fully embrace it.

09:38

We need to show them that we’re not scared and that we’re adopting it.

09:41

And for them, the one biggest thing of advice I give them that the ones that I’m working with is you need to still learn.

09:47

Don’t think of AI as let’s just use this as a ChatGPT style.

09:52

Write me a memo.

09:53

So I say to my interns, if you’re going to ChatGPT for something, ask it why, Ask it for reasoning, Ask it, ask it questions.

10:01

Not just to do something and try and kind of take in why something has come out because that way you’re still going to learn.

10:07

Because the problem that they have is if they rely on it too much, they’re never going to learn.

10:12

And that’s really important both from their aspect, but also from.

10:16

Us teaching them.

10:17

And that’s going to shape the next generation for sure.

10:20

But it’s exciting because a junior lawyer now is not going to have to do the grunt work that we did.

10:25

I think that’s a great thing.

10:26

Yeah.

10:27

And I always referenced my late grandfather around his own law firm in 1950’s the box of files and all of the documents.

10:32

Yeah, exactly.

10:33

It’s going to change.

10:34

And I think you make a great point about being curious that why curiosity, Gene.

10:37

I always talk a lot to that.

10:38

And equally, you know, learn.

10:39

You drop the L spells earns.

10:40

You have to learn before you earn.

10:42

This has been absolute blockbuster.

10:44

Really enjoyed chatting with you Sophie.

10:45

If our listeners, which I’m sure they do and watchers want to know more about you or get in touch, what’s the best place for them to get in touch?

10:51

Feel free to chat on your websites, any social media handles.

10:53

I am very active on LinkedIn.

10:55

I ramble daily, so that’s probably the best one.

10:58

There we go.

10:58

Go and check it out there.

10:59

Well, from all of us on the League’s Beam podcast, thanks so much for joining me today in Dubai and wishing you best of luck for the moderation of your panel a little bit later on, but for now, over and out.

11:07

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11:13

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11:18

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11:20

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11:24

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11:29

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11:32

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