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LegalTechTalk Uncovered 2024

I’m thrilled to share the highlights from our exclusive “LegalTechTalk Uncovered” miniseries. Join me as I look back on our deep dive into the world of legal technology, bringing you exclusive content from Europe’s largest legal tech event, LegalTechTalk 2024.

Bradley Collins, CEO of LegalTechTalk, and his amazing team gave us exclusive access to record a 17-part live series, and I’m excited to share these insightful conversations with you. Whether you’re passionate about legal tech, interested in industry trends, or just curious about the future of law, this miniseries was for you!

We Shared:

🎙️ Exclusive Interviews: Industry leaders and innovators shaping the future of legal tech.

🌟 Event Highlights: First-hand excitement and energy from the event floor.

💡 Innovations and Insights: The latest trends, challenges, and breakthroughs in the legal industry.

Europe’s premier event for legal transformation took place at the Intercontinental O2 in London, in June 2024. With over 2,500 attendees, 300+ speakers, and 9,000+ meetings, it was a hub of innovation and collaboration. I was set up near the speaker interview area overlooking the Thames & Canary Wharf, right where the speakers exited the stage in the main foyer area. This visible and engaging location provided the perfect backdrop for lots of insightful conversations. 🗣️

Who Attended:

👔 In-house / Corporate leaders

⚖️ Law firm leaders

💡 LegalTech / Startups

🛠️ Solution providers

💼 Investors, Gov, Associations

About the Event:

📈 Legal is changing rapidly. Are you keeping up?

Legal professionals who want to be successful need to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and technologies. LegalTechTalk was the place to learn about the latest innovations in legal technology and how you can use them to improve your practice.

As the host of the Legally Speaking Podcast powered by Clio – Cloud-Based Legal Technology, I loved taking the show on the road and meeting old and new faces, as well as fans of the show. This exclusive opportunity allowed us to catch behind-the-scenes insights from the leading voices in legal tech. From innovations to standout moments, we covered it all in our LegalTechTalk Uncovered Miniseries.

It was incredible to meet people from all over the world—USA, Singapore, the Nordics, Kenya, Australia, and more. The sense of community was simply brilliant, and I am so grateful for each and every one of you.

Thank you all for your support of the Legally Speaking Podcast™️. Our journey, which began in 2019 with just me in a room with a mic, has grown into a collaborative community that I’m proud of. Here’s to continuing our mission of building a legal community, adding value, and making a positive impact in the legal world.

LegalTechTalk Uncovered Episode 1- Bradley Collins

Meet Bradley Collins, Co-Founder and CEO of LegalTechTalk. In this episode, we talked about the event, the topics discussed, and what it’s like to attend the conference.  

Tune in to hear more about the team behind the event.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com

info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com 

Transcript

Robert Hanna:

Welcome to the Legally Speaking Podcast, LegalTechTalk Uncovered mini-series powered by Clio. I’m your host, Rob Hanna. I am thrilled to take you behind the scenes at Europe’s largest legal tech event of the year, LegalTechTalk 2024.

Our Legally Speaking Podcast was given the exclusive access to record a 17-part live series at the conference. So every day over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be diving deep into the innovations, challenges, and standout moments that are shaping the future of the legal industry. From insightful conversations with industry leaders to firsthand experiences from the event floor, we’ve got a lot in store for you.

So sit back, relax, enjoy, as we uncover the future of legal technology, the world of law, and lots more. Let’s get started. Welcome to the Legally Speaking Podcast, LegalTechTalk Uncovered mini-series powered by Clio.

Please introduce yourself.

Bradley Collins: Hi, I’m Bradley. I’m just organised this event that we’re at, LegalTechTalk.

Robert Hanna: You absolutely have, and I think you’ve done a fantastic job. But how have you found the experience?

Bradley Collins: It’s been insane, walking around, so many happy faces, so many smiling faces. And I’ve never had more people congratulate me in a day or two days than ever before. So it’s gone to plan. We did what we said we’re going to do. We, yeah, very happy.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and I think, you know, I’ve just had nothing but positive feedback from people. I think there’s been a real energy. I’ve spoke to people as far as Singapore, to the USA, India, Europe, you name it.

Bradley Collins: Australia.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, it’s been wild. It’s been absolutely wild.

And you’re absolutely taking a swig of beer at this point because you deserve it. Can you describe what the focus of the event’s been all about?

Bradley Collins: We are here to help drive positive change within a sector that could maybe do with a bit of positive change. So we’re called LegalTechTalk, but we’re not about LegalTech solely. We’ve got to think about the change that can happen with well-being and mental health and making a better place for people to work in, you know, access to justice. There’s so much good stuff that we can do for the world by bringing the whole industry together, putting in a bit of pressure on the industry to innovate in a good way. It scares some people, but the first question I asked on the stage yesterday was put your hand up if you’re scared by change and nobody put their hand up. I think some of them are, but everybody put their hand up when they said they’re excited by it and that’s pretty awesome. So we’re gonna build the biggest event in Europe. I think we’ve already done that and it’s just gonna get bigger and better, bring more cool people together. So it’s super exciting. We’re on the journey with everyone. I think we’re all on a journey together, which is nice.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, we are. We’re all doing good things for law, tech for good. And for people who haven’t been able to get here, but hopefully wanna get them a flavour, just describe the experience and what people can expect from coming to something like this.

Bradley Collins: I think if anyone switched on LinkedIn in the last day or two, I’ve been tagged in so many things that I can scroll for hours. It’s insane. They can see it all.

But we don’t see this as a business. Like I don’t, I’m not from the legal industry. I mean, I can do events, and I’ve been doing events in many other industries. So I think of it, I think about the people element when organising an event. You know, the small touches, making people happy.

Robert Hanna: Yeah.

Bradley Collins: People are so relaxed here. It doesn’t feel like you’re here to do business, but everybody’s doing business.

Robert Hanna: Yeah.

Bradley Collins: And it’s really cool.

Robert Hanna: I always say like, not selling is selling. Like come and be your authentic self, build that human connection. It’s no longer B to B, B to C, it’s H to H.

Bradley Collins: B to P, business to people, or people to people.

Robert Hanna: Or I call it H to H, human to human, right?

Bradley Collins: Yeah.

Robert Hanna: And I think if you can get that connection right, and I think a lot of people have, it’s brilliant. Okay, so what’s like a kind of challenge or issue you’ve seen in the legal sector, and how do you feel like this event really kind of supports that?

Bradley Collins: It’s an industry that has no incentive to innovate. When you charge by the hour, why do you want to invest in tech that makes you do things quicker?

Robert Hanna: Yeah.

Bradley Collins: But I think the business model will have to change because there will be alternative legal service providers, there’s startups that will compete with law firms, smaller law firms that innovate, so bigger law firms will then have to retaliate. Eventually, I see this all happening. And we want to be the place that puts pressure to make this happen, but it will happen. 

Robert Hanna: Yeah. 

Bradley Collins: It’s inevitable.

Robert Hanna: It will. And look, this is a mass operation, but has there been a standout moment for you?

Bradley Collins: A moment? Yeah, when everybody showed up.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, that’s true. You’ve had thousands of bodies through the door.

Bradley Collins: We had a 9 a.m. session, and the stage was empty, and we’re backstage, and then 9.05, we put the music on, and then the stage was completely full. And I was like, okay, that’s good. I can relax.

Robert Hanna: And look, you’ve been working on this for, well, a long time, so I’m genuinely pleased to you. And you’re obviously leading this ship, but you have a wonderful team. So would you like to give a shout out to the members of your team?

Bradley Collins: Yeah, first of all, Mikkel, my co-founder. He, if I could choose one person in the entire planet to be my co-founder, he’s the complete opposite to me. He works hard. He doesn’t sleep. His attention to detail. Like the experience that everybody had at this event here, okay, me and Joe were responsible for making the money so we could fund it all. But he made it all happen. Everything. Single-handedly. He does finance as well. He does accounting. He does marketing. He does website. He does, you name it. We need to build a team for him next year so he doesn’t do it all on his own. And Joe Dixon, she, her clients love her, and she has lots of them. Everyone on the team has been really amazing. Like Merlin and Charlie on the content team have come in and done a great job. Sonia, she’s been here for a little while, but has held us together the last couple of days. So yeah, they’ve all done a great job. Matilde, our intern, she’s been phenomenal.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, it’s been a real collaborative effort. And I’ve already been getting kind of glimpses from the team of like new ideas, things like the future of what LegalTechTalk looks like. This is the inaugural year. I think it’s been a fantastic hit. But what are the future plans and where can people go to find out more about LegalTechTalk?

Bradley Collins: Well, we’re right by the Thames. So next year, we’re gonna get a yacht. You can hire one.

Robert Hanna: Yep.

Bradley Collins: And we’re gonna do our evening fun there. We’re gonna take two floors of the venue rather than one. I mean, there’s a bit of the second floor we’ve used, but there’s a lot more that you haven’t seen. The third year, we’ll take the ground floor as well. We’ll get to 6,000 attendees in year three. I’m just following the blueprint of what I’ve been involved with before. It’s gonna be… Maybe we can build an event that’s bigger than all the American events in Europe, and then we’ll come for America afterwards.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, absolutely. Well, yeah.

Bradley Collins: Come for America. That sounds a bit aggressive, doesn’t it? No, we’ll go to America.

Robert Hanna: You’ll go to America. If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough, right? And I think this has been a tremendous event. I think it’s been great energy. And back to the, I always say little touch is big impact. You know, even for me as a podcast host here, you know, you’ve made sure that everything I asked for was delivered or if there were things that needed change, it was done instantly. So I think you really care about, everyone who comes here gets a great experience. And I feel like you’re going to get really good, positive feedback. And they’ll continue to be noise on LinkedIn and the social media for a good few weeks and months and maybe years to go. But from now, from all of us on the Legally Speaking Podcast, before you let you go, where can they go and find out more about you? Where’s the best website, social media handles?

Bradley Collins: Just hashtag LTT or LegalTechTalk24 or just message me. I like talking to people, that’s my favourite thing.

Robert Hanna: Message Bradley over on LinkedIn. Bradley, it’s been a pleasure, but from now, from all of us on the Legally Speaking Podcast, over and out.

Bradley Collins: Thank you, thank you very much.

Robert Hanna: 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!

LegalTechTalk Uncovered Ep2 - Lucie Cruz

Get to grips with legal compliance and AI with Lucie Cruz, the Senior Reporter on Tech and AI at The Lawyer. In this episode, we discussed what Lucie’s focusing on right now, including the evolution of AI and its implications for the legal sector.  

Tune in to find out more about future-proofing your AI adoption.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com

www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com

Transcript

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

Lucie Cruz: Hi, I’m Lucie Cruz. I’m a senior reporter at The Lawyer covering tech and AI.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and you do a wonderful job. You know, I’ve been a big fan of yours, and we’ve known each other in the online world for a long time, but it’s nice to do this in person at this conference in real life. But how are you finding it?

Lucie Cruz: It’s amazing. The highlight so far is that I’m currently sat with the Legally Speaking Podcast baseball cap on my head, on baseball cap.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and people will see photos of this on the socials at some point. And I just say, I think it absolutely suits you.

Lucie Cruz: I suit a hat. I’m rocking it.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, I think we’re going to have to get them all for The Lawyer. It seems to work very well. It’s like molded your head nicely.Yeah, it’s perfect, actually.

Lucie Cruz: Thank you.

Robert Hanna: I’m gutted we didn’t get you to do the modeling on the website, actually, but the way it fits, it looks good.

Lucie Cruz: It’s never too late.

Robert Hanna: It’s never too late. When we do season nine release, we can introduce you on to that. Okay, can you describe what you’re focusing on at the moment?

Lucie Cruz: At the moment, I’m focusing on the different challenges around tech and AI for both law firms and in-house counsel, and they are so widespread that it’s almost hard to know where to focus. So at the moment, I’m getting a full lay of the land, which is really why I’m here. Booth hopping, talk hopping, it’s sort of a great place to be able to do that.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and you’re a wonderful networker and community person as well. And I know you’ve been at a number of other events, and I think it’s great that you’re putting yourself out there. You know, I love what you’re doing. I think your reporting is fantastic as well. What are, you know, with all of these things that are happening, people are trying to disrupt, people are trying to innovate in legal, people are trying to do progressive things. What are some of the challenges you’ve seen in the legal sector? And, you know, how are you or people that you know within the organizations going about addressing these specifically? Any examples you would give?

Lucie Cruz: It’s a tough one, right? Because I think generally the way people see it outside of the industry is that legal has been slow to adapt to the whole technology wave. And now that GenAI has come about, it’s having to go a lot quicker. So it’s interesting to see. And I think in the future, how law firms are dealing with that, like, are they adapting quickly? Which ones are going to make or break in this sort of situation?

Robert Hanna: Yeah. 

Lucie Cruz: I think the biggest challenge is how you plug in data in things that definitely need tight guardrails. So what I’m hearing is that depending on how much data you have and how good it is really widely affects the quality of the tools you’re inputting. And that’s why I’m here to find out how the different legal tech providers are handling that and challenging that, because that’s the main thing that we want as lawyers, right, is to make sure we’re accurate, but not opening up to risks.

Robert Hanna: Well, that’s it, isn’t it? You’ve got to be compliant. You’ve got to control your lines with regulations. You’ve got to make sure you’re also, you know, but also, you know, making sure that you’re taking the steps and not being ignorant. And I think it’s great that so many organisations and law firms and people are here today to get the knowledge to then go away and apply it. I think not everyone’s expecting to get this right. Absolutely. Because everything’s so fast paced and changing at the speed of light. I think the main thing is people are actually taking action and actually lifting their head above the parapet and thinking there is a lot that still needs to be done. I love the fact that you’re a journalist that gets on the ground, right? And you come out and meet people. I can just see you know everyone around the conference. There’s a great energy. Unless someone has literally been living under a rock, can you tell us a little bit more about The Lawyer?

Lucie Cruz: So The Lawyer is a legal magazine, or at least it used to be a magazine and now we’re entirely digital. So you might have had our red magazines on your desk in the past, but now we’re a completely digital product. And we usually cover legal news and financial news to do with the legal industry across different beats, so corporate and litigation. And now I am launching Tech and AI.

Robert Hanna: Ah, that’s gonna be super exciting. And I love everything that you’re doing. What’s been a standout moment for you thus far at LegalTechTalk?

Lucie Cruz: For me, it’s been hearing about the different use cases of Gen AI. It’s phenomenal how many there are. And I think that’s going to be really interesting for lawyers especially to come here and see how many possibilities there are. I think people have in their head maybe a sort of 10 or 20 ideas, and they don’t realise that there are hundreds. And they’re just waiting for the right one to land on their doorstep.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, I still get giddy about the potential of this. And actually you really do need to come to these conferences and embrace the knowledge and then go away and implement because Gen AI is just still getting started. This is the worst it’s ever gonna be as of today. So you passport this to LegalTechTalk Year 10. This is gonna be crazy what we’re gonna be doing. There’ll definitely be an augmentation of myself or something talking to you. That’s for sure. So what are the future plans for The Lawyer? And where can people find out more about you and The Lawyer? Feel free to shout out any websites, any social media handles. We’ll also share them in this episode for you too.

Lucie Cruz: Yeah, you can connect with me on LinkedIn. I definitely recommend it because I do post many posts all about tech and AI. We also have an Instagram, The Lawyer Mag, and The Lawyer website is thelawyer.com. You can get lots of information, not just on legal news, but now on sort of what’s going on in the industry and in financials so.

Robert Hanna: There you go, folks. Go and check it out. Lucie, thank you so much for sharing the mics with me in person at an awesome conference, the inaugural LegalTechTalk. But for now, 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.

LegalTechTalk Episode 3 - Chris O'Day

Get a sneak peek at the legal finance sector with Chris O’Day, the CEO at The Cashroom. In this episode, he shared his insights on how legal tech is improving efficiency and minimising risk across the industry.  

Tune in to find out more about the future of legal finance.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more!💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com

info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com

Transcript

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

Chris O’Day: Hi, my name is Chris O’Day. I’m Chief Executive Officer at The Cashroom, and I’m delighted to be here joining Robert today.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, it’s great to meet you in person again. I know we met a little while ago, actually, up near where I relocated to at Ribby Hall Village, where we have an event taking place. How are you finding this conference so far?

Chris O’Day: It’s been great, actually. Obviously, the first time they’ve ran this conference. And the whole vibe, it’s very positive. Lots of disruptors here in LegalTech. And there’s just a great vibe here on the day.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and people can sense the energy, probably from this recording as well. Here are all the people around us, buzzing around, networking, meeting. I love coming to these sort of in-person, getting that human connection buzz going. Can you briefly describe your focus over at The Cashroom?

Chris O’Day: Yeah, so at Cashroom, we provide a full outsourced finance function to law firms. And really what we’re doing is we’re bringing a tech-enabled focus to that and developing our own technology as well as working with all of the practice management systems, being system agnostic. So we work with whichever systems our clients use. And it’s really about enabling law firms to get the best out of the technology that’s available to streamline that finance function, which is often a big pain point for a lot of firms.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and again, I’ve been speaking to a lot of people at this whole conference around, everyone has these visions, everyone has these goals, everyone’s embracing technology in some capacity, hence why they’re here today. But it’s never straightforward. And there are challenges and these need to be overcome. So what’s been the main challenge or challenges you’ve identified specifically in the legal sector and how are you really getting to the bottom and addressing them?

Chris O’Day: Yeah, so at Cashroom, being focused on the finance function for law firms, as you know, there’s a heck of a lot of money that goes through lawyers’ client accounts or trust accounts across the world. And compliance and risk is a massive problem there for a lot of law firms. And really what we are trying to do is bring the best use of technology to maximise efficiency within that function, while minimising risk and ultimately ensuring compliance.

So things like open banking technology and features like confirmation of PE, which we’ve just launched within our portal, really are adding layers of security to payment processes where there’s billions of pounds flowing through law firms that is a real risk area. And the more we can do to use technology to improve that risk profile, then the better for everyone generally, not just across the profession, but across general public who are consumers of legal services ultimately.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, it’s 360, isn’t it? And it’s a great example of what I call tech for good, you know, and what you’re thinking about. And, you know, there are so many things when it comes to risk, compliance, and people get a little bit scary, but I love how you kind of simplify this and how you really partner with the law firms as well. I know it’s a little bit early days into the conference, but has there been a standout moment for you thus far or something that’s really stuck in your mind?

Chris O’Day: I think standout moment is just really seeing all of the different suppliers who are here. And as you mentioned, seeing the energy and the innovation and the disruption and the transformation that’s going on in the legal sector. There’s a lot of suppliers here who I wasn’t aware of. I’m coming across for the first time. And obviously AI is the big buzzword at the minute. And it’s fascinating to see the journey that is going on with AI generally and how different businesses are adopting that specific to the legal sector and the advancements that’s going to bring.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, I don’t think I’ll do an interview over the entire miniseries where AI isn’t discussed because it’s so prevalent. And we are in this new revolution. I love that organisations like yourself are at the cutting edge of that and you’re putting yourself in the right spaces and getting yourself out there. And even me who likes to think I’m in the legal community, I’m learning of new suppliers and new things that are happening. And that’s the benefit of coming out and getting live in these conferences as well. Where can people find out more about Cashroom? Where’s the best website, social media handles, best way for them to get in touch? Feel free to shout them out.

Chris O’Day: Yeah, so we’re on LinkedIn. You’ll see a lot of content going out within LinkedIn. You can visit our website at www.thecashroom.co.uk. And we will also be out and about at various conferences, including yours, in a few weeks, Rob. Looking forward to that one.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, absolutely. We’re super excited for the first ever Great Big Legal Offsite on July the 3rd. Super, super pumped for that. But Chris, it’s been great having you on the show. Loving what you’re doing at Cashroom. And you’re kindly supporting us over there at that event as well. Wishing you lots of continued success. But for now, from all of us on show, 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!

LegalTechTalk Uncovered Episode 4 - Helen Pamely

Explore life as a LegalTechTalk speaker with Helen Pamely, a panellist at the event and the Founder of her own consultancy and public speaking firm. In this episode she gave us a snapshot of the power of connections, including how her own network has propelled her growth as an entrepreneur.  

Tune in to find out more about changing mindsets as you more from employee to founder.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com

info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com 

Transcript

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

Helen Pamely: Hi, so I’m Helen Pamely, former law firm partner, former Magic Circle lawyer. I’m now a coach. I coach lawyers to reach the top without burning out.That means making partnership, beyond partnership, and also building their personal brands.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and you do a tremendous job, it has to be said. How are you finding the conference and how did you find your speaker session?

Helen Pamely: I’m absolutely loving it. It’s amazing, because I feel like there’s so many people who I already know through LinkedIn, through various different networks, and everyone is here in one place, and that’s just so exciting. And on my panel, I was so lucky, because I had Liz Rimmer, CEO of LawCare, I had Jodie Hill, who’s Managing Partner of her law firm, absolutely incredible panel. And it’s just incredible, the energy here, and I think the movement for change in the sector.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and you’re absolutely at the forefront of that. And I really enjoyed your talk. And I think it was really practical, tactical advice you were all giving. Loved it. Can you describe what you’re briefly focusing on at the moment?

Helen Pamely: I think the main thing that I’m really focusing on, it’s almost come up by accident, really, in what I do. And it’s helping lawyers reach their potential. But that means going for partnership, it means beyond partnership. It could be even doing something different. It could be that they want to build their own sort of consultancy or something like that. And within that, it’s building their brand. Because these days, I think what we’re seeing is it’s the era of the personal brand. It wasn’t that long ago that you went to a big firm and you relied on your firm’s brand to be able to bring in business, to be successful. These days, it’s your personal brand. It makes you so much more foolproof for your career. Because what it means is that even when there are downturns, if there are layoffs, it doesn’t matter. Because people buy into you, you have your own client base, you have your own network, and that’s just so empowering.

Robert Hanna: And I’m all about empowering lawyers to reach their potential, but also do it in a way that works for them. And I think that’s what’s so powerful about the personal brand. Yeah, and obviously you’ve got a phenomenal personal brand. And like you were saying there, I say it’s your biggest asset, and it’s also your biggest insurance policy, whatever the weather. And yeah, I think it’s just undoubtedly the best thing you could be investing in on free platforms as well, where you can get your messaging out. And yeah, as I say, I think you’re doing a great job. What are the key challenges you’ve found in the legal sector, and how are you going about addressing them?

Helen Pamely: I mean, gosh, we have so many challenges, and I feel like I work in a few different camps on this one. I think on a sort of broader level, as you well know, Rob, I’m really passionate about mental health, wellbeing, and changing the sector from sort of a grassroots level, so that we can be a better place for lawyers long-term, you know, leading fulfilling, happier careers, not burning out, not suffering from mental health issues. And that’s something I talk about very widely. That’s kind of, you know, the bigger picture of what I do and where I’m coming from, from a values perspective. From a sort of work perspective or more pure work, I’m really looking to, what the problems I see is that lawyers want to be successful, they want to be big, whatever that looks like for them, but they don’t know how. Maybe they’re afraid to put themselves out there. They’re afraid to speak up. They’re afraid to find their own voice, to start posting, to start engaging. And they don’t know how to even start talking to people at networking events. You know, it’s that whole thing of actually, how do I move from an employee mindset to an entrepreneur mindset? You know, how can I shift into this space where I’m taking control of everything and building what I want to create? It takes confidence. It takes strategy. It takes intention. And I think that’s the sort of shift which people struggle with. It’s totally doable, but they’re just not knowing quite how to do it.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and obviously that’s where you come in. And I always say, everyone has a value. Everyone has a story to tell. And so don’t be sort of, you know, put off by just starting. I think a large part of this is getting out of that mental block in terms of, oh, I’m not sure. Actually, just starting and getting better is so important because it’s not perfect brand, it’s personal brand. And so again, as you evolve, your personal brand can evolve. Okay, what’s been a standout moment for you at the conference?

Helen Pamely: Oh my gosh, do you know, there’s been so many standout moments. I think honestly for me, coming back to this point of networks is community. It’s the fact that I can’t walk 10 meters here without bumping into someone else who I know or who knows me. Maybe we already know each other quite well. Maybe we’ve just seen each other on LinkedIn. And that’s amazing. I think there is this incredible legal community and it’s just about putting yourself out there, as you just said, becoming part of it. And it is amazing the opportunities that come out of it, the friends and just the incredible career and time you can have.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, honestly, community is so, so powerful. I think people are starting to see the value of that. And today is a great testament of that. I’ve really enjoyed the energy throughout the day. I’m gonna enjoy following your journey and supporting your journey. So where can people find out more about you? What have you been getting up to in the future in terms of future plans? Feel free to shout out on your social media handles, any website links as well. We’ll share them in this episode for you too.

Helen Pamely: Yeah, thanks so much. I mean, there’s my website, which is helenpamely.com. I’m Helen Pamely on LinkedIn, on Instagram, but I take the main places LinkedIn. I really do speak my mind. I speak up about all sorts of industry issues and it’s a wonderful community. And it’s probably because everything with me is moving so quickly. The best pace to sort of stay with me on my journey as well and hopefully I can stay with you as well, and Rob, I love all the stuff you do as well. I think we’re just so aligned on the mental health stuff. So it’s great to be here and thanks for this conversation.

Robert Hanna: It’s been great to have you finally, Helen. We managed to make it happen and in person.

Helen Pamely: Amazing.

Robert Hanna: For now, from all of us on the Legally Speaking Podcast, wishing you lots of continued success. But for now, 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!

LegalTechTalk Uncovered Episode 5 - Patricia Gannon

Discover the importance of connection in the legal industry with Patricia Gannon, the Founder & CEO at Platforum 9. In this episode, she shared the struggles that particularly younger lawyers face as they create connections across the sector. 

Tune in to find out more about creating and using digital communication channels in your firm.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com

info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com 

Transcript

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

Patricia Gannon: Hi there, I’m Patricia Gannon, and I’m the Founder at Platforum9.

Robert Hanna: A super exciting platform we’re going to dive into, but firstly, how are you finding the conference?

Patricia Gannon: Love it. I have to say, it has more than met my expectation. I’ve been talking to Bradley about this for over a year, and the day has finally come when he has broken the glass ceiling on how to do a LegalTech conference.

Robert Hanna: Very high praise and well-deserved high praise, and people will be able to hear from the background noise. The buzz that’s in the air from this conference has to be said. Can you describe briefly what you do?

Patricia Gannon: I’ve just built a social audio app for the legal profession. So essentially, we are looking at an interactive podcast type product. It’s an app that lawyers have on their phone, that helps them connect with each other around the practice area and issues that matter to them.

Robert Hanna: And you know I’ve been a fan and following your journey from sort of start to where you are. And I think this is going to be absolutely huge and I’m excited by it, because I think there’s a real need for this. And you also bring a good community element to the tech that you’re providing. But anyone trying to build anything, there’s always a challenge. So, you know, what’s been the sort of challenge you’ve identified specifically within the legal sector and how are you going about addressing it?

Patricia Gannon: I think connectivity and communication. I think access to events like this for younger lawyers. There’s a massive amount of vulnerability out there as they, you know, working remotely, intergenerational challenges, influx of technology. I think there’s a huge need to be connected, to be part of a community, and to find a really effective way of connecting over topics that matter to you. Live interactive sessions, having your voice, having a safe space to speak to each other, getting interesting content that will give you a competitive edge as a lawyer.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and again, you know, I feel like it’s just not there at the moment and what you are producing is, quite frankly, the most innovative forward thinking and way to connect people. So I always talk about the power of community and this human to human connection. It’s not B2B, it’s not B2C, and that’s undoubtedly what you’re gonna be able to do on terms of Platforum9. What’s been kind of a standout moment for you thus far, being at this conference, anything that’s particularly stood out to you?

Patricia Gannon: Well, I just said it to Bradley when I came in this morning. The fact that we had live music coming up the stairs, we already had a really different vibe. I think there’s an energy here that is different to anything I’ve seen. I’ve done the IBA, the International Bar Association, all of my life. I’ve been to multitudes of conferences, which is why when I see one, that’s more like a tech event. It is legal tech, obviously, but it’s around legal topics as well. This is something that sort of stands out for me.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and it’s all the richer for having you here. And it’s great that we finally been able to meet in person. I know it’s been a long, long time. What are your future plans then with Platforum9?

Patricia Gannon: Well, yeah, we’re sorry to interrupt, but we’re nearly there. We’re in the App Store. We’re beta testing this summer with select law firms and lawyers who’ve been on the waiting list for a while. If somebody had told me like building anything in tech, takes double the time and double the money, now I know it for sure, but we’re ready to rock. We’re going to be beta testing during the summer. We look forward to anybody download at www.platforum9.com. We have a free waiting list. We welcome everybody with your ideas.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, absolutely. And I guess in terms of other social media handles or where people can find you specifically, or if they’ve got a question about Platforum9, what’s the best way for them to get in touch?

Patricia Gannon: Just get down to me at LinkedIn. I’m not anywhere else really.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, well, there you go. Simple as that, Patricia Gannon on LinkedIn. It’s been so nice to finally record with you in person. Talk about what you’re getting up to. But for now, 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.

LegalTechTalk Episode 6 - Harri Davies

Delve into the realm of diversity and inclusion with Harri Davies, the Associate Director at Aspiring Solicitors. In this episode, he explained the importance of supporting each individual as they grow within your firm.  

Tune in to find out how to get the most from your team by offering meaningful training and progression.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com

info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com 

Transcript

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

Harri Davies: I’m Harri Davies, Associate Director at Aspiring Solicitors.

Robert Hanna: And it’s great to have you on the show. I know we followed each other’s journeys on social for a long time and we’re big fans of what you’re getting up to over at Aspiring Solicitors. How are you finding the conference?

Harri Davies: It’s been brilliant, absolutely huge. Biggest one I’ve been to since the pandemic, no doubt. And just a massive variety, diversity of professionals, employers. It’s really interesting discussions and I was running into you. It was a pleasure.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, absolutely. They all say that. I joke, of course. So can you describe a bit more of your focus and what you’re kind of really doubling down on?

Harri Davies: So we’re a social enterprise and we’re about creating opportunity. We want to help the best diverse talent access the profession, not just private practice, but also in-house opportunities. And this legal profession is changing quickly. We want to equip our members, all from the four main diverse groups, with the skills, experience, ambition, to really be at the forefront of changes in this profession and be at the forefront of the talent that’s helping it transform into modern practices, AI, which is the word you’ve probably heard a million times today, and other areas. And it’s been great to meet so many in-house counsellors and other lawyers that want to support us in that mission.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and again, you really are doing the doing and walking the talk as well. The fact that you’re at these conferences, you’re networking, you know, like you say, the profession is changing. And unless you’re going to go and acquire the information or get access to people that are those change makers, it’s never going to happen. So I love that you’re here. I love that you’re championing it. I love everything you stand for. But it’s never easy. And there are always challenges whenever you have a bold mission or you’re trying to drive something. So, what are some of the challenges you specifically identified and how are you going about addressing them?

Harri Davies: For us, it’s about empowering people that care about diversity to make a difference. Those are the people that enable these impact schemes to happen and ensure that results are happening. It’s about ensuring that in this crowded space, that we’re measured by the fact that these individuals are going and becoming the top performers in their firm. One individual that we supported was the first in his family not to have gone to prison on the male side, and now he’s the top billing associate at a US firm we work with in London. That is the sort of story that’s happening time and time again. And so for us, it’s about how do we marry up those ambitious people in this profession that want to open the doors, that want to lift people up, that want to make a difference. And I’m pleased to say that a number of those people are in the room here today and a lot of exciting talks are in place to launch more initiatives.

Robert Hanna: Yeah and just listening to that, I can’t help but want to support what you’re doing. I just think it’s fantastic, but obviously there’s more all of us can be doing. Back to the conference, obviously there’s a big buzz in the air. What’s been a standout moment for you thus far?

Harri Davies: I had a really good talk earlier about the power of listening. Of course, you and I are talking, everyone around us is talking, but ultimately the way you can become a really good leader and how you can really develop the strongest relationships is how well you can listen. One exercise you took away was to say, try and have two or three minutes of silence a day. It made me laugh. I live in central London, and I used to live in Bristol, we used to get a lot more silence. I know you’ve just moved to Manchester yourself, so you know what it’s like, but, I think there’s a lot in that. I think that’s something that’s overlooked in this polarising society where we’re not listening to each other as much as we could be. For me today, it’s about listening to what these leaders want to achieve in ED&I and how we at AS can support them in those objectives and in that mission.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, I love that. Two ears, one mouth. And there’s a big difference between listening and active listening. And it’s so important to understand that it’s a skill that we should all be working on. I’ve been in the world of entrepreneurship and sales for over a decade, and I say the best salespeople are the best listeners and genuinely listen to kind of understand what are those needs, what are those wants. It could be the turn, it could be their tone, it could be that change of pace, it could be an emotion, all of those little 1% things that you can pick up from active listening, so so powerful in terms of building rapport and a relationship. I think I listened to your last point. You mentioned about listening skills. What are your future plans then, Aspiring Solicitors? You’ve talked about it.What are you guys getting up to? And where can people find out more about what you’re getting up to? Feel free to shout out on your social media handles, any website links too.

Harri Davies: Thanks, Rob. Ten years AS was founded, and in our 11th year, there’s a difference between getting in and getting on, and it’s like getting on aspect that we are increasingly putting more time towards. We work with BCLP and a number of other firms with giving coaching and support to current trainees and newly qualified lawyers. And already we’re seeing massive impact in terms of how they are performing on the metrics on the career development framework, that’s meant that a number of people across the firms we work with that might not have been retained are now actually in a position where they’re wanted by the business. So for us is expanding that aspect is for ensuring that our alumni continue to feel supported because there’s other things beyond performance that impact your enjoyment and your progression within a firm. So for us is continuing to provide that support, to be that trusted third party is giving them that feeling that there’s someone always backing them. There’s always someone that’s got the best interests at heart. So for us is continue to expand that. Continue to expand on the number of in-house teams we work with, whether that’s the likes of Revolut, Meta. There’s another big tech company we’re very close to, hopefully getting over the line. I’m really looking forward to sharing that with you in the next few weeks. And so for us, that is a huge focus going forward, alongside the very strong partnerships we have with private practice and the ones that make a real difference to diverse talent that’s fulfilling their potential.

Robert Hanna: Fantastic. Yeah, no, we absolutely support that. And it’s the best place for people to find you, LinkedIn or website?

Harri Davies: LinkedIn, yeah, aspiringsolicitors.co.uk and our InstagramAspiring Solicitors, also a good place to find out about our latest opportunities.

Robert Hanna: Fantastic. Well, thanks so much, Harri. It’s been an absolute pleasure having you on the Legally Speaking Podcast, doing it in person, doing it live and wishing you all the best and everyone at AS for what you’re getting up to. But now from all of us on the show, 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!

LegalTechTalk Uncovered Episode 7 - Holly Cope

Find a new way of working with Holly Cope, a Podcast Consultant at More Than A Podcast Productions and Host of the More Than A Lawyer podcast. In this episode, Holly talked to us about her radical career transformation and the opportunities that she’s discovered.  

Tune in to find out how you can change your working life too.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com

info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com 

Transcript

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

Holly Cope: Hello, my name is Holly Cope. I am a podcast host of the podcast, More Than A Lawyer.

Robert Hanna: Absolutely, and we’re big fans of your show. Firstly, how are you finding the conference?

Holly Cope: I love it. I think it’s amazing. It’s like no other conference. Like, who gets popcorn and like free teddy bears and all these crazy things that’s going on here? I think it’s incredible. I love it, and you’ve got an amazing backdrop as well of like London. It’s so cool.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and it’s worth pointing out. We’re recording live from the Intercontinental Hotel down at the O2, and it’s just breathtaking, the views, the experience, the energy, what’s going on here. And we just keep bumping into new faces, old faces, connecting. It’s brilliant. Love it. Absolutely love it. Okay, can you briefly describe a bit about your focus and what you’re getting up to?

Holly Cope: Yeah, so my focus at the moment is showing lawyers that there is a different way of working. So I used to be a lawyer and all I knew was the traditional ways of working in the law firm. So I quit law to travel and become a digital nomad and I didn’t know that there was an option to stay in law and do that.

Robert Hanna: Yeah.

Holly Cope: So I just quit completely. But I want to inspire lawyers that if they don’t like the traditional ways of working, there’s another way. They could be a consultant or they could be a digital nomad lawyer or whatever it is. I think another thing is, I’d want to raise awareness about toxic cultures in law firms and things that’s going on behind the scenes. I know there’s some great aspects to law firms, but there’s also things that are stopping people from fully being able to be productive and motivated. And I want to raise awareness about that. So that’s the focus.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, I love that. And I say, you know, gone are the days also where people would train and qualify with a law firm and stay there up to a partner. There are so many other routes you can go down. Like you said there, there’s the growth of the dispersed law firm model. There’s the legal technology role. So you might not necessarily say, you want to do the traditional lawyer route, you might want to do something connected to law. And there’s so many different angles now, you can still have a legal career and embrace all of these new things that are coming in. You touched on some points there. I always say anyone trying to do anything is going to experience challenges and also uncover some challenges. What’s been sort of a key problem you’ve identified in the legal sector and how are you going about addressing that daily?

Holly Cope: I think a key problem is the pushback from, I guess, the conflict between traditional and modern ways of working. It’s a prestigious and traditional profession. And I think that is, that’s the problem, trying to change people’s mindsets. But I think people are starting to open their minds to other opportunities and options. So it’s just kind of moving that forward and just making people aware of the opportunities available to them, basically.

Robert Hanna: One thing that comes to mind is perhaps influencing skills, communication skills. What would be your top tip for people who maybe are trying to kind of implement change?

Holly Cope: Oh, I would say, I’d say if you’re trying to implement change, document your journey of doing that and just be open and honest about what you’re trying to achieve and how you’re trying to get there. And tell your story and show your journey. And people love to be connected with people’s journeys. So that’s what I’d say.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, facts tell, stories sell, right? I think the more you can get emotion and kind of authentic stories, people are gonna buy into that. They’re gonna understand your why. They’re gonna wanna kinda come on board, support you and all of that good stuff. Love that, big fan of that. What’s been your standout moment thus far at LegalTechTalk?

Holly Cope: Ooh, well, I have to be biased and say my panel that I moderated. It was so funny. I think you would love it as well. You know, being a podcast host, it’s just so fun being able to ask the questions that you want to ask. So that’s what I liked about it.

Robert Hanna: Tell us briefly about your session, you moderated.

Holly Cope: So it was about how to successfully change law. So we talked about all different things like mindset, efficiency, AI, how tech can play a role, all so many different topics, but it was interesting because we had four completely different perspectives. So it was trying to balance these and there was a bit of a conflict, but it was entertaining.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, that’s where the moderating skills come into power, right? When you’ve got shot and managed all these people on stage, different personalities, different voices, love it. So what are the future plans look like, Holly? And how can people get in touch with you? Feel free to shout out any website links, any social media handles. We’ll also share them in this episode for you too.

Holly Cope: Oh, thank you. So I help law firms and lawyers create their own podcasts and raise brand awareness and promote their personal brands because it’s the era of the personal brand, right?

Robert Hanna: Absolutely.

Holly Cope: I’m sure you could agree with that. So that’s my goal really. And I just want to continue inspiring lawyers. If people want to contact me, probably LinkedIn‘s the best place to do it.

Robert Hanna: There you have it folks. Make sure you go and check over Holly at LinkedIn. It’s been an absolute pleasure to having you on the Legally Speaking Podcast. Big fan of what you’re doing, big fan of your message. And yeah, absolutely. We’re in the creator economy. Law is absolutely part of that. Personal branding matters, media, all this stuff matters. But from now, from all of us, 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.

LegalTechTalk Uncovered Episode 8 - Ayaz Saboor

Discover the benefits of cognitive diversity with Ayaz Saboor, the Founder of The Commercial Law Pathway. In this episode, he shared some ways that law firms can encourage a wider range of people to join the profession.  

Tune in for a bite-sized chunk of D&I wisdom.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com

info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com 

Transcript

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

Ayaz Saboor: Hi guys, my name is Ayaz, and I’m the founder of the Commercial Law Pathway, and I mentor aspiring lawyers getting into the profession. 

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and you do a very good job of that, and it’s nice for us to be reconnecting here in person at LegalTechTalk. How are you finding the conference?

Ayaz Saboor: Yeah, it’s fantastic. It’s firstly, it’s a really well run event, and it’s just been great to meet familiar faces that you see on social media in person and connect beyond just the surface level chats that you might have online. And then the talks that I’ve been to so far have been fantastic and varied in terms of assessing the legal industry and where things are going. 

So yeah, it’s been really good. 

Robert Hanna: Yeah, I absolutely love it. And I think the energy has just been fantastic. And that level of connection you can get with people that you kind of know online but haven’t been able to really get to know as well, in the offline world. 

So yeah, I absolutely agree with you. Can you tell us a little bit about what you’re focusing on at the moment?

Ayaz Saboor: Yeah, so my main focus, like I said, is mentoring aspiring lawyers into the profession. Something that I’m hugely passionate about, helping people and individuals unlock their inner confidence and self-belief to go and navigate the process that’s pretty daunting, pretty scary. But also, when there’s elements of imposter syndrome, doubt, rejection, it can be crippling to a point at which you decide against doing and reaching for the goal that you’ve set yourself. 

And my aim is to prevent people from getting to that stage of giving up, because I was at that stage once. I almost gave up and I wouldn’t be sat here in this position at this conference had I given up.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and really well said. And I guess that leads nicely onto what I was going to ask next, which is, you know, what are some of the problems or a key problem you’ve identified or a challenge in the legal sector? And how are you going about addressing that specifically?

Ayaz Saboor: It’s a good question. I think for me and where I’m currently focused, I think, you know, it’s about, and an element of diversity and inclusion falls into it. But in the main, you know, talent attraction and retention.

So yeah, that’s the main issue I see at the moment. And obviously, D&I feeds into that because, and I’m speaking on a panel tomorrow about that, but it really fits into the kind of theme of, you know, having that varied perspective and variety of thought within an organisation, but also allowing maybe even a variety of job role to cater for the diverse range of people that are within the practice. So yeah, so I think diversity and trying to move away from the rigid approach that kind of traditional law firm models have is probably the main issue I see at the moment. 

And yeah, in my part, I hopefully mentor individuals to reach the desired goals that they want. And hopefully, after the conference, looking to get more into the D&I space and hopefully help firms address the issue of D&I in the main.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, no, and it’s so needed and it’s such meaningful work. And yeah, we absolutely support that here on the Legally Speaking Podcast in terms of people really kind of pushing the needle because diversity of thought, inclusion, belonging, really getting that right is super, super powerful for law firms. And law firms who choose to change and embrace are going to be the ones that flourish absolutely, particularly in the world of AI.

Inclusion and kind of belonging is so important. What’s been a standout moment for you at the conference?

Ayaz Saboor: Part of me wants to say it’s yet to come because I’m speaking tomorrow, but no, the honest answer is, I think it’s the connections I’ve made over the last couple of days. Obviously, we were at the speakers’ drinks yesterday. And yeah, it’s just building those connections a lot deeper than, like you say, just when you’re online.

Offline, you get that real depth of connection, and I’ve really valued that. But also the talks I’ve been to have been also great. So yeah, but a particular standout moment is meeting the people that I’ve from afar and really bonding and connecting with them.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and I agree. Plus one to that. So where can people find out more about you?

What are the best places for them to get in touch? Feel free to share your social media handles, website links, and also share them in this episode for you too.

Ayaz Saboor: Yeah, cool. So my name is Ayaz Saboor. LinkedIn is probably my favourite place to be contacted.

I am on Instagram. I’m not on TikTok. I am as a consumer, not as a creator.

And yeah, my organisation is The Commercial Law Pathway. And yeah, feel free to reach out. And if I can support anyone in any way, I’d be more than happy to.

Robert Hanna: There you have it, folks. Ayaz, it’s been great finally getting you on the show, doing this in person at the largest legal tech conference in Europe. Excited to see what you come up with in the future.

But from now, from all of us on the show, 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!

LegalTechTalk Uncovered Ep 9 - Leila El Gharbi

Find the power of transparency with Leila El Gharbi, a Legal Tech and Innovation expert. In this episode, Leila explained that in order to foster innovation, you first have to clarify your information for your wider team.  

Tune in to find out more about improving innovation in your firm.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com 

Transcript

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

Leila El Gharbi: Hey Rob, I’m Leila El Gharbi. I wear different hats, or shall I say, different crowns. So by day, I’m a LegalTech and Operations Advisor.

I specialise in LegalTech matchmaking and implementation strategy. And by night, what I love doing is actually adding a bit more of sparkle in the legal industry and advocating for diversity, inclusion. And you might see me going around at events with a bag full of crowns and sharing the inner queen royal energy with everyone, because there is enough light in this world for everyone to shine.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and I love that. And we’re huge supporters of what you do. And I guess that leads nicely onto, what are you focusing on at the moment?

Leila El Gharbi: So, I feel that this last 12 months, I’ve been focusing on not only implementing LegalTech, advocating for innovation, but I have realised that you cannot talk about innovation without talking about people. So, I’m trying to focus on that, literally driving innovation by coaching people, changing the culture. And so, yeah, this is what I’m doing, like very LegalTech focused, but very people, people, always people focused.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and you do a fantastic job, and you just have such energy and enthusiasm and passion for what you do. And we’ve known each other for a long time, and it’s well overdue that we’ve been able to actually get this recording done in person at the International Continental Hotel, O2, the largest LegalTech conference in Europe. It’s just brilliant.

People can hear the energy. There’s so much connection going on. I’m absolutely loving it.

What challenges have you identified in the legal sector and how are you going about addressing them?

Leila El Gharbi: So I feel that there are a lot of discrepancies between access to information, and a lot of people feel overwhelmed with, not like everyone knows that now they need to innovate, they need to do things, but it’s like the lack of centralised information. And because there is no centralised innovation, there is no right way of doing things. I feel that people are just stuck into that decision paralysis mode.

And so this is where my sweet spot is, is to cut through the noise, trying to understand and identify people’s problems. And even yesterday, I was doing a workshop for LegalTechTalk, and we were focused on legal ops design. So literally the whole trinity of legal design, legal ops and legal tech, and having people like focus on that part, identifying the problem, being able to speak the business language, and then, you know, like choose and implement the right process for them or tech.

So yeah, I feel like that’s the overwhelming feeling. And people needs as well, like what I feel is missing. People know that they need to change things, but they don’t know how.

And I feel like the how is often missing from conferences, from different areas where people are, they know they need to buy tech or they know they need to change things. But where’s the budget? How do I ask for budget?

How do I ask for more money? So yeah, so the how.

Robert Hanna: And it’s so important, isn’t it? Because that’s the main piece, you know, it’s that implementation. It’s actually taking it to the next level of figuring it out and making it actually happen.

I love that. What’s been a standout moment to you thus far of the LegalTechTalk?

Leila El Gharbi: Fun fact, I was sick this morning, so I couldn’t come. And I powered through sickness to be there. And I was not able to move from next to you stand because every two minutes, someone wanted a picture with the crown.

So I haven’t seen the inside of the conference yet. So.

Robert Hanna: Me neither. So maybe after this recording, we’ll both get a chance to go there. Okay, Leila, it’s been lovely finally connecting with you on the mic.

What are your future plans and where can people find out more about you, what you’re getting up to? Feel free to shout out any websites, any social media handles. We’ll also share them in this episode for you too.

Leila El Gharbi: Yes. So people can find me mainly on LinkedIn, Leila El Gharbi, L-E-I-L-A-E-L space G-H-A-R-B-I. I’m on Instagram as well, lei_lawyer, I need to check because that’s why I have like not two followers, but not that much.

And where they can find me, I have a group, a company page, Beautiful Souls in Legal Tech. And the big news is that I am opening crowns to everyone around the world, so people can apply very soon to get their own crown and embrace their inner queen energy. I gave 42 in person last year, and this year I’m planning to get further.

So people need to stay tuned and follow Beautiful Souls in Legal Tech, follow me and get the right info to be able to win their own crown.

Robert Hanna: Ah, and I’m super excited. And I love everything about what you’re doing, Leila. It’s been a pleasure having on the Legally Speaking Podcast at last.

But from now, from all of us, 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.

LegalTechTalk Uncovered Ep 10 - Idin Sabahipour 

Discover why a lack of commercial awareness is slowly damaging the legal industry with Idin Sabahipour, the Founder of LittleLaw. In this episode, Idin shared the reason that legacy lawyers have an advantage as they join the workforce.  

Tune in to find out how you can level the playing field for new lawyers.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com

Transcript

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

Idin Sabahipour: Hi Rob, my name’s Idin. I’m the founder of LittleLaw.

Robert Hanna: And it’s a pleasure to have LittleLaw on the show. I’ve been a big fan of your work and everything you’ve been doing for a long time. And I know we’ve been connected in the online world, but it’s nice to do this in person.

And how are you finding the conference?

Idin Sabahipour: Yeah, I’m loving it. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it’s blown me away. There’s a lot going on, and yeah, meeting a lot of new people, really enjoying it.

Robert Hanna: Good stuff, good stuff. So can you tell us a bit about what you’re focusing on?

Idin Sabahipour: Yeah, so LittleLaw is, in a sentence, trying to make business news fun for aspiring lawyers. Love it.

Robert Hanna: And then in terms of challenges, everyone is trying to build something, do something. I love what you’re doing at LittleLaw, but what is the main sort of challenge that you’ve identified in the legal sector, and how are you going about addressing that daily?

Idin Sabahipour: Sure, so the challenge that I face myself and that I think exists in the legal sector is that firms always want applicants to have commercial awareness and understand business news and understand what law firms do and how law firms work. And this is a challenge because there’s not a lot of good resources that can help people at the student or graduate or at any stage trying to become an aspiring lawyer to understand these things. And as well as that, I think it’s a diversity issue.

A lot of the time when people are from generations of lawyers or parents who have been lawyers have a leg up on these things. And so it’s really important to have free, high quality resources that can help people break down news stories, understand them, figure out how law firms work and how they get involved. And that’s effectively what we’re trying to do at Little Law. 

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and it’s so important, isn’t it? Because it’s the chicken and egg, you know? And so what would be your advice to people in terms of who maybe haven’t seen Little Law?

What’s the best piece of advice in terms of getting curious about commercial awareness? Obviously, it comes to your platform, but any tips generally to help people?

Idin Sabahipour: Yeah, so I would say a couple of things. First of all, it’s starting an industry you have an interest in. So let’s say you like gaming, you can delve a bit deeper into the commercial elements of gaming.

So read about transactions that have taken place, like there’s a Microsoft Activision big deal that’s happened, that’s kicked up a lot of regulatory issues. So you can stay in an industry that you find fun yourself and learn the wider business impacts that are taking place there. And a framework we use at LittleLaw is the three L’s that is, in summary, it’s to look out, look in, and look at law firm involvement.

So the framework is once you look at a new story, look out, look at the wider impacts, the big picture things that are taking place for that story to take place, like economic factors, social factors, tech factors. Then look in, put yourselves in the shoes of the decision makers in that story. So if there’s two companies, one buying the other, think about why is one selling, why is one buying the other one?

And then finally, law firm involvement. If it is a transaction, think about how the law firm get involved. Sometimes you can even find law firms writing about the deals and telling you which teams are involved.

So you can learn a lot more that way.

Robert Hanna: I love that, three L’s. That’s a great little bit of wisdom you shared. Any other little tips that help people?

Idin Sabahipour: Sign up for Little Law is the main one, I think.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, I mean, when we first connected, I loved your videos. I think the way that you were breaking concepts down and explaining them, because the key is not only acquiring it, it’s then being able to put that message across, isn’t it, in an application stand out, right?

Idin Sabahipour: Yeah, and a lot of the time, people use the stories they read on Little Law. It gives them more confidence in their applications or in their interviews. And one thing we’ve added to the website is that we’ve added a filter for firms.

So whenever we mention a firm, you can filter by firms mentioned. So if you’re applying to FirmX or FirmY, you can quickly filter and read what we’ve written about those firms, which helps people have more confidence when they go into the firms and speaking to them in person.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and again, if you’ve got a particular interest, it keeps you tracking, researching them and all of that good stuff. Love it, love it, love it. So where can people get in touch with you?

What are the best social media handles, websites? Feel free to give them a shout out. We’ll also make sure we share them in this episode for you too.

Idin Sabahipour: So, if you want to follow LittleLaw, head to littlelaw.co.uk and my name’s Idin. I’m the founder. Always want to chat to people who are interested in LittleLaw and getting into law.

So just search up I-D-I-N on LinkedIn. I think I’m a rare Idin in the world of LinkedIn. So there probably won’t be loads of us, but yeah, search me up on LinkedIn.

That’s the best way to get in touch.

Robert Hanna: Definitely the only Idin that’s the CEO and founder of LittleLaw in the world. So definitely use that and you’ll find him. It’s been great having you on the show, doing this in person, doing it at a conference.

Really enjoyed it. But now from all of us, 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.

LegalTechTalk Uncovered Ep 11 - Myles Mclaren 

Explore Clio’s dynamic legal tech platform with Myles Mclaren, the Channel Sales Lead (EMEA) at Clio. In this episode, Myles shared the worries that often hold firms back from making significant digital transitions, and shared the steps that Clio is taking to make that easier than ever.  

Tune in to find out more about our legal tech sponsor.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com 

Transcript

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

Myles Mclaren: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Myles Mclaren. I’m the channel sales lead here at Clio.

And yeah, Clio is a practice management platform, which I’m sure you’ve heard Rob talk about in recent weeks or recent months. But yeah, that’s who I am.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and it’s great to have you, and we’re big fans of Clio on the show, and obviously recording live here at LegalTechTalk. It’s an awesome conference, loads of people here, great buzz. You can probably hear a bit of that in the background as well, because we’re literally by the speaker stage.

But could you tell me a little bit about how you’re finding the speaker sessions you’ve heard thus far at LegalTechTalk, and any standout for you thus far?

Myles Mclaren: Yeah, for sure. I think it’s been good. I think obviously shout out to the event, the first event they’ve had.

I think it’s definitely put on a good show. It’s a real, we’ve got a good lineup of speakers, a good set of sponsors, so really enjoyed that, and quite surprising with someone’s first show. I think from my side, being new to this space, I think the diversity of speakers has been good.

I think they’ve got people that have catered to different types of tech, different types of sizes of industry, you’ve got general councils, you’ve got law firms as a whole. So from my side, it’s a bit of a brain dump of understanding what’s out there, what’s going on, what’s the thought pieces, what people are thinking about in law firms. So I think that’s been really good from that perspective in terms of a standout.

You put me in a spot in terms of names here. There was definitely a session around how AI can help firms become more efficient. And I think for me, that was the best one so far.

Robert Hanna: Yeah. And obviously AI is going to be the buzzword of 2024. You touched on Clio high level, but we’d like to dive a bit deeper into Clio.

Can you describe your focus specifically with the company?

Myles Mclaren: Yeah. So I look after our channel sales here in EMEA. I think thinking about focus, one of the things we found as a business is having partners involved in a lot of these deals are vitally important.

So my focus is a number of different types of partners. So I manage the relationship and go to market with some of our solutions partners. So people in the other tech businesses, there’s net documents of the world, info tracks of the world, but then also manage the relationship with people that do services in and around Clio.

Clio is an interesting company in that we hardly do any services. We do a majority, which want to be a tech platform and sell our software. So we have a lot of trusted partners that help us with migration, document migration, training and upskilling their staff.

So I manage the relationship with those businesses as well. And then we’re also seeing a lot of adjacent kind of partners in this space. So people that look after security, manage services, MSPs.

So my job is to figure out how we can partner with these guys and sell that into clients together and add value to clients. I think that’s the ultimate thing a channel sales does.

Robert Hanna: And obviously yourself and Clio are doing a great job. And, you know, as I say, we’re big advocates for your mission to transform the legal experience for all, which is a very bold mission. And I love that because I’m kind of passionate about building a more collaborative, kinder, thriving legal community.

That’s all great, but there’s challenges, right? And it’s never straightforward because trying to get to that level is not straightforward. So what have been some of the challenges Clio, yourself, have identified in the legal sector?

And how are you addressing them specifically?

Myles Mclaren: Yeah, I think, as you mentioned there, probably moving practice management solutions is not the easiest thing to do in the world. I think, again, I don’t want to talk to you about lawyers too much. I haven’t been in this space that long.

But one of the things I’ve found is there is some apprehension, especially when you’re doing big migrations away from platforms or moving to a platform for the first time. You have to convince a lot of people. There’s a lot of things to think about.

And I think as a business, we’ve got a great sales team. We’ve got a great organisation in terms of and a great product. And I think that’s kind of helping customers come on board.

But it is a challenge to kind of get that aboard. And I think actually being in the channel is helping. One of the things I think we believe in a lot is bringing in the right people to help mitigate that.

We’ve got some excellent partners across the board that can help customers and clients do transformation. They can help customers understand what they need to do, get them ready for the big changes, make sure that they’re having the right systems integrated. And I think one of the things I think we found a challenge last year is maybe we weren’t bringing in partners as often into deals.

We’re bringing them in too late. We’re bringing them in down the line when it was already kind of decision made. I think the shift we’re trying to get towards is how do we leverage channel earlier to make customers’ journeys easier to onboard a practice management solution?

And I think we’ve got some really good partners in the space and what we’re hoping to see is better conversion, quicker conversion and more satisfaction from the customer. And not those challenges of things that are outside of the distance solution. Because the product is obviously what we focus on, but the challenge of convincing the whole business, transformation work, which is not easy.

I’m sure you see a lot of people moan about how hard it is to transform an organisation. And I think that’s something I’m hoping to change at Clio, is bringing in partners early and leveraging them early. But ultimately, it’s to have value to the customer and make sure the customers see and reap the rewards of having someone in there with them, helping them get across the line with integrating someone like Clio. 

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and I know you’ve got so many great things that you are thinking about. I love you’ve got the 24-5 support system. I love the fact that you have zero downtime when people are thinking of actually transferring.

They haven’t got that worry of, oh my God, what’s going to happen? And then also just generally, you really care about the sort of taking them on the journey, making them feel valued and all the great things that you’ve just seen. I think it’s great.

Okay, what’s the future look like for Clio? Any exciting things you can let us in on or any future plans or is it all hush-hush?

Myles Mclaren: Yeah, Clio is quite a hush-hush company sometimes. They do a lot of, I think we’re an interesting company in that we often don’t like talking. We like to perform and do it.

And I think there’s a lot of stuff happening in the background where we’re improving the product, probably some of the buzzwords people are hearing, we’re working on it. But when you see it, it’s not gonna be a half-baked product. It’s gonna be a product that’s ready for the market and really tested and added value to the business.

I think for us in EMEA, we’re seeing a lot of traction in emerging markets. I think that’s gonna be something that we really focus on. And one of the areas we’re also gonna see more of is, Clio historically was more on the smaller end of businesses, kind of up to 50, we’ll be doing a lot more in the mid-market and adding value to some of the bigger firms.

And I think it’s a shift that’s happened and we’re seeing a lot more wins in that space. And I think the future holds a lot more for that in the future for businesses. So yeah, I think those are the types of things we’re seeing, even some of the regions we’re seeing, like Kenya, for example, real big buzz over there, real big push over there.

So hopefully you see us in more regions and more places in the near future.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, exciting. It’s global. It’s fast paced.

Yeah, love what you’re doing. Love the energy that you bring into Clio. Love, generally, what the platform stands for.

And also the community that you really play a lot of part in in terms of supporting the legal community more broadly when it comes to things like access to justice and so many other things as well. If people want to connect with you or learn more about Clio, where’s the best place for them to go?

Myles Mclaren: Yeah, feel free to reach out to me. My name’s Myles Mclaren on LinkedIn. I’m always happy to grab a coffee or go for lunch, actually being centered here in London, so I can get around the UK quite easily.

So yeah, feel free to reach out. My email address is myles.mclaren@clio.com. And we can go from there.

Robert Hanna: Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for joining us, Myles. It’s been a real pleasure.

Myles Mclaren: No worries, much appreciated.

Robert Hanna: 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.

LegalTechTalk Uncovered Ep 12 - Dr Max Bernt

Learn why traceability is so important in legal work with Dr Max Bernt, the Managing Director of Europe at TaxBit and Co-Founder of ValueVerse, amongst other things. In this episode, he shared some of his work around cryptocurrency and taxation.  

Tune in to discover the legal pitfalls of untraceable income.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com 

Transcript 

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

Dr Max Bernt: Hi Rob, it’s a pleasure to be here. My name is Max Bernt. I’m serving currently as the Managing Director for TaxBit Europe.

I’m based out of Vienna, but traveling most of the time. So, yeah, pleasure to be here in London.

Robert Hanna: You’re on the road. And yeah, we’re coming live from LegalTechTalk, obviously at the Continental Hotel in London. It’s amazing, good energy.

How are you finding the conference?

Dr Max Bernt: I really appreciate it. So I arrived yesterday, was here all day. Unfortunately, I have to leave a bit earlier today, but it’s very, very interesting to see where we are heading towards the digitalisation of traditional legal processes and services.

So it’s great to see that not only artificial intelligence plays a role, but also blockchain in this regard. And that’s why I’m here, right?

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and look, I’m a big fan of blockchain and anyone who’s been following my journey, anything that’s sort of gonna be tech for good and can help things and more transparency, I’m all for it. Can you describe what you’re briefly working on at the moment?

Dr Max Bernt: Okay, so I’m managing director of TaxBit, right? TaxBit is the leading tax and accounting compliance solution provider for the digital economy. And the company recently announced it expansion into Europe and into EMEA.

And what I’m doing for the company is basically as managing director, growing the company in these areas, right? We are serving free verticals. We’re working in institutional accounting, institutional tax reporting, as well as with governments.

We have been working with the US government for the past three years in servicing them with software for crypto tax audits. So a very interesting topic, yes. And what I’m doing at the moment is I’m talking, I’m flying around a lot in Europe, being a lot in London, like HMRC here, Paris, et cetera, and talking to governments basically about how can they use our software to help them with coping with the challenges that arise in the context of digital assets and crypto assets, especially in the area of taxation and accounting.

Robert Hanna: Nice, I like that. It’s so important, isn’t it? And it’s kind of forward looking, it’s where the market’s going, you’re providing a solution.

But as I say, anyone who’s trying to embrace technology and legal, there’s challenges, right? There’s challenges on that. But what sort of the key challenge you’ve identified in the legal sector and how are you going about addressing that?

Dr Max Bernt: So the key challenge that we identified is that it’s really, really, really hard for most service providers that hold crypto assets to really do their accounting and their tax reporting, because it’s so complicated with transactions and you have to, like most companies are actually still working with Excel sheets, right? Whereas the issue is with crypto assets really, that the volatility of the market is very hard to track. So in order to do proper accounting and to do proper tax reporting, you really need to have a solution that helps you to have valuation down by the minute or down by the second.

And a lot of companies are right now still depending on very big consulting firms or tax accountants to do that, because there is a huge liability in this context as well. So what we are doing is we’re really trying to optimise the challenge, like to optimise the processes of coping with the challenges that arise with the dress that’s in the area of accounting and tax reporting. So it’s something no one really wants to deal with, right?

So we are solving that pain for most companies and we are pretty much the only provider that does this on this big scale.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and you’re right. Like, you know, there’s no point burying your head in the sand. This stuff needs addressing.

And the fact that you’re addressing that pain point, providing a great solution, I think is fantastic. What’s been a standout moment for you then in terms of the whole conference so far? What have you most enjoyed?

Dr Max Bernt: I think my panels like to be honest, to actually sit alongside really brilliant minds and discussing with them the future also of blockchain and the regulatory challenges that arise in the context of digital assets. But what I also see is like, there’s a lot of people here that are pitching AI solutions. And going forward, most people that think about blockchain, we just think about crypto assets and like the speculative side of it.

But what we have been really talking about is tokenisation of real world assets. It’s the use of blockchain as a proof of source for artificial intelligence, because ultimately who knows where ChatGPT is sourcing its information from, right? So you need to have some kind of traceability in this sector as well.

And so what I like about these conferences that are not just solely focused on one area is that you have a broad spectrum of people with broad different backgrounds and different expertise. And if you can like discuss with them, it really helps you to progress further in your own area as well and get like different points of view. So you’re not just like in your own silos.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, I love that. And it’s so cutting edge what you’re doing. It’s so important.

And like you say, not many people are looking at this and you’re really kind of getting to the heart of the problem of providing the solution. Where can people find out more about you guys and feel free to chat on your websites, any social media handles. We’ll also share them this episode for you too.

Dr Max Bernt: Yeah, absolutely. So our website is taxbit.com. We were the first unicorn in our field.

So we are growing right now our business globally. So hopefully they see us soon everywhere. They can find me as I’m on LinkedIn.

I have their Max Bernt is my name there and on Twitter as well.

Robert Hanna: There we go. Max, it’s been a pleasure having you on the Legally Speaking Podcast. Delighted we managed to do it in person.

Wishing you lots of continued success. But for now, from all of us, 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.

LegalTechTalk Uncovered Ep 13 - Sree Chintala

Explore the realms of legacy and estate planning with Sree Chintala, the CEO and Founder of My-Legacy.ai. In this episode, Sree gave us a look into the life-long legal work that makes up the legacy planning sector.  

Tune in to find out more about digitising estate planning.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com 

Transcript

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

Sree Chintala: Hi, this is Sree Chintala, CEO and founder of mylegacy.ai.

Robert Hanna: Lovely to meet you and I’ve really enjoyed what you’re doing. You talked a lot about offline what you’re doing, so we’re going to dive into that in a moment. But firstly, how are you finding your experience of the first ever LegalTechTalk in London?

Sree Chintala: This is an awesome conference here. It’s my first time attending a conference in London. Very well done, extremely well done.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, I have to say, it’s very professional, it’s good energy, great people, lots of new connections, global. Yeah, really, really exciting. Couldn’t agree more.

Can you describe what you’re focusing on at the moment?

Sree Chintala: Yeah, absolutely. So we are leveraging the technology, generative AI, blockchain, and so on. So we have been building the legacy planning tools for the past couple of years.

Now we are introducing generative AI to solve the problem, the customer adoption problem. And this is for both consumers and also for attorneys.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and I want to kind of dive into that in a little bit more detail, because like what is that key problem you’ve been finding in and around the legal sector and how are you specifically addressing it?

Sree Chintala: Absolutely, and our focus is on estate planning and legacy planning. So we found that most people don’t think about estate planning, because it’s people, you know, it’s misconceptions. People think that it’s for older people, I need to have a lot of assets.

That’s why the adoption historically is very, very low, 30% in the US., and drops down to 10% if you go down to the UK, Canada, India, and so on. So there’s a lot, because most people don’t do it.

They think they need to talk to an attorney and spend money and time to do that. And we are introducing generative AI to solve the problem.

Robert Hanna: I like that. So how would you encourage someone who might be in that 70, 80% who isn’t thinking about it? What would you say to them?

Sree Chintala: We’ll just say, give us two minutes, and we will get you learning more about estate planning. So we introduced something called Legacy Score. It is like a credit score for your legal preparedness.

So just very few questions, few, two minutes, less than two minutes, you’ll get to know what you are missing, what you need to do based on your profile. And then that gives you a prescription on what you need to do. And we will help you every step of the way during your journey.

Robert Hanna: And sort of what touch points do they have throughout then? You mentioned the journey sort of, you know, obviously you’d like to hope you have a long, healthy life. Yeah, how does that work?

Sree Chintala: Correct. And again, legacy planning is not an one-time event and every few years you need to kind of review your process. So what we do is first to estimate, assess your readiness for dealing with emergencies, you and your family.

And then we’ll give you a list of the things that you need to do. And then how you can get those things done. There may be references to DIY tools, do-it-yourself tools.

Or if you have a complex scenario, we can refer you to an attorney that is qualified to do that. We’ll help you understand what you need in the first place and how to do this and how long it takes and how much it approximately could cost based on your scenario.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, I think it’s just innovative. It’s full with thinking. It’s getting people thinking about things sooner rather than later.

Yeah, and hopefully it can check people’s families, interests, all of that good stuff. So I absolutely get it. What’s been a standout moment for you at the whole conference?

Sree Chintala: This actually is a good conference, very good. And I got talked to the Singapore law company out there and they invited me to start up, open up our product in the Singapore geography area. That was probably the most brilliant moment that we had at this conference.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, no, 100%. I think that sounds super exciting. And what are your future plans?

Sree Chintala: So our future plans is to extend the chatbot capabilities to attorneys. So during our journey, attorneys really wanted to use this chatbot for their own client engagement. So we are focusing on that now to enable attorneys to actually do better engagement on their own websites and so on.

So it is the same chatbot that we have been training on estate planning. We see dual use case. So the consumer’s product is ready in the next four weeks.

And then we’re also launching the estate attorney chatbot in the next five weeks as well.

Robert Hanna: Exciting time. So where can people find out more? Or is there a particular website, any social media handles?

We’ll also share them in this episode too.

Sree Chintala: Absolutely. So our website is mylegacy.ai. If you type in my legacy, it will go to another attorney site.

So don’t forget the dash, mylegacy.ai. You can find me on LinkedIn, Sree, S-R-E-E, Chintala, C-H-I-N-T-A-L-A on LinkedIn. I’m always on LinkedIn.

So love to connect and talk to you guys.

Robert Hanna: Absolutely. We’d highly encourage folks to go and check it out. So thank you so much for sitting down with me, telling me all about my legacy and everything you’re getting up to.

I think it’s fantastic. Definitely get in touch with Sree. Their forward thinking is innovative.

But now 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!

LegalTechTalk Uncovered Ep 14 - Sean West

Get to grips with the intersection of politics and law with Sean West, the Co-Founder of Hence Technologies. In this episode, Sean explained how technology can help lawyers look outside the industry and make better choices.  

Tune in to find out how wider risks impact your legal work.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com 

Transcript

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

Sean West: Sean West, co-founder of Hence Technologies.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, great to meet you, Sean. Loved your energy, loved what you’re getting up to. But first things first, how are you finding the conference?

Sean West: Loving the conference. It is tough to put on a conference like this in a market that already has a number of events going on. I am stunned at the level of attendance, the energy here, the quality of the speakers.

Really been enjoying it.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, I have to agree. I feel like I’ve met somebody who’s been in the legal community, who’s an avid networker. The amount of new people I’ve met is fantastic.

So the testament to the team, how have they managed to get so many people here from all over the globe? I’ve been speaking to people from Singapore, from the US, from India, you name it. So it’s incredible.

Can you describe what you’re currently focusing on?

Sean West: So we’re very focused right now on bringing a product to market for geolegal risk, and that’s the intersection of politics and the law. So we are working on making it easier for law firms and legal departments to track all of the crazy stuff going on in a world that’s on fire, and actually understand the legal risks that they’re exposed to.

Robert Hanna: I love that. So let’s dive a little bit deeper, because I’ve been saying to all of these entrepreneurs, legal AI, legal tech entrepreneurs, whatever you want to call it, whenever you’re trying to do something, there’s challenges, right? Whenever you’re trying to build something, you’ve got to go through challenges in your own business.

But what’s like a key challenge you’ve identified in the legal sector and how are you addressing that specifically?

Sean West: So I think the biggest challenge I’ve come across in the legal sector is just how inwardly focused everybody is. So much, you know, you asked me about this conference. So many conferences I go to are lawyers talking to lawyers about lawyering.

There’s not an external perspective. What we’ve really tried to do is say, everything going on in the world matters. It determines the playing field for you as a company, it determines the playing field for you as a law firm that advises companies.

You need to look up, you need to look out. Now, the response we usually get is, we do and it’s terribly scary out there. So our solution is, why don’t we bring to bear all of these breakthroughs in technology that were so wowed by over the last few years to bear on that problem on reducing the world’s complexity to something that you can actually digest and integrate so we don’t just all have to shelter in place and hide and pretend that the only thing we can do is focus on how to make ourselves a little more efficient in a world that’s falling apart.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and it’s so important what you’re doing as well. But also from a law firm’s perspective, it’s so much more powerful than it can be with the information you’re gonna be providing, right?

Sean West: For sure, law firms comment on politics. They don’t wanna be predictive, but they wanna use politics to get their clients interested in the services they provide. The challenge is that they’re generally pretty slow at doing so.

So an event will happen and they’ll convene all of their key partners to come up with a point of view. Five days later, they’ll put out some sort of piece of research on it, maybe three weeks later, they’ll have a client event on it. But clients are operating in real time.

If the world is changing around them, their competitors are getting an advantage, they’re exposed to risk. And the reality is that it is knowable. The implications of what a political event today means for your business is knowable today.

You don’t need to delay it. And no matter how good an advisor you are as an individual, you can’t see everything. Software and AI can actually see so much more than we can see as humans, which means that not only can we be faster, we can also make sure we don’t miss anything.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and you gave a great example internally as well of like the board minutes. Can you just talk us through that example?

Sean West: Yeah, so look, if I’m general counsel of the business, I am increasingly being asked by the board to brief on geopolitics. Most general councils now have one of government affairs, corporate affairs, ESG, ethics, compliance reporting into them. So they’re responsible for this at the board level.

An event breaks, they’re gonna have to brief the board. In today’s environment, they task members of their team to produce insights for them that they then have to turn into a board memo. What we’re doing with our product, just as one workflow, got dozens of these, is when an event is tagged as of interest by the general counsel, the associate general counsel, they can click a button and it’s gonna generate the board memo for them automatically, not just based on the event, but based on knowledge of their company.

So, it’s gonna be tailored to their company. They can edit it, right? Because a big theme of the power of AI in today’s world is that we’re moving from being content creators as humans to being editors, and we need to enable lawyers to do the same thing.

Robert Hanna: Oh, that’s a powerful quote. I like that. Okay, before we finish up, standout moment for you at the conference.

Sean West: So, I’ve really enjoyed all of the spontaneous interactions with people from around the globe, as you highlighted. You know, it’s rare to go to these conferences and not just see the same people. So when, you know, I’m shaking hands with people from the other side of the world, I just bumped into a good friend who lives walkable for me in Los Angeles.

But we’re both here in London. We’re both speaking at this conference. We’re both telling the world about why what we’re doing is important.

I think that community building for me is the real standout moment. I’m really impressed with the way that they’ve done that.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, no, couldn’t agree more. Well said. It’s been an absolute pleasure having you on the show, Sean.

Where can people find out more about Hence AI? Feel free to shout out any websites, any social media handles for yourself or the firm, and we’ll share them in this episode for you too.

Sean West: So we’ve got two ways to keep up to date with what we’re doing. One, go to hence.ai. That’s pretty simple.

The other is I write a weekly update on geopolitics, technology and law. We’ve got over a thousand GCs in law from partners following it. It’s geolegal.substack.com.

Subscribe if you’d like.

Robert Hanna: Fantastic. Sean, thanks so much for joining me. It’s been a pleasure doing this in person with you in London.

But from now, 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.

LegalTechTalk Uncovered Ep 15 - Mia Ihamuotila

Find out how you can prioritise mental health in the legal profession with Mia Ihamuotila, a Legal Tech & Design Lawyer at Castrén & Snellman. In this episode, she emphasised the importance of taking breaks and prioritising human needs over work.  

Tune in to learn how to fine-tune your own wellbeing as a lawyer.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com 

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! 

LegalTechTalk Uncovered Ep 16 - Aleksandra Kowalska

Get to grips with the justice gap facing large parts of the population with Aleksandra Kowalska, the Legal Counsel at the East European Resource Centre. In this episode, she explained the importance of digital literacy and equitable access to legal representation for migrants.  

Tune in to discover the importance of mediation and representation.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com 

Transcript

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

Aleksandra Kowalska: Hi, my name is Aleksandra Kowalska. You can call me Alex. Legal Council for East European Resource Centre, so we’re a London charity helping vulnerable migrants from Eastern Europe.

And I’m also the founder of Alex Legal English, where I teach legal English.

Robert Hanna: And you do not sit still. We’ve known each other quite a while now on the online world, and you do so much for the legal community. And it’s so good to see you here live at LegalTechTalk.

Can you tell me firstly, how are you finding the conference?

Aleksandra Kowalska: It’s great. It’s my first time here and I absolutely love it. So many people and so many inspiring presentations.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, it’s amazing, isn’t it? I love the energy of coming to these big conferences. We’re at the O2, Incident to Continental Hotel, love coming to London, love meeting old and new faces.

So yeah, I’m really enjoying the energy from today. You talked about your intro, the things that you do, but let’s get into that a little bit more. Can you describe a bit more of what you focus on and how you help the legal community?

Aleksandra Kowalska: So I have two things, so two main areas of activity. The first one is Legal Council for the Charity, and we do help migrants from Eastern and Central Europe. So that’s family law, domestic abuse, immigration, welfare, anything that they would need from us.

And it’s really all about access to justice because so many of our clients don’t really speak English and we do need to help them with basically communication. So that’s the first thing I do. And the other one is teaching legal English.

So I organise courses for foreign lawyers, lawyers who want to improve their English, improve their communication. I’ve organised a few courses for Ukrainian lawyers to help them gain new skills and to make it easier for them to find a job.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and it’s amazing, as I say, I don’t know how you fit it all in, everything that you’re doing. But there’s challenges. When you put yourself out there and you do all of this work, there is a lot of challenges along the way.

So what are some of the challenges you’ve identified in the legal sector and how are you going about addressing them?

Aleksandra Kowalska: So for most of my clients, it really is about access to justice. Many of them are vulnerable. They are not really digitally proficient.

So when, for example, people had to apply for the settled status, EUSS, many of our clients would have a phone, they would have a mobile device, but they wouldn’t really be able to fill out the application firstly because of the lack of digital skills, but also because they just didn’t understand what was written there. So some of them would speak English, but it would be limited English. But when it comes to legal English and actually communicating in some formal situations, that is really challenging for them.

Many of them wouldn’t really know the system because they grew up in the civil law system where everything works really differently. So it is also about the trust, the lack of trust and just finding the right way to communicate.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and you do such a fabulous job of bridging that access to justice gap in the work that you do. And Clio, who sponsored our show, and myself obviously with the show, we’re very passionate about that as well. And I’m a big believer in technology can be for good to actually reduce that access to justice gap.

What’s been a standout moment for you thus far at LegalTechTalk? I know we spoke offline about an AI and also the billable hour, but has there been a particular standout moment for you thus far?

Aleksandra Kowalska: Well, so I’ve only been to two or three presentations, so I’m really looking forward to attending more. But so far it’s been great. I feel really inspired.

I feel like I have more energy and I really like Christina Blacklaws talking about access to justice. That was the best presentation.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, and she’s also a Legally Speaking Podcast alumni, Christina, former president of Law Society of England and Wales. She’s been on the show, so folks can go and check that out. So what are some of your future plans then, Aleks?

And where can people find out more about you? Where are some websites, social media links? We’ll also share them with this episode for you too.

Aleksandra Kowalska: My future plans, more legal English courses, especially for Ukrainian lawyers and also for lawyers from other jurisdictions. You can find me on Instagram, LegalEnglishInLondon, and you can visit my website. That’s Aleks LegalEnglish.

And on LinkedIn, it’s just Aleksandra Kowalska, or you can look for Aleks.

Robert Hanna: There we have it. Aleks, it’s been a pleasure finally getting you on the show, meeting you in person at this awesome conference. Congratulations on everything you’re doing.

But from now, 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.

LegalTechTalk Uncovered Ep 17 - Amanda Bell

Explore the legal systems surrounding and supporting divorce with Amanda Bell, the Co-Founder of SeparateSpace. In this episode, Amanda explained how SeparateSpace is set to change the way divorce is handled by the legal sector, by focusing on lawyers’ relationships rather than their legal issues.  

Tune in to discover a more holistic approach to divorce law.  

Join us on your favourite podcast streaming app! 

Don’t forget to join our Discord community where we connect with like-minded people, share resources, and continue the conversation from this episode. 

Sponsored by Clio – the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing and more! 💻 www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com info@legallyspeakingpodcast.com 

Transcript

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

Amanda Bell: Hi, my name is Amanda Bell, and I am co-founder of SeparateSpace.

Robert Hanna: And it’s great to have met you, Amanda. We were very kindly introduced by Legally Speaking Podcast alumni in Sahar Farooqi. It was nice to meet you here.

I think it’s been a great energy, but how have you found your experience?

Amanda Bell: What a brilliant couple of days. I’ve met some really interesting people, heard some very interesting talks. I’ve just done a panel about digitalising justice, which has been good fun.

And we had people from across the world talking about what’s happening in their jurisdictions. So it’s been brilliant, great energy.

Robert Hanna: Good stuff, good stuff. And I think everything that everyone is kind of focusing on and everyone where they’re looking to take that direction, they found some really good collaboration here. I feel there’s a lot of mutual minds and growth mindset people, which is good.

But what are you focusing on currently?

Amanda Bell: So SeparateSpace is a online platform to support people through divorce. So our focus right now, we’ve just launched our products. Our focus is getting out to those people who we can help.

Robert Hanna: I love that. I love that. But let’s dive deeper, right?

Because whenever you’re trying to launch any product, any platform, there’s a challenge for you as your business, but also there’s probably a challenge at the market. So like what’s the one or two things you’ve identified that are really kind of challenging in the legal sector and how are you going about addressing them?

Amanda Bell: Yeah, so I’m a lawyer by background. I spent many years working at Withers, who are market leaders in the family law space. And the reality for most people, when they’re coming across divorce, is that getting a lawyer is completely out of, you know, it’s just not realistic.

The idea of spending a few thousand pounds at the end of every month on a lawyer. So most people are left to navigate what is a really confusing and stressful process alone. And so we have created software which responds to an individual’s circumstances to help them understand what to do and when to do it, so that if they do have a bit of cash for a lawyer, they can use that lawyer really effectively.

Robert Hanna: I like that, I like that. So walk us through like a case study or something hypothetically for someone listening in.

Amanda Bell: Gosh, well, you know, when I got to the age and stage of seeing people in my personal life getting divorced, it’s when it really hit home that, yeah, there’s really important legal issues that you need to understand and navigate and do it properly so that you don’t have a raw deal. Because of course the decisions that you’re making in a divorce are gonna impact you for the rest of your life. But it’s so much more than a legal problem.

You know, it’s a relationship problem. And I’ve seen that in my personal life, where I’ve seen people go through divorce, where I’ve seen behind the scenes, because of course as a lawyer, you’re dealing with just a bit of the process. So with SeparateSpace, we are cross domain.

So we’ve got a child psychologist on board, we’ve got a therapist on board, we’ve got the legal and financial expertise as well, so that we are really a companion for people all the way through. So a lot of our users are people who cannot afford to pay for a lawyer to be by their side through the process. They may have a bit of budget, they may have had a meeting with a lawyer, but mostly they’re navigating it themselves.

And not only do they need support on understanding how on earth you get a valuation for a pension, the fact that a pension even should be included when you’re talking about divorce, but also, okay, I really want to help my kid, how do I do that? You need to tell school, what do you need to tell school? And we can help with all of those things.

So really taking a holistic approach.

Robert Hanna: It’s end to end, isn’t it? Basically a 360, covering everything. And also, like you say, and it’s a very emotional, it’s not a nice time, is it?

And I think to have this kind of platform and supporting end to end is really important. What’s been a standout moment for you at this conference?

Amanda Bell: Oh, I’ve just come off stage talking about access to justice, and we had people from across the world there. So we had someone who’s a founder of LegalTech platform in Africa, helping people get access to lawyers there. Someone that’s doing something really exciting with access to justice in the US.

Someone from Germany who’s working to help SMEs get the legal support they need. And I think just that energy around doing things in a different way is just exciting to have that all in one room.

Robert Hanna: Yeah, I always say energy is everything and it’s so infectious and I’ve just had that throughout. That’s how I’ve been able to do so many of these interviews throughout the two days. I’ve loved all of the conversation, but what are some of the future plans that you’ve got?

Amanda Bell: So with SeparateSpace, this year is all about getting as our message to as many people as possible, getting them onto the platform, getting the feedback as with any tech product, which is the startup mindset is slightly different to the lawyer’s mindset, but we need to get people on, get their feedback, improve as we go. And so it’s just about spreading the word.

Robert Hanna: Absolutely, and on that, where can people find out more about what you’re doing? Are there any websites, any social media handles? We’ll also share them with this episode for you too.

Amanda Bell: Fantastic, thanks. So our website is www.separatespace.co.uk. We have a mighty following on Instagram, lots of engaged people getting kind of reliable information on there, so that’s at SeparateSpace.

And I’m on LinkedIn, Amanda Bell.

There we go, go and check it out folks. Well, Amanda, it’s been an absolute pleasure hosting you on the Legally Speaking Podcast. Wishing you lots of continued success with SeparateSpace and everything that you’re doing.

But from now, from all of us on the show, 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.

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