LegalTechTalk Uncovered 2025 – Isabel Bathurst – E12

You can hear Rob and Isabel discussing:

Connect with isabel here – https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabel-bathurst/?originalSubdomain=uk

Transcript

00:00

Welcome to the Legally Speaking podcast, Legal Tech Talk Uncovered Mini Series 2025, sponsored by Clio.

00:07

We’re back with our red mic for a behind the scenes series all about legal innovation at Europe’s largest legal tech event.

00:15

So we’re granted access to meet some of the greatest speakers, sponsors, brands in the whole legal tech world.

00:22

We’ve got 300 speakers with over 70 sessions with over 4,000 attendees from all across the globe, hitting ahere over the next two days at Legal Tech Talk live in London.

00:33

From AI to access to justice to smart compliance, you name it, we’re covering it all.

00:38

This isn’t just another conversation or another conference, it’s a blueprint for community and transformation.

00:45

So buckle up, we’re speaking with some incredible people about policy change, change makers, legal innovation, and so much more.

00:52

Over and out.

00:55

Welcome to the Legally Speaking podcast, recording live here at Legal Tech Talk 2025.

01:01

Please introduce yourself, name, title, and organisation.

01:04

Well, hello.

01:05

It’s wonderful to be here.

01:06

Thank you for having me on the Legally Speaking podcast.

01:09

It’s Isabel Bathurst.

01:11

I’m the owner and founder of Legal AI Limited.

01:14

a legal tech company, but it’s also got an AI tool, an agentic AI tool called AI, and it’s built by lawyers for lawyers.

01:23

And it looks at all those issues that lawyers are really not happy about with AI and looks at how we can bridge the gap and provide the type of AI that lawyers will be happy and content to use.

01:36

I love that.

01:36

And I guess that leads nicely on to what’s the one problem you are specifically trying to solve in the world of law?

01:42

Pain points got very crossmy computer with everything that I’m doing on case management systems and different systems that just don’t talk to each other very well, quite funky.

01:51

The business of law on my day-to-day is just not as seamless as it’s my talk to be.

01:59

And it’s systems that could just talk to each other better.

02:03

A whole host of problems that then when you start saying, what’s my pain point here, you start to look at actually AI can be like a little bridge gapbetween systems that really assist.

02:15

I love that.

02:15

And what I love what you said before is built by lawyers for lawyers.

02:19

So with that, what’s one assumption about legal tech you think most people get wrong?

02:24

Okay, well, legal tech is fantastic.

02:26

Some of the best tech that you could have in systems.

02:28

The problem I’ve had in implementing it as a partner in law firms is the legal tech doesn’t quite do what the lawyers want it to do.

02:36

And I think that’s one of the biggest problems.

02:38

And also, the lawyers and the tech people speak different languages.

02:41

So there’s a complete disconnect between what the lawyers want the tech to do and what its capability is.

02:46

But it doesn’t mean the technology is not super-duper capable, brilliant.

02:51

It’s just not quite doing what it needs to.

02:53

Not doing what it needs to.

02:54

Okay, talking about what needs to, are you doing any sessions here?

02:57

Are you attending any sessions?

02:59

If so, tell us about them.

03:00

I am attending sessions.

03:01

I’m going to the keynote events, but I’m also interested as to what thelegal startups are doing.

03:09

Since I was on the stage last year, the number of technology startups and companies working with AI specifically is increased exponentially.

03:20

Seems to be much more in terms of contract work and e-discovery than what I’m dealing with in terms of process and litigation and systems speaking to each other.

03:30

But I just want to just look around and see whatwhat’s the competition, what’s going on, but also what’s new and how has the conversation and the interest changed just in the last 12 months.

03:41

So I’m really looking at what people are talking about, what they’re worried about, what they’re concerned about, but more importantly, what they’re excited about, what they want to implement in their firms.

03:50

Listening with all ears from all angles by the sound of it.

03:53

I’m here just to go and listen to the keynotes, listen to the speakers, talk to as many people and connect as possible.

04:00

And I’m here in person to just, I’ve got various meetingup to talk to people.

04:04

I’ve got some investment rounds coming up.

04:07

I’m the first people I connected with are investors.

04:09

It’s got so many conversations going and just within half an hour of walking in, I’ve already had five connections.

04:15

So I can’t, it’s just a brilliant event for that.

04:17

And we get to meet in real life from LinkedIn, which is always very nice as well.

04:22

Okay, so this year’s themes, there’s six of them, law and tech, evolution, revolution, access to justice, purpose-driven law, collaboration, and smart compliance.

04:30

Which of those speaks loudest to you and why?

04:33

Out of that, one that jumps out, well there’s two that jumps out, the first one was collaboration.

04:38

The reason I think that’s important is that lawyers and professionals operate in business through relationship building.

04:46

Technology, in order to succeed, requires collaboration and partnership.

04:50

It can’t be an old way of working.

04:52

It can’t be build a product and sell it with competition.

04:55

Collaboration is king.

04:56

It’s the way of working and technology understands that legalworld and it’s absolutely essential and in business that collaboration is what’s different new and disruptive and it’s what will affordtechnology companies to move forward.

05:12

It’s the businesses that you collaborate with that will move the technology forward in a way that meets particularly how lawyers work.

05:22

The issue that is the second one is the smart compliance.

05:25

You need trust and understanding that they’re business partners and if you haven’t got that, your compliance is at risk.

05:31

And so that’s why I put those two together.

05:34

Love it.

05:34

I’m really well put together, I might add.

05:37

Okay, what’s been your biggest surprise of Legal Tech Talk 2024?

05:40

Just how many people and how many new companies, how many new companies are there here this year?

05:45

That to me is really exciting.

05:47

It shows that it’s a really exciting, innovative, dynamic new space.

05:52

There’s a lot of new companies doing really incredible work.

05:56

There’s a lot of, whilst there’s a lot of overlap, there’s a lot of new ideas and that’s really exciting and it’s really exciting to see and it’s exciting to see how in business they’re actuallymaking products that are working and changing how we operate and to see them all here and have an opportunity to see their demos and to talk to them, find out where they’re going.

06:16

As a sounder as well, that’s really encouraging.

06:20

There’s just a lot more of those businesses here than there were last year and that’s just the best, really.

06:26

Real sense of innovation, isn’t there?

06:28

And real energy about it.

06:29

Real energy.

06:30

Okay, and then what if we fast forward five years, say it’s 2030, what’s one thing you think clientswill expect that they’re not necessarily getting today?

06:41

They will expect that their lawyers do utilise a properly thought out and driven technology.

06:48

and AI solution for their work.

06:52

They will require that we as lawyers utilise it, that we utilise it well.

06:56

And the things that we’re concerned about, our clients won’t be because they will see the opposite.

07:00

They will want it to be quicker, faster, cheaper, but they’ll want it to be right and accurate.

07:05

So some of that, which we’re concerned about as lawyers, they will want, but they will want thequicker, straightforward solutions and they’ll want it to be easy.

07:13

They don’t want to read all your legal stuff.

07:15

They want the answer and to get to it quickly and that’s something as lawyers we’ve kind of been dragged with kicking and screaming to give but the best lawyers do it.

07:24

They cut through and give advice that’s practical and a solution, especially for businesses.

07:29

Yeah, and I always say if you confuse people, you lose people, and you build trust if you can get your message across and not leave them in the legalese.

07:34

Okay, I’ve really enjoyed this.

07:36

Before I let you go, what’s been your biggest aha moment of the conference thus far?

07:41

The biggest aha moment is actually realising that AI can really disrupt this industry well.

07:49

And it’s actually been bubbling under as a conceptfor a while, but it’s actually now in action.

07:56

I’m seeing technology companies actually meeting the need of lawyers as well.

08:00

And that’s brilliant.

08:01

AI in action.

08:02

That’s a great way to close.

08:03

So Isabel, if people want to know more about you or indeed Legal AI, where can they go to find out more and which platforms you’re on?

08:09

I’m on LinkedIn mainly at the moment.

08:11

We’re going to an investment round, so I’m literally building afranky new website with what we’re doing so just about to launch in Dubai as well as in the UK so we’ve got a lot of new things happening I’ve got some new people coming into the team some very exciting people including a judge and someone from the recent honours list and some very senior solicitors so it’s very exciting so actually go to my LinkedIn page with my website and links to various collaborative partners are also there as well in that collaboration piece just to show just how LinkedIn works well exactly well it just leads me to say thanks ever so much forjoining me today and doing this live, but from all of us on the Legally Speaking Podcast for now, over and out.

08:49

Thank you for listening to this week’s episode.

08:52

If you like the content here, why not check out our world-leading content and collaboration hub, the Legally Speaking Club over on Discord.

09:02

Go to our website, www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com for the link to join our community there.

09:10

Over and out.