On today’s episode of LegalTechTalk Uncovered 2025, we get to speak with Maria M. Borsboom. She is a lawyer and the Vice President of the European Legal Tech Association (ELTA). At Legal Tech Talk 2025, she advocates for using legal technology to serve justice, promote legal literacy, and transform the legal profession through mindset shifts and system redesign. Passionate about inclusivity and innovation, she emphasizes the need for collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and a legal renaissance beyond just commercial tech use.
🔍 We Discussed the Following Questions:
❓In One Sentence, What Problem Are You Actually Trying To Solve In The World Of Law?
❓What’s One Assumption About Legal Tech You Think Most People Get Wrong?
❓What’s Been Your Biggest Surprise At Legal Tech Talk 2025 So Far?
❓What Can We Expect From Legal Services That They Don’t Get Today?
❓What’s Been Your Biggest Aha Moment Or A Standout Moment Thus Far For You?
You can hear Rob and marisa discussing:
– Legal Tech Accessibility and Inclusion
– Misconceptions Around Legal Technology
– The Importance of Mindset Transformation
– The Future of Redesigning a Justice System
– Legal Literacy and Client Empowerment
Connect with Marisa here – https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisamborsboom/
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 aus here 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.
00:41
It’s a blueprint for community and transformation.
00:45
So buckle up.
00:45
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 from Legal Tech Talk in London.
01:01
Could you please introduce yourself, name, title, and organization?
01:05
So, my name is Marisa Monteiro Borsboom and I’m a lawyer myself for a few years, but today I’m here as Vice President of the European Legal Tech Association.
01:18
Absolutely, it’s a pleasure to be recording with you.
01:20
Love your energy and everything that you’re standing for.
01:23
In one sentence, what problem are you actually trying to solve in the world of law?
01:29
Well, for me personally, it’s serving justice to people, but it’s my personal one.
01:37
From the European Legal Tech Association is, of course, to be a platform to potentiate legal techs and legal professionals.
01:46
Love it.
01:46
And we’re all about that in terms of the show and try to help make the profession better, help more people, make it more accessible.
01:53
So absolutely love what you stand for.
01:54
What’s one assumption about legal tech you think most people getwrong.
01:59
Yeah, I do think that people get wrong that legal tech is just for big law firms or something in the realm of being a truck and a farm and nothing else.
02:13
And I think legal tech is much more than that.
02:15
Yeah, no, I agree.
02:16
Okay.
02:16
And are you hosting any sessions today?
02:19
If so, what are they about?
02:20
So today I’m actually going to host many of you in Elta drinks later on so we can have conversations beyondthat are extremely important.
02:31
Tomorrow I’ll be on stage with some colleagues, but I think for the ones who are here, please come by.
02:37
We need those socks also be on the stage.
02:40
We do, absolutely.
02:40
And we’ve been having some great talks off-air, meeting people, connecting with people, and that’s what it’s all about when you come to events like this.
02:46
You get a real sense of energy.
02:48
This year’s themes, there’s law and tech, there’s evolution and revolution, there’s access to justice, there’s purpose-driven law, there’s collaboration, smart compliance.
02:56
I think I know the answer to this, but which of those speaks louderis to you right now and why?
03:01
Well for me it’s about the transformation of the mindset because I think we are now as many say in a existential crossroads and I think most of the professionals really are looking at this some in panic some in wonder but none of an indifference so yeah it’s exciting to be here this year.
03:24
And I think that’s it when people come to events like this there is an excitement in the year you meet people youYou might just get that one nugget of wisdom that could change your mindset from being not necessarily open to actually adapting and whatever it might be.
03:35
Of course, there’s a whole load of stuff on AI throughout the two days.
03:38
What’s been your biggest surprise at Legal Tech Talk 2025 so far?
03:42
Has it been a moment, a conversation?
03:45
I think for now the surprise is to see that many of the ones who were last year came back and they coming back with renewed point of views.
03:57
I think we surprise ourselves of how fast things are going and that is something that we really, really want to everybody that is here today mingles and say, hey, from last year to this year, look where we are now.
04:13
Yeah, and we’ve had Piers LinneyDragons Den investor lawyer come on the show and he said the ship has left the harbor when it comes to technology and AI and it’s only going that way and like you say a year on it’s great we’re back we loved it last year we’re having new exciting cutting-the-edge conversations and now is the time to definitely be adapting learning and growing coming things like this so if we fast forward even further then to 2030 what do you hope will be done better and finally fixed within law well to be honest what I really would like is what I’ve been defending in some of my keynotesIt is a legal renaissance.
04:47
It’s beyond the technology.
04:48
The technology should be now going to the point where you have legal tech for good, legal tech for justice, to serve justice.
04:57
I think we’ve been understandably so.
05:00
in a much more commercial sense, we really need to make this open in the sense that the problems of justice are really addressed.
05:09
And we can do more.
05:10
We are much more mature.
05:12
The technology is there.
05:13
So we can move forward also to redesign the justice system and not only trying to pump with technology systems that are long overdue.
05:23
Yeah, I love that.
05:24
And if we keep fast forwarding then, say we are back there five years on from now, what canexpect from legal services that they don’t get today?
05:34
I do think that if we really go forward, we should also talk about major bets on legal literacy, because a well-educated client, a person that understands the system, is someone that you can work better with.
05:50
It doesn’t substitute you, it just works better with.
05:52
So I think we have societal efforts to really go through the 360 education literacythan trying to rethink the system of justice and then have professionals also that are empowered to do better the job in better conditions and then we finally have this.
06:14
nightmares of people not being served justice or even in their contractual relationships in a much better sea.
06:22
It’s a cruise moment.
06:24
I love how you’ve just broken that down and given a really good flavor of how it would look.
06:28
And here’s to that, right?
06:29
And before I let you go, it’s a busy day ahead here at Legal Tech Talk, but what’s been your biggest aha moment or a standout moment thus far for you?
06:37
I think it’s literally the conversation I had with a colleague this morning that it says we need to bring some topics that are not on the table.
06:46
We need to bring other stakeholders that are not yet here and it’s up to us to bring them.
06:51
So we are trying to even already see what can we bring to 2026 that we are agents of our own future and we will make sure that the topics we care for are at the table.
07:01
Beautifully said.
07:02
And if I always say if it’s meant to be, it’s up to me and you’re being very accountable and pushing it forward.
07:06
Yeah, it’s been amazing meeting you, doing this podcast live here at Legal Tech Talk.
07:11
If people want to know more about you or find out more about you, where can they go to find out more?
07:15
Well, LinkedIn is my platform.
07:17
So Marisa M. Borsboom, the blue butterfly is there waiting for you.
07:22
But the European Legal Tech Association, ALTA, please do follow our page.
07:26
Engage with us.
07:27
And Robert, your work is amazing.
07:29
So please continue to engage with us and our communities so we can pump this and beyondthe dreams, we make it a reality.
07:39
And here is to that.
07:40
So thank you so much once again from all of us on the Legally Speaking Podcast, over and out.
07:44
Thank you for listening to this week’s episode.
07:46
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07:56
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08:04
Over and out.