LegalTechTalk Uncovered Ep 9 – Leila El Gharbi

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.