Much of what I am about to say is likely well-known by readers of this blog. However, having read it before does not make the information any less salient. The legal profession has long been one that has adhered to seemingly rigid rules, processes, and practices.

Today’s post is a love story. It involves unrequited love. It involves seduction. It involves money. It involves legal technology. The technology seduction.

Before getting to the story, a little background information in the form of three facts. Fact 1: Legal technology continues to attract a lot of attention. Fact 2: Legal technology continues to attract large investments of money. Fact 3: There continues to be a lot of hype about legal technology. Unfortunately, this hype also distracts attention away from the reality of legal technology.

Ed Sohn seeks to “advance change in the legal industry by delivering practical scale and quality through legal technology and managed services.” He and Pangea3, now a part of EY, has a longstanding “record of pioneering legal managed services and now, with the global reach and power of the EY platform, is uniquely positioned to lead our clients into the next legal working world.”

I had the pleasure of speaking recently with Kevin L. Miller, the CEO of LegalSifter. He had a lot of useful insights regards the relationship between lawyers, technology, and the future of the practice of law.

Nir Golan is General Counsel and Head of Global Legal Operations for attenti. He is a frequent voice in the legal innovation world and brings a unique perspective focused on bringing humanity back to the practice of law.

Karl Chapman is a legal innovator and a thought leader in the legal technology space. He joined Riverview Law, a legal services business, as Chief Executive in the summer of 2011 following its creation by AdviserPlus a company he set up in 2001. Riverview Law was acquired by EY in August 2018 and he is now a Strategic Adviser to the company. EY Law aims to be the trusted advisor, the safe disruptor, to Corporate Legal Departments globally - “via a combination of people, processes, technology and data we help large organisations evolve their operating model.” Karl also serves as a Non-Executive Director of Kim Technologies. Kim is a leading no-code, configurable Automation-as-a-Service platform that helps organisations automate their workflows, processes, case management and documents.

Maya Markovich is a “multidimensional product and innovation leader with roots in legal, change management, behavioral science and tech industries.” She has a passion for transforming the practice of law and, as head of product for Nextlaw Labs, is currently focused on building momentum for innovation within the ecosystem of Dentons, the largest law firm in the world, and across the industry.

Over the course of the past few years, I have been very lucky and honored to have been able to interview so many key leaders in the legal innovation field. They are all dedicated to improving the practice of law. After hearing and reading others’ reactions to the thoughts of those that I have interviewed, I thought that it made sense at this point to take stock of those conversations. This post is intended to be an exploration of some of the key themes of the interviews. I frame these themes as lessons. I strongly encourage and welcome others’ thoughts on these lessons.

I had the pleasure of talking to Mark Deuitch. Mark is an entrepreneur and the founder of two web-based startups, PeopleClaim and Rhubarb, both of which I asked him about in this interview. Mark is devoted to solving “societal issues that are not sufficiently resolved by the existing system.” Right now, that means fixing the legal system through crowdsourcing on the blockchain.

I recently spoke with Tunji Williams, a truly inspiring legal tech founder and entrepreneur. He describes himself (and accurately, I would say) as “a dreamer, entrepreneur, technologist and former mergers and acquisitions attorney building a team to help revolutionize deal process technology and service delivery for corporate transactions, and beyond.”

I recently interviewed Steven O’Donnell, Director of Product Marketing and Sales for Mitratech. Mitratech is a leader in the legal operations and workflow automation space. They describe themselves as a “proven global technology partner for corporate legal departments and risk & compliance professionals seeking to raise productivity, control expense, and mitigate risk by deepening organizational alignment, increasing visibility, and spurring collaboration across the enterprise.”

I recently spoke with Richard Mabey. Richard is a co-founder and the CEO of Juro. Juro is “an award-winning end-to-end contract management platform, which transforms contracts from the end of something painful into the start of something great.” I asked him about his beginnings within the legal tech world and his current thoughts on legal tech and Juro.

Rob Saccone is an entrepreneur and recognized expert in technology, business and practice optimization within the legal industry, spending the last 20 years studying and serving legal markets worldwide.  He’s built and sold tech businesses, designed and launched new products and business models for law firms and legal tech vendors, and advises participants in the legal ecosystem from startups to global firms on business and technology strategy, new product and market development and data-driven innovation.

For this interview, I decided to follow up with someone I had previously interviewed - Josh Kubicki. I suggest reading that interview first.

Kunoor Chopra  been involved in the legal services outsourcing industry since 2004 when she founded LawScribe, one of the pioneer companies in the industry. Her vision has always been to create a platform for customers that provides them with the best, most effective and efficient options to obtain and manage legal services. This means transforming the way legal services are delivered through technology and by providing customers with the right resources for service delivery, domain experts, process efficiencies and complete visibility into the who, what, where and how of services being delivered.

Dennis Kennedy is a professional speaker, author, adjunct law professor, podcaster, innovator, and authority on issues at the intersection of law, technology, and business. He is one of the best-known experts, authors, and commentators on legal technology and the application of technology to the practice of law. Dennis helps clients improve processes and systems to drive innovation, value, and efficiency into legal services, provide advice and education, and coach and mentor legal professionals.

Justin “Jay” Evans is a third-year at Michigan State University College of Law where he is learning to use his scientific expertise and diverse work experience to advise clients on the cutting edge, through the use of innovative technology to make legal work more effective and efficient by optimizing the latest best practices.

Jae Um is a strategy executive, insights analyst & business designer for fast-changing legal markets, with 10+ years of industry experience. She leverages a highly diverse skillset to generate powerful actionable insights. Jae recently joined the law firm of Baker McKenzie as Director of Pricing Strategy. She is also a contributing author to Legal Evolution, American Lawyer, and other publications covering the legal industry. Jae also founded and is the executive director of Six Parsecs. Prior to her current roles, she served in a progression of high-impact roles in client service innovation & strategic growth at Seyfarth Shaw.

With more than 25 years’ experience as a leader in professional firms, John Chisholm established his own consultancy in 2005 to share his expertise and experience with firms looking to move beyond the traditional firm model.