The organisation invited experts, including female law firm leaders, to discuss developments in these areas
College of Law Australia is set to tackle global legaltech and women in legal business at its upcoming webinars.
The organisation will be holding two online events at the close of the month, which will feature legaltech experts and female law firm leaders.
“Tech is impacting all areas of our personal and professional lives, from data security to AI in court rooms – tech capabilities are fast becoming a mandatory requirement for lawyers. There is also an essential need to reciprocate client tech capabilities, it is an integral part of legal product and service delivery today,” the College of Law said in a media release.
Terri Mottershead, executive director of the College of Law’s Centre for Legal Innovation (CLI), explained that as per the organisation’s Legaltech Around the World series of events, “the uptake of legaltech is patchy between the same type of legal businesses.”
“It’s different in the B2B and B2C markets and, because tech is borderless, there are loads of opportunities to expand and collaborate if you know where to look,” she said. “We’ve seen some great recent examples of global legaltech expansion from Australia – Immediation, Josef, Lawcadia, Lawpath, Persuit and Xakia - and, we’re going to see a lot more!”
The event will feature legaltech experts David Bushby (managing director of InCounsel), Nikki Shaver (CEO and co-founder of Legaltech Hub), and Clinton Swan (international ops and co-founder of Codelex Legaltech). The theme of the webinar is “Big Themes, Big Changes – Where to now with Legaltech,” and it will take place on 26 October as the closing event in the Legaltech Around the World series launched in February.
A lasting legacy in law for women
The College of Law has also established an online series focused on women in legal business. The series aims to examine the gender disparity at the senior levels of the profession.
The organisation cited a Harvard Business Review finding from March that highlights a bias against women even though more and more women are joining the industry.
“Diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging are at the core of innovation – we cannot do what we do not know, as much as we cannot be what we cannot see. This series is about sharing, learning, doing, asking questions and getting answers. We’re going to celebrate how women lead and connect them so they can do more, and differently,” Mottershead said.
The eight-part series will feature female leaders in the legal professions, such as Caryn Sandler (partner and chief knowledge and innovation officer at Gilbert + Tobin), Genevieve Collins (CEP at Lander & Rogers), and Melissa Lyon (executive director and experience designer at Hive Legal). All three women are on the CLI advisory board.
The upcoming webinar from this series takes place on 27 October. On the panel will be Riz Amin (CEO at Foundd Legal), Courtney Blackman (head of partnerships at Lander & Rogers), Renee Coman (mergers and acquisitions relationship manager at Jonas Software), and Kate McAlister (lawyer and co-founder at Markster).
“Over the course of my multi-faceted career in corporate law, legal transformation and change management, I have witnessed a positive trend towards embracing diversity and balancing boards and senior leadership teams,” Sandler said. “At a C-suite level in law firms, there’s an appreciation that businesses are more profitable, productive and innovative when they encourage and nurture a diverse range of talents and experience.”
Terri Mottershead
