The Legal Ops Podcast

Alex and Elliot chat with Alex Su about his hugely popular Tik Tok and LinkedIn videos which poke fun at the legal industry, how he creates great comedic content, whether or not he has faced backlash and how he transitioned from practising law to selling legal tech. LINKS Alex Su on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-su

Mike Haven recently became President of the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC). He is also the Head of Legal Operation at Intel, a thoughtful and passionate commentator on all things legal operations and he was our first ever guest on the podcast back in 2019. We sat down with Mike to discuss CLOC, the state of the industry and the future of work in a post-pandemic world. Here's a snapshot of what we covered: * Why Mike became CLOC President and what he considered in deciding whether or not to take on the role. * What he sees as the future of the organisation and how it will build on successes of the past. * Why “matters of the heart” will be an increasing focus for the future, including in particular fostering greater diversity in legal operations and in legal practice generally. * Results from the recent 2021 State of the Industry Report, what has changed over time and what it tells us about the development of the legal operations industry. * How corporate legal departments are planning their post-pandemic working arrangements, and what work will be like for lawyers in the future. LINKS Mike's article on becoming CLOC President: https://cloc.org/my-personal-why-carrying-the-torch-fanning-the-flame-and-charting-the-course/ Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-haven-057aa1/ CLOC 2021 State of the Industry Report: https://cloc.org/2021-state-of-industry-survey/ Atlassian article on remote working: https://www.atlassian.com/blog/leadership/hybrid-work-model-premortem

Alex and Elliot chat about: * Recent capital raisings by Lexion, Tonkean, Intapp and Legal Zoom * A recent report rating law a high risk profession for psychological hazards * 6 product design frameworks from the inventor of the iPod and iPhone, and what they mean for legal tech LINKS 6 product frameworks from Tony Fadell: https://www.nfx.com/post/product-frameworks-tony-fadell/

Lawyers are notoriously poor at stepping back from their work to think about what they're doing and how they're doing it. Yet this reflection is vital to ensuring that the right output is being provided in the right way. Optimising the delivery of value to clients requires looking at the big picture, articulating the legal team's competitive advantage and, above all, creating and implementing a strategy. We met with Susan Hackett, CEO of Legal Executive Leadership LLC and former General Counsel of the Association of Corporate Counsel. Susan advises law departments and law firms on all aspects of the business of law, including strategy, leadership, change management and legal operations. Susan, Alex and Elliot discussed many topics related to strategy and legal operations, including: * Why legal operations professionals were originally referred to as "legal executives". * What strategy actually is. * How and when to set strategy. * What elements comprise a law department strategy and where technology fits in. * The role of legal operations in the strategy setting process. * Susan's view on the future of legal operations and technology. LINKS Susan Hackett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanhackett/

Alex and Elliot chat about: * The highly anticipated M1X MacBook Pro and why Elliot wants one * Recent legal tech capital raisings by ContractBook and Tessian * Amazon using data analysis to update the disputes clause in its Terms of Service * The Legal Tech-to-English Dictionary and Elliot's attempt to define "User Experience" and "Change Management" LINKS ContractBook capital raising: https://venturebeat.com/2021/05/11/contract-automation-platform-contractbook-raises-30m-to-challenge-docusign/ Tessian capital raising: https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/25/security-startup-tessian-which-uses-ai-to-fight-social-engineering-trousers-65m/ Amazon updates its disputes clause: https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/1/22463550/amazon-lawsuit-arbitration-terms-of-service-update-alexa The Legal Tech-to-English Dictionary: https://abovethelaw-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/abovethelaw.com/2021/05/introducing-the-legal-tech-to-english-dictionary/amp/

In this Talking Tech episode Alex and Elliot speak with Alex Kelly, co-founder and COO of BrightFlag. BrightFlag is a legal spend management platform which uses artificial intelligence to automate the review and management of law firm invoices. LINKS BrightFlag website: https://brightflag.com/ BrightFlag on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brightflag Alex Kelly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexkellybrightflag/

Dr. Justine Rogers is a Senior Lecturer in the law department at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and Deputy Director of the Future of Law and Innovation in the Profession (FLIP) research stream. Peter Dombkins is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the UNSW law department and a Director in PWC's NewLaw practice. Alex and Elliot spoke with Justine and Peter about their recent journal article entitled "Legal Project Management: Projectifying the Legal Profession", the first academic paper focused on Legal Project Management (LPM). They covered many topics related to LPM including: * What is a "project" and what is "legal project management"? * How project management grew out of the military and aeronautical industries in the 1950s and 60s * The conflict between lawyers as professionals and the managerial discipline introduced by LPM * How LPM is, practically, incorporated into legal practice * The future of LPM in an industrial and academic context LINKS Main article: https://lthj.qut.edu.au/article/view/1610 Dr. Justine Rogers: https://www.law.unsw.edu.au/staff/justine-rogers Peter Dombkins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterdombkins

Alex and Elliot chat about: * Elliot's thoughts on his Apple Watch, after 4 months of using it * Recent legal tech capital raisings * Two big IT players enter the legal market * An ambitious new initiative to develop a common framework for structured contract data

In this Talking Tech episode Alex and Elliot speak with Jason Boehmig, co-founder and CEO of Ironclad. Ironclad aims to transform contract management from a low-value administrative task to a core business activity which provides valuable data and insights to the c-suite and other organisational leaders. Central to this mission is the development of the "digital business contract", a truly digital version of the analogue agreements we have worked with for centuries. LINKS Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jboehmig/ IronClad homepage: https://ironcladapp.com/ Shipping container article: https://ironcladapp.com/blog/announcing-ironclads-series-d/ Pactsafe acquisition article: https://ironcladapp.com/blog/ironclad-pactsafe/?hellobar

Alex and Elliot chat with Electra about: * Where the oneNDA idea came from * How it will eliminate NDA negotiations 80% of the time * Who’s involved in the project and what their roles are * The end of the “your paper or mine?” negotiation * Why legal needs its own GitHub * Why contracts are a public asset and should be open source LINKS oneNDA Website: https://onenda.club/ Electra Japonas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/electra-japonas/