The Legal Ops Podcast

This is the first Talking Tech episode and what a way to start! Alex and Elliot interviewed Sam Kidd. He's the Co-Founder and CEO of LawVu, which is an NZ-based company selling a legal operations platform to in-house legal teams around the world.LINKSCheck out LawVu: https://lawvu.com/

Alex and Elliot chat about their plans for a new separate sub-stream of the podcast called “Talking Tech”. Each Talking Tech episode will be an interview with a law tech vendor discussing their product, how they got started, who the target audience is and what the intended use cases are. Some questions will be easy, some will be hard, and all of them will be interesting and relevant. They also discuss Elliot’s new AirPods Pro, running through what he likes and dislikes about them. They cover Apple’s announcement of a suite of ARM-based Macs, the pros and cons of the new architecture and whether or not Alex and Elliot are likely to buy a new machine. Finally, they chat about the recent changes to Google’s photo storage service and how it relates to iCloud and cloud storage more generally.

Chris Georgiou is the head of Ashurst Advance, Ashurst's global "New Law" division. He is a former securities and derivatives partner who successfully made the transition from traditional lawyer to legal business professional. Chris, Alex and Elliot covered many topics related to the changing nature of legal practice, including: * When and how did "New Law" get started? * Are the drivers of change consistent across in-house teams and law firms? * The role of professional project management in legal practice. * How will the changes in legal practice affect how law firms see themselves and their place in the market? * Will future law firms become "one stop shops" offering a range of multidisciplinary services? * To what extent has conservatism (of people, business models, etc) held back legal transformation historically? * What are some examples of good, and not so good, change management programs that Chris has experienced. * What are Chris' views on the future of "New Law"? LINKS Chris Georgiou Ashurst profile: https://www.ashurst.com/en/people/christopher-georgiou/ On LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/christopher-georgiou-4b93aba

Alex and Elliot chat with Nikki Shaver and Chris Ford about their new venture, Legal Tech Hub.Want to understand the market for a particular type of legal tech? Need to know which vendors operate in your market and in your language? Are you a vendor wanting to make sure potential purchasers know about your product and what it does? These are the problems Legal Tech Hub is trying to solve. Nikki and Chris explain who the site is for, how it works and why you should check it out.LINKSLegal Tech Hub website: https://legaltechnologyhub.com/

The Legal Ops Podcast is one year old today!Alex and Elliot chat about the podcast, including some fascinating stats on its geographical reach, download trends and which is the most popular episode. They also cover what they've learned from producing the podcast over the past year, and what they would both do if they decided to take a 12 month break from their corporate jobs.

You've chosen a cool new piece of legal technology, but how do you go about implementing it? What phases will your project go through and in what order should they be tackled? In this episode, Alex and Elliot do a deep dive on all aspects of the implementation process. They cover lots of examples drawn from real life legal tech implementations, including matter management systems, document management platforms, contract automation tools and more. They also discuss a number of important considerations and best practices for all significant tech-related projects, including: * should you form a SteerCo? * when is a staged roll out better than a "big bang"? * should you spend time simplifying processes before buying new technology? * how should you record and respond to feedback from users? * how do you ensure the technology has sustained usage? * when and how does an implementation project become part of "business as usual"? This is part 2 of a two part series on choosing and implementing the right technology solution. If you haven't listened to part 1, make sure you go back and check it out! LINKS Harvard Business Review article "Cracking the Code of Change": https://hbr.org/2000/05/cracking-the-code-of-change Dr Larry Richard article: https://bit.ly/2EThFYN

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot discuss the recently released 2020 State of the Legal Market report for Australia, including how law firms and other players might adopt its recommendation for reimagination of legal services delivery. They cover recent developments in the legal ops consulting market, who's building consulting capacity and which models might prevail. They also chat about ThoughtRiver's $10m capital raise and the history of funding of AI-based contract review vendors. LINKS 2020 State of the Legal Market report: https://insight.thomsonreuters.com.au/legal/resources/resource/2020-australia-state-of-the-legal-market

Legal automation is a hot topic. If your firm or department is not already investing, it will almost certainly be on your roadmap. And who better to discuss this with than Evan Wong, the co-founder and CEO of legal automation company Checkbox AI? In a wide ranging and highly practical discussion, Evan, Alex and Elliot covered: * why legal teams should be investing in automation * how to build a business case for automation * how to get started, practically * applying lean principles to project development * why building an automation system is like building a start-up * how to balance risk reduction against system complexity * how to measure success * the future of legal operations LINKS Checkbox website: https://checkbox.ai/ Evan Wong on LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/theevanwong

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot discuss Apple's recent banning of Fortnite from the iOS App Store and the resulting lawsuit by Fortnite's creator, Epic Games. As with Apple's banning of the Hey.com email app, accusations of abuse of monopoly power have again been brought against Apple, only this time Apple's adversary is a huge, well capitalised company. Alex and Elliot discuss how things could play out, and how this situation compares to a shopping mall where the owner leverages its position to extract above market rents. They also cover Alex's recent flight from the USA to Australia, what it was like to travel internationally during the pandemic and how Alex's experience has been in mandatory hotel quarantine.LINKSPicture of Fornite's in-game currency purchase screen: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21757364/epic_direct_pay_apple_app_store_2045x979_730033169.png

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot chat with Stevie Ghiassi, CEO and co-founder of Legaler and former president of the Australian Legal Technology Association. Stevie is one of the brains behind the Global Legal Tech Report and was able to answer a bunch of questions that Alex and Elliot mused in the previous episode of The Pulse. They also discussed a number of Stevie's "side hustles", including the upcoming Global Legal Tech Directory and his project aimed at creating a set of common standards for legal tech. Finally, Stevie gave his view on coronavirus and how it’s impacting the legal tech market. LINKS Global Legal Tech Report website: https://www.globallegaltechreport.com/