Legal Tech StartUp Focus Podcast

Episode 12 of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus Podcast - An Interview with Tunji Williams, Director of Strategy for Transaction Management at Litera Microsystems In this episode of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus Podcast, Charlie Uniman, your podcast host (www.legaltechstartupfocus.com/podcast), talks with Tunji Williams of Litera Microsystems (www.litera.com). Charlie and Tunji kick off the podcast by talking about how Tunji moved from corporate practice at a large law firm to founding dealWIP, a legal tech startup that aimed at becoming a "deal workflow information platform." While at dealWIP, Tunji and his co-founders participated in two prominent legal tech accelerator programs, one managed by LexisNexis and the other managed by the UK law firm, Mishcon de Reya. Charlie and Tunji dive into what accelerator programs can offer legal tech startups (discussing, in particular, what Tunji learned from his participation) and how important it is for a startup to evaluate such programs from a timing standpoint (what is the right time for a startup to join an accelerator?) and from the standpoint of matching an accelerator's features with a particular startup's needs. Tunji next discusses just how much progress legal tech startups have made over the last five years in marketing and selling to the "right" stakeholder decision-makers at law firms and legal department customers. This discussion leads Tunji to describe his current role at Litera, which involves assisting customers in deriving value from Litera's deal management apps so as to encourage better customer engagement with those apps. Tunji goes on to describe the commercial and educational significance of bringing Litera's suite of tools to law schools and law students. Charlie and Tunji conclude by covering (i) what Tunji learned from the demise of dealWIP, (ii) his transition from his founder's role at dealWIP to his role as a member of Litera's team, (iii) how he, along with with others at Litera, devotes time to sketching out what deal management tech will look like decades from now and how doing so informs his day-to-day work and (iv) the importance for Tunji of being dedicated to (and, dare it be said, even in love with) his company's mission and the benefits that executing that mission can bring to Litera's customers.  

Episode 11 of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus Podcast -- An Interview with Alice Armitage, Chief Executive Professor of the LexLab at UC Hastings College of Law Episode 11 of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus podcast (www.legaltechstartupfocus.com/podcast) finds your podcast host, Charlie Uniman, interviewing Alice Armitage, a professor at the UC Hastings College of Law who heads the LexLab at the law school. Charlie delves into Alice's professional background, and learns from Alice that, after law school, she practiced law at a law firm, from there founded two startups (outside of the legal tech area) and moved next to the College of Law at UC Hasting to helm, first, the school's Legal Startup Garage and, now, its LexLab. Alice describes the core of the LexLab as involving classroom instruction in legal innovation topics, an accelerator program for legal tech startups and the staging of events that focus on matters ranging from law practice regulatory changes to legal ops. Alice also describes the unique startup-practice-clinic mission of the Legal Startup Garage at the law school. Charlie and Alice move on to discuss (i) how the private law firm business model can impede adoption of legal tech, (ii) the absence of client pressure on law firms to promote innovation and practice efficiencies, (iii) what many law schools are doing, and also failing to do, when it comes to teaching subjects relevant to legal practice innovations, (iv) how LexLab introduces legal tech startups to law students for interning and beta-testing purposes, (v) whether law schools should include coding and design thinking into their curricula and (vi) how Alice reads the collapse of the Atrium law firm/legal tech company from her vantage point on the West Coast.

Welcome to episode 10 of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus podcast (www.legaltechstartupfocus.com/podcast). In this episode your podcast host, Charlie Uniman, interviews Travis Luther, founder and CEO of TrialLine (www.trialline.net). As described on its website, TrialLine offers "cloud-based mediation, trial presentation and storytelling legal timeline software for lawyers." Charlie covers Travis' entré into legal tech, with Travis describing how it all began with a kiss (yes, really). Charlie and Travis next dive into the genesis, features and "special sauce" of the TrialLine application itself. From there, Travis discusses his customers' profile and his approach to marketing to his customers, emphasizing the success that he's had in driving customer acquisition with instructional content-creation, skillful use of social media, and deftly undertaken thought-leadership campaigns (offering CLE programs, for example). Charlie and Travis take the discussion on to (i) what startup founder issues keep Travis up at night, (ii) how TrialLine deals with app support and training, (iii) the importance Travis attributes to keeping a razor-sharp focus on TrialLine's primary feature set (while remaining open to developing new features requested by customers), (iv) what aspect of Travis' work at TrialLine that he's most proud of, and (v) what Travis' experience was like at the 2020 ABA Tech Show (and how the presence at the show of law school professors and law students added a very welcome element to that experience).

Welcome to episode 9 of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus podcast (www.legaltechstartupfocus.com/podcast). In this episode your podcast host, Charlie Uniman, interviews Omer Hayun, co-founder and CEO of Bestpractix (www.bestpractix.com), legal tech software that provides a customized and streamlined approach to contract drafting, review and negotiation. Charlie covers Omer's career path, with Omer explaining how he moved from obtaining his degree from law school, and practicing law in Israel, to working on the business side in Israel (including performing in-house counsel duties) and, inspired by a desire to minimize the repetitive "grind" that business lawyers so often face, to founding Bestpractix., Next Omer explains what Bestpractix's software does to help law firms and in-house legal departments efficiently manage their organizational contract knowledge by providing access to only the most relevant contract precedents when assisting lawyers in the preparation and negotiation of contract language. Charlie and Omer go on to discuss (i) the "feature focus" that legal tech startups should emphasize when marketing and selling to their customers, (ii) Omer's experience in entering the US legal tech market from his home base in Israel (particularly when it comes to developing a network of legal tech-related contacts in the US), and (iii) if, and to what extent, it's helpful for non-technical legal tech founders to know what software development and product management are all about (Omer himself having a software engineering background).

After a year-end holiday hiatus, we're back with another episode of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus podcast. In this episode your podcast host, Charlie Uniman, interviews Maya Markovich, Chief Growth Officer of Nextlaw Labs (www.nextlawlabs.com). Maya and Charlie launch this episode by delving into Maya's career and the path that took her from working as a consultant who dealt with change management and user buy-in issues, to law school, to practicing law in the high pressure environment of a law firm (where, as Maya points out, adoption of legal tech - then in its earlier stages - would have helped to manage practice pressures) to her present position at Nextlaw Labs. Maya next explains just what Nextlaw Labs does for the startups that are part of its accelerator program. As Maya describes Nextlaw Labs, it's an accelerator that helps legal tech startups navigate the legal tech market and, in so doing, takes advantage of an incomparable ecosystem that arises from Nextlaw Labs' relationship with (i) its sister company, the legal tech-focused venture capital firm, Nextlaw Ventures, (ii) its parent organization, the Dentons law firm (the largest firm by attorney headcount in the world) and (iii) the Denton's worldwide referral network of law firms of all sizes. Maya offers a detailed survey of just what an accelerator such as Nextlaw Labs, one that's deeply familiar with the legal tech industry, can do to enhance a startup's chances of success in developing its product and marketing and selling that product to law firms and legal departments. Because this podcast episode airs at the start of a new year, the conversations turns to to crystal ball gazing; that is to say, making predictions for the legal tech industry in 2020. After asking listeners to remember only the correct predictions made during the podcast, Charlie and Maya (i) reveal their optimistic take on legal tech adoption in the coming year, (ii) discuss trends in M&A for legal tech startups in 2020 (including how those trends may be affected by the increasing "platformization" of legal tech), (iii) cover some of the directions startup funding may take this year and (iv) applaud what is expected to be an increase in 2020 in the number of women who found legal tech startups and join the ranks of early-stage investors in legal tech. Maya invites legal tech startups who wish to learn more about Nextlaw Labs to reach out to her (at talktous@nextlawlabs.com) for more information about its accelerator program and the benefits available to startups that enter the Nextlaw Labs' accelerator program by virtue of Nextlaw Labs' participation in the ecosystem of Nextlaw Ventures, the Dentons law firm and the Dentons' referral network.

I'm Charlie Uniman, your host of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus podcast. This episode departs from the guest-interview format that we've used in previous episodes. Instead, what we have here is a joint podcast with Ben Chiriboga, whom I'm very proud to call a friend. Ben is the Head of Growth at NEXL, a legal tech startup in its own right and a platform for growing lawyers' global referral network (www.nexl.io). Ben's also a mastermind marketing and growth strategist and hosts his own Legal Tech Growth podcast (more on Ben's podcast below). As you'll hear, Ben and I riff on legal tech in a wide-ranging discussion of (i) what makes for great legal tech conferences (we had both just returned from LegalGeek London when we recorded the podcast), (ii) speaking of legal tech conferences, the next editions of both the InspireLegal get-together, coming in February 2020 -- right after New York LegalWeek concludes -- and Legal Geek North America, coming sometime in the spring in 2020, (iii) marketing ideas for legal tech startups, including the fact that the "end-user" approach to legal tech startup marketing is upon us (and where and how this "bottom's-up" approach to legal tech marketing makes the most sense) and (iv) book recommendations for lay folks who have an interest in artificial intelligence (a technology that gets a lot of buzz in legal tech). Ben already beat me to the punch and published this discussion (which took place way back on Halloween this year) a few weeks ago on his Legal Tech Growth podcast (which can be found at www.soundcloud.com/ben-chiriboga/sets/legaltecg-growth-media). The Legal Tech StartUp Focus podcast itself can be found at www.legaltechstartupfocus.com/podcast and by searching for "legal tech startup focus" in your favorite podcast app.

Episode 6 of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus Podcast -- Interview with Raymond Blijd, Founder and CEO of LegalComplex.com and LegalPioneer.org In this episode of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus podcast, Charlie Uniman, your podcast host, discusses the legal tech industry with Raymond Blijd. Raymond is a master analyst when it comes to providing highly relevant data and outstanding visualizations to people who want to get insights into the direction in which legal technology companies (and companies in related fields like regulatory tech, financial tech and civics tech) are heading from a business standpoint. As is typical in discussions with our podcast guests, the episode kicks off with Raymond's discussing his journey from law school to founding his two tech business data analytics companies, LegalComlex.com and LegalPioneer.org and from there the discussion covers what distinguishes these two data companies from one another. In particular, Raymond describes LegalComplex.com's for-profit data offerings and customer base and then goes on to describe LegalPioneer.org's non-profit mission, its ambition to create a community for people interested in tracking developments in the legal tech startup field and related technology fields and its goal of eventually open-sourcing much of the data it collects. After that kick-off discussion, Charlie asks Raymond about (i) legal tech market trends that Raymond's data analysis has discovered, (ii) what the data says about the legal tech startup categories that are most successfully attracting investor interest, (iii) predictions for new product categories for legal tech startups and (iv) what data/statistics in the past year of his research most surprised Raymond. The Legal Tech StartUp Focus podcast can be found at www.legaltechstartupfocus.com/podcast and by searching for "legal tech startup focus" in your favorite podcast app.

Charlie Uniman, your podcast host and the host of the online Legal Tech StartUp Focus community (www.legaltechstartupfocus.com), welcomes Olga Mack to this episode of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus podcast. Olga, who previously practiced as an IP lawyer in both law firms and in-house legal departments, is now CEO of legal tech startup ParleyPro (www.parleypro.com). After discussing the career path that took Olga from practicing law to stewarding a legal tech startup, Charlie and Olga talk about just what ParleyPro's contract management software offers its customers (including, in particular, that software's particular emphasis on collaboration and the negotiation process - both for real time use). Next the discussion focuses on Olga's role as a legal tech startup CEO, with Charlie asking her several startup business-related questions. First, Charlie asks Olga what it is about ParleyPro that she's most proud of. Next, Olga answers questions about ParleyPro's customer on-boarding process and how Olga and her marketing team discover whom best to target when sourcing in-house legal department customer prospects. Olga then answers a question directed at what keeps her up at night in her role (here keeping on top of calendar management and the wearing-of-many-hats figure prominently). The podcast concludes with Charlie asking Olga what single piece of advice she would offer other startup executives and their colleagues. The Legal Tech StartUp Focus podcast can be found at www.legaltechstartupfocus.com/podcast and by searching for "legal tech startup focus" in your favorite podcast app.

In this episode of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus podcast, Charlie Uniman, your host, interview Jeroen Plink. Jeroen, as many of our listeners know, is the CEO of Clifford Chance Applied Solutions. Jeroen generously shares a great store of legal tech-related business knowledge from which legal tech startups, and their investors and customers, can benefit greatly. After a brief bit of background about Jeroen's wide-ranging career in legal tech and a discussion of the Cliffords Chance Applied Solutions group that Jeroen leads, Charlie poses the following questions: (i) Given the importance of timing when it comes to introducing legal tech into the market, what law firm/legal department/lawyer "pain points" are particularly ready today for a legal tech remedy? Jeroen provides four "pain point" examples. Legal tech startups - get cracking on these software opportunities! (ii) Are there one or more keys to persuading lawyers and other legal professionals to actually use a pain-point remedying legal technology purchased by their firms (e.g., ease of use, integration with legacy tech, client demand)? Jeroen has a singular recommendation in answer this question. (Hint: It's all about product roll-out,) (iii) Is there a trend emerging among BigLaw law firms to "productize" their legal advice offerings in order to deliver more or less routine legal work not only more efficiently, but also more widely to existing (and also perhaps newly-served) client segments? Jeroen surprises with the distinction he draws in answering this question. (iv) Is Clifford Chance Applied Solutions open to purchasing legal tech in addition to building tech solutions itself? In short, Jeroen answers "yes;" but there's much more to this answer than just a "yes." (v) Is institutional investor funding "reserved" only for those legal tech startups that can offer what can be called "quasi-unicorn" types of financial exits (i.e., less than the $1 billion or more "standard unicorn" valuation benchmark, but still in the high tens or more millions of dollars of exit value)? Here, Jeroen answers "no." And do listen to his complete explanation to his answer; it's an encouraging one.

In this, the third episode of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus podcast, Charlie interviews Gabe Teninbaum. Gabe is a law professor and legal technologist at Suffolk University Law School, where he is also Director of the Institute on Legal Innovation & Technology (LIT), the LIT Concentration (akin to an undergraduate major), and the LIT Certificate (an online program for legal professionals). Gabe also publishes the Lawtomatic newsletter, a weekly compilation of articles about legal tech that Gabe selects for its readership. Gabe and Charlie cover a lot of ground during the podcast, involving principally the intersection of legal tech and legal education. Listeners will learn from the podcast: (i) how Gabe's recent tweet proposing that law schools partner with legal tech companies "doing cool things" planted the seed for Gabe's discussion with Charlie, (ii) how the introduction of legal tech into the law school curriculum benefits law students by not only teaching them about a particular legal technology's features, but also by having them use that technology in-class and in clinical projects (the students don't just "talk the talk" about what the tech does, but actually "walk the walk" by using the tech to solve legal problems), and (iii) how the legal tech companies themselves benefit from the partnership with law schools (the companies get detailed and meaningful feedback on their tech from student users, hone their product stories as they engage with law students and locate potential champions of their tech upon the students' graduation and entry into not just BigLaw law firms, but also small and medium-size law firm and legal departments where they can immediately influence tech-buying decisions). Gabe also explains how Suffolk and other law schools can marry their traditional pedagogy of teaching legal doctrine with their newer teaching efforts that are directed to familiarizing students with new legal practice methods that involve technology use and new business models in use at law firms and other alternative legal service companies that are altering how legal services are delivered. From that starting point, Gabe goes on to explain (i) how expert systems technologies can actually enhance the teaching of legal doctrine, (ii) how his students' course work has them diving deeply into artificial intelligence use cases (for example, employing machine learning to build a legal aid tool that helps address immigration and housing issues and that is accessible online) and (iii) why it's become easier in recent years to introduce even cutting-edge technologies like machine learning to law school faculty and the student body for use in the law school's curriculum.