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Professional Services

Christiane Müller-Haye

Director Global Strategy & Products, Phoenix Business Solutions division of Morae Global

Germany

Bio

Christiane Müller-Haye has a track record of almost 20 years in the Legal industry. She started her Legal-IT career at Hengeler Mueller in early 2000, the very early days of Legal IT and was responsible for implementing new Legal IT applications. After a few years, she changed to the vendor side and since then she and her teams were running hundreds of implementations in Law Firms and Legal Departments, mainly around the well-known market leading Information Management portfolio of iManage.

Contribution to Legal Tech

As Director of Global Strategy & Products at Phoenix Business Solutions a Morae Global division she is running the global development team which develops addons to the iManage software as well as forward-thinking Legal IT solutions.

Christiane Mueller-Haye has always had a very good understanding of needs and demands of customers understanding their business needs even before they might do. With her “no fear of change – attitude” she is supporting her customers and their businesses with clear strategies. She listens and includes multidisciplinary teams of different customers to be part of the software design of new solutions or the ones which need a revamp, to make sure it will add value to their practice. Her ability to connect the dots between technology and business value is outstanding in the industry that is why she is the trusted advisor for a lot of clients.

Other Winners

Professional Services

Miriam Vietzke

Lawyer, Founder and Managing Director, Scheidungsportal24

Professional Services

Stefanie Wojak

Senior Privacy Counsel, First Privacy GmbH

Germany

Bio

Stefanie has studied European, Comparative Law and Transnational Law at the University of Bremen, Carl-von-Ossietzly University Oldenburg and Autonomous University in Barcelona. She focussed during her master studies on data protection and IT security law from a transnational perspective. Furthermore, she has also taken scientific training for Social Media Managers offered by the University of Applied Sciences Cologne. She is consulting corporate groups as a Senior Privacy Consultant in the food and beverage, pharmaceutical and energy sector to foster their programs towards GDPR compliance.

Contribution to Legal Tech

Stefanie is focussing on developments in the ad technology environment including real time bidding processes, where the guidelines and laws are still a step beyond reality. Furthermore, she supports clients to build a bridge between data protection practises and “intelligent” technologies such as artificial intelligence which are implemented into websites, games and applications. The combination of new technologies and rather old legal structures are a part of her day-to-day practices. She is able to adapt legal frameworks into new developments and to foster a culture of privacy by design and by default for her clients. 

She is also training a new generation of data protection officers during her courses to obtain basic knowledge to work as in-house data protection officers for small and medium sized-companies in Germany.

Other Nominees

Professional Services

Silke Fritz

Counsel Banking & Finance, Baker McKenzie

Professional Services

Sara Nenadic

Enterprise Legal Services, Senior Associate, PwC

Professional Services

Cristina Contero Almagro

Partner, Aphaia

Spain

Bio

Cristina is Partner at Aphaia, one of the first world’s consultant firms in providing AI ethics and regulation services, with offices in London and Madrid. She is a lawyer and also a data expert on the legal, business and technical side. Cristina holds a MSc in Data Analytics & Cognitive Intelligence, a LL.M in Data Protection, ICT & Cyber Law, Telecom Law & Media Law and another LL.M in Legal Practice. Her dual profile as a lawyer and data scientist provides her with 360º data skills that she has applied to several projects during her tenure as a Privacy Advisor, and in her role as the Data Protection Officer to a number of vibrant businesses, including London and Silicon Valley tech start-ups in the areas of finance, sharing economy, e-commerce and software development. She is also part of the EU AI Alliance and participates as a member of the ethics board in EU H2020 projects. Before working at Aphaia, Cristina worked as a Project Manager at an international trade company based in Vietnam, and participated as companies’ defence counsel in the Madrid Court of Arbitration for the resolution of e-commerce and e-advertising disputes. Cristina also wrote her LL.M thesis about AI Ethics on algorithmic decision-making.

Cristina is also a mentor in Chaitech, a young Techpreneur Programme in St. Lucia which focuses on essential skills required to both develop tech solutions and put them into productive use. She teaches programming, AI ethics and data protection, helping young Caribbean techpreneurs to set up their businesses

Contribution to Legal Tech

Cristina’s contribution to Legal Tech is threefold, as she shows her passion about it either in her work, her volunteering activities and her spare time. As a lawyer and data scientist, Cristina helps both start-ups and multinational companies to build their algorithm and AI-powered apps and features in line with the GDPR and the AI ethical requirements set by the AI-HLEG, achieveing trustworthy AI while complying with the relevant legal framework, mainly in Europe and the US. She assists her clients in the whole process of product and algorithm creation, implementation, application and audit. She helps them to identify the risks for people’s fundamental rights and freedoms and the biases that may be derived from their technology, and suggests relevant mitigation measures. She may as well get involved with code review. 

As a Privacy and Data Protection expert, she also acts as the Data Protection Officer for a number of disruptive businesses in London and Silicon Valley which incoporateAI in their activities and services. The company she is a Partner at, Aphaia, has developed its own methodology and ‘smart compliance’ approach which saves time and costs to make the services affordable and accessible to any type of business, regardless of their budget or location worldwide. Cristina is also a member of the European AI Alliance, which allows her to contribute to the European debate on AI. She is part of some H2020 projects’ Ethics Board, such as DIH4CPS.

Cristina also collaborates as a mentor with Chaitech, a Caribbean tech and AI hub which provides young techpreneurs with essential skills required to both develop tech solutions and put them into productive use. Together with her colleagues at Aphaia, she maintains a YouTube channel, called Aphaia’s AI Ethics and Regulation, both in English and Spanish, where they discuss and analyse news, facts, FAQs, and tips on AI. She also writes AI and data protection related articles for Aphaia’s blog regularly. Her motto is “Everything is possible, you just need to know how to do it”. In her view, the combination of Technology and Law may provide almost any response one may need.

Other Nominees

Professional Services

Katharina Klenk

Senior Associate, Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH

Professional Services

Belen Martin

Corporate & EU Data Privacy Lawyer, Partner, Lexley Worldwide

Professional Services

Friederike Göretzlehner

Senior Associate, Baker McKenzie

Germany

Bio

Friederike Göretzlehner is a senior associate at Baker McKenzie’s Corporate Practice Group in Berlin. Before joining the Firm in 2016, Friederike clerked in Hamburg and worked as a legal trainee for various international law firms in Hamburg and London. She earned a Master of Laws degree in business and commercial law from the Boston College Law School in 2013.

Contribution to Legal Tech

Friederike advises clients on all types of M&A and private equity transactions, as well as domestic and cross-border corporate reorganizations and general corporate law. Friederike has continuously developed methods and tools that help making standard M&A processes more efficient and less time-consuming.

Other Nominees

Professional Services

Nadine Korfmacher

Executive Assistant, TW Legal Tech Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH

Germany

Bio

Nadine started her career in the classical way with an apprenticeship as a paralegal and senior partner assistant at Taylor Wessing. After a detour into the private sector, she initially found her way back from the legal department to the large law firm. Due to her great interest in the technological development of the legal professions, she quickly became an integral part of the Legal Tech Team at Taylor Wessing and now makes sure that things run smoothly at tw legaltech.

Contribution to Legal Tech

Nadine was a founding member of the Legal Tech Team at Taylor Wessing and has been involved in all developments from the beginning. She worked her way deeply into the matter and was also the voice for the firm’s assistants and their ideas. She was also involved in the founding of tw legaltech from the very beginning. She was and is fully involved in the challenges of founding a legal tech firm. Today she keeps the firm running and is an integral part of the firm’s performance.

Other Nominees

Professional Services

Dr. Anne Förster

Salary Partner, Taylor Wessing

Germany

Bio

Anne is Salary Partner at Taylor Wessing in Düsseldorf and is a specialist lawyer for employment law. Best Lawyers 2020 has recommended her for Labour and Employment Law. Anne supports companies not only in their everyday business but above all advises them with regard to the digitalization of work/world of work 4.0.

Contribution to Legal Tech

Anne has many years of industry expertise in the IT sector and is very experienced in the structuring of flexible projects under employment law. In this context, the question of how software can be created in an agile manner and at the same time in compliance with labour law is being intensively discussed. Together with her colleague MareikeGehrmann Anne is currently involved in the development of a Legal TechTool for the design of agile working (Scrum, Kanban & Co) in accordance with labour law. Interested clients should be able to check whether they comply with labour law requirements in their day-to-day cooperation with their IT service providers or whether they have toadapt their cooperation.

Other Nominees

Professional Services

Prof. Maryna Steger, EMBA

Business Development & Communications Professional, P+P Pöllath + Partners Rechtsanwälte und Steuerberater mbB

Professional Services

Dani Poobalasingam

Innovation Solutions Analyst, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP

UK

Bio

Dani Poobalasingam is an Innovation Solutions Analyst dedicated to the international development of  legal tech. She has lived in various countries including New Zealand, India, Switzerland, and England, where she developed superior communication skills in English, Tamil, German, French and Spanish. After graduating with a law degree with from City University of London in 2018, she joined the London office of prestigious international law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP where she manages and develops legal innovation projects.

Contribution to Legal Tech

Dani astutely recognises that the future legal field will be vastly different, bringing with it unmatched challenges at the intersection of law, technology, and data. She has worked across a number of disciplines within the field of machine learning, including deep learning, natural language processing and pattern recognition. She also mastered refining the softwares’ understanding of legal clauses and concepts and consulted a Magic Circle firm in the completion of their review with AI assistance, transforming the way due diligence exercises are executed. After excelling in these tasks, she worked herself up into an integral position in the Knowledge Management team as a Legal Solutions Engineer at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP.

There, she was heavily involved in digital contract automation, optimized contract creations and due diligence processes, which are now part of the wider innovation strategy of the world renowned law firm. Thereafter, she joined the Innovation team, where she was part of the core team for the firm’s adoption of an AI Assisted review platform on an international level. She became the contact person for many stakeholders in the areas of digitisation and legal tech by championing horizon scanning, piloting and adoption exercises. Additionally, Dani is the youngest member of BCLP’s Innovation Team.

As an Innovation Analyst she manages innovation projects by identifying the tech needs as well as the design and development of user-focused end to end solutions with the necessary technologies, which she also partly develops herself. Her latest achievement includes working ad hoc on BCLP’s new integrated legal service delivery, Cubed, which has won several recognised awards within the legal industry. Further, she is coordinating the implementation of a new Innovation Trainee Seat within the firm. Having closely worked with Knowledge Management and being a core part of the firm’s innovation agenda, she believes this initiative will help form a new generation of lawyers with a solid foundation in legal tech and innovation and prepare them for the new legal world.

Other Nominees

Professional Services

Catherine Goodman

Practice Innovation & Knowledge Lawyer, Paul Hastings LLP

UK

Bio

Catherine leads the Practice Innovation & Legal Solutions Department in the London office of Paul Hastings LLP, and is part of the global team named 2020 ‘Innovators of the Year’ by the International Legal Technology Association, for outstanding achievements in maximising the value of innovative technology in support of legal professionals. 

Catherine has always been excited by what the combination of law and technology can achieve and deliver, and pioneered e-learning in a legal context as a business law lecturer. She energetically promotes the necessity to embed tech in the work and mindsets of lawyers and support functions such as compliance and risk, for their own benefit and that of clients, and is committed to facilitating openness, honesty, and collaboration in legal tech projects.

Contribution to Legal Tech

Catherine applies her 20 years in the legal industry to the implementation of Paul Hastings’ award-winning legal tech solutions, including the Associate Committee on Technology, Matter Management resources and AI-based workflow automation. She is a driving force behind new solutions and the ground-breaking PH Legaltech University UK, which provides a unique curriculum of experiential legaltech learning and embeds that learning and client-informed mindsets in the firm’s lawyers from the outset of their careers. 

Catherine has a huge passion for legal education and strives to see technology feature in it as an essential part of progressing the delivery of effective legal services and solutions. She continues to develop her coding skills to enhance her knowledge of the mechanics behind legal tech.

Other Nominees

Professional Services

Sidney Flaig

Trainee Lawyer, Taylor Wessing

Germany

Bio

Sidney Flaig is a trainee lawyer at the Regional Court of Frankfurt and a research assistant in the real estate and construction team at the international law firm Taylor Wessing.

Contribution to Legal Tech

She is interested in the simplification of legal work through legal tech tools and is committed to the technological progress of the firm in and with her team.  Last year she was a coach at the first Tech & Law Camp organized by the firm and introduced students and trainee lawyers to a program for document automation. She built several LAWLIFT templates for her department.

Other Nominees

Professional Services

Silke Fritz

Counsel Banking & Finance, Baker McKenzie

Professional Services

Elena Kozhemyakina

Managing Partner, BLS

Russia

Bio

For over 20 years, Elena has been an expert when it comes to Labor law in Russia. She along with her team at BLS Law, have worked on several projects to protect employers’ interests in Russia, including technical development of their services. She also advises on Labor law issues of neighboring countries – Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan etc.

Contribution to Legal Tech

Elena and BLS team have realized a new product – Smart-HR consultations when clients can choose hourly limits to use our experts’ time for their projects (consultations, audit, project support etc.). Over 50 clients use Smart-HR. BLS has made a new chat-bot service for clients to make HR-administrations easier and faster. In addition, they support clients to legalize this process. 

Elena and her team have created a new BLS-portal for their clients’ HR and lawyers. Getting an account they can get quick answers to their question, to see advise history, to keep up with major updates in Labor law etc.

During the pandemic, Elena and the team launched a new special project –Reduce costs and wage fund based on Labor Law. Currently, they are working on over 10 similar projects.

Other Nominees