Bio

Leyly works as a Knowledge Management Lawyer in Berlin. She is responsible for all knowledge management related topics in the fields of Corporate/M&A and Technology, Media & Telecoms. Prior to joining TaylorWessing, she had 13 years of experience as in-house counsel of a (non-listed) stock corporation in the renewable energy segment with up to 15 affiliated companies. In addition to all legal matters of the company, she was steering project development and management, including financing and financial structuring, M&A transactions and corporate reorganizations. Templates, samples, checklists, etc as predecessors have been her other commitments since the beginning of her professional career. Leyly is a Certified (DAA) Mediator with 7+ years experience.

Contribution to Legal Tech

She acts as a link between Knowledge Management and Legal Tech in her specific additional function as Legal Tech Coordinator at TaylorWessing Germany. She is responsible for the inhouse support and project management of LAWLIFT and TW:diligence, including the  continuous improvement and development of both tools.

In addition to her law degree 2nd Exam, she successfully completed her MBA with a focus on Change Management in 2018 and her Thesis “strategic flexibility of start-ups with a focus on IT companies”.

Bio

Sara is a part of the Enterprise Legal Services & Legal Technology Team within the Digital Services Tax & Legal Department in PwC Germany, Frankfurt a.M. She completed her bachelor and master studies in Law at the University of Belgrade, as well as additional master studies at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. As an individual who believes in lifelong learning, Sara has recently enrolled in the Foundations of Design Thinking Online Program at IDEO U.

Driven by the impact of technology on the legal profession, Sara specializes in the field of legal transformation and innovation. Legal departments are facing different challenges, such as the increase of volume and complexity of work, as well as the pressure to reduce costs. As a strong believer in change and growth, Sara supports clients in the mindful, digital transformation of their legal and procurement departments.   

Contribution to Legal Tech

Sara supports clients to make the legal function what it should be: the lifeblood of the business it supports.

Being a part of PwC enables Sara to work with big clients that have big challenges, and the results of mindful digital transformation of the legal function with such clients are mind-blowing and have a significant impact on the future growth and success of these organizations. Some of these challenges concerned the implementation and global roll-out of the contract lifecycle management solution, as well as change management to prepare, support, and help clients in making organizational changes. In addition, Sara led the implementation of an automated document generation software, as a part of the internal digital transformation.

Bio

Lydia Torne is a Managing Associate in Simmons & Simmons’ Intellectual Property team in London.  She is a specialist in intellectual property transactions, including licensing and collaboration agreements, monetisations, consortia agreements, joint ventures and the IP aspects of corporate transactions and financings. Lydia also advises on life sciences regulatory compliance issues. Lydia has a particular interest in Digital Health, where tech meets the healthcare and life sciences sector. Lydia advises clients on a wide range of digital health issues, including on collaborations using artificial intelligence in drug discovery, re-use of patient data and regulatory compliance issues for digital health solutions.

Contribution to Legal Tech

Lydia is one of Simmons & Simmons’ Tech Ambassadors, assisting with the roll out of, and engagement of lawyers in, new legal tech to help streamline lawyers’ work and increase efficiencies. Lydia is also part of a working group developing new software applications to help clients quickly and easily obtain information and high level advice regarding common digital health issues.

Lydia has worked alongside Simmons & Simmons Wavelength (Simmons & Simmons’ team of legal engineers) on a number of recent projects to help develop new technology solutions for her clients, including automating and/or condensing legal processes or simply developing new, innovative, ways of presenting key legal information.

Lydia is active in the legal and scientific tech community. She has been recognised as a Leading Individual for Life Sciences and Healthcare in Legal 500, as well as contributing to the Institute of Global Health Innovation’s white paper on data monetisation and being published in The Lancet regarding NHS/private collaborations using patient data. She speaks regularly at events such as Blockchain Live, the Westminster Forum and those hosted by think tank Reform, regarding data monetisation issues. Lydia has also been featured on the popular blockchain podcast, Blockchain Insider, discussing data monetisation issues. Lydia is a lecturer at the forthcoming Society for Computers and Law’s lecture on legal issues for AI.

Bio

Belen Martin Rial, founding partner, is a Spanish and US lawyer, admitted to the New York Bar after obtaining a Master’s Degree in Banking, Corporate, and Finance at Fordham University Law School in New York. She has a JD in Law from the Central University of Barcelona (Spain). She is passionate about the internationalization of businesses, her professional career is focused on representing local and foreign companies in data privacy and corporate matters. She has worked in Spain, New York and Amsterdam.

Contribution to Legal Tech

Belen brings trust to the client relationship providing strategic legal solutions in alignment with its clients’ interests in a win-win scenario. She has been working hard with several blockchain initiative and lawmakers to bring trust into play.

She participated as key speaker in the 2019 Barcelona Blockchain Week, the Tech Spirit Barcelona 2020 and several investors events, to address topics such as, blockchain as a tech that can accelerate the EU fair data economy, how GDPR is impacting cryptocurrencies and blockchain and the right to be forgotten. 

Bio

Since setting up the Addleshaw Goddard Innovation and Legal Technology (ILT) team four years ago with a team of three, Kerry’s drive, passion and philosophy of ‘there must be a better way’ has seen it grow to twenty-six. It develops, tests and invests in technology-enabled legal solutions and drives behavioural change across the firm by encouraging fee earners to actively seek opportunities to introduce tech into their areas.

Contribution to Legal Tech

Innovation and legal technology are now at the heart of AG operations, not an afterthought or an add-on but integral to how they work with clients and colleagues. It is not technology for its own sake, but as an enabler of smarter practices and processes with the ultimate objective of improving a clients’ business. One of first dedicated units of its kind, it has grown to become one of the largest, a unique mix of legal technologists, developers and lawyers that marries tech knowledge with proven legal expertise to create focussed, bespoke solutions. 

Working with HR, Kerry has forged new roles and alternative career paths within the firm and is particularly proud of the fact that 50% of the ILT are female. She is an enthusiastic advocate for developing, training and equipping the lawyers of tomorrow, helping to future-proof the firm for a changing business world. She has created a secondment programme for associates across the firm allowing them to gain experience utilising tech to better serve clients. ITL also boasts the first lawyers in the profession to have qualified through working wholly within legal technology.

Kerry displays a relentless drive and energy that has embedded an ethos within the firm that ensures technology and expert legal advice are blended to deliver an enhanced offering to clients and provide a real sector differentiator. She is not an avid ‘technologist’ but a passionate believer that technology is there to be harnessed to provide answers to her perpetual question: ‘Is there a better way of doing this?’

Bio

Stacy is an experienced construction and engineering lawyer who leads the technology, process and innovation initiatives at Fenwick Elliott LLP, the largest specialist construction and energy law firm in the UK.  She oversees the development and implementation of new legal technologies and processes internally, as well as collaborates and engages with clients on technology, products and delivery. She is responsible for Fenwick Elliott’s IT and infrastructure, internal tech operations and legal workflows, and external client initiatives.

Before qualifying as a solicitor, Stacy practised as an Architect, principally designing large-scale projects such as stadiums, hospitals and education buildings in both the UK and the US. This qualification and experience prior to practising law provides a unique expertise and design background, essential for digital transformation in both the legal and construction industries.

Contribution to Legal Tech

Stacy is passionate about the interface between law, process and tech and is dedicated to the digital transformation of both the legal and construction industries.  She regularly speaks on collaboration and delivering tech-enabled innovative solutions in construction law.  Her work focuses on maximising efficiencies and productivity in workflows and delivering a client-focused service.  Stacy has a particular interest in the legal tech necessary for digital twins, robotics, off-site manufacturing, BIM and AI/machine learning in eDisclosure.

Bio

Wiebke Reuter, LL.M., graduated in law at the University of Hamburg with focus on data protection and media law. Since 2018, she works at Taylor Wessing Berlin in the Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) department. She advises companies on data protection and other issues relevant to technology law.

Contribution to Legal Tech

Among the various clients primarily active in the online sector are also companies that e.g. develop and provide legal tech solutions for data protection law compliance, whom Wiebke supports in the design of their product. Wiebke is also involved in the legal tech engagement of TaylorWessing. In this context she attends meetups on legal tech related topics and is committed to the internal use of new legal tech tools, particularly by participating in the pilot phase and assists colleagues in the application in practice.

In addition, she takes part in training sessions on legal tech solutions which are subject to internal assessment for possible areas of application in the firm. Besides, Wiebke also tries to make prospective lawyers aware of the relevance of legal law in practice. She is involved in the firm’s internal legal tech workshops for students, where they can experience the use of Legal Tech tools on practical examples. 

Bio

Heidi combines years of experience as a Corporate lawyer with an inquisitive, creative mindset and a solutions-focussed attitude. Moving into legal technology full time in May 2019 she started her legal technology career at DLA Piper at a break-neck pace, quickly becoming a key member of the legal technology team at the International firm (which forms a part of the DLA enhanced legal offering, Law&, delivering solutions beyond legal services to help clients succeed), where she is trusted by lawyers across the globe to deliver tech-based solutions to solve client problems across multiple jurisdictions with her trademark enthusiasm, drive and endless positive energy.

Contribution to Legal Tech

Leading the firm’s fast-evolving international electronic signature solution in response to the unique challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis, Heidi has worked tirelessly to build the firm’s DocuSign centred solution, keeping deals running and clients happy across the globe in universally difficult circumstances. Thanks to her hard work and dedication to the delivery of a quality tech solution, Heidi and her specialist DocuSign team are now trusted by hundreds of lawyers and clients, driving change by challenging lawyer’s attitudes to the “usual way of completing deals” encouraging greater adoption of legal tech across the UK, Europe and Australia with passion and tenacity.

Heidi has used her expertise in digital signatures to contribute her knowledge into guidance which was put to the Land Registry in the UK to assist with the creation of their digital signature policies. In addition to leading the firm’s work on electronic signatures, Heidi is also part of a change team revolutionising the firm’s approach to M&A by driving the use of machine learning technology Kira, using vRoomPlus technology and deal management tools like thedocyard to drive longer term change and greater efficiencies in the way that lawyers complete M&A deals; and is working with a wider team to develop software to aid in the generation and completion of due diligence reports.

She also forms part of the Working Group on LegalTech Adoption in International Arbitration, a team seeking to effect global change in the arbitration community through the better use of technology, who published in July 2020 the Protocol for Online Case Management in International Arbitration, helping arbitral participants develop efficient, safe and consistent procedures if adopting a shared online case management platform in their arbitration proceedings. Heidi is also an advocate for careers in legal technology, for example, speaking at a cross campus panel event on legal technology for the University of Law, encouraging future generations of legal professionals to develop core skills in technology.

Bio

Lina is the Managing Partner and co-founder of “This is Legal Design”, a consultancy and think tank, specialized in innovation at the intersection of law, design and technology. She founded the company in 2018, convinced that the digital transformation of the legal industry can only succeed if human needs are placed at the centre of every technical development. Lina is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Handelsblatt legal innovation journal “REthinking Law”. As a member of the Legal Policy Advisory Board of the ROLAND-Rechtsschutz-Versicherung-AG, she covers the topic “Digitalization”.

After her 1st Legal State Exam, Lina studied Design Thinking of the Hasso-Plattner-Institute and worked at SAP, where she contributed to designing user-centered software solutions in co-creative formats with customers & users. To get even deeper into legal digitization topics Lina did her legal clerkship i.a. at the Committee on the Digital Agenda (German Parliament), worked as a Customer Success Manager for LAWLIFT GmbH, a legal tech startup for document automation & knowledge management, and became a certified SCRUM Product Owner. 

Contribution to Legal Tech

As a co-founder of “This is Legal Design”  Lina has been pushing the digital transformation of the legal industry, voicing human needs to be placed at the centre of every technical development. Her contribution lies mostly on doing the hard job: working with traditional law firms and legal departments to take the bumpy road of digitalization. Particularly, in her role as Advisor to the Board at the ROLAND legal Insurance, she brings in new perspectives, defending the relevance of legal tech and legal innovation to make the legal system better.

She serves as a model not only to younger generations but also to experienced legal professionals. When she was questioned about the ethical implications of legal tech, she answered: “ethical conduct should not ever mean to put a stop to tech development, because we fear it. Instead, our commitment must be to find the ways tech and law come together to assure the rule of law, access to justice, and social peace”. Lina’s contribution to Legal Tech is beyond particular projects, but her vision of tech, law, and humanity. 

Bio

Claire leads the Customer Success team at Juro – the contract collaboration platform. This means getting hands-on in the implementation of Juro for in-house legal teams. Previously, Claire held senior positions at Auth0 and at Swrve; establishing regional Customer Success teams and delivering world-class support to enterprise customers. Claire specializes in building and growing stellar CS teams in fast-paced environments. She believes that the most successful CS teams make their customers heroes.

Contribution to Legal Tech

Claire is an outstanding example of someone who not only talks about legal tech but actually enables lawyers to adopt legal tech. Where traditional contract management deployments can take up to a year to get going, Claire has got customers to value in an average of 14 days. This takes a keen understanding of customer pain points, a real passion for legal tech and the ability to take legal tech projects away from pure theory and into real applications that people use.

An example of Claire’s contribution has been onboarding and enabling Reach plc. Claire worked with Jane Clemetson, Commercial Legal Director to roll out Juro across the business. Jane says: Claire has been a huge asset to Reach, because although adopting Juro is a huge benefit to the legal department and the business, implementing it has been a bit of a logistic challenge, especially as we were starting from scratch and resources are tight. Without Claire, embarrassed as I am to say it, we might have just given up, excellent though Juro is. And as far as Reach is concerned, it is Claire who is the hero.