Yesterday we hosted the fourth annual Nordic Legal Tech Day. An amazing day with a full house of innovators and thought leaders.
Some key takeaways were that as business goes global, instant and boarder-less, legal becomes more complex. Dealing with complexity is nothing new for the legal departments on a regulatory level. What is adding fuel to the fire is the converging effect of new technology and new business models. The scope of things legal departments need to stay informed on is constantly increasing. This calls for increased business acumen and tech savviness, and GCs may need to rethink what sort of talent needs to be recruited to the team. In order to work proactively GCs need to get clout in the organization. This may be achieved by the legal departments changing work processes and being user friendly – where design thinking will be key. Wirearchy with legal departments working cross-functionally with business teams, and other teams within the organization, becomes more important than hierarchy and whether the GC is on the top management team.
According to the 2018 Nordic General Counsel Report, only 52% of the legal departments are using tech tools and the GCs are struggling to get their head around tech and how to use it.
However the entrance barrier to legal tech is much lower than it was 10 years ago. What used to be on-premises tools with years to launch is now self-service, pay-as-you-go with short implementation time. If you don’t like what you are getting, its easy to move on. This should pave the way for legal departments daring to try. Go on have some fun!
Thank you all exhibitors, panels, speakers, sponsors and visitors for making this day a great success.
Anna Lensmar-Friedman, CEO LegalWorks Nordic AB
