Leaving BigLaw for legal engineering: why and how?

Reimagining Justice

In episode no. 75 I speak with Catherine Bamford, CEO & Founder of BamLegal. We cover:

• BamLegal’s clients and services;
• The UK legal industry’s adoption of document automation;
• How Catherine addresses some common objections to legal technology;
• The relevance of time billing and fixed fee in this context;
• How legal technology intersects with ‘real lawyering’;
• Who should and shouldn’t ‘own’ a legal tech product or project;
• How legal technology vendors get sales pitches ‘wrong’;
• Catherine’s ‘why’ for leaving BigLaw and the steps that led her to create her own business;
• How Catherine got started with legal technology, what she’s working on now and why;
• Real examples of how document automation assists people with low-middle income;
• How point-in-time online guidance has significantly improved accuracy of UK divorce forms;
• Other advantages of technology for clients, lawyers and courts;
• Catherine’s motivation to produce ‘BamBytes’, ‘Breakfast with Bam’ and to compile innovation and technology resources for the ecosystem;
• Her thoughts on how the next generation of lawyers approach legal tech;
• Just how ‘uberised’ the legal process is right now;
• Her personal characteristics that suggest she would work in legal technology;
• The job role that was invented when she was working at Pinsent Masons;
• What jumping in cold rivers and rearranging beer cellars has to do with Catherine’s career;
• Similarities between legal analysis and computer coding;
• What Catherine wishes she knew when she started her business;
• The impact of being able to say “I’m a lawyer” when becoming a legal engineer;
• How Catherine structures her business to enable flexibility in her team; and
• Catherine’s definition of legal innovation. Proudly sponsored by Neota Logic

Proudly sponsored by Neota Logic

Links:

• BamLegal
• Neota Logic Solution Gallery
• Neota Logic
• Churchill Trust Project

Andrea Perry-Petersen – LinkedIn - Twitter @winkiepp – andreaperrypetersen.com.au

Twitter - @ReimaginingJ

Facebook – Reimagining Justice group