The inaugural Legal Innovation & Tech Fest is happening in Johannesburg later this year. The agenda has just been released, and it’s a whopper – 30 sessions over 2 days!
We sat down with Legal Innovation & Tech Fest Program Director, Adi Hartuv, to get more insight into what we can expect from this event.
Why a Legal Innovation & Tech Fest?
The world is changing. Businesses are more demanding. Fee models are evolving. New technologies are emerging. And the pressure is on for law firms and legal businesses to operate more efficiently and effectively. Technology is disrupting (and enabling) the practice of law, which is why we are hosting the Legal Innovation & Technology Festival – in association with The Corporate Counsel Association of South Africa (CCASA).
What excites you about this gathering?
This is the first event of its kind in South Africa that brings the various constituents of the legal fraternity together under one roof to celebrate the people, technology, ideas and innovations that are literally transforming the way law firms and in-house legal teams operate.
A lot of research and community engagement has gone into building the agenda for this event. Tell us more about the process of building this program.
Six months of research has led to the evolution of this unique conference program. It’s a result of country-wide interviews and face-to-face discussions with over 100 industry professionals from over 75 organisations speaking their minds. 8 key themes emerged from these interviews and round table discussions, around which the most compelling agenda possible for Legal Innovation & Tech Fest has been curated.
What were the top 3 themes?
- The Legal Ecosystem, Legal Business & Lawyer of the Future
- Building the Skills & Capability for Successful Innovation
- Data-Driven Decision Making – What You Can Measure You Can Manage
Who are the big-hitting internationals coming across for the event?
- Mick Sheehy – General Counsel, Telstra (Australia)
Mick is Telstra’s General Counsel of Finance Technology Innovation & Strategy, and is passionate about innovation in the legal industry. Mick has an extensive commercial and M&A background, with 20 years’ experience working on transactions in Australia, the US, Europe and Asia. In 2016 Mick founded the regional chapter of the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium Australia.
Among other successes, Mick will be sharing The Telstra Legal Innovation Story and How to Create an Innovation Movement. In 2016 this program resulted in a saving of more than 40,000 lawyer hours and recognition by Financial Times of Telstra Legal as Asia Pac’s most innovative legal department for 2016.
- Graeme Grovum – Head of Innovation, Corrs Chambers Westgarth (Australia)
Graeme is a legal technologist with 15 years of experience in the legal and financial services industries. He leverages his deep understanding of legal processes, optimistic mindset, and love of new technologies to deliver exceptional results in unexpected ways. From launching an incubator, to developing products to streamline legal workflows, to acting as an agent for change within his firm, to recently launching Sydney Legal Hackers – Graeme is at the forefront of exploring and developing creative solutions to some of the most pressing issues at the intersection of law and technology.
- Shaun Temby – Partner and Head of Innovation, Maddocks (Australia)
Shaun Temby is the Commercial Disputes Partner at Maddocks. Shaun has specialised in commercial disputes for over 20 years and on providing his clients with advice focused on avoiding and resolving disputes quickly and commercially. In 2017, he was appointed the Head of Innovation at Maddocks and given the responsibility of delivering on the firm’s innovation strategy.
- Milos Kresojevic –Founder, AI.Legal Labs (UK)
Milos’ primary focus is research of disruptive technologies and their impact on business processes, service offerings and value chains. His major professional experience stems from work in IBM Research Lab, San Francisco and Silicon Valley that was focused on major innovative efforts for blue chip and start-up companies in financial, insurance, transportation and software sectors. Milos’ educational background is an MBA Degree from Columbia University and London Business School, and an MSc. Aerospace Engineering from the University of Belgrade.
What stories from the front line of Legal Tech do people need to hear about?
We searched high and low to bring you the best local and international thought leaders and innovators spearheading the legal innovation and tech charge. Come hear how Telstra created an “Innovation Movement,” enabling the saving of more than 40,000 lawyer hours through launching a series of design thinking workshops and innovation sprints; how Anglo American Group Legal, who pioneered the use of LPO in the South African legal market, improved its service delivery: routine, low risk, high volume contract review and drafting to LPO firms; and how Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr became one of the first South African law firms to start introducing AI capabilities on a large scale, enabling a multitude of systems efficiencies, such as data-driven pricing strategies, intuitive and immediate knowledge management delivery, expertise linking and enterprise search capabilities.
We have over 25 speakers delivering sessions at Legal Innovation & Tech Fest 2018. That’s a lot of information! What’s your advice for people coming along to make the most of it?
Before the event, you can view all presentation times, tracks and speakers on the website under the agenda tab. During the event, the event app offers you the most up to date program information. You will receive information on how to download the app prior to the conference. It is your go-to-source for planning the sessions you would like to attend and offers a feature to bookmark your chosen sessions.
During the event, you can move around as much as you wish. The event features several tracks with a great variety of delivery types, giving you and your team choice of content. You can move between tracks whenever you want, allowing you to experience high-level keynotes, innovative case studies, interactive panel discussions, and software and technology demos.
The agenda has been specially curated to ensure that at any time there are presentations and sessions that appeal to both the Business and IT sides of your organisation, as well as presentations that are relevant for law firms and in-house legal teams. In this way, you can tailor-make your conference experience through attending those presentations that specifically address your most pertinent challenges, pain points and areas of focused interest to maximise value.
Any special sessions that attendees need to look out for?
We are excited about the fact that Legal Innovation & Tech Fest features 3 interactive panel discussions.
The International Experts Panel – with Insights for 2019 and Beyond! is an interactive panel that brings together some of the best in global thought leadership and innovation who will address the pertinent and topical elements impacting and disrupting the Legal community worldwide.
The Interactive Law Firm Panel: Insights from the Front of the Pack, facilitated by Shaun Temby, brings together some of South Africa’s leading and exceptional customers from law firms that are spearheading the legal innovation & tech charge to explore the trends and insights that are impacting law firms in 2019 and beyond.
The In-House Legal Panel: Insights from the Front of the Pack, facilitated by Mick Sheehy, features a hand-selected group of expert customers from in-house legal teams who address the pertinent and topical elements impacting and disrupting in-house legal teams in South Africa.
How can people follow the action before, during and after the event?
While our website and blog are excellent resources, the best way to follow the action before, during and after the event is to sign up to receive our email communications. This ensures that you’ll receive constant updates of rich and topical content and that every time we have new and exciting information, we can share this with you.