“We have this binary distinction between so-called utility tokens and so-called security tokens. I think there’s a better categorisation out there.”

 

On this episode of LegalMeets, we meet Michael Bacina, partner at Piper Alderman and lawyer to many of Australia’s biggest blockchain projects. With his knowledge of computer science and cryptoeconomics, Michael has a keen understanding of the various needs of startups looking to go to ICO. As a vocal thought leader on crypto law and regulation, he has been a key contributor to the ongoing discussion about how Australia should embrace blockchain technology.

In this episode we discuss…

• How Australia’s oldest major law firm Piper Alderman came to be Australia’s first to accept crypto payments
• The story of Michael’s first blockchain conference
• How blockchain will reduce the costs of compliance and audit
• Why smart contracts are not very smart and are often not contracts
• The huge impact of scams on the crypto industry in the past year
• The role of security tokens in the future of crypto
• How cryptocurrency may be used to trace (rather than facilitate) illicit transactions

Find out more about Michael here:

Michael’s Lawyer Page at Piper Alderman

Michael’s Medium

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“I suspect we’ll never reach a satisfactory answer because there will be arguments over this forever.”

 

On this episode of LegalMeets, we meet Lior Leser, a lawyer and Stanford Law School graduate currently based in Florida. Lior has a wide and varied field of practice, ranging from international business to cyber law. He creates videos on his YouTube channel ‘YouTuberLaw’ for over 20,000 loyal subscribers. His videos focus on the emerging field of technology law and include coverage of the mystery on the minds of all bitcoin watchers – who is Satoshi Nakamoto?

In this episode we discuss…

• The unexpected way Lior became a lawyer in Florida
• How the rise of social media revolutionised Lior’s practice
• How the sphere of crypto YouTubers got Lior interested in blockchain
• Lior’s economic perspective on what makes blockchain so fascinating –  the idea that someone can create artificial constraints on supply in order to create value
• The background to the suit against Craig Wright from Dave Kleiman’s estate
• The significance of the red flags in Craig Wright’s counter case
• Why the lack of information and jurisdictional issues leave Kleiman’s case unlikely to succeed
• How encryption and hashing technologies might bring much-needed legal certainty to contested contracts and company documents

Find out more about Lior here:

Web 2.0 Lawyer

YouTuberLaw

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“Millennials are socially conscious. They are more vocal because they have the platforms to speak from which other generations never did. That freedom is unprecedented.”

 

On this episode, we meet Luke Geary, a leading figure for social justice and pro bono legal work. Luke helped found Salvos Legal, a social enterprise law firm which funds free legal services for people in need across Australia, where he continues as a board member alongside his role as partner in the not-for-profit team at Mills Oakley. Luke is also recognised as an instrumental figure in transforming the legislative framework on human trafficking, as well as advocating in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

In this episode we discuss…

– The fortuitous discovery that led to Luke’s path to Law

– Luke’s success as Mills Oakley’s youngest partner in 150 years

– The origin and rise of Salvos Legal

– The place of Salvos Legal in the landscape of social enterprise

– The challenges of creating a law firm that competes with top tier commercial brands

– The inspiration for Legaler Aid

Find out more about Luke here:

Mills Oakley: www.millsoakley.com.au

Salvos Legal: www.salvoslegal.com.au

 

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“I think it’s the start of the journey, from the start up side and the law firm side”

On this episode we meet Jimmy Vestbirk, founder of Legal Geek, a LawTech startup community with over 6000 members, hosting an eponymous annual conference which sees legal technology enthusiasts from around the globe converging in London to meet, learn and discuss the latest ideas advancing the legal industry. Legal Geek also runs ‘Law For Good’, a program that provides technical support to legal charities through activities such as hackathons, including the recent Online Courts Hackathon for the UK Government. Jimmy’s diverse experience includes a portfolio of online dating sites and more recently co-founding paralegal matching platform, Flex.

In this episode we discuss…

– Why the legal sector has failed to keep pace with other industries adopting technology

– The upcoming Legal Geek World Tour

– Legal Geek’s Law For Good project, which allows coders to donate their time to worthy causes

– The regulatory openness to innovation in jurisdictions around Europe and the world

– The high-level changes in the law industry today

– The future of Legal Geek

 

Find out more about Jimmy here:

Legal Geek: www.legalgeek.co

Startup Map: www.legalgeek.co/startup-map/

Law for Good: www.lawforgood.org.uk

 

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“They often neglect to mention – if you find your passion, that’s the path towards success.”

On this episode, we meet Nehal Madhani, founder and CEO of Alt Legal. In 2013, Nehal gave up a desk at Manhattan legal practice Kirkland & Ellis for a shared space above a Chinatown fabric shop. He was setting out to make life easier for attorneys around the US, streamlining the lengthy IP docketing process into one easy tool. Now, Alt Legal is an award-wining platform that’s been adopted across the country. He tells us about his journey and his thoughts on the future of legal tech.

In this episode we discuss..

– The importance of finding your passion

– His leap of faith in leaving his law firm and learning to code

– Finding the right customers and locating their pain points

– Trials and tribulations in dealing with the USPTO

– The rise of automation and AI research tools in the legal industry

Find out more about Nehal here:

Alt Legal’s platform: www.altlegal.com
Nehal’s bio: www.nehal.co

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“The real cure will be when the legal industry decides that law is not just about lawyers any more.”

On this episode we meet Mark Cohen, a prolific entrepreneur, thought leader, educator and writer on the state legal industry. His impressive career spans big law partner, general counsel, co-founder of Clearspire, a groundbreaking legal services model, as well as Distinguished Lecturer of Law at Georgetown and Distinguished Fellow at Northwestern. When he’s not writing for Forbes or speaking internationally, Mark is CEO of Legal Mosaic, consulting and advising the legal industry and some of its most successful companies.

In this episode we discuss..

– Stories from his experiences as a lawyer in the Supreme Court

– Post-GFC regulation and stagnation in the legal industry

– New forms of legal delivery, from LPOs to chatbots

– The separation of ‘legal practice’ and the delivery of legal service

– The new job market for lawyers and the shift away from the dominance of law firms

– His book ‘Essays on Legal Delivery’ and tips and techniques for writing

Find out more about Mark here:

Mark’s Website: https://legalmosaic.com/
The Clearspire story: https://legalmosaic.com/2017/12/11/the-clearspire-story/
Mark’s articles on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markcohen1/

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“The problem is not machines doing what lawyers can do. The problem is lawyers doing what machines can do. If a machine can do it. A machine ought to do it.”

 

On this episode we meet Jordan Furlong, a leading analyst of the global legal market and forecaster of its future development. Having authored several books and white papers that analyze the rapidly evolving legal market, Jordan helps lawyers think differently about the services they provide in order to help re-engineer their firms’ purpose, strategy, and operations. Launched in 2007, Jordan’s blog Law21 went on to become the only non-American blog to be included six straight years in the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100.

In this episode we discuss..

– Jordan’s passion for sport and why he’s considered a celebrity in Canada
– What inspired a career in law after studying English Literature
– Is it actually a ‘buyer’s market’? We explore Jordan’s latest book
– The evolution of pricing in the legal industry: value vs market pricing
– How law firms should think about scaling their services
– The modern lawyer’s ‘t-shaped’ skill set and whether it requires learning to code
– How millennials are changing the industry from both the lawyer and client side
– The affect the Big Four accounting firms will have on the legal industry as they diversify
– Why Canada is proving to be such a hotbed of innovation in the legal technology industry
– The rise of Artificial Intelligence and its place in the legal profession

Find out more about Jordan here:

Law21 blog: https://www.law21.ca/
Latest book: https://www.law21.ca/books/law-is-a-buyers-market-building-a-client-first-law-firm/
The Rise of The Millennial Lawyer whitepaper:
https://lodlaw.com/the-rise-of-the-millennial-lawyer-14-ways-a-generation-is-changing-the-rules/

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“About a third of my work is human rights pro bono cases and so with those clients I consider myself to be a global investor in human rights”

On this episode of LegalMeets we meet Kimberley Motley, an American attorney fighting for justice around the world and best known as the first foreigner to litigate in Afghanistan’s courts. A former Miss America contestant, Kimberley’s work and notable pro bono cases have been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN and BBC. In 2014 she gave a TED talk about defending the rule of law and was the subject of the documentary, Motley’s Law.

In this episode we discuss..

– Her TED Talk on defending the rule of law and access to justice
– How an aspiring DJ and beauty queen destined for med school became a lawyer
– Adapting her litigation approach to succeed in Afghanistan
– The decision that led her to fight for justice in a war-torn region
– Shaking up Afghanistan’s courts as the first foreigner litigator
– Creating an international firm from scratch to represent clients on (almost) every continent (Reach out to Kim if you’re in Antarctica!)
– Making global headlines successfully defending child brides in arranged marriages
– Starring in a film documenting her travels and battles in the courtroom
– Receiving an unprecedented four presidential pardons for her clients
– Why access to justice is so important in improving the lives of everyone

Discover more about Kimberley here:

TED Talk: hhttps://www.ted.com/talks/kimberley_motley_how_i_defend_the_rule_of_law
Law firm website: http://www.motleylegal.com/

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“For lawyers, time is literally money. So for us, we’re saving attorneys 8 hours on average a month which is a crazy amount of time.”

On this episode of LegalMeets we meet David Bitton, Co-founder and CEO of Practice Panther, a cloud-based practice management software for the legal industry. As an author and CLE speaker, David is obsessed with automating law firms with the help of today’s technology. He’s revolutionizing the legal industry by helping lawyers get more done in less time.

In this episode we discuss..

– David’s passion for automation and how to save valuable time
– The origin story of Practice Panther and why you should listen to your wife!
– The importance of prioritising UX and intuitive design from day one
– Features and benefits of using cloud software like Practice Panther
– Using software to automate the client onboarding process
– The best way to transition to the cloud and making your law firm paperless
– What David’s ‘dream law firm’ would look like with today’s best technology
– Why lawyers are losing out on billable hours everyday and the best way to avoid it
– Practice Panther customer success stories and what’s next for the company

Discover more about Practice Panther’s software below:

https://www.practicepanther.com/

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“Lawyers that won’t be able to use technology in the future might be putting their clients at a disadvantage to the degree that it might be considered malpractice”

On this episode of LegalMeets we meet Dr. Roland Vogl, a lawyer, scholar and media entrepreneur responsible for Stanford University’s CodeX program, a joint collaboration between their law school and computer science department. With a focus on legal informatics and computational law, some of its recent successes include startups such as Lex Machina, Ravel Law and Casetext.

In this episode we discuss..

– A lawyer’s journey from Austria to Silicon Valley startup success
– The passion for new ideas that turn into startups – and two successful exits
– How the Stanford and CodeX ecosystem is fostering collaboration and community in the legal tech space
– The continued growth of the FutureLaw conference at Stanford and what to expect
– What does the future hold for today’s law students and should they learn to code
– What will be the role of lawyers in the next 5 to 10 years
– Will it be considered malpractice to not employ a high level of technology in the future?
– What it’s like living at the epicentre of technology in Palo Alto with self-driving cars

Discover more about Roland’s projects:

Codex website: https://law.stanford.edu/codex-the-stanford-center-for-legal-informatics/
FutureLaw Conference: https://law.stanford.edu/event/codex-futurelaw-conference-2018/

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“I didn’t have to spend lots of money or head off and do something new, and I didn’t have to leave law. I just had...