Today we attended the Nordic Legal Tech Day arranged by LegalWorks. It was an impressive number of startups and new legaltech solutions at display and a lot of inspiring discussions regarding the shift of the legal game.
VC investor Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist started the day with a keynote session on the digital transformation, with comparisons to the fintech market. She explained how the new kinds of neobanks (banks built from tech only), and new services like Account Information Service Providers, Apple credit cards and apps like Tandem, collecting all your payment history and helping you compare for example electricity bills with similar households, is changing the financial market rapidly. She also showed how the legaltech market is following in its lead, with a huge increase in investments as from last year.
In a following panel discussion, the way for inhouse legal department to adjust to this shift on the market, was discussed. It was a consensus that the role of a GC has changed from keeping the company out of trouble to enhancing the actual business, and that new tools and a new approach to legal operations and resources will be necessary to stay relevant.
In the afternoon, the results from the recent Nordic General Counsel Report was presented and discussed by moderator Victoria Swedjemark and the General Counsel panelists Carl Östring, Traction, David Köröndi, Eton Shirts, and Pål Lunning, Tetra Pak. The key takeaway was the need for a business mindset, to “reprogramming” from perfection to accepting that 80% performance is good enough and to make sure to use tools to support you and find a way to meet the more-for-less-challenge.
During the day there were a lot of different break-out sessions, where startups and other legal service providers and tools showcased their solutions. There sure is a lot going on and the shift towards digitalization and new kinds of services was palpatable, buzzing in the air.
VQ Founder Helena Hallgarn participated in one of the panel discussions regarding the need for a specific legaltech/regtech ecosystem together with Fredrik Rosengren, business coach at Sting, Merete Nygaard, CEO Lawbotics, Nicholas Hawtin founder of Nordic Legal Tech and Kaisa Kromhof, CEO and founder of ContractMill. Helena emphasized that we now need to change our focus from the lawyer to the legal issues to be solved. So far most legaltech solutions are aimed at making the lawyer work more efficient. But now we need to focus on solving legal issues instead, with or without the lawyer. When asked about the key factors for success, she stressed the importance of collaboration; collaboration with buyers of legal services, with programmers and with business people. That way we can build new interesting legal tech solutions.
In another interesting panel discussion, Magnus Stein, CEO Lexly, Mazdak Shiasi, CEO Insiderlog, Nils-Erik Jansson, CEO Precisely, and Egil Bergenlind, founder DPOrganizer discussed with moderator Christina Blomkvist, founder of GreenCounsel, how to promote innovation and make our startups to become successful.
The key takeaway from this inspiring day was that the shift finally seems to be taking off and that it sure will be interesting to follow all these new solutions and ideas onwards!