I joined ThoughtRiver as an intern in the summer of 2017 after completing my Graduate Diploma in Law. Following my internship I continued to work on a consultancy basis throughout 2018. I became a fully fledged member of the ThoughtRiver team in November 2018.
I first realised how impactful LawTech was becoming in the legal industry whilst attending the annual Legal Geek conference in 2017. Off the back of this, I applied for the internship at ThoughtRiver and gained an insider’s perspective into a young startup. During my internship, I was able to apply my knowledge of legal concepts in a unique way, working closely with developers and lawyers alike. I joined ThoughtRiver full-time after completing the Legal Practice Course because I wanted to expand and deepen my experience of the relationship between law and technology, and I haven’t look back! ThoughtRiver has given me a platform from which to explore my interests in the field in a collaborative and enthusiastic way. No question is a stupid question here and everyone’s opinion is valid.
My role is customer facing for the most part, but a large part of this involves getting stuck into the legal concepts that prop up commercial contracts. I work closely with customers to configure the solution to their needs, as well as feed into development of the product itself. The most exciting aspect of my role is its exponential evolution as the product develops. Ours is an area of the legal industry that has space to grow in a really interesting way, so who knows what my role will look like in six month’s time! What is certain is I’ll be kept on my feet!
When it comes to the future of legaltech, I have two thought processes. The first is that the role of women in both the legal and technology industries is still under-represented (albeit in different ways), resulting in the LegalTech industry as a whole also being under-represented. I see this changing rapidly. Already, there are a whole load of great initiatives, committees and startups whose aims are to address this. This is a great time to get involved in LegalTech as a woman because you can help drive these solutions. Secondly, as pointed out in a recent report by the Law Society, LegalTech remains less mature than other fields of digital disruption. Today, the LegalTech industry concentrates on creating efficiencies and automation rather than on creating ‘new types of law’. You can therefore get a flavour for the potential growth in this field.
And what about me when I am not working? Well my passion is music and last year, I listened to 36,982 minutes of music! My focus for this year is to beat that!