E22: The state of the legal technology, barriers to adoption and the future of legal tech with Maya Markovich, Chief Growth Officer of Nextlaw Labs

The Leading Lawyer Project with Sam Burrett

This week on the Leading Lawyer Project, I'm exploring the current state of the legal technology market and asking the question "where are we up to in the legal tech journey?"
To explore this idea, I interview Maya Markovich, who is the Chief Growth Officer at Nextlaw Labs. Nextlaw Labs is the legal industry’s first and leading legal technology and innovation catalyst.
Maya currently leads analysis, collaboration, launch, and adoption of early-stage legal tech for Nextlaw Labs. Maya has a unique background spanning behavioural science, law, investment, and change management and was named one of five “Influential Women of Legal Tech” by ILTA in 2020, a “Woman Leading Legal Tech” by The Technolawgist in 2019, and an ABA Legal Technology Resource Center “Woman of Legal Tech 2018” for her work in encouraging, designing and implementing the future of the legal profession.
Some episode highlights:

• In 2015, when Nextlaw Labs started, there were around 75 legal tech startups - now there are almost 2,000 (check out Standford CodeX's list of legal tech companies);
• How institutional investment is changing the legal technology landscape;
• Which legal technologies are providing the biggest benefits to lawyers;
• The barriers to adoption and how we can overcome them
• Why young lawyers and law students will carve the future of the industry;
• The different career paths open to young lawyers;
• The key personality traits of the lawyers of the future, including data science, money management, design thinking and project management;
• Fostering gender and cultural diversity in the legal technology community;
• Why legal tech companies that are diverse are more successful;
• How COVID-19 has impacted the legal technology landscape;

Some of my favourite quotes:

• "There is an increasing ability of people to do different things, working in a legal tech startup or in legal operations.
• To thrive in the legal industry of the future (which is now) lawyers really need foundational literacies like a basic understanding of data science, money management, design thinking and project management. Then you need collaboration, flexibility, EQ (emotional intelligence) and creativity"
• "To truly affect change, lawyers with resilience, curiosity, comfort with ambiguity and a bias to action are going to have the most impact. Most of these things can be learned."
• "Its not in the best interests of investors to not invest in homogenous groups (and instead to invest in companies that are diverse). But at the same time, this increased understanding isn't translating into more money. It's a problem that hasn't; been solved anywhere near satisfactorily."
• "There are countless examples already of the pitfalls of technology that is built by a homogenous group. Diversity is a vital, but underestimated component of success."
• "What we need to avoid is implementing and automating biased processes."

You can find more about Nextlaw Labs and Maya Here

• Maya's LinkedIn
• Maya's Twitter
• Nextlaw's Twitter
• The Nexdtlaw Labs website

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