I spoke with Stuart Clarke, the head of product for Blackdot Solutions in Cambridge, England, which is an open-source data platform that helps organizations investigate data risks. We discussed the impact of remote work on financial crimes, best practices for financial institutions interested in limiting financial crimes, and the link between environmental conservation and financial crime.
I spoke with Niko Jakobsson, the Secretary General of the Finnish Bar Association in Helsinki, Finland. We discussed how the Finnish Bar Association empowers its members through technology, ways that lawyers in Finland are using technology, the pandemic’s impact on the work of the Finnish Bar Association, and the different skills required to lead a bar association.
I spoke with Andrew King, the New Zealand-based founder of Legal Innovate, E-Discovery Consulting, and the LegalTechHub, as well as the producer of the LawFest conference. We discussed how he navigated the uncertainty in the planning process for LawFest, surprises from the event, what conference organizers should know when planning events in a post-COVID era, and how legal events will evolve.
I spoke with Varun Mehta, the CEO of Factor, an organization focused on performing complex legal work at scale. We discussed the challenges that Factor helps clients solve, the competitive landscape in managed services, opportunities and challenges in the current distributed workplace, and the pandemic-induced developments that could remain permanent.
I spoke with Tyrone Thomas, a vice president and deputy general counsel at Invenergy and the founder of Conversation For Six, a non-profit organization focused on expanding ongoing discussions about food insecurity. We discussed best practices for balancing community-focused work and a legal practice, how COVID-19 has affected the hunger crisis, and the impact of the pandemic on the legal community’s interest in starting charitable initiatives.
I spoke with Tracy LaLonde, the founder of the professional development consultancy Xaphes and the author of The Joychiever Journey: Evade Burnout, Surpass Your Goals and Out-Happy Everyone (James House Media, November 30, 2020). We discussed her inspiration for writing The Joychiever Journey, whether legal professionals are happy, best practices for finding joy in your work, and the link between joy and innovation.
I spoke with Tom Obermaier, the CEO of SurePoint Technologies, a provider of financial and practice management software to law firms nationwide. We discussed how the increased adoption of artificial intelligence and predictive analytics is changing the work of legal professionals, the best practices that law firms should implement before they incorporate A.I. processes into their workflows, and whether the billable hour inhibits a firm’s ability to fully deploy technology.