The Legal Ops Podcast

Alex and Elliot chat about their plans for a new separate sub-stream of the podcast called “Talking Tech”. Each Talking Tech episode will be an interview with a law tech vendor discussing their product, how they got started, who the target audience is and what the intended use cases are. Some questions will be easy, some will be hard, and all of them will be interesting and relevant.  They al...

Chris Georgiou is the head of Ashurst Advance, Ashurst's global "New Law" division. He is a former securities and derivatives partner who successfully made the transition from traditional lawyer to legal business professional. Chris, Alex and Elliot covered many topics related to the changing nature of legal practice, including: * When and how did "New Law" get started? * Are the drivers of change...

Alex and Elliot chat with Nikki Shaver and Chris Ford about their new venture, Legal Tech Hub. Want to understand the market for a particular type of legal tech? Need to know which vendors operate in your market and in your language? Are you a vendor wanting to make sure potential purchasers know about your product and what it does? These are the problems Legal Tech Hub is trying to solve. Nikki a...

The Legal Ops Podcast is one year old today! Alex and Elliot chat about the podcast, including some fascinating stats on its geographical reach, download trends and which is the most popular episode. They also cover what they've learned from producing the podcast over the past year, and what they would both do if they decided to take a 12 month break from their corporate jobs.

You've chosen a cool new piece of legal technology, but how do you go about implementing it? What phases will your project go through and in what order should they be tackled? In this episode, Alex and Elliot do a deep dive on all aspects of the implementation process. They cover lots of examples drawn from real life legal tech implementations, including matter management systems, document managem...

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot discuss the recently released 2020 State of the Legal Market report for Australia, including how law firms and other players might adopt its recommendation for reimagination of legal services delivery. They cover recent developments in the legal ops consulting market, who's building consulting capacity and which models might prevail. They also chat abo...

Legal automation is a hot topic. If your firm or department is not already investing, it will almost certainly be on your roadmap. And who better to discuss this with than Evan Wong, the co-founder and CEO of legal automation company Checkbox AI? In a wide ranging and highly practical discussion, Evan, Alex and Elliot covered: * why legal teams should be investing in automation * how to build a bu...

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot discuss Apple's recent banning of Fortnite from the iOS App Store and the resulting lawsuit by Fortnite's creator, Epic Games. As with Apple's banning of the Hey.com email app, accusations of abuse of monopoly power have again been brought against Apple, only this time Apple's adversary is a huge, well capitalised company. Alex and Elliot discuss how t...

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot chat with Stevie Ghiassi, CEO and co-founder of Legaler and former president of the Australian Legal Technology Association. Stevie is one of the brains behind the Global Legal Tech Report and was able to answer a bunch of questions that Alex and Elliot mused in the previous episode of The Pulse. They also discussed a number of Stevie's "side hustles",...

So you want to invest in legal technology, but where do you start? In this two-part series you’ll hear from Alex and Elliot who together have a wealth of experience sourcing, selecting and implementing legal technology for both large and small corporate legal departments. They share practical tips while walking through the following stages that will help ensure you choose the right solution: (1) D...

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot discuss the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium’s annual State of the Industry survey results. They covered what was surprising and not so surprising about the results and discussed what trends could be contributing to changes in the industry. They also discussed Google’s announcement to create a "new integrated workspace experience" by combing a num...

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot discuss the Global Legal Tech Report, including what it is, who it's for and some of its findings. They also cover the recently announced update to Microsoft Teams which adds two intriguing features: Together Mode, which uses avatars to simulate being physically together, and Dynamic View, which promises a better way to deliver group presentations virt...

Steven, Alex and Elliot discuss the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic for legal operations, particularly relating to business continuity. They cover: * The history of legal operations, how it has matured as a discipline and the influence of groups such as CLOC and the ACC * Permanently mobile workforces, the challenges this creates and how to maintain personal relationships and connect...

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot chat about Hey, a new email service from the Basecamp software company. Hey has been described as the most innovative take on email since Gmail launched in 2004. However the focus of the episode is not on Hey itself, but on the controversy surrounding Apple's rejection of the app from the iOS App Store. Basecamp's CTO compared Apple's behaviour to the...

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot chat about Alex's new AirPods Pro and the recent integration deal between Slack and AWS. Then they discuss law firms expanding into new lines of business, why they have historically been slow to do this and what types of businesses it would make sense for law firms to consider. LINKS Australian Financial Review article: https://www.afr.com/companies/fi...

Alex and Elliot discuss the recently released 2020 ACC Legal Operations Maturity Benchmarking Report, including: * What type of companies and legal operations departments are represented in the report * What competencies are included in the ACC's legal operations maturity model and how the model compares to CLOC's equivalent model * What the report identifies to be the competencies with the highes...

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot provide coronavirus updates from the USA and Australia. Then they discuss e-execution, including how recent legislative changes in Australia have expanded its availability, what risks this entails, whether the changes will continue despite the legislation being temporary and the international perspective.

Daniela, Alex and Elliot discuss eBay's approach to legal operations, including: * The structure of eBay's legal ops function * Why eBilling was chosen as the function's first major deliverable * The importance of eBay's legal tech roadmap and its alignment with the organisation's wider strategy * How to measure the success of a technology implementation and whether quantitive or qualitative measu...

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot provide coronavirus updates from the USA and Australia respectively. They also discuss the Australian Federal government's COVIDSafe app, privacy concerns arising from the app and whether the public benefit is sufficient to outweigh those concerns.

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot chat about Elliot's troubles with his Jabra Elite 65t headphones and whether or not the Apple Airpods would have been a better choice. They also discuss how the legal ops market has changed over the last two decades, including developments in both education and professional services. Finally, they discuss whether talent or opportunity is more important...

Stephanie, Alex and Elliot discuss creating a legal ops strategy, including: * What a legal ops strategy is and how it underpins a legal department's technology and operational plan * How to develop the plan, including the extent to which it should be a top-down vs bottom-up endeavour * Why it's important for a legal ops leader to be attuned to the needs of the legal department * Which stakeholder...

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot discuss the conference landscape - which are being rescheduled, cancelled or moving online. For those which are moving online, are they free or charging admission, and what is the value proposition for attendees and sponsors? And they chat with Jodie Baker, president of the Australian Legal Technology Association, about its upcoming conference ALTAcon....

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot chat about the pros and cons of the Apple Watch, how Alex uses his and whether or not Elliot should get one. The also talk about Zoom, including its soaring market capitalisation, recent security troubles, what "Zoombombing" is and how to guard against it. Then they discuss the economic effects of coronavirus, whether we are headed for a "V", "U" or "L...

In this episode of The Pulse, Alex and Elliot give a brief update on how things are changing in Australia and the US in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Alex explains his excitement for the new iPad Pro and tries to convert Elliot away from his MacBook. They also discuss the recent news about Atrium shutting its doors, similarities with Clearspire back in 2014, and why they think these busine...

Alex and Elliot discuss Business Continuity Planning, also referred to as “BCP”. This is particularly relevant right now due to the coronavirus pandemic, and is often the responsibility of legal operations functions. They cover a range of issues that should be addressed as part of any BCP plan, including: * Technology - for remote access, written communications and virtual meetings * Allocating re...