Carrot Magazine CityNews editor, Aylin Aliev, interviews the founders and members of City’s Legal Tech Society, Christina Koutsovoulou, Henna Hingorani and Nicola Gatfield to find out more about their society and how City Students can get involved.
Let’s Get To Know The Founders and Members…
The President (and founder) of the Legal Tech Society is Christina Koutsovoulou who is currently in her second year. Nicola Gatfield is a third-year law student who is the vice-president. Henna Hingorani is also in her third year and she is the communications officer of the society.
How did the Legal Tech Society Begin?
Koutsovoulou explains that she had the idea of creating a legal tech society back in March 2021 after she was “stuck in bed and listening to podcasts”. She states that she came across a podcast called Chamber Students, and was instantly gripped and fascinated when the podcast host invited Catherine Bamford who started up her own business about Legal Tech.
At the end of the podcast Bamford stated that she will help students who start a Legal Tech society at University. Therefore, Koutsovoulou took the initiative to contact Bamford to help her establish the new society.
What Exactly is ‘Legal Tech’, how would you define it?
Koutsovolou says: “Legal tech is where you use technology and software to help anything legal. For instance, it could be legal services, smart contracts, signing documents.”This clearly demonstrates that in the day and age where technology is becoming increasingly prevalent, this society is an excellent way to show how law and technology can be interlinked.
This is emphasised by Gatfield who states that legal tech is important as it modernises what is viewed as a very traditional profession. She adds: “If we implement technology, then we’re going to need more and more people in the profession. Therefore, legal tech opens up new doors and opportunities within the law industry.
Drive to Start Legal Tech
The females state that they are the first group to start such a society at City University, despite legal tech societies existing all other societies in the UK. This society aims to bring amazing opportunities to students and keep them commercially aware, meaning that they want to teach and learn more about legal tech schemes and graduate-schemes for the future. Additionally, this society wants to serve as a way to network and build relationships with those who are already in the industry.
Why is Legal Tech important and why should students join?
The President and Founder of the society says:Legal tech is important because it makes lawyers and clients’ lives easier. It is quick and cost efficient as tasks which would usually take hours can be done in minutes. Legal tech is being used in an array of firms, and part of the reason is because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Most if not all the Magic Circle law firms have integrated legal tech into their departments.’
She adds: “Legal tech companies who provide the technology are on the rise; there are roughly 200 of them. Therefore, students should join because legal tech the market for it is expanding and will continue to grow for many years. It is becoming an integral part of our society, and so we want students to have the opportunity to explore such an important and versatile field. Our aim as a society is to educate students on this topic and to expand their commercial awareness.”
How to get involved
The society has many events coming up and ways to stay in contact with each other. The communications officer Hingorani saysh: “We have an Instagram page, WhatsApp groupchat and a LinkedIn page for members. Find out more about their society there.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CXqfoP9gyOg/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
To round off we have articles sent to us by the Society that include additional information about Legal Tech – ranging from AI in finance, Law collaborating with AI and graduate-schemes.