Developing Legal Tech Skills for Career Growth

A Recovering Lawyer's Guide to LegalTech As April arrives, my inbox fills with messages from attorneys exploring career pivots. "How do I break into LegalTech?" "Do I need coding skills?" These questions echo my own journey from practicing at one of India's largest firms to now leading Digital & Innovation team and building the Indian LegalTech Network (ILTN). Here are 5 Steps to Successfully Navigate Your Transition 1. Build your LegalTech network Attend LegalGeek, ILTA events, or local Legal Hackers chapters. While running The Blue Pencil in law school, I discovered the LegalTech community is refreshingly approachable—people genuinely enjoy what they do, making connections more authentic than traditional legal networking. 2. Find technology opportunities in your current role Don't wait for a formal transition. Speak to your IT or innovation teams about joining projects. Volunteer for internal committees focused on process improvement. These experiences develop relevant skills while testing your interest without commitment. 3. Develop adjacent skills beyond legal knowledge Abandon self-limiting beliefs like "I cannot do tech." Master advanced features in Microsoft Word, Excel, or Google Workspace. Learn design thinking, process mapping, and product management fundamentals—far more valuable in most LegalTech roles than coding. 4. Build something concrete Today's no-code tools enable anyone to create functional applications. Identify a problem in your practice, map the process, and build a prototype using Bubble, Bryter, or Microsoft Power Automate. Demonstrating this initiative speaks volumes to potential employers. 5. Choose hands-on experience over theoretical training While LegalTech programs proliferate, practical experience typically provides better value. If pursuing further education, prioritize programs offering real-world projects over purely academic approaches. Where Legal Expertise Creates Value! Most LegalTech roles don't require coding—they need people who identify the right problems and bring together solutions. Key positions include: -Legal Solutions Architect -Legal Project Manager -Practice Development -Legal Operations Manager Resources That Made the Difference 1. Richard Susskind's "Tomorrow's Lawyers" 2. Communities like Legal Hackers, International Legal Technology Association (ILTA), Indian LegalTech Network (ILTN) 3. Practical skills in design thinking and process mapping Start Today - Start Where You Are Become your team's tech power user. Volunteer with LegalTech startups. Approach this transition with genuine curiosity rather than career desperation—successful legal innovators see problems as opportunities, not obstacles. (and as always Projects/Solutions you built > > Certificate courses) The pictures from the amazing International Legal Technology Association (ILTA)'s ILTACON 2024!

This will change the legal world forever. My mind was blown learning this AI literacy is now a must for every lawyer. I never thought I would say that. But it is true. The legal field is changing fast. AI is not just a buzzword. It is a real tool that is already shaping how we work, think, and serve clients. Here is why AI literacy matters for lawyers: → AI is already in your daily work. From contract review to legal research, AI tools are everywhere. If you do not understand them, you risk falling behind. Clients expect you to know how to use the best tools to save time and money. → It protects your clients. Knowing how AI works helps you spot errors, bias, or risks in AI-generated work. You can give better advice and keep your clients safe. → It keeps you relevant. Law is a knowledge business. The lawyers who learn AI will lead the way. Those who do not will be left behind. → It helps you work smarter, not harder. AI can do the boring, repetitive work. You get to focus on strategy, judgement, and the human side of law. How to build AI literacy as a lawyer: → Start with the basics. Learn what AI is and what it is not. You do not need to code. You do need to know what tools are out there and what they can do. → Use real tools. Try out AI legal research platforms, contract review tools, or document automation. See how they work. Notice their limits. → Stay critical. AI is not magic. It makes mistakes. It can be biased. Always check the output. Use your legal mind to spot problems. → Keep learning. AI is moving fast. Read legal tech blogs. Join webinars. Talk to peers who are using AI. Share what you learn. → Focus on ethics. AI raises new questions about privacy, bias, and fairness. Know the rules. Think about how to use AI in a way that is safe and fair for everyone. My top tips for lawyers who want to get ahead: → Do not wait for your firm to train you. Take charge of your own learning. → Build a habit of testing new tools. Even ten minutes a week adds up. → Talk to clients about AI. They want to know you are on top of it. → Remember, your judgement is still your superpower. AI is a tool, not a replacement. The legal world is changing. AI literacy is not a nice-to-have. It is a must-have. The lawyers who learn, adapt, and stay curious will shape the future of law.

AI isn’t replacing you. It’s sitting next to you. At Copenhagen Legal Tech’s First Tuesday, Werner Valeur shared so many great insights, but this one stuck with me: 🤖 Technology is your new colleague. I’d take it a step further: 🤖 AI is your new colleague. It’s not just another tech tool. Treat AI like a new coworker. Like any good colleague, AI requires context and interaction to deliver real value. The better you communicate with your new coworker - the better the results. The more you work together, the more you learn about their strengths and weaknesses. Laura Frederick helped further refine and visualize this concept yesterday while we were chatting about challenges of AI adoption in contracting. Use AI like you would when we worked in offices, and would drop by one of your office besties to run an idea by them, get a different opinion, refine argument or get a gut check. Here are some ways that you can use AI right now across all genAI chat tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and legal specific AI tools like Wordsmith. How AI Can Assist Legal Professionals Right Now: 🧠 Brainstorming & Idea Generation - Generate new ideas and explore different perspectives. - Provide counterarguments to strengthen legal reasoning. - Get suggestions for alternative approaches to problems. 🤝 Negotiation & Scenario Testing - Play out different negotiation scenarios and refine your position. - Run hypotheticals or play devil’s advocate to stress-test legal arguments. 📑 Document & File Management - Spot differences between contract versions or precedent documents. - Organize messy notes into structured documents. - Structure messy drafts, clean up formatting, and standardize layouts. - Easily convert between file formats while maintaining all the information. 📝 Summarization & Transcription - Quickly extract key points from lengthy agreements or case law. - Transcribe and/or summarize meeting transcripts or notes to capture key takeaways and action items. 👀 Clarity & Refinement - Test writing for clarity and readability. - Ask AI to simplify or refine complex legal language. - Make writing more concise by cutting unnecessary details. - Turn text into bullet points, a table, or image (tip: Claude is better at making slide images). ⚠️ Risk & Consistency Checks - Highlight potential red flags in agreements. - Check for inconsistencies in responses or across multiple documents. - Ensure legal solutions align with specific legal rules, frameworks, or precedents. - Identify assumptions made in legal arguments. - Validate responses against the latest case law or regulatory updates. - Stress-test whether legal advice holds under different conditions. 🗣️ Client & Internal Communication - Tailor responses based on tone and audience. - Provide second opinions or alternative views on legal arguments or advice. - Prepare clear, concise explanations for clients or stakeholders. - My favorite: check for typos!

In the middle of an AI bootcamp right now, teaching Generative AI to law students at Albany Law School. What stands out is not just curiosity. It is seriousness. These students are not here for shortcuts. They are asking about verification. About bias. About where automation helps and where judgment must stay in human hands. They want to understand how these systems actually work, and how that reality changes legal practice. So today we are digging into the fundamentals: • How generative models produce output, and why confidence does not equal correctness • Where hallucinations come from and how to design workflows that catch them • How agents differ from standalone models • What responsible use looks like in drafting, research, and client work • How lawyers should think about risk allocation, accountability, and supervision in AI-enabled processes We are also doing hands-on exercises. Real prompts. Real failures. Real iteration. No hype. No magic. Just practical mechanics and professional responsibility. Here is what gives me optimism. This next generation is not treating AI as a replacement for thinking. They see it as infrastructure. Something to be tested, constrained, and integrated thoughtfully into legal work. That mindset matters. If we teach future lawyers to pair technical literacy with judgment, we do more than prepare them for new tools. We help shape a more capable, more responsible profession. Grateful to the students for their engagement, and to the faculty for creating space for this kind of applied learning. I’m Colin S. Levy, General Counsel at Malbek and author of The Legal Tech Ecosystem. #legaltech #innovation #law #business #learning

In-house counsels didn’t go to law school to build systems. But that’s exactly what the role is evolving into. In the AI era, legal teams aren’t just reviewing contracts. They’re guiding automation, managing risk at scale, and building operational systems that touch every function from HR to finance to product. And that shift brings new demands: ➤ You can’t think in legalese anymore. You need to speak data, process, and product. ➤ You can’t just “review.” You need to build workflows that scale decision-making. ➤ You’re not just a subject-matter expert. You’re a cross-functional partner to Sales, Finance, and Procurement. In my latest article for Forbes, I break down what this transformation means for legal leaders and what companies must do to keep up. 𝗜𝘁 𝗯𝗼𝗶𝗹𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘁𝗼 5 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀: 1/ Standardize contract templates and negotiation positions to reduce legal turnaround time. 2/ Implement legal intake systems to streamline and triage requests efficiently. 3/ Use AI tools for contract review, summarization, and data extraction to increase productivity. 4/ Track legal team performance using operational metrics like how early legal input on supplier contracts reduced dispute escalations by a certain percentage. 5/ Evaluate legal tech not on features, but on how well it integrates into daily workflows. If you’re a GC, Legal Ops leader, or CEO thinking about how legal can drive business, this one’s for you. Check out the full article from the link in the comments 👇🏼 How are you seeing the role of in-house counsels evolve in your org? #LegalTech #GC #LegalOps #AI #CLM #Forbes #InHouseCounsel #Leadership

If you're in Legal Ops, here's the one skill I'd start building today: Learn to prototype your own tools. As someone who's spent 15 years implementing legal tech at Netflix, Spotify, and Cisco. I was the buyer. I ran the evaluations, made the case for budget, signed the contracts. All too often, Legal Ops gets stuck in the same loop. To get budget, you had to prove the value. But to prove the value, you needed the tool. And to get the tool, you needed the budget. So you'd go to leadership with a slide deck and a vendor quote, asking them to fund something nobody had actually seen work on your own workflow yet. Also getting technical people onto a legal team is hard, so building your way out of that loop was never really an option. That's changed now. AI coding tools like Claude Code now let one person stand up a working prototype with no engineering team behind them. Intake flows, workflow automation, the connective tissue that makes your systems actually talk. The stuff you used to wait months for or pay a vendor to approximate, you can rough out yourself in days. With a working prototype, now you can demo it to a few people in your department, prove it on your real workflow, then walk into any vendor and say: "this is how we work, this is what we need." In 2026, this is how you'll go farther, faster than you ever did as a buyer because you know exactly what you want. --- Start this week. Pick one annoying manual process and try to build the smallest version that works. That one prototype is your proof, business case and leverage for any vendor/budget conversation that follows.

We are seeing a clear upsurge in legal operations roles, and it is not a trend. It is a shift. Legal departments are being asked to operate more like businesses: manage costs, implement technology, and deliver measurable value. That is where legal ops comes in. And here is what we need to say more clearly: Paralegals are not adjacent to this work. They are already doing it. Look at today’s legal ops roles: • Process improvement • Cross-functional collaboration • Technology implementation • Data tracking and reporting This is the work experienced paralegals have been leading for years. The opportunity is not to start over. It’s to translate and position your experience differently. How to position yourself for legal ops: • Reframe your work as operations, not tasks • Build fluency in legal tech and data • Seek cross-functional projects (legal + IT + finance) - Raise your hand for projects that touch multiple teams. That is where this pathway is built. • Track and quantify your impact (If you cannot measure it, you cannot position it.) • Get proximate to the work (volunteer for legal tech implementations, support billing, vendor management, or reporting projects, partner with legal ops or in-house teams when possible) - You do not need permission to start operating at this level. The industry is shifting from: “Who supports the work?” to “Who operationalizes it?” Paralegals are uniquely positioned to lead in this space, right now. This is exactly why Kelli Radnothy and I have been building Paralegal Pathways. The roles are there. The skills are already there. The strategy is what connects them. #LegalOperations #ParalegalPathways #LegalCareers #FutureOfWork #LegalInnovation #Paralegals #LegalTech #Leadership

Breaking into legal tech can feel completely unstructured, especially in the UK. Over the past few months I have been putting together everything I wish I had known when I was a law student into this (quite lengthy) guide. It is written for: "Students and trainees who are curious about legal tech" "Lawyers and ex lawyers (early-ish on in their careers) who want to move into legal tech roles" "Career changers who are interested in legal adjacent tech roles" Inside, I cover: > How legal tech hiring differs from the traditional training contract route > The main entry paths into legal tech, with examples > How to research the market and build a target list of companies > Networking and LinkedIn, with practical tips and ideas > A bonus section on getting up the curve with AI > A resources section with firms, directories, job boards and communities This is not a definitive or foolproof guide. It is my attempt to pull scattered information into one place. Some of it will date quickly, and people will have different views. That is fine. If you spot things that are wrong, missing or could be improved, I would genuinely appreciate hearing from you. If you know students, trainees or career changers who are exploring legal tech, please feel free to share this with them. Link to the guide in the comments 👇 (We all know LinkedIn loves a photo. I was struggling to find something that goes with the guide so I went with this picture taken in the middle of an amazing workshop that Marie Potel-Saville ran a couple of years ago at Juro's Draft Punk mini-conference. It wasn't just a great workshop, it was also a moment where I, quite early on in my time at Juro, found myself contributing to a discussion between Chief Legal Officers, Chief Executive Officers, and General Counsels on contract design. Just a year or so earlier I was a law student barely aware of legal tech and the opportunities surrounding it. It's amazing what a couple of timely pieces of information can have on an early career trajectory. I hope this guide has that impact for someone out there.)

Law students, it’s time to stop thinking like it’s 2005. Yes, the law is centuries old but the way we practice it has changed drastically in just the last five years. The lawyers who stand out today aren’t just good at legal research or drafting. They know how to work smarter using digital tools, automation, and online presence. Here’s how you can start digitalising yourself even while in law school: • Learn how to summarise judgments and clauses using tools like ChatGPT or CaseMine. • Build your own contract or case templates using Notion or Word macros • Organise your case notes and reading materials with digital mind maps or tagging tools like Obsidian • Practice drafting in real-time with Google Docs + track changes that’s how most law firms work • Start creating legal explainers in simple language on LinkedIn that’s how clients will find you • Get comfortable with e-signature tools and document workflows it’s the new normal Law schools rarely teach this. But clients, law firms, and startups expect it. If you’re planning to build a modern, flexible legal career digital skills aren’t optional. They’re your edge. Want a curated list of tools and habits to help you start? I’ve built a short “Digital Law Starter Kit” just for students. Comment or message me happy to share.

🚀 Ever wondered how to stay ahead in the rapidly changing world of corporate law? 🌟 Tune in to Season 8, Episode 4 of "Notes to My (Legal) Self" with the innovative Peter Connor, Founder & CEO of AlternativelyLegal. Discover "The Future of In-House Legal Mastery: Becoming a T-Shaped Lawyer" and redefine success and effectiveness for in-house lawyers and legal departments. 🔍 In this episode, Peter explores: T-Shaped Lawyer Framework™: Combining deep legal expertise with broad business and technological skills. Career Advancement: How this framework makes you more adaptable and resilient. Actionable Advice: Implementing business partnering and leadership to add value. Meet Peter Connor Peter Connor shares his extensive experience and insights from his book, "The T-Shaped Lawyer: A New Vision for You and Your Work." His transformative approach equips legal professionals to navigate the evolving landscape of corporate law effectively. 🎙️ Highlights: Understanding the T-Shaped Lawyer concept and its importance. Practical steps to develop a T-shaped skill set and mindset. Strategies for providing business input and advice alongside legal expertise. Examples of engaging in business partnering and leadership. Aligning personal vision with professional goals. 💡 Learning Outcomes: Gain insights into the T-Shaped Lawyer concept and its significance. Learn practical steps to develop a balanced skill set and mindset. Discover strategies for integrating business insights with legal expertise. Understand the importance of business partnering and leadership. Align your personal vision with your professional goals for greater impact. 🔗 Don’t miss this transformative episode! Listen via the link in the comments. ❓ Questions: How can you integrate business skills into your legal practice? What steps will you take to develop a T-shaped skill set? How can business partnering enhance your role as an in-house lawyer? #CorporateLaw #LegalTech #GeneralCounsel #Leadership #InHouseLegal -------- 💥 I am Olga V. Mack 🔺 AI & transformative tech expert in product counseling 🔺 Educating & upskilling human capital for digital transformation 🔺 Championing change management in legal innovation & legal operations 🔺 Keynotes on the intersection of business, law, & tech 🔝 Connect with me 🔝 Subscribe to Notes to My (Legal) Self newsletter