How firms harness the power of a constantly evolving digital world

London co-host of the Global Legal Hackathon — Agile Elephant — shares insights on legal tech developments in London and how their work helps firms ‘make sense of digital’

On February 23, Agile Elephant, Cambridge Strategy Group, and Pinsent Masons will host a legal hackathon in London, as part of the inaugural Global Legal Hackathon. They join nearly 40 cities around the globe hosting Global Legal Hackathon events, making it the largest legal hackathon in history.

With a burgeoning legal tech community, London is well positioned to host a hackathon. In fact, Robert Millard is the founder of Cambridge Strategy Group and co-chair of the International Bar Association’s Law Firm Management Committee, which recently held a conference on “Building the Law Firm of the Future.” The thread that ran through each session was that digital phenomena are radically transforming the business of law, and firms must determine how to adapt and stay agile in an ever-evolving environment.

That’s where an agency like Agile Elephant comes in. They help firms make sense — and use — of the digital world, transforming them into more innovative and more efficient businesses. We spoke to Agile Elephant’s co-founder, David Terrar, about the state of legal tech in London, the upcoming Global Legal Hackathon event, and how firms can use a fast-changing digital world to their advantage. (For updates, you can follow David on Twitter.)

Can you tell me a little bit about Agile Elephant and how you help law firms and legal entrepreneurs achieve their tech objectives?

Agile Elephant is a consultancy and solutions provider helping firms make sense of digital to set a strategy for transformation in today’s volatile business landscape. We see digital disruption as the elephant in the room. People look at it in fragmented ways from different viewpoints and skill sets, but grasping the whole is complex. We work with clients to help them see the whole and find practical solutions that work. I’m one of the company’s three founders who work as a team to share the C level jobs.

What legal tech development are you most excited about seeing firms implement?

Blockchain technology is the most hyped, and may be the least understood. Artificial Intelligence in all its various forms is the most exciting, though. We see that as a game changer, not because of the speed and efficiencies it can bring in automating repetitive and resource intensive tasks, but by analysing data to surface new answers and real value in new areas of the law.

Why did Agile Elephant decide to get involved with the Global Legal Hackathon?

London is often the epicentre of business here in the UK, so it made sense to help make it happen here. We partnered with Cambridge Strategy Group, a specialist legal strategy firm. It was too good an opportunity to miss in joining with them, Pinsent Masons and companies like IBM in collaborating on the future shape of the law, both for business and the public.

Why do you and your partners — Cambridge Strategy Group and Pinsent Masons — make a great team to host a legal hackathon?

Agile Elephant have a long history in business strategy, technology solutions, digital and social tools, and we’ve been involved with running hackathons before. Cambridge Strategy Group have in depth experience and a long history in advising law firms on strategy, structure, systems and what’s next. Pinsent Masons guide a diverse range of multi-national clients through transformational change, and are at the forefront of the law in the heart of the City of London. As a combined team, we cover all of the disciplines and ingredients required to help the teams build on their ideas to make a successful proposal.

Is there a particular issue you’d like to see addressed at the upcoming legal hackathon?

With security and data protection as such hot topics, I’m particularly interested in helping small companies and individuals have better, more affordable access to the law to protect themselves, but there is so much potential I’m just fascinated to see how this develops.

What’s on the horizon for Agile Elephant?

We’ve got some very exciting work we are doing around the maturity of collaboration solutions, how to improve employee engagement and more effective team working, but with the rate of change of new technologies, we expect 2018 to be a very exciting year.

The London location of the Global Legal Hackathon will take place February 23–25, 2018 / Pinsent Masons London Office. You can learn more about the Global Legal Hackathon in London — or register for the event — here: https://www.legalhackathon.london/.

For more information about Agile Elephant, check out their website — http://www.theagileelephant.com — and take a look at their manifesto!

For other participating cities, please visit https://globallegalhackathon.com/register/.