iNtaka Centre's LawTechLab, in celebration of Women’s Month, will be host to some of the most prominent movers and shakers in the legal tech industry. The event will seek to broaden the minds of students and other attendees on legal technology, industry change and positioning yourself as “tomorrow's lawyer”.
The event is also a celebration of these women and their accomplishments in an industry dominated by their male counterparts. According to iNtaka Centre for Law & Technology's project manager Tayla Pinto, "These women have through grit, determination and perseverance, risen to the top and stand testament both to how far we need to go and how far we have come." Within this context, the event is highly beneficial to female lawyers but every single attendee will benefit from the passion and drive they have shown over the course of their careers.
Our first speaker, Ms Leah Molatseli, kicked off the event on the 4th of August. Ms Molatseli is a lawyer, published legal tech author and innovation specialist and currently the head of business development at legal interact. She is a University of Notre Dame alumni, Mandela Washington Fellow and guest lecturer at the University of Cape Town where she focuses on legal tech and innovation-related courses to the broader legal industry. Some of the key take-aways from Leah's talk was to always share your journey, don't be scared to fail and to advocate and bet on yourself.
On the 11th August at 13:00, the LawTech Lab hosted Catherine Paulse, an admitted attorney with experience at two of the top 5 law firms in South Africa. Her passion for entrepreneurship, tech and law led her to co-found BriefCo, which is a venture capital backed legal tech company based in Cape Town. She is also the co-founder of the South African Legal Technology (SALT) Network. Catherine can best be described as a determined and innovative woman who bet on herself and her team, which led her to reach the heights she has. She enjoys reading and advocates (to put it mildly) for building your network and joining the SALT Network.
On the 18th of August at 13:00, Sinal Govender took centre stage. She has been recognised as one of the Mail & Guardians Top 200 Young South Africans in the Justice and Law category, as well as one of the Top 50 South African Women Working in STEM. Her start-up, Pop.law, was accelerated by the Hague Institute for Innovation of Law and recognised by Yale Startup Review as one of Africa’s Top 30 most innovative start-ups and selected for the UCT Graduate School of Business’ E-Track Program. Sinal notes that due to unparalleled access to information, there exists a space for everyone.
Celia Pienaar capped off this event on Thursday, 25th August. Like the other speakers, her achievements cannot all be listed. But her significant contributions include >15 years experience in legal project management, process improvement and legal technology and innovation. She spearheaded Webber Wentzel’s implementation of AI in legal service delivery and her key contributions to Bowmans include document automation, productization of legal services, workflow automation, creating bespoke digital dexterity course and improving client collaboration. Celia finds delight in leading projects to better the delivery of legal services and advocates for taking risks in your careers. Celia notes that one of the best things for lawyers, and indeed anyone, to do is to craft your CV into the field you would like to go and establish your niche.
Join us, as we learn, engage and collaborate to revolutionise law, legal tech and the industry itself. As Leah so aptly captures it, “To change a space, you need to share your journey. Once you share your journey, people become invested.”
See you all there on level 3 by the yellow wall :)
Watch the space for more blog posts.
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