LawFest OnDemand
See 70+ awesome speakers deliver practical insights of how to innovate and leverage technology to help you deliver legal services for today and the future.
70+
Speakers
25+
CPD Hours
Callum McKirdy, Author and Facilitator, Callummckirdy.com
Lawyers are a special breed – hard working, analytical and studious. We also know the legal profession is one of the least healthy – high stakes, high expectations and high stress. One of the greatest pressures is the need to fit in, which is proven to stifle innovation. In this keynote we’ll look at how we can build a team culture that harnesses what comes naturally – making the best use of where team members differ, rather than simply trying to be the same.
Carl White, Director of NewLaw, PwC
We all know what fantastic service looks, sounds and feels like – and we want more of it. Your clients do too. They’ll make decisions about whether to engage, retain and recommend your firm based on their legal experience and perception of value. Client Experience (“CX”) has become a much-used term in the legal sector. Realising the full potential of innovating CX to meet and exceed expectations and “wow” your clients is the focus of this engaging presentation from the recognised leader of CX in law, Carl White.
Jon Calder, CEO, Tompkins Wake
Jon will share his journey from baggage loader to Chief Executive, his leadership story, and how a people-first, values-driven culture has enabled Tompkins Wake’s success and positioned the firm to adapt and succeed in 2023 and beyond.
Verity White, Legal Director, Checklist Legal
Are you tired of the same old legal practices? You might be ready for law plus more.
Discover a whirlwind of possibilities as we explore the motley crew of rebel lawyers who are breaking away from the stale approaches of the past to create better solutions for clients and a more valuable legal career. Gain valuable tools and tips on how to incorporate social and environmental considerations (as well as fun and passion!) into your lawyering, while also delivering top-notch legal services to clients.
Be inspired to rebel and get results!
Ben Paul, Founder & Director, The BD Ladder
Panellists:
Jacque Lethbridge, Partner, Martelli McKegg
Janey Haringa, Principal, JH Law
Nick Abrahams, Global Leader Digital Transformation Practice, Norton Rose Fulbright
Ben McLaren, COO, Russell McVeagh
The way legal services are delivered has been in a constant state of evolution, as law firms look to disrupt the traditional model to achieve competitive advantage and adapt to the rapidly changing environment. In this session, leading legal innovators talk about how they are working differently, sharing their bold, creative and exciting strategies that set them apart.
Matt Farrington, Legal Technologist, Juno Legal
What do lawyers need to know before the AI hype train leaves the station with their clients on board?
We have all heard how AI might change the practice of law and the delivery of legal services. But AI also has the potential to profoundly change how we contract for technology.
In this highly practical session, Matt provides a step-by-step guide for law firms on buying the right AI tools for use in your organisation.
Melissa Lyon, Executive Director, Hive Legal
The Mega Design Sprint is a not to be missed, hands-on opportunity to collaborate with all stakeholders involved in legal service delivery from law firms and in-house lawyers, and everyone in between – to address the things that hold us back.
Switch on your creativity, power up your brain and discover the joy of innovating together to design practical solutions to the most challenging of problems.
LawFest OnDemand
See 70+ awesome speakers deliver practical insights of how to innovate and leverage technology to help you deliver legal services for today and the future.
70+
Speakers
25+
CPD Hours
Mark A. Cohen, CEO Legal Mosaic & Executive Chairman of the Digital Legal Exchange
“New law” is a catchall industry term popularized in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. It is often linked to “legal tech,” “legal ops,” “ALSP’s,” and “legal innovation.” Each is usually considered discretely, not as part of a larger change process. That begs the question: Has new law produced changes that positively impact customers and society? Short answer: not much. So what is New Law? This talk will examine its key elements and how legal professionals can prepare for it.
Frances Valintine CNZM, Founder, Tech Futures Lab
Juliet Tainui-Hernandez, Assistant Governor & General Manager of Transformation and People, Te Putea Matua, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand
After two decades building her legal career internationally, Juliet Tainui Hernandez returned to Aotearoa to take up a pivotal role leading transformation, people and culture at Te Pūtea Matua (The Reserve Bank), while also serving as a non-executive director on the Board of Ngāi Tahu Holdings. In this inspiring session, she talks about her career journey, contributing to her iwi, and using Te Ao Māori to support financial and economic inclusion.
Marlo Osborne-Smith, Director, NewLaw – PwC
Eric Chin, Director, NewLaw – PwC
Sara Rayment, Principal, Inkling Design
Susan Bennett, Founder & Executive Director, InfoGovANZ
Panelists:
Sarah Auva’a, Lead Digital Trust Partner, Spark New Zealand
Emma Maconick, Head of Data and Technology, EY Law
Clive Elliott KC, Barrister & Arbitrator, Shortland Chambers
Ben Paul, Founder & Director, The BD Ladder
Panelists:
Suzie Sneddon, Founder & Director, Base Law
Sean Bishop, Chief Digital Officer, Chapman Tripp
Gemma Wragg, Chief Executive Officer, Tavendale and Partners
Laura Scampion, Managing Partner, DLA Piper
LawFest OnDemand
See 70+ awesome speakers deliver practical insights of how to innovate and leverage technology to help you deliver legal services for today and the future.
70+
Speakers
25+
CPD Hours
See 50+ awesome speakers deliver practical insights of how to innovate and leverage technology to help you deliver legal services for today and the future.
Mary O’Carroll, Director of Legal Operations at Google, President of CLOC
Today’s legal department leaders are charged with creating a legal service delivery strategy for their organisations that not only provides top-quality, timely legal services, but does so in a way that maximises value. To achieve this, leaders have a dizzying array of options to choose from as a result of globalisation, disaggregation of legal services, new market entrants, new technology capabilities, and of course, the rise of Legal Operations. In this opening session, we’ll explore some of the changes taking place, how it’s affecting the in-house world and their clients, the impact for law firms and what it means for our future.
Erin Ebborn, Director & Principal Lawyer, Portia
Panellists:
Emma Priest, Specialist Criminal Barrister, Blackstone Chambers
Hayley Cassidy, Chief General Counsel, Bank of New Zealand
Hayden Wilson, Chair & Partner, Dentons Kensington Swan
Louise Taylor, Special Counsel, Russell McVeagh
Sara Cole Stratton, Advisor, Tech Futures Lab
Taurean Butler, Director of Corporate Innovation, Tech Futures Lab
Innovation isn’t only the giant disruptions you read about in newspapers: neuralinks, robotics, or automated vehicles. Often innovation starts with a single agitator creating a niche in a small market. Netflix went from mail-order DVD’s to a streaming giant. Amazon went from online books to revolutionizing e-commerce. But this talk isn’t about technology businesses, it’s about harnessing people and technology. We’ll explore how engaging with new technologies offers us all the opportunity to become agitators, to innovate ourselves, and define our potential in the evolving digital economy.
Gene Turner, Managing Director, LawHawk
Panellists:
Tila Hoffman, Special Counsel & Business Transformation Manager, MinterEllisonRuddWatts
Lindie Walsh, Consultant, Efficient Practice
Sam Kidd, CEO, LawVu
This panel of legal+tech experts will provide practical insights on how to successfully leverage technology to transform your business processes and practices. Using real examples, they will discuss both the opportunities and the challenges to changing the way you deliver legal services, sharing what they have done, the ‘hits’ and ‘misses’ along the way, what they are doing now, and what comes next.
Sarah Peterson, iCourts
Jessica Kwon, iCourts
No matter the size of your practice or the size of your technology stack; a new generation of tech and delivery models is altering the eDiscovery landscape permanently. Learn how in this not to miss session.
Jeremy Sutton, Senior Family Lawyer, Bastion Chambers
In this highly practical session, Jeremy will explain how he utilises technology to make work less repetitive for lawyers and more user friendly for clients and canvas the various ways he has achieved success by stripping things back to basics. He’ll highlight some of the most useful tech tools he uses and explain how to use them effectively. Discover how adopting Jeremy’s ‘simple is best’ philosophy will help you streamline your work and your practice, while maintaining (or even improving) the quality of work. You’ll also learn how to identify areas that need improvement and practical strategies to implement change.
Jarrod Coburn, CEO, Portia
It’s been 15 years since the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act introduced the 21st Century to the profession of law. Is it time for a change? Get a sneak preview of the Law Practitioners Act 2025 – a full four years before it is even written – and see what the future might hold for law in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Helen Mackay, Director, Juno Legal
Panellists:
Julian Benefield, Associate General Counsel, Foodstuffs
Rebecca Robertshawe, Director, EIS Legal at Education Infrastructure Service
Melissa Anastasiou, General Counsel, Spark New Zealand
Three leading in-house lawyers share their personal innovation war stories, outlining the key strategies, tactics and tools they have adopted to drive change in their departments and organisations. Discover what worked (and what didn’t) plus the challenges they overcame along the way. You are guaranteed to find something you can take away and implement in your own team!. The session concludes with a Q & A with each speaker, led by Helen Mackay.
Grant Pritchard, Senior In-House Lawyer, Spark New Zealand | President, ILANZ
The pandemic reinforced the importance of workplace mental health. Grant will share his experience in this critical field offering practical ideas and strategies to improve wellbeing for individual lawyers, teams and firms, including the Umbrella model and the role of technology in supporting better mental health. This session will provide learning, interaction and structured reflection time in a safe supportive format.
Nick Whitehouse, General Manager, Onit AI Center of Excellence
In this dynamic talk, Nick will discuss the journey from idea to successful LegalTech exit, what he learnt from four years of deep R&D and experimentation with some of the largest players in the LegalTech world, all while pulling back the curtain on the threats, the hype, and the practical things you can do to get ahead.
Gus Balbontin, Entrepreneur
In his compelling keynote session, Gus shares the simple yet powerful lessons he has gleaned from two decades of market disruption in Media. The scale of transformative change that newspapers, books, magazines, TV, music have experienced since the late 90s had not been seen since the industrial revolution. Today, every industry and every business irrespective of size, is going through a similar level of disruption. Gus will candidly bare his battlescars, and share the tricks and tools you need to transform yourself and your business.
Erin Ebborn, Director & Principal Lawyer, Portia
Panellists:
Nick Whitehouse, General Manager, Onit AI Center of Excellence
Maria Sopoaga, Solicitor, Auckland Council
Jarrod Coburn, CEO, Portia
Helen Mackay, Director, Juno Legal
As the finale of an action-packed day of practical insights from legal thought leaders, technologists and innovators, we look ahead to envision the future of law. The panel will discuss what the future holds for the profession and the delivery of legal services. They will explore what is possible with new opportunities to innovate through people, process and technology, both for today and the future. The discussion will inspire you to apply new thinking to your role and organisation, to help you adapt and thrive in a continuously changing market.
LawFest OnDemand
See 70+ awesome speakers deliver practical insights of how to innovate and leverage technology to help you deliver legal services for today and the future.
70+
Speakers
25+
CPD Hours
See 50+ awesome speakers deliver practical insights of how to innovate and leverage technology to help you deliver legal services for today and the future.
Dan Hauck, Chief Product Officer, NetDocuments
Caryn Sandler, Partner & Chief Knowledge and Innovation Officer, Gilbert + Tobin
Mike Heron, QC
Moderated by:
Warrick McLean, CEO & Principal, Coleman Greig Lawyers
Panelist: Hon Andrew Little, Minister of Justice & Minister for Courts | Helen Mackay, Director, Juno Legal | Erin Ebborn, Director & Principal Lawyer, Portia | Maria Sopoaga, Solicitor, Auckland Council
Greg Dickason, Managing Director, LexisNexis Pacific
Jeff Herbert, Director of Cyber Resilience, Cybercraft
In this session, Jeff will discuss the need for law firms to develop a cyber risk management programme and the practical challenges that firms face with information security in the changing post-C19 digital world.
Jeff is fractional Chief Information Security Officer for two of New Zealand’s leading law firms.
Russell Smith, CEO, APLYiD
- Why are more firms starting to use remote verification methods?
- Is it safe to email personal documents?
- What sort of experience will your clients appreciate, and how will this attract them to your firm over others?
David Hepburn, President, Actionstep
Process-driven, data-driven firms and self-sufficient lawyers are the future. How do firms turn the lessons they have learned from COVID-19 into a competitive advantage? Join David Hepburn as he explores 3 important topics in law firms today
Helen Mackay, Director, Juno Legal
Panelist: Andrew King, Director, Legal Innovate Group
LawFest OnDemand
Watch every presentation, session and demonstration from past LawFest events
70+
Speakers
25+
CPD Hours
Presented by:
Sir Ray Avery, Founder & CEO, Medicine Mondiale
Presented by:
Mark Pascall, Co-founder, BlockchainLabs.NZ
- What is the blockchain and smart contracts?
- Why should lawyers care?
- What does the law firm of the future look like?
Julian Uebergang, Managing Director (Asia Pacific), Neota Logic
Jean Yang, Legaltech Counsel / Legal Services Manager, McCarthyFinch
Mai Chen, Managing Partner, Chen Palmer
- How is law different to other services, and how is it the same?
- Implications for specialisation, and a more holistic definition of what it means to add value as a lawyer.
- Implications for law students and fresh law graduates.
Craig Columbus, CIO, Russell McVeagh
Liz Scott-Wilson, Director NZ, Metataxis NZ
Moderated by:
Warrick McLean, Chief Executive Officer, Coleman Greig
Panelist: Stephen Mullins, General Manager, New Zealand Lexvoco | Lloyd Gallagher, Partner, Gallagher & CO Consultants | Caroline Ferguson, Business Transformation Manager, Simpson Grierson | Terri Mottershead, Director, Centre for Legal Innovation
Adjudicated by:
Judge David Harvey, Director, NZ Centre for ICT Law
Moot: “That technology has rendered law degrees obsolete”
Negating Team: Graham Kohler QC (lead) + Callum Lo (University of Auckland)
Affirmative Team: Marcelo Rodriguez Ferrere (lead) + Phoebe Clifford (University of Otago)
Students from Auckland and Otago University with senior Counsel to debate some meaty issues around technology and law in an entertaining and palatable manner.