By Pablo Yannone Sancho, Journalist at GLTH
We are inaugurating the Behind Legaltech space at GLTH! We have been several months getting to know all of our Advisors better: what do they do? What do they watch? What do they think? Today, we will start answering these questions with a very interesting Legal Advisor, Jon Bartman, who belongs to the Innovation Area of our Advisory and is the Co-founder of The Law Tech Consultancy. Let's start!
Jon Bartman has always “wanted to do something in sports.” He loves football, rugby, golf and, in general, any sport. When he got a little older, he realized that he probably wasn't good enough for that. “So I'd like to be a sports agent,” he declares.
Now, he is the founder of The Law Tech Consultancy, where he works with a huge number of the top 200 law firms in the UK, as well as 200 Amlaw’s firms.
According to Jon, his success in the legal and technology world stems from a very “round way.” He had been “in and around the legal world for the last 10 years and in and around legal technology for the last 6 years.”
Then he noticed that lawyers had “a very difficult job” consisting of good business skills, good sales skills, and a good understanding of technology. So one year ago, he decided to dedicate his life to helping law firms in terms of consultancy and technology.
Get to know Jon Better
Jon might not have become the sportsperson he wanted to be when he was a child, but he has the attitude, as his everyday mantra is the next one: “I can get hit, it's how many times you get up and what you do when you get up.” A powerful thought that also aligns with one of his favorite philosophers’ point of view: Friedrich Nietzsche.
This German thinker’s famous quote, “He who has a reason to live can bear almost any how,” invokes in Jon the power of positive thoughts and resilience.
If Jon could talk to his younger self, he would tell him that “everything has a purpose and everything has a reason. He works hard and understands that there are always curves on the road.”
Apart from Nietzsche, we cannot ignore, also, the influence of The Sopranos and other TV Series in Jon’s life.
“I don't know, you can still watch The Sopranos again, and again, and again, and it's layered.” So are the comedies, such as the original version of The Office, with Ricky Gervais. “The UK version, not the American version,” he highlights.
Jon is very clear that he would prefer to travel back in time than travel to the future. “I think having the knowledge that you have now makes you so valuable in the past. Obviously, there's so much innovation happening in our lives, the future is going to look completely different, while the past is going to look the same, and you can impart wisdom that's going to make a difference.”
Of course, Jon expresses this concern as a person who dedicates his life to legal innovation, which, in his opinion, is still “behind the curve.”
“Nothing is a straight path within legal technology”
To Jon, legaltech “is anything that makes lawyers' lives easier.” It helps to shorten the time “to review a contract, to choose a contract, to look at a piece of evidence, to execute a litigation case, whatever it is within that legal process, etc.”
“It is always going to be the same, dealing with documentation,” he assures. The differences take root in the processes, where innovation is crucial. And where technology is inherent, as “it changes the processes.”
Although there are many tools that Jon highlights, such as AI and CLM, he thinks that innovation within the legal world is still “behind the curve.” “Procurement teams and sales teams, for instance, have embraced technology in a much bigger way than legal teams,” he says.
Jon dedicates his everyday work to law firms, consulting on their technologies and creating, for instance, AI solutions. “You don't have to buy off the table,” says Jon. “There are cheaper ways to create something yourself, using the right technology and the right people.”
Jon also works with startups, helping them to turn from “acorns” to “unicorns.” For him, startups have to understand that “a law firm or an in-house team are going to have a lot to do with product development,” as “nothing is a straight path within legal technology.”
Of course, Jon clarifies that “innovation does not necessarily mean creating something new: there is a piece of legal technology that we have used for 10 years. How can I do it a little better?”
To Jon, AI is an example of technology which is 100% necessary “in terms of profitability and in terms of being able to take on work that they possibly couldn't have taken.”
Stepping back, using AI Gen is very innovative, but the way we use it has to be innovative too. “You can have a PDF that now has a generative AI box built in, so that when I'm editing content I can ask questions. That's really super innovative and really cool.”
Legal technologies keep getting easier
Legal innovation can still be behind the curve, but legaltech solutions keep growing. As a court for the Legal Tech Foundation which runs the Miami Summit every year, Jon assures that legal tech is taking big steps in recent years. “Even in the last 12 months,” he points out.
In this Foundation, they have to select four legal tech startups among three hundred or more. “You see enormous amounts of innovation. And the evolution from two years ago to this year is spectacular,” Jon claims.
Thanks to this fact, Jon believes that technology is getting easier for others to use, such as judges. “It doesn't matter where you are from,” he says. “A Spanish lawyer and a lawyer from the United Kingdom have to sign a contract. It doesn't matter where the technology comes from, you just have to make sure it's in the right place.”
Jon underlines that global fact and he encourages others to join the Advisory Board of the GLTH. “It's a great place to meet people on the border. If you look at the list of lawyers, there are some incredible names of people who are exceptional thought leaders within legal technology.”
He does not only encourage you to join our community but to him as well. “I'd like to talk to anyone who is a little scared or looking for the next innovation within legal technology. I would like to talk to you. My door is always open.”
Co-founder, The Law Tech Consultancy
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