From lawyer to legal technologist

Some day soon, it may be common to encounterlegal technologists, or legal engineers, or other legal innovators who haveworked in such a role since day one of their professional careers. Todayhowever, all of us are converts in one way or another. I’m no different in thatrespect, albeit my career path did startwith legal technology, before taking a lengthy detour!

I initially studied Computer Science atStrathclyde University, starting out in 2001. At that time (but sadly nolonger) the University offered a BSc Honours course in ‘Computer Science withLaw’, which mixed some LLB classes with the core curriculum of a ComputerScience degree. At that time the hot topics in technology law were issues likewhether software is really a ‘contract for goods’ or a ‘contract for service’(there was not yet any such thing as SaaS!), and whether something as crazy asmobile-only banking could ever get off the ground. ‘Innovation’ at that timemeant giving your lawyers Blackberries, and maybesome basic implementation of Hot Docs.

After graduating, I studied the LLB as agraduate entrant (also at Strathclyde), then the Scottish Diploma in LegalPractice (equivalent to the LPC). I had decided that a career in law was forme, and whilst I hoped my computer science background might come in handysomeday, there wasn’t yet a clear place for that skillset. I completed mytraineeship with Pinsent Masons, qualifying in 2009. As anyone who was inpractice in 2009 can attest to, that was a bad year to be looking for yourfirst qualified position! Opportunities were so thin on the ground that Idecided to leave the profession, at least temporarily. I had greatly enjoyed a traineeseat in construction law, so I decided to look to the construction sector formy new career.

In spring of 2010 I went to work as a bidwriter for GAP Group, the UK’s largest independent construction equipmentrental company. From there, I moved up to become the leader of their bids team,and then retrained as a project manager. In 2013/14 I was seconded to the CommonwealthGames, to manage the various supply contracts that GAP had won, including suchenviable tasks as delivering and installing around 30km of crowd controlbarriers! On secondment I met a former classmate from Strathclyde. He hadmanaged to stay in private practice, and had himself been seconded to the Gamesas part of their legal team. After the Games were over, I decided that now wasthe time to come back to a career in legal services. It had been a slightlylonger absence than expected, but there were certainly more opportunities in2014 than there had been in 2009!

I applied for an NQ position at Scottishlaw firm Burness Paull, as part of their construction team. This was a good fitfor me, having spent those preceding years in the construction industry. It waschallenging to re-learn some of the legal skills which had become rusty sincemy traineeship, but with a supportive team and a well structured training plan Ifound it was manageable. I also found that having had professional training inproject management was a real bonus, and today this is something I recommend toany trainee who will listen!

My eventual return to technology came in2015, when Burness Paull created their first Legal Technologist position. Ijumped at the chance to finally make use of my technical background, and so Iswitched from my conventional fee-earning role to the newly created positiontowards the end of that year.

Over time, my role has become just asinterested in people and ways of working as it is about legal tech, and so in2018 my role was re-worked and I became the firm’s first Innovation Manager. Inthis current role, I have overall responsibility for implementing the firm’sinnovation agenda, and for scoping, running and assessing all legal technologyprojects.

In my day-to-day work I’m fortunate enoughto use almost all of the skills and experiences I’ve picked up along the way;technical knowledge and skills as a computer scientist, project managementskills to keep all my various projects moving along, fee earning experience tounderstand how my colleagues work, and commercial skills from my time inindustry. The one career skill I haven’t yet found a use for is my forklifttruck licence – one day though, you never know!

My career path is certainly not what you’d call ‘typical’, but then again I don’t think there is such a thing as a ‘typical’ legal technologist. Almost all of us come from some other earlier profession, and I think this melting pot of skills and experiences is part of what makes the legal technology scene so exciting today.

by Sam Moore – Innovation Manager at Burness Paull LLP