Hello everyone!
This is the first of my ‘Monthly Musings’. The purpose of writing my ‘Monthly Musings’ is to share a behind the scenes look into the Australian Legal Technology and Progressive Law industries.
As CEO and co-founder of a female-founded Australian legal tech company, Legally Yours, the Committee Chair of the Women of Australian Legal Technology Association (WALTA), a Board Member of the Australian Legal Technology Association (ALTA), and the Legal Tech Editor for Idea Spies (a positive, global ideas sharing platform), I am very lucky to have an insider’s view of the most incredible and innovative legal technology companies and progressive law firms both here in Australia, and around the world.
In my ‘Monthly Musing’ I may focus on industry insights or trends, or even share my views on a hot topic of that month.
So to kick this series off, I would like to share an excerpt of my opening speech at last week’s WALTA launchevent. Whilst it was lovely to celebrate with so many of my fellow WALTA and ALTA members on the night, the purpose of the launch was to unveil our newly created ‘WALTA Charter’ (which outlines our purpose, mission and values) and to outline our ‘calls to action’ which we believe will create greater funding opportunities for women in legal technology, assist with making female legal tech founders more visible, and most importantly, amplify female voices to be heard both in the legal industry and the broader legal tech community.
Here I’ve included an outline of the WALTA launch what happened on the night.
The Women of Australian Legal Technology Association Launch was held on the 28th April 2022 at Collins Square in Melbourne. Attended by over 100 guests in-person, with supporters also tuning in virtually to celebrate online, the launch featured speeches from WALTA Committee Chair and CEO of Legally Yours, Karen Finch, and WALTA Subcommittee Members, Jodie Baker (Xakia Technologies), Lisa Dowie (PEXA), and Amanda Fajerman (Barhead).
The highlight of the launch was the keynote speech from PEXA’s CTO, Eglantine Etiemble, who highlighted the unconscious and conscious bias she had experienced as a woman in technology and her spirited call to action of all who were at the Launch to #breakthebias and support the WALTA movement.
This is an excerpt from my opening speech -
Whilst WALTA has been around in an informal capacity for a few years now, Jodie’s keynote speech at ALTACON 21 releasing the findings of our ‘Diversity in Legal Tech’ report, really sparked a movement that has gathered huge momentum over the last 9 months.
With the support of the ALTA Board and of our annual partner, PEXA, this momentum has now actualised into this launch this evening and to the unveiling of our new WALTA charter, which I will share will you now tonight!
The WALTA Purpose is to empower and inspire women in legal technology through a collective spirit of collegiality, collaboration and community.
WALTA upholds this purpose with a set of underlying core values which guide each and every decision we make as a community.
Our values are -
To be visionary, to inspire and be inspired
To be inclusive, we see you, we hear you, we stand by you
To be diverse, diversity of thought and diversity of people
To be brave, be bold, and to break the mould
To be authentic and provide a safe place to support our members through hardship but also to celebrate their successes
To create real action-oriented outcomes
And finally, to create a legacy that paves the path for the women in legal technology of tomorrow.
Whilst tonight is all about celebration, we do have a serious challenge for all of you here.
In our 2021 Diversity in Legal Tech (which you can download here), we reached out to law firm leaders, General Counsels and Venture Capitalist for their views on female representation in Australia’s legal tech market. Their comments hit hard!
One remarked - 'I have seen precisely 2 women in leading/exec roles in the Legaltech market’ and another commented ‘I struggle to name three female founders in legal tech’.
So could all the WALTA members who are here tonight please raise their hand and identify themselves!
Everyone take note - remember our faces, make a point to chat to us this evening and reach out to us tomorrow, to understand our legal tech solutions, and really support us to be more visible, access better funding options, and have our voices be heard!
If you would like to join WALTA or support/sponsor one of our WALTA project initiatives, please head to www.alta.law/walta/ to learn more.
And if you would like to support an Australian female founded legal tech company that is also Australia’s leading progressive law community, Legally Yours, please head to www.legallyyours.com.au/become-a-member to join us today.
Stay tuned for my next ‘Monthly Musings’ article, to be published on the first Friday of every month.