Law Technology Today From the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center
Amy Wan, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Sagewise. Find her on Twitter @amyywan.
How did you become involved in legal tech?
When I was leaving public service with the federal government, I wanted to look for opportunities to approach the legal industry is a more efficient and effective way than what I’d seen while working in law firms. I attended a Legal Hackers meetup in DC, at the Future Law conference hosted by Stanford Codex, and shortly thereafter, started blogging on legal startups and started the LA Legal Hackers meetup chapter.
What projects have you been focused on recently?
I’m currently working on Sagewise, a safety net for smart contracts. Smart contracts often are not smart, and sometimes are not even contracts—they have coding errors, security vulnerabilities, and folks genuinely will need to amend, terminate, or dispute their smart contracts. We’re creating the toolkit smart contract users need to achieve their true contractual intent and to transact on blockchain with confidence and certainty vis-a-vis several tools, including a dispute resolution marketplace.
Is there a legal tech resource of any kind that you find yourself returning to or that was particularly formative for you?
Our team of advisors has been phenomenal—Dr. Gillian Hadfield, who is an expert on legal design and legal infrastructure; Colin Rule, an expert in online dispute resolution; Terrence Yang, legal tech and crypto investor.
What technology do you think lawyers could look at in a different way that would benefit society?
I can’t think of one particular tool—there’s already so much technology out there, I just don’t think many attorneys know about or are using it.
What advice would you give to other women who want to get involved in legal tech?
Dive in. No one needs to give you permission. Just put yourself out there and get involved!
Give a shout-out to another woman in legal tech who you admire or have learned something from!
I mentioned her earlier, but Dr. Gillian Hadfield is brilliant!
