Law Technology Today From the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center
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The Legal Technology Resource Center’s Women of Legal Tech initiative is intended to encourage diversity and celebrate women in legal technology. This initiative launched in 2015 with a list of innovators and leaders in legal technology and with this year’s additions, that list now includes 141 talented and influential women leaders.
Every Monday and Wednesday, we have featured a woman from our class of 2022. Today we have Olga V. Mack!
Olga V. Mack is VP / CEO of Parley Pro at LexisNexis.
Three points to summarize you and your work in legal tech.
- I am an award-winning general counsel, operations professional, startup advisor, public speaker, adjunct professor, and entrepreneur.
- I co-founded SunLaw, an organization dedicated to preparing women in-house attorneys to become general counsels and legal leaders, and WISE to help female law firm partners become rainmakers.
- I am passionate about disruptive technologies such as AI/ML, blockchain.
How did you become involved in legal tech?
I worked my way through law school while working at LexisNexis. From the beginning, I could see a time when technology companies like LexisNexis would help replace many of the outdated manual processes in law and make it more efficient, inclusive, and delightful. It was then that I found disruptive technologies such as blockchain and AI/ML fascinating and wanted to be a part of the change.
What projects have you been focused on recently?
I am an outspoken advocate for professional women. I founded the “Women Serve on Boards” movement that advocates for women to serve on corporate boards. I successfully persuaded over a dozen Fortune 500 companies to recruit their first woman director. I advocated, testified, and mobilized for the passage of California SB 826, which required public companies to recruit women directors. This California legislation started the sea of changes and conversations in the United States about the diversity and inclusion on corporate boards.
What do you see as the biggest challenge in legal tech today?
Adoption.
Has the pandemic changed anything about the way you, your firm, or your organization does business? Has the changes that have resulted from the pandemic improved or altered your work or how you do it?
The pandemic helped speed the adoption of a number of technologies. The legal profession is emerging even stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive than before by embracing technology.
What legal tech resource helped you the most in your legal tech career?
ACC and its publication ACC Docket, Above the Law, and CLOC are some of my favorite resources that helped me the most in my legal tech career. These are the places where I regularly contribute and have relevant conversations. They have supported me every step of the way.
What do you see as the most important emerging tech, legal or not, right now?
Beyond AI/ML, just helping business and legal professionals understand what they have and what they can do today to make their future better, easier, and more enjoyable is what we’re working on with our Parley Pro/LexisNexis partnership. With a cohesive CLM and ELM experience, delivering valuable insights directly into in-house attorneys’ contracting workflow will significantly reduce the risk to organizations. Finally, the burdens on legal departments will be dramatically reduced by enabling them to draft better contracts faster, and manage them more thoroughly through the life cycle.
What do you see for the future of legal tech?
I am a firm believer that the legal profession will emerge even stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive than before by embracing technology.
What advice would you give to other women who want to get involved in legal tech?
Build. Build more. When in doubt, never stop building. If you don’t like what you see around you, then actively build a better version. The future belongs to builders. Always.
Give a shout-out to another woman in legal tech who you admire or have learned something from!
Oh, it is is a very long list: Marlene Gebauer, Connie Brenton, Julie Q. Brush, Flo Nicolas, Jacqueline Schafer, Erin Levine, Alice Armitage, Maya Markovich, Catherine Krow, Wei Chen, and many, many more!