The Biggest Challenges

Dentons is at the forefront when it comes to innovation in its drive to “build the law firm of the future”. But are the legal tech tools really used by in-house corporate legal departments? If not, what are the biggest obstacles and how can the processes be improved?

Dr. Rainer Markfort is Global Director Client Solutions Innovation at Dentons. He has been working as a Partner in the area of Corporate and Compliance law for many years and believes that collaboration is crucial when it comes to the development of client facing solutions:

“It isn’t about renting a fancy co-working space, isolating young lawyers and developers from the rest of the law firm.”, he says. “Instead, we really need to involve the experienced lawyers – those who really know the clients. This is how lawyers can smoothly transition from working with the ‘traditional model’ to the ‘new model’”, Rainer states.

Dr. Alexander Steinbrecher sees the issue from the other perspective, as an in-house counsel for Alstom. As co-founder of the “Roundtable Innovation & Legal Tech”, Dr. Steinbrecher has been involved in innovating and digitizing inhouse legal departments for several years. As a speaker and author in this area, he is primarily concerned with making legal departments more efficient and, technologically-enhanced adding value with the help of creative and innovative approaches.

“I don’t see that law firms are willing to self-disrupt the way they offer their products and services to clients and ultimately, to become more technologically-advanced and client-centric.” – Alexander comments.

Dentons’ Dr. Maria Brakalova is a Partner in the areas of Foreign Trade Law and Public Procurement Law and she is member of Dentons’ Competition, Antitrust and Regulatory Practice. She has been involved in the development of Dentons’ Global FDI Tracker, a comparative tool that provides an overview of regulations on foreign direct investments in various jurisdictions. Maria hosts this interesting discussion between Dr. Rainer Markfort and Dr. Alexander Steinbrecher, which will discuss how the development of legal tech tools can be improved and will throw light on the future of legal tech, illuminating both the law firm as well as the in-house perspective:

• What are the biggest challenges to innovation in the legal sector?
• (Why) do law firms find it difficult to invest into legal tech?
• What has Dentons accomplished in the area of legal tech and what are the plans for the future?
• What are the legal tech tools that a company most benefits from? Are clients willing to accept using legal tech tools?
• How can project management help in the process of developing new tools?
• What do topics such as collaboration, project management and the end customer have to do with legal tech?
• What will the “lawyer of the future” do?

For a sneak peek, you can watch a short video with some highlights here:

Or you can listen to the full podcast here:

Other Podcasts:

Please also listen to our legal tech talk (in German language) with Rainer Markfort and Louisa Schloussen here.

Speakers:

Dr. Maria Brakalova is a Partner in Dentons' Berlin office and a member of the Competition, Antitrust and Regulatory Practice and of the Public Procurement Practice. She focuses mainly on foreign trade law and public procurement law. A major area of Maria’s expertise in foreign trade law relates to German foreign direct investment control (FDI control). She supports foreign investors and German targets on the implications of FDI control on M&A transactions and prepares the clearance process, closely interacting with the Federal Ministry for Economics and Energy. Maria regularly publishes client alerts in this area and also on issues connected to technology (please see her latest article on foreign direct investments here).

Dr. Rainer Markfort is a Corporate Partner in the Berlin office and Global Director Client Solutions Innovation at Dentons. In his legal practice, he focuses on advising corporations in critical situations. He supports company´s management in internal investigations and in setting up compliance management systems. Rainer also has many years of experience in advising on the restructuring and refinancing of companies. Rainer is a member of the board of DICO and a lecturer at the University of Saarbrücken, the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and the German Lawyer Academy.

Dr. Alexander Steinbrecher is Head of Group Corporate, M&A and Legal Affairs at Bombardier Transportation, which is an Alstom Group company. He has been practicing law for more than 15 years. He is the co-editor of a forthcoming handbook on digital inhouse legal organizations and of a journal on digital law. He is the co-founder of the “Roundtable Innovation & Legal Tech” and regularly writes and speaks about using creativity, innovation and technology in legal services. In addition Alexander practices as Of Counsel and mediator at a dispute resolution boutique law firm and lectures on arbitration, corporate dispute resolution and conflict management at the University of Viadrina.