This renewal comes after a successful 12-month partnership which has seen joint activity including two co-hosted events based in the firm’s Leeds office, which attracted over 200 sign-ups and featured high-profile speakers from organisations including Channel 4, PEXA, Leeds City Council and JUST: Access.
LegalTech in Leeds was established in January 2022, with the support of Innovation@Leeds funding from Leeds City Council. Since this time, it has delivered 35 events while building a community of more than 1,100 people with an active interest in the role of technology and innovation in the legal sector. With over 360 sign-ups, the annual LegalTech in Leeds conference in April 2023 was the largest regional LegalTech event in the UK to take place outside London, and plans are already being finalised for an even bigger event in 2024.
Over the last year, AG has had direct involvement in key initiatives such as being a member of the LegalTech in Leeds Advisory Board, featuring prominently in the LegalTech in Leeds annual report and delivering a joint keynote with ASDA at the annual showpiece conference. Within the keynote, AG and the ASDA Property team spoke about how they had collaborated extensively to design, build and implement a bespoke legal tech solution that not only met the unique needs of the ASDA team but also enabled their property lawyers to deliver measurable business value. Additionally, AG participated in LegalTech in Leeds’ first-ever hackathon in March, with the firm providing two members of the winning team (Remedy Robin).
LegalTech in Leeds is grateful to AG for its active involvement and support as a key strategic partner, and we look forward to continuing to work closely with the Innovation and Legal Technology team on future joint activity.
Elliot White, Director, Innovation and Legal Technology at Addleshaw Goddard says:
Renewing our strategic partnership with LegalTech in Leeds enables us to further our goal to encourage and support innovation across UK regions and realise our shared commitment to driving change and fostering a vibrant and inclusive legal tech ecosystem. We are excited to continue our shared vision of embracing innovation to better meet the needs of our clients, the legal community and attracting future talent and skills to the industry. As a partner, we are dedicated in supporting diversity initiatives such as Women in LegalTech, to drive tangible change in the legal tech space.
Julian Wells, Director at Whitecap Consulting/LegalTech in Leeds says:
We have been proud to work in partnership with a law firm as forward thinking and committed to LegalTech and innovation as Addleshaw Goddard, and they have played a prominent role in the development and key activities of LegalTech in Leeds over the last year. Looking ahead, we are delighted to continue our strategic partnership, and to work collaboratively to address industry-wide challenges in relation to the development of LegalTech capability in the legal sector on a regional and national basis.”
As part of this strategic partnership, AG and LegalTech in Leeds will work together to strengthen national partnerships and co-create event activity that focuses on the client perspective as well as an increased focus on relevant practice areas such as conveyancing and real estate and the application of Generative AI. Property is a theme that has already started to progress through AG’s hosting of the inaugural ‘property and conveyancing’ special interest group that LegalTech in Leeds has formed in partnership with PEXA. In September 2023, AG hosted and participated in the first meeting which brought together key players in the conveyancing journey and the event heard voices from across the industry with some of the prominent participants being mortgage lenders such as Skipton Building Society and Marsden Building Society, and conveyancing firms including Optima Legal and Hill Dickinson.
Additional activity that AG and LegalTech in Leeds plan to explore together in 2024 involves future talent and skills and engaging with the ‘large law’ sector across the Leeds region.
After a successful year, LegalTech in Leeds plans to continue scaling the initiative through developing the 2024 events calendar, which is all made possible thanks to the sponsor and partner group who support and fund the ongoing activity of the programme.
LegalTech in Leeds is grateful to AG for its active involvement and support as a key strategic partner, and we look forward to continuing to work closely with the Innovation and Legal Technology team on future joint activity.
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