Women of Legal Tech: Leah Molatseli

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 Leah Molatseli! Leah Molatseli is Head of Business Development at Legal Interact.

Three points to summarize you and your work in legal tech.

I am slightly obsessed with legal technology and its impact on my continent, I am bullish on African legal technology and the solutions we bring into the market, because I believe in us and in what we do. That is why I wrote a specifically on legal technology in the context of Africa and our startup culture, why I tech legal tech and innovation related courses at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

I think for me my work in legal tech is extremely broad, I focus on shaping our stories, empowering our market in a way that brings value to their legal departments and legal practices. This is why you will find me at strategic events and positions in specific global organizations such as the Global Legal Tech Hub or Global Legal Tech Consortium.

The more narrow approach to my day to day life has to do with ensuring that we build a consistent message of our core offerings at Legal Interact into the market and drilling down to bringing in more clients through strategic go to market strategies.

How did you become involved in legal tech?

I accidentally fell into legal tech back in 2016. I had just started a traditional legal consulting company and my nanny did not show up so I was unable to attend a client consultation. Instead of canceling I asked that we rather Skype. After that I realized that there's a way to do what I love by using technology. I went on google and as the saying goes the rest is history. Since then I have been intentional about bringing anyone willing to listen along this journey of legal technology.

What projects have you been focused on recently?

Beyond my day to day work, I focused on: #legaltechwithleah Twitter Spaces that I host sporadically highlighting African Legal Tech founders, the I teach Legal Tech. I am currently also working on contributing to a global publication on the growth of legal technology and its impact on the legal industry. Something I am extremely excited about.

What do you see as the biggest challenge in legal tech today?

On the African continent itself, I think our biggest challenge is lack of awareness or education in legal technology. Not only from your potential customers (so you have to be intentional about educating them), but also from an academic perspective, for example beyond the courses I teach, I can only name a few other similar courses to help empower the legal industry on their options and the power of legal technology.

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?

Not really, I have always worked virtually. For me I think the biggest change is the flexibility we are seeing from employers in how we do what we do. Not being forced to have to be at the office in order for one to do their job.

What legal tech resource helped you the most in your legal tech career?

People, the global legal technology community is an absolute treasure of empathic, understanding and very generous people who openly share their knowledge and time with you.

What do you see as the most important emerging tech, legal or not, right now?

I think AI has an incredibly huge role to play in legal and particularly on the continent, we are at the beginning of our journey, we are going to see great solutions come into the market in the coming years.

What do you see for the future of legal tech?

I believe that legal tech is probably one of the greatest catalysts in the democratization of the legal industry. It will force lawyers to start looking at their roles differently and challenging how they do what they do. It will continue to grow as lawyers also continue to evolve and try to meet the ever changing demands from their clients.

What advice would you give to other women who want to get involved in legal tech?

Find a problem that you want to solve and not the solution itself and be obsessed with it. Understand how people interface with the problem and then build from that vantage point. It makes for very interesting solution building. Try to learn as much as you can from people who are already in the industry, we typically share some great insights and that is great way to accelerate your learning.

Give a shout-out to another woman in legal tech who you admire or have learned something from!

Definitely has to be Jackie Nagtegaal CEO of Law for All.