An armful of national awards for Bristol and Bath’s legaltech cluster
The count of awards won by individuals and organisations from Bristol and Bath (and leading lights in Bristol+BathLegalTech) at the prestigious national British Legal Technology Awards 2023 just kept rising at this huge event held in London on 22nd November.
The awards, hosted by Netlaw Media and judged by an independent & impartial panel of experts, acknowledge and reward excellence in legal technology within the UK and International Legal Sectors.
The evening closed with the Outstanding Achievement Award and everyone connected with the region’s legal technology community and the legal academic world was thrilled to hear Professor Sarah Green from the University of Bristol, and currently one of the country’s Law Commissioners, announced as the winner of this award. Professor Green’s achievements in the past year include publishing recommendations for the reform and development of the laws relating to digital assets such as NFTs and crypto-tokens while protecting consumers. She has been leading the charge for the UK to remain at the forefront of technological innovation. And as well as being named by Bloomberg as one of Britain’s ‘Crypto List’ in 2022 - she has also been a big supporter of Bristol+BathLegalTech – the UK’s first regional legaltech community!
Osborne Clarke Solutions and Taylor Wimpey plc won 'Alliance of the Year', which recognises those in the industry who have delivered excellence in collaboration between all parties. The teams were awarded for their work building the Taylor Wimpey Legal Hub, a tailored panel management platform that provides greater visibility of total legal activity and spend across the business. OC’s Alex Davy and Sue Thackeray from Taylor Wimpey were there on the night to collect their prize.
Kudos to DAC Beachcroft for returning home with not one, but two stunning glass trophies. The firm, represented at the event by legal technology legend CIO David Aird and many of his team, were awarded runners-up in two hard-fought national categories: 'Technology Team of the Year' & 'Information Security Team of the Year'. The citation noted that “the judges were impressed by the professionalism and superb execution demonstrated by the team as they moved a large organisation entirely into the cloud. The team’s contribution to the firm more widely, and especially in terms of their diversity, inclusion and volunteering efforts was eye catching and is a role model to all IT and business support functions in law firms.”
‘The Technology Team of the Year Award’ went to Freeths, also Bristol Law Society’s Law Firm of the Year (over 20 Partners), which was recognised for its remarkable IT transformation over the last five years. Meanwhile, ‘IT Product or Service of the Year’ went to security pioneers Arctic Wolf, longstanding supporters of BBLT and Bristol Law Society
And we can’t ignore the fantastic contribution to the event of Bristol-headquartered software development house Amdaris, who, for the first time, were the headline sponsors, extending their deep connections with the regional and national world of legaltech.
BBLT on the national stage in London in mid-November part 2:
One day after the Legal Technology Awards another major annual national legal event took place at the Ham Yard Hotel: the People In Law Conference for HR, recruitment and L&D leaders in law firms. Always an amazing programme, the 2023 edition was graced by a pair of sessions focused on Artificial Intelligence and the people implications for the law. That included a dynamic panel debate chaired by BBLT’s own Chris Bull and featuring two expert West of England speakers – Sian Ashton, Client Transformation Partner at TLT and Kate Redshaw, Head of Practice Development – Employment at Burges Salmon – alongside Addleshaw Goddard’s Kerry Westland. The panel session got rave feedback from this senior national audience. Sian neatly summed up the messages and learnings: “big takeaways for me: experiment, play with technology and look for opportunities to change, adapt and develop new ways of doing law. Big thing: don’t panic. Change is good and the talent of tomorrow already understands how technology and people together is better than either alone.”