Global News
In celebration of Women’s History Month, ILTA is pleased to announce their 2020 list of Influential Women in Legal Tech. This list recognizes five outstanding women leaders in the legal technology community based on their mentorship history and level of impact on Legal Technology.
“With help from a group of 12 members, business partners, and staff, we selected a truly inspirational group of women to highlight this month.” says Joy Heath Rush, ILTA CEO. “These women represent legal technologists from across the globe. They are the movers and shakers within the legal community, and we have all benefited from hearing them speak at conferences and from using the technology they have developed. We salute them for fostering conversations on the intersection of law and tech and for helping us aspire to contribute at the highest level possible.”
Being selected as an Influential Women in Legal Tech illustrates that the woman is a dedicated professional in fostering change and female leadership (i.e. developing mentorship or leadership programs, making noteworthy contributions to the legal technology space, and/or championing innovative initiatives). We put out a call for nominations in January and honorees were selected at the end of February.
Alice Namuli Blazevic, Partner at Katende, Ssempebwa & Company Advocates& Co-Founder of The Legal Innovation Hub, Kampala, Uganda
Alice is an award-winning lawyer, innovator, international speaker, author, and mentor. She was labelled as “one to watch” in the Chambers and Partners Global Guide to the World’s Leading Lawyers, 2020 Edition, with sources recognising her strengths in TMT work, particularly in IT.
She established the Legal Tech and Innovation department at her firm where they are helping reshape the model of business in Africa. Her expertise in commercial transactions helped lead the KATS Fintech team to secure the first-ever money remittance licence from the Central Bank of Uganda for a Fintech using a digital platform. Her other accomplishments and strides includes being a Co-Founder of the Legal Innovation Hub, Founder of the Kampala Legal Hackers, Founder of the Uganda Legal Tech Network, Country Representative and Host of the World Legal Summit (WLS), Board Member of the Innovation Advisory Board of the Uganda National Social Security Fund, Cybersecurity expert for the Security Institute for Governance and Leadership in Africa at the University of Stellenbosch, and host of a mentorship program called Coffee With Alice.
María Jesús González-Espejo, Vice President at European Legal Technology Association(ELTA) and Managing Partner at Instituto de Innovación Legal, Madrid, Spain
María is a lawyer, innovator, and evangelist who is working to transform the legal sector in Spain. She introduced Spain to Legal Design Thinking, was named an official ambassador of the Madrid City Council for attracting the 2019 European LegalTech Congress to Madrid, and is supporting the internationalization of Spanish LegalTech through her leadership of the European LegalTech Association (ELTA). Other accomplishments include helping create ConflictMapp, a tool which helps to unblock the courts and supporting people in resolving their conflicts and authoring various articles for industry publications.
Ivy Grey, Vice President, Wordrake, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Ivy is a legal tech entrepreneur, writer, and former practicing lawyer. Her work on technology competence, ethics, and innovation has made her a respected thought leader in the legal technology community. She is a regular speaker on technology competence and law office technology -- recent events include ABA TechShow 2019 and the Chicago Legal Hackers Meet Up -- and is spearheading a new wave of vendor-stakeholder collaborations that will help bring change to the legal profession. Other accomplishments include: creating the American Legal Style for PerfectIt, being named a Rising Star in the New York Metro Area for five consecutive years (2014-2018), and authoring more than 40 pieces for industry publications.
Maya Markovich, Chief Growth Officer, NextLaw Labs at Dentons, Oakland, California, USA
Maya has been central to Nextlaw Labs, Dentons’ startup accelerator and legal tech investment fund, since its launch as the industry’s first tech-focused innovation catalyst in 2015. With her unique background spanning behavioral science, law, investment, and change management, she designs and drives cutting-edge legal tech projects on behalf of the world's largest firm and its clients. Maya works with law schools across the globe to encourage necessary change in legal education -- and highlight the opportunities -- for law students entering contemporary practice. Maya also serves on the boards of Legal Access Alameda, LexLab, and OneJustice, and as mentor for LegalGeek’s Women in LawTechand University of Arizona TechLaw Fellows programs, supporting legal tech initiatives to improve access to justice and gender equity. She frequently speaks at conferences, broadcasts and writes on legal tech and innovation. She was named a Woman Leading Legal Techby The Technolawgist in 2019 and a Woman of Legal Techby the ABA LTRC in 2018.
Jackie Nagtegaal, Futurist & Managing Director, Law for All, Cape Town, South Africa
Jackie runs Law for All, the leading Alternative Legal Service provider on the continent of Africa, which resolves approximately 100,000 cases annually on a subscription basis. Not only are they using technology to ease the way people interact and access the law, they’re championing women in legal tech by having 78% of the employees be women. She was shortlisted for the Pinnacle Award from the WOZA Women in Law, is a jury member of the HiiL International Innovating Justice Challenge in the Hague, and runs a law firm funding program where she donates financially and mentors young African firms.
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