LawFest OnDemand
See 60+ awesome speakers deliver practical insights of how to innovate and leverage technology to help you deliver legal services for today and the future.
60+
Speakers
20+
CPD Hours

New Law: What Is It And How To Prepare For It? | LawFest 22
Mark A. Cohen, CEO Legal Mosaic & Executive Chairman of the Digital Legal Exchange
“New law” is a catchall industry term popularized in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. It is often linked to “legal tech,” “legal ops,” “ALSP’s,” and “legal innovation.” Each is usually considered discretely, not as part of a larger change process. That begs the question: Has new law produced changes that positively impact customers and society? Short answer: not much. So what is New Law? This talk will examine its key elements and how legal professionals can prepare for it.

Developing an Innovative Mindset | LawFest 22
Frances Valintine CNZM, Founder, Tech Futures Lab

Māori Transformational Leadership: a Journey as an Agent of Change | LawFest 22
Juliet Tainui-Hernandez, Assistant Governor & General Manager of Transformation and People, Te Putea Matua, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand
After two decades building her legal career internationally, Juliet Tainui Hernandez returned to Aotearoa to take up a pivotal role leading transformation, people and culture at Te Pūtea Matua (The Reserve Bank), while also serving as a non-executive director on the Board of Ngāi Tahu Holdings. In this inspiring session, she talks about her career journey, contributing to her iwi, and using Te Ao Māori to support financial and economic inclusion.

Accelerating your legal team’s digital transformation | LawFest 22
Marlo Osborne-Smith, Director, NewLaw – PwS
Eric Chin, Director, NewLaw – PwC

Practical Design – Delivering Projects for Law Firms | LawFest 22
Sara Rayment, Principal, Inkling Design

Privacy, Trust & Technology: Innovation with Accountability | LawFest 22
Susan Bennett, Founder & Executive Director, InfoGovANZ
Panelists:
Sarah Auva’a, Lead Digital Trust Partner, Spark New Zealand
Emma Maconick, Head of Data and Technology, EY Law

The Power of Wellbeing – Rewriting our Social Contract in a Post-pandemic World | LawFest 22
Clive Elliott KC, Barrister & Arbitrator, Shortland Chambers

Working Differently | LawFest 22
Ben Paul, Founder & Director, The BD Ladder
Panelists:
Suzie Sneddon, Founder & Director, Base Law
Sean Bishop, Chief Digital Officer, Chapman Tripp
Gemma Wragg, Chief Executive Officer, Tavendale and Partners
Laura Scampion, Managing Partner, DLA Piper
LawFest OnDemand
See 60+ awesome speakers deliver practical insights of how to innovate and leverage technology to help you deliver legal services for today and the future.
60+
Speakers
20+
CPD Hours
See 50+ awesome speakers deliver practical insights of how to innovate and leverage technology to help you deliver legal services for today and the future.

What’s Next for the Legal Industry? How Legal Operations is Shaping all our Futures
Mary O’Carroll, Director of Legal Operations at Google, President of CLOC
Today’s legal department leaders are charged with creating a legal service delivery strategy for their organisations that not only provides top-quality, timely legal services, but does so in a way that maximises value. To achieve this, leaders have a dizzying array of options to choose from as a result of globalisation, disaggregation of legal services, new market entrants, new technology capabilities, and of course, the rise of Legal Operations. In this opening session, we’ll explore some of the changes taking place, how it’s affecting the in-house world and their clients, the impact for law firms and what it means for our future.

Is COVID-19 the opportunity for wider legal transformation?
Erin Ebborn, Director & Principal Lawyer, Portia
Panellists:
Emma Priest, Specialist Criminal Barrister, Blackstone Chambers
Hayley Cassidy, Chief General Counsel, Bank of New Zealand
Hayden Wilson, Chair & Partner, Dentons Kensington Swan
Louise Taylor, Special Counsel, Russell McVeagh

Your Potential in the Digital Economy: How Technology offers the opportunity of personal reinvention
Sara Cole Stratton, Advisor, Tech Futures Lab
Taurean Butler, Director of Corporate Innovation, Tech Futures Lab
Innovation isn’t only the giant disruptions you read about in newspapers: neuralinks, robotics, or automated vehicles. Often innovation starts with a single agitator creating a niche in a small market. Netflix went from mail-order DVD’s to a streaming giant. Amazon went from online books to revolutionizing e-commerce. But this talk isn’t about technology businesses, it’s about harnessing people and technology. We’ll explore how engaging with new technologies offers us all the opportunity to become agitators, to innovate ourselves, and define our potential in the evolving digital economy.

Beyond Innovation Theatre – The Reality of Tech Adoption
Gene Turner, Managing Director, LawHawk
Panellists:
Tila Hoffman, Special Counsel & Business Transformation Manager, MinterEllisonRuddWatts
Lindie Walsh, Consultant, Efficient Practice
Sam Kidd, CEO, LawVu
This panel of legal+tech experts will provide practical insights on how to successfully leverage technology to transform your business processes and practices. Using real examples, they will discuss both the opportunities and the challenges to changing the way you deliver legal services, sharing what they have done, the ‘hits’ and ‘misses’ along the way, what they are doing now, and what comes next.

Is technology creating a new level in that uneven playing field?
Sarah Peterson, iCourts
Jessica Kwon, iCourts
No matter the size of your practice or the size of your technology stack; a new generation of tech and delivery models is altering the eDiscovery landscape permanently. Learn how in this not to miss session.

How to achieve success from simplicity
Jeremy Sutton, Senior Family Lawyer, Bastion Chambers
In this highly practical session, Jeremy will explain how he utilises technology to make work less repetitive for lawyers and more user friendly for clients and canvas the various ways he has achieved success by stripping things back to basics. He’ll highlight some of the most useful tech tools he uses and explain how to use them effectively. Discover how adopting Jeremy’s ‘simple is best’ philosophy will help you streamline your work and your practice, while maintaining (or even improving) the quality of work. You’ll also learn how to identify areas that need improvement and practical strategies to implement change.

How to achieve success from simplicity
Jarrod Coburn, CEO, Portia
It’s been 15 years since the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act introduced the 21st Century to the profession of law. Is it time for a change? Get a sneak preview of the Law Practitioners Act 2025 – a full four years before it is even written – and see what the future might hold for law in Aotearoa New Zealand.

In-house Innovation Stories from the Coal Face
Helen Mackay, Director, Juno Legal
Panellists:
Julian Benefield, Associate General Counsel, Foodstuffs
Rebecca Robertshawe, Director, EIS Legal at Education Infrastructure Service
Melissa Anastasiou, General Counsel, Spark New Zealand
Three leading in-house lawyers share their personal innovation war stories, outlining the key strategies, tactics and tools they have adopted to drive change in their departments and organisations. Discover what worked (and what didn’t) plus the challenges they overcame along the way. You are guaranteed to find something you can take away and implement in your own team!. The session concludes with a Q & A with each speaker, led by Helen Mackay.

A Duty to Care: Creating Sustainable Mental Wellbeing in the Legal Profession
Grant Pritchard, Senior In-House Lawyer, Spark New Zealand | President, ILANZ
The pandemic reinforced the importance of workplace mental health. Grant will share his experience in this critical field offering practical ideas and strategies to improve wellbeing for individual lawyers, teams and firms, including the Umbrella model and the role of technology in supporting better mental health. This session will provide learning, interaction and structured reflection time in a safe supportive format.

A view from the Trenches
Nick Whitehouse, General Manager, Onit AI Center of Excellence
In this dynamic talk, Nick will discuss the journey from idea to successful LegalTech exit, what he learnt from four years of deep R&D and experimentation with some of the largest players in the LegalTech world, all while pulling back the curtain on the threats, the hype, and the practical things you can do to get ahead.

Innovation and adaptability
Gus Balbontin, Entrepreneur
In his compelling keynote session, Gus shares the simple yet powerful lessons he has gleaned from two decades of market disruption in Media. The scale of transformative change that newspapers, books, magazines, TV, music have experienced since the late 90s had not been seen since the industrial revolution. Today, every industry and every business irrespective of size, is going through a similar level of disruption. Gus will candidly bare his battlescars, and share the tricks and tools you need to transform yourself and your business.

The Wrap & What’s Next?
Erin Ebborn, Director & Principal Lawyer, Portia
Panellists:
Nick Whitehouse, General Manager, Onit AI Center of Excellence
Maria Sopoaga, Solicitor, Auckland Council
Jarrod Coburn, CEO, Portia
Helen Mackay, Director, Juno Legal
As the finale of an action-packed day of practical insights from legal thought leaders, technologists and innovators, we look ahead to envision the future of law. The panel will discuss what the future holds for the profession and the delivery of legal services. They will explore what is possible with new opportunities to innovate through people, process and technology, both for today and the future. The discussion will inspire you to apply new thinking to your role and organisation, to help you adapt and thrive in a continuously changing market.
LawFest OnDemand
See 60+ awesome speakers deliver practical insights of how to innovate and leverage technology to help you deliver legal services for today and the future.
60+
Speakers
20+
CPD Hours
See 50+ awesome speakers deliver practical insights of how to innovate and leverage technology to help you deliver legal services for today and the future.

We’re All Talking Heads Now
Dan Hauck, Chief Product Officer, NetDocuments

Creating an Innovation Culture
Caryn Sandler, Partner & Chief Knowledge and Innovation Officer, Gilbert + Tobin

Opportunity for the Courts
Mike Heron, QC

Panel: Embracing and Driving Change
Moderated by:
Warrick McLean, CEO & Principal, Coleman Greig Lawyers
Panelist: Hon Andrew Little, Minister of Justice & Minister for Courts | Helen Mackay, Director, Juno Legal | Erin Ebborn, Director & Principal Lawyer, Portia | Maria Sopoaga, Solicitor, Auckland Council

The Why
Greg Dickason, Managing Director, LexisNexis Pacific

Leading a Cyber Resilience Culture for Law Firms
Jeff Herbert, Director of Cyber Resilience, Cybercraft
In this session, Jeff will discuss the need for law firms to develop a cyber risk management programme and the practical challenges that firms face with information security in the changing post-C19 digital world.
Jeff is fractional Chief Information Security Officer for two of New Zealand’s leading law firms.

Remote Verification, Security and User Experience
Russell Smith, CEO, APLYiD
- Why are more firms starting to use remote verification methods?
- Is it safe to email personal documents?
- What sort of experience will your clients appreciate, and how will this attract them to your firm over others?

Your competitive edge is right under your nose
David Hepburn, President, Actionstep
Process-driven, data-driven firms and self-sufficient lawyers are the future. How do firms turn the lessons they have learned from COVID-19 into a competitive advantage? Join David Hepburn as he explores 3 important topics in law firms today

The Opportunities for In-house Professionals
Helen Mackay, Director, Juno Legal

Embracing and Leading Change

The Wrap
Panelist: Andrew King, Director, Legal Innovate Group
LawFest OnDemand
Watch every presentation, session and demonstration from past LawFest events
60+
Speakers
20+
CPD Hours

Innovation in a disruptive world
Presented by:
Sir Ray Avery, Founder & CEO, Medicine Mondiale

What is the blockchain/smart contracts and why lawyers should care
Presented by:
Mark Pascall, Co-founder, BlockchainLabs.NZ
- What is the blockchain and smart contracts?
- Why should lawyers care?
- What does the law firm of the future look like?

Practical use of Artificial Intelligence for Lawyers
Julian Uebergang, Managing Director (Asia Pacific), Neota Logic

Thinking Differently: MinterEllisonRuddWatt’s innovation journey with McCarthy Finch
Jean Yang, Legaltech Counsel / Legal Services Manager, McCarthyFinch

Disrupting the law: Myadvice.Legal and what’s next?
Mai Chen, Managing Partner, Chen Palmer
- How is law different to other services, and how is it the same?
- Implications for specialisation, and a more holistic definition of what it means to add value as a lawyer.
- Implications for law students and fresh law graduates.

The Weakest Link: Hacking the Human
Craig Columbus, CIO, Russell McVeagh

GDPR: The Missing Piece
Liz Scott-Wilson, Director NZ, Metataxis NZ

Q&A Panel
Moderated by:
Warrick McLean, Chief Executive Officer, Coleman Greig
Panelist: Stephen Mullins, General Manager, New Zealand Lexvoco | Lloyd Gallagher, Partner, Gallagher & CO Consultants | Caroline Ferguson, Business Transformation Manager, Simpson Grierson | Terri Mottershead, Director, Centre for Legal Innovation

The LawFest Great Debate
Adjudicated by:
Judge David Harvey, Director, NZ Centre for ICT Law
Moot: “That technology has rendered law degrees obsolete”
Negating Team: Graham Kohler QC (lead) + Callum Lo (University of Auckland)
Affirmative Team: Marcelo Rodriguez Ferrere (lead) + Phoebe Clifford (University of Otago)
Students from Auckland and Otago University with senior Counsel to debate some meaty issues around technology and law in an entertaining and palatable manner.