Career Center, Career Files

NYU Law and the Impact of Innovation

A conversation about growing a legal tech community.

By Ari Kaplan  
on

Ari Kaplan speaks with Felicity Conrad, the co-founder and CEO of Paladin, a software platform that empowers pro bono activities in law firms, Christian Lang, the head of strategy at Reynen Court, which he describes as an app store for law firms and corporate legal departments, who is also the founder of the New York Legal Tech Meetup, and Anna McGrane, the co-founder and COO of Pacer Pro, a system that simplifies access to Pacer, the online federal court filing system. They are all participants in New York University Law School’s Law & Tech Community.

Ari Kaplan: Anna – Tell us about your background and the genesis of this initiative at New York University Law School.

Anna McGrane: I started out practicing in corporate transactions and my brother decided that we needed to start a legal technology company. So, somewhat unexpectedly, I found myself in legal tech in 2014, without really any idea on how to sell to and work with law firms. One of the first places that I went was back to was the law school, which connected me to Noah Waisberg, who was just super helpful, providing advice around go-to-market strategy and security contracts. And as the years went by, that experience kept repeating: I’d meet NYU alumni in this space, and the connections would be really meaningful. So I started to wonder why these conversations were happening one-to-one. We obviously needed a place to come together, particularly as we think about trying to help the next generation enter the market. So I went back to the law school to see what we could do.

Ari Kaplan: Christian – Tell us about your background and the goals for this series.

Christian Lang: I was a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York and London for a few years. I left to jump into the legal innovation space and was similarly starting from scratch, meeting people to get as smart about tech and legal tech as I could, and connecting with others who had done it before in exactly the ways that Anna describes. The goal for this NYU Law and Tech initiative is to help grow this wonderful community that already exists, but to also put people in a position where they have more ongoing support, can generate feedback, and engage diverse perspectives in important conversations. The inspiration and cross-fertilization that comes from cross-generational mentorship and engagement is an important reason why we think NYU is such a great fit for this. We are trying to generate a community where people know each other, can reach out to one another, and inspire the next generation of leadership in legal technology.

Ari Kaplan: Felicity – what drew you to this community and what will you be discussing at the next event, which is being held on October 15th at the law school?

Felicity Conrad: Paladin is a platform that builds access to justice technology, specifically a pro bono platform that helps make pro bono really seamless for law firms, corporate legal teams, legal service organizations, and others. I am also an alumnus of NYU Law, which is known as a private school in the public interest, so it was really exciting for me to connect the public interest community with others focused on innovation and legal technology. It is really about threading a needle that hasn’t been threaded before and I’m really excited to bring those worlds together in a meaningful conversation. At the upcoming event, I will be discussing our work developing pro bono software and why creating tools like Paladin is so important. I will also be sharing best practices for building legal tech and working with stakeholders to involve them early and often to obtain feedback in the process.

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Ari Kaplan: Anna – In addition to Felicity, who are some of the other speakers and what will they be discussing?

Anna McGrane: One of the driving forces for this program is to have a more transparent, critical dialogue about what is actually happening in our industry. For example, our first panel includes the chief Strategy officer for Kira Systems, who will be talking about some of the opportunities of artificial intelligence, paired with Jason Schultz, the co-director for the NYU Law Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy, Who will discuss some of the challenges of AI when used in a government setting, and Joshua Walker, the chief product officer for Aon Intellectual Property Solutions, discussing some of the myths around AI. Most importantly, they are going to be taking questions from NYU law students with PhDs in computer science and engineering. Other speakers include Aaron Yowell, the chief innovation officer and a partner at Nixon Peabody and Joe Borstein, a managing director at Ernst & Young.

Ari Kaplan: Christian – How does this series align with your efforts in building community?

Christian Lang: Really well. Similar to the Legal Tech Meetup, where I felt a need to bring this really wonderful New York-based community together on a more regular basis so it could offer ongoing support, the NYU Law and Technology community is essentially a microcosm of that mission because what we have tried to do at the Meetup is exactly what Anna described. It is about having honest, critical conversations and bringing people together with the goal of fueling original thinking and generating real community to support all of the important, interesting work that is happening.

Ari Kaplan: Felicity – what do you hope attendees will take from these discussions?

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Felicity Conrad: I want them to take some substantive education, but I am also hoping that attendees will walk away with real guidance, feel a little more supported, and leave inspired that they have a community to fall back on in a place where we can continue the conversation going forward.

Ari Kaplan: Anna – Why did this start at NYU Law School?

Anna McGrane: First, we are all NYU alums. There is about a dozen of us who have founded companies now and the law school has established the NYU Law Venture Fund. Second, one of the reasons I chose NYU Law School relative to its peer group was because it is a place with an entrepreneurial history and background.

Ari Kaplan: Christian – How do you see this initiative evolving? 

Christian Lang: We are committed to helping facilitate an organic evolution and provide support in the direction that the community as a whole determines that it wants to go. NYU is also a really interesting, complex institution with different pockets of influence and alumni committed to innovation, which was the driving force behind the creation of the NYU Law Venture Fund Anna mentioned. The first step is to get the community engaged and the next step is to leverage the law school’s incredible infrastructure to build something meaningful on top of it. Ultimately, we are not trying to steer this initiative in any particular direction. We’re trying to let it organically evolve on its own.

Ari Kaplan regularly interviews leaders in the legal industry and in the broader professional services community to share perspective, highlight transformative change, and introduce new technology at http://www.ReinventingProfessionals.com. 

Listen to his conversation with Felicity Conrad, the co-founder and CEO of Paladin, Christian Lang, the head of strategy at Reynen Court, and Anna McGrane, the co-founder and COO of Pacer Pro here: https://www.reinventingprofessionals.com/the-impact-of-innovation/

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