Dera Nevin (photo credit: Ian R. Hay)
The next few weeks are exciting ones in the world of legal technology. This Saturday, April 21, the final round of the Global Legal Hackathon (GLH) will take place here in New York City. I’ll be there to cover the proceedings, and I’m looking forward to seeing the finalists’ innovative projects — and finding out who will emerge victorious (ticket information here)
What rewards come from winning the Global Legal Hackathon (besides the recognition associated with victory)? The winners will receive complimentary tickets, an opportunity to pitch to a panel consisting of investors or strategic partners, and a demo table for Above the Law’s Evolve Law Summit, taking place in Chicago on May 2. The Summit is a one-day program facilitating partnerships and growth in the legal technology space, showcasing entrepreneurs and matching them with investors and strategic partners (ticket information here).
Legal tech is booming right now — which explains why so many lawyers are leaving the hallowed halls of Biglaw to work in this field. Earlier this week, I conducted an email interview with one of them: Dera J. Nevin, who recently left Proskauer to become the “Global Ambassador for Legal Technology.” Dera emailed me from Johannesburg, South Africa, before jetting off to São Paulo on her way to Florianópolis, Brazil — which sounds like a nice break from Biglaw.
DL: In preparing for this interview, I looked at your LinkedIn bio and noticed your great job title: “Global Ambassador for Legal Technology.” What exactly does this entail?
DN: The title — yes, I just dubbed myself that when I set out to do this trip. As I explained on Twitter (@dera_nevin), I’m on a Global Legal Hackathon World Tour. I’m visiting many of the teams, hosts, and sponsors, to prepare a survey of the global legal innovation community. I’m sharing short dispatches from my trip on Twitter (hashtag #tothemars) and longer ones on LinkedIn, and I’m preparing a documentary, #ToTheMars, that will premiere at the GLH Gala on Saturday. [Ed. note: For more about the Global Legal Hackathon and Nevin’s GLH World Tour, see this story by Bob Ambrogi and this story by me.]
Since this isn’t a job, it’s a passion project that I’m doing between gigs, and LinkedIn has this box to fill in, that’s what I put in there, without much planning. But more seriously, that’s an aspirational aim of what we’re aiming for with this project.
I was a participant in the GLH in NYC and at one point I was looking at all the activity on Slack and on Twitter and realizing, “You know, we don’t really know what’s happening in all these places.” So I’m on a mission that’s part documenting what happened in all the GLH locations and learning what we can do to improve, part meeting the community and using personal connections to connect various players and reduce overlap and rework in projects, and part drawing attention to legal tech as a global phenomenon, not just solving Biglaw and CLOC problems.
DL: This isn’t your first role bridging law and technology, and you’ve had a rich and interesting career in legal tech up to this point. Can you share a bit about your background and how you came into your current role?
DN: Way back I was in computer-assisted design, and journalism is the career I didn’t take. In my 20s, I ended up working for the Attorney General of Ontario on legal education and access to justice projects. During that time I worked a lot with databases, and the web that was emerging. Going to law school was a bit of a fluke; I’m the first lawyer in my family. I quickly fell into using computers a lot in my practice out of habit and fell into eDiscovery back before it was a thing. While I’m best known for eDiscovery work and specifically leading-edge novel evidence management, what I’ve actually been doing for well over a decade is helping lawyers incorporate technology into practice for greater effectiveness (not just efficiency). I’ve done everything from massive digitization projects to helping build a bespoke client communications and workflow management system. I guess I’ve been doing this “new law” thing before it was a thing.
So this passion project has really been perfect for me, allowing me to combine all of my passions for law, technology, legal education, and journalism. And travel and eating great food!
DL: So you were initially a competitor in the Hackathon before you were its chronicler. How were you able to put a worldwide tour together so quickly?
DN: We hatched the tour idea the Sunday night after the first round finals. It’s a bit opportunistic, in that I had left my role at Proskauer a few weeks earlier and was scheduled to have my last day there on March 9th. That meant that I had the time and flexibility to do this. I had to put the whole thing together — funding, immunizations, schedule, everything — by myself and in under two weeks, as I was also wrapping up a pretty significant role and doing transition. Those two weeks were busy! But nothing like what it’s been like since I’ve been on tour.
Overall, we planned that I would visit between 10 and 15 places in about a month, at least one on each continent. We were looking for interesting stories, unusual partnerships, and communities that could really benefit from the attention of a visit because they are nascent. I’m also visiting some of the second-round winners so that we can augment the story before the finals.
DL: And how did you put together your itinerary? Did you have it all mapped out in advance?
DN: Planning for the tour has largely been organic. I’ve been going where people are available and where the stories are, as flights and visas allow.
I’ve now pretty much booked through to the last day (April 18th). I left on March 11th and will have stopped in 19 destinations in 15 countries on 6 continents by the end. Once I’m done, I’ll work up full metrics on miles traveled, people interviewed, and other subjects.
DL: You’ve visited many fascinating places and met many amazing people, so perhaps this question is like asking a parent to pick their favorite child, but do you have a favorite destination so far?
DN: That is an impossible question! It is like answering do I have a favorite child. Each destination has been enriching in its own way, either because of who I met, what I learned, the experience I had, or a connection I’ve been able to help someone make — or all of the above.
But on a personal note, there have been travel highlights. It was my first time to visit almost all these places and even though I didn’t stay long anywhere, it’s been great to have been to China, Egypt, and places in Eastern Europe I hadn’t visited before.
On a professional note, it’s been particularly enriching to visit communities where legal tech is nascent, such as Bucharest, Stockholm, and Cairo, and watch the communities there self-organize and grow.
It’s been also great to see the enthusiasm for the hackathon, and to know that everyone wants to build on it for next year and get more people involved in more cities and more collaboration going, including across countries. Mission accomplished for me, I’d say!
DL: Indeed — congratulations! Good luck and safe travels as you make your way back to the United States. I look forward to meeting you in person at the Final Round Gala here in New York on April 21!
Global Legal Hackathon [official website]
Evolve Law Summit [Eventbrite]
Earlier:
- Come One, Come All — To The Global Legal Hackathon!
- On Hackathons And Karma
- Legal Tech World Tours Take Off
David Lat is editor at large and founding editor of Above the Law, as well as the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].
