Melissa Lyon is a Business Development and Innovation specialist with Hive Legal, an innovative New Law firm which has disrupted the legal profession by introducing technology based solutions for its team and its clients, value pricing and truly flexible work practices.

Mel believes in being brave enough to do things differently, the power of purpose, valuing the skills of all of those who make up the profession … not just lawyers, and the very real benefits that true collaboration brings. She is a design thinker and has recently been named a Distinguished Fellow of the Centre for Legal Innovation which involves spreading the word on design thinking to the profession.

And…. as of last week can add chat bot builder to the list!

Christian is a passionate advocate for legal technology and innovation, currently serving as the Head of Strategy for Reynen Court, a startup working to accelerate law firms’ adoption of legal technology.  A former corporate lawyer with Davis Polk in New York and London, Christian left practice to dive into the world of legal innovation, launching a number of media projects before founding the NY Legal Tech Meetup (a 1,400-member community working to build an open, informed, and supportive NYC-based legal innovation ecosystem) and Inspire.Legal™ (a collaborative mission to better understand and define the most pressing problems facing the legal industry).

Tessa Ramanlal is a lawyer at Herbert Smith Freehills and co-founder and Director of Anika – a not-for-profit online platform that will provide free legal advice, and practical legal training to students. Anika recently co-won ‘Startup of the Year’ at the Australian Financial Review Client Choice Awards. Tessa is passionate about empowering her fellow juniors to leverage their fresh minds and experience with technology to change the way legal services are delivered.  Tessa was recently awarded the International Legal Tech Association’s ‘Rising Star’ scholarship.

Julian serves as the Managing Director, Asia Pacific for Neota Logic and is responsible for new and existing client engagements as well as executing brand and marketing strategies in the region. Julian has also added the responsibility of Chief Product Officer to his remit. Previously Julian held a digital product strategy role with a start-up entity funded by Australia Post. He also has significant eDiscovery experience having co-founded PinPoint Global in London and ultimately joining Epiq Systems (NASDAQ: EPIQ) through acquisition to lead their international Client Services and Operations division. Julian has a Bachelor of Computer Science from Monash University and lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and three children.

He is the Chair of the ALTACON Committee.

Nick is the Global Head of Technology & Innovation for top 10 international law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright.

Separately to NRF, he is a disruptor in his own right, having co-founded online legal service LawPath 6 years ago. LawPath now has over 70,000 users.

Nick is on the boards of: ASX300 software company, Integrated Research; global genomic medicine leader, the Garvan Foundation; Sydney Film Festival and the Vodafone Foundation.

He is the author of the Kindle best-selling books Digital Disruption in Australia and Big Data, Big Responsibilities. He produced the mockumentary Searching for Alison Porchnik featuring Woody Allen and Carol Cane.

Michael is on the Boards of the Australian Legal Technology Association and the Victorian Society for Computers and Law and is a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne, where he lectures each year on Start-Up Law.  In addition to his law degree, Michael has a Master of Applied Science from RMIT, where he did his thesis on an application of artificial intelligence to law.

Nick is the Global Head of Technology & Innovation for top 10 international law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright.

Separately to NRF, he is a disruptor in his own right, having co-founded online legal service LawPath 6 years ago. LawPath now has over 70,000 users.

Nick is on the boards of: ASX300 software company, Integrated Research; global genomic medicine leader, the Garvan Foundation; Sydney Film Festival and the Vodafone Foundation.

He is the author of the Kindle best-selling books Digital Disruption in Australia and Big Data, Big Responsibilities. He produced the mockumentary Searching for Alison Porchnik featuring Woody Allen and Carol Cane.

Alex is the Legal Enablement Specialist at Telstra and is currently supporting the prioritised initiatives in Legal that will enable Telstra to deliver its T22 strategy.  Alex has a passion for data and is focused on strengthening and transforming how the team works by delivering a new agile construct that is data driven, enabled by legal technology and is underpinned by a robust framework that empowers the team to operate efficiently, effectively and collaboratively.

Ben is a commercial attorney supporting Microsoft ANZ. In particular he supports the teams engaged in licensing cloud products and digital transformation solutions to large enterprise and public sector customers. He is currently Microsoft ANZ’s legal lead for the Retail industry.

Recently, Ben worked with engineers in Microsoft’s HQ to develop a legal assistant bot, which is enabling Microsoft lawyers worldwide to concentrate on high risk, high value work.

Ben was shortlisted as the Australasian Young In-house Lawyer of the Year at the 2018  Australasian Law Awards.

Jodie is an innovator, entrepreneur and a passionate advocate of #LegalTech. In 2016, Jodie founded Xakia Technologies. Xakia is the world’s leading platform for automated Legal Department Intelligence. More than a beautiful matter management, expense tracker and legal intake tool, Xakia captures data at every part of the matter journey to provide you with dashboards and reports for informed decision making and communication with your business. Xakia’s clients benefit from intuitive systems that provide robust legal data analytics and automated reporting that make their CFOs and CEOs happy with data on budget and strategy.

Prior to Xakia, Jodie was the architect and founding Managing Director of Hive Legal, a role for which she was recognised as a finalist in Lawyers’ Weekly Women in Law Awards Executive of the Year 2015. Jodie was shortlisted for the ‘Legal Innovator’ category in the Australian FT Innovative Lawyers awards for 2018. Jodie was instrumental in the founding of the Australian Legal Technology Association and Xakia is a proud Founding Member.

Renee Newman Knake is a Professor of Law and the Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics at the University of Houston, and holds the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at RMIT University. Recognized as an American Bar Association Legal Rebel and member of the Fastcase50, she founded one of the first law-school-based laboratories to inspire entrepreneurship and innovation in legal services. Her award-winning publications (three books and 20+ articles) are cited in a range of media including Bloomberg, CNN, and the Wall Street Journal. She served as Reporter for the ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Services as well a delegate to the World Economic Form Global Agenda Councils on Justice and Rule of Law.

Stuart is the Founder and CEO of thedocyard, a transaction management platform bringing together secure file sharing, collaboration, project management and workflow to your deals. He brings a breadth of expertise to this role as both law firm Partner and in-house counsel with a Fortune 500. With over 15 years’ experience completing large, global transactions, he knows all sides of the deal inside out.

Evan Wong (CEO) is the original founder of Checkbox and comes from a background in law. Spending only a brief time at KPMG, Evan has spent almost his entire career as an entrepreneur, having founded another award-winning company, Hero Education, prior to founding Checkbox.

Karen is a non-practising lawyer, entrepreneur and legal tech founder. Karen is also in her 40s, has 4 children under 12, and is the CEO of Legally Yours. As your non-stereotypical legal tech founder, Karen has had to navigate her way through the legal tech startup world the hard way, often alone, out of her depth, and crippled by self-doubt. However, through the power of collaboration, partnerships, and plain old serendipity, Karen is leading lawyers and law firms into a new way of engaging clients locally and internationally, and forging a new pathway of access to justice for the Australian community.

Having completed a career spanning over 30 years advising clients on business and tax laws as a partner at KPMG, Rod Henderson has ‘jumped the fence’ to join the world of startups focusing on providing ethical and reliable tax and legal advice, available to all online, through his startup, AcuTax, based at Tank Stream Labs innovation hub.  Rod is also Co-founder of Namaru, a virtual professional advisory firm recently established by former Big 4 accounting and law firm partners and practitioners.

Rod has also supported the University of Sydney Business School in developing of a new capstone course for students majoring in business law, bringing his extensive professional experience and ideas around tax and legal acumen. Rod actively takes a leading role in advocating the adoption of technology within the professions. Rod holds a Bachelor of Economics (Sydney) and Master of Laws (Hons) (Sydney), is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, a Chartered Tax Adviser of The Tax Institute and a registered Tax Agent with the Tax Practitioners Board.

Founder and Managing Director of Barolsky Advisors Senior Fellow of The University of Melbourne 30 years as a strategy advisor and management consultant to professional service firms Op-ed writer for the Australian Financial Review Legal Affairs section 16 years as head of Beaton Research & Consulting’s strategy practice Lead author of Thomson Reuters Peer Monitor Melbourne Law School State of the Australian Legal Market Report Author of the Relationship Capital blog Advisory Board member of the Australian Centre for Legal Innovation Creator of the Price High or Low smartphone app Foundation member of the Australian Legal Technology Association Teaching Fellow on the College of Law’s Master of Legal Business Management program.

Sara Rayment is the founder of Inkling Legal Design, a consultancy that reimagines legal services through design, law and emerging technology. Having worked as a lawyer for 10 years in top tier firms, Sara blends legal expertise with human centred design principles to deliver innovative solutions. Her clients include government agencies, regulators. law firms and corporate counsel.

John Stambelos was the IT manager for a large Chicago-based law firm for 11 years before becoming the IT director for one of the most well-regarded law firms in the country based in Los Angeles. John formed his own cybersecurity consultancy in 2018. John is also the Chief Information Security Officer for automated attorney timekeeping company Ping, based in San Francisco. Today, he helps clients ranging from Silicon Valley startups to some of the largest law firms in the world understand how bext to invest resources in cybersecurity. Because it’s easy to get lost or overwhelmed, John helps clients understand how people, policy and technology must all fit together so their security program matches their capabilities.

Tom is a co-founder and CEO of Josef, a platform that empowers lawyers to build end-to-end automated legal services. Tom appears regularly as a speaker on legal technology, innovation and the changing nature of legal practice. He holds an LLM (’18) from Columbia Law School where he focussed his studies on legal data analytics and was a founding member of the Columbia Law School Legal Technology Association. Tom graduated from Melbourne Law School (BA (Hons), LLB (Hons)) in 2012. He began his career as a litigator at Arnold Bloch Leibler in Australia, where he acted for private equity firms and multinational corporations in high profile commercial disputes. He served as an associate to the Hon. Justice Patrick Keane AC of the High Court of Australia before returning to Melbourne Law School to teach.

As CEO of Plexus, Andrew Mellett is on a mission to transform the value of legal services. Co-founding the company in 2011, he now leads a team of lawyers, technologists and engineers across five countries in building what has been described as a game-changer for legal operations.

Plexus launched Gateway, the world’s first legal operating system, in 2016, and already it’s being used by in-house legal teams at over 200 of the world’s largest organisations including L’Oreal, Samsung, Woolworths, Spotify, General Mills, Coca Cola and General Motors. Driving this growth is a fresh approach to the law coupled with the world’s most advanced legal technology.

Fiona Kirkman (Legal Co-Founder) As an Accredited Specialist in Family Law and mediator with over 15 years’ experience in the law, Fiona brings the legal foundation to LawSwitch. Fiona understands the challenges law firms face, particularly time and cost pressures and recognises that the legal industry is changing and encourages lawyers to embrace this change with it. Tim Kirkman (Technical Co-Founder) As Technical Founder, Tim is the visionary, architect and designer of LawSwitch, and leads its ongoing development and direction. Tim has 20 years experience successfully building, managing and delivering software products across many industries. He is passionate about empowering law firms to reach their potential through use of technology, by providing innovative products that supplement and complement legal practices.

Luke started working at Portable after he graduated from the Juris Doctor program at Melbourne Law School. Luke developed an interest in using design and technology to improve access to justice after working and volunteering at community legal centres and human rights organisations and seeing the need to provide accessible and empathetic experiences. His work at Portable includes research and design for the online resolution technology platforms, delivering co-design workshops with legal service practitioners, and designing improvements to the experience of legal aid clients as they apply for and receive grants of aid.

Chris Painter is the Director and Chief Product Architect, at MOSMAR. Chris is a well known figure in IT and Knowledge Management within the Australian legal sector. After 22 years servicing the legal sector, Chris decided to jump fence and tackle things from the other side, having dedicated the first 12 years of his career in IT and Precedents within a few big law firms, the likes of Clayton Utz and Gadens Lawyers. It was very addictive, so with a taste of what was possible, he started MOSMAR. Always up for a challenge, he has a passion for reducing stupefyingly complex problems into ridiculously simple processes – especially when it comes to creating documents. There are a few big ideas on the MOSMAR drawing board which Chris is involved in bringing to life. His main passion is DocAssist, and he continually works to make it the best simple document automation solution on the market.

Aaron Lane is a Lecturer at RMIT University’s Graduate School of Business and Law. He is also affiliated with the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub (the world’s first social science research centre into the economics, politics, sociology, and law of blockchain technology). Aaron was admitted to practise in 2012 and practised in administrative and commercial law. He now lectures in Business Economics, Company Law, and Competition Law within RMIT’s MBA and JD programs. Aaron’s academic research focusses on regulation, innovation, and blockchain and the law.

Janelle Kerrisk is the Founder of LawLancer which was born to meet the game changing landscape of law. LawLancer harnesses the power of technology, mobilising thousands of engaged but under-utilised freelance clerks currently studying law across the country. LawLancer gives law firms access to a scalable and flexible workforce through an online marketplace to alleviate resources and meet client demands, while providing law students with quality paid opportunities to gain real world experience. The end-to-end solution includes all the communication, project management, documentation and payment needed to complete any gig, all housed in one secure and easy to use platform. It’s simply a smarter way to get things done, and a win-win for firms and students.

David is the Chief Information Officer at GlobalX. With over 15 years’ experience in the Telecommunications sector, David has held numerous roles including in Development, Business Analysis, Project Management and IT Management. With a degree in Computer Science graduating with honours from the University of Sussex, David has been instrumented at numerous companies including Optus, Telstra and British Telecom.

Karen McDonald is a qualified accountant and probably best known as owner of Cascade Consulting, a business that has helped many businesses (including a lot of law firms) over the last 20 years. Karen runs an accounting and tax practice, which aims to empower clients to understand their finances and lighten the load of compliance. In 2011, Karen founded Wise Owl Legal Practice Management as a response to seeing so many lawyers caught up with the struggle of old, out of date and inefficient software. Karen believes software should lighten your load and empower you to focus on your core mission.

Eric is a strategy consultant that works with law firms, listed law firms, LegalTech firms, NewLaw firms, and corporate legal departments on strategy, M&A, market analysis, innovation and Asia. His experience spans across the Asia-Pacific region with work completed for law firms and Big Four accounting firms. Eric’s work in the region has culminated in his induction as one of 30 people to watch in the business of law in Asia in 2015 by Asia Law Portal.

Stephen is managing director of TaLaw.com. He has been developing legal software for over 30 years and has deep insight into the requirements of barristers and barrister clerks. He has worked in Australia, UK and USA developing and implementing legal technology solutions. He also has a passion for making the process of running legal cases as friction-less as possible by using technology to support the process. Access to justice is a key area of concern and Stephen is committed to developing solutions that allow everyone to have access to the necessary tools to run their matters more efficiently.

For the last few years, Oonagh was General Counsel at muru-D – one of Australia’s best-known startup accelerator programs.  muru-D helps develop big thinking entrepreneurs who are using technology to solve challenging problems. muru-D helps startups connect with mentors, sponsors, potential customers and investors to accelerate their growth and help them reach their global potential and has invested in more than 140 startups to date.

Having found her passion, Oonagh is now busy setting up her own business – the Startup Legal GP – which will provide practical, bespoke legal support to startups and other accelerators.  She also remains a mentor at muru-D.

Peter specialises in mergers and acquisitions, private equity, venture capital and private capital raisings. He is recognised as one of Australia’s leading private equity lawyers by PLC Which Lawyer, Best Lawyers and Chambers. Peter has helped a number of private equity houses develop their standard investment documents. Peter assisted the Federal Government with its reforms to the employee share option rules, and drafted the proforma model employee option plan adopted by the Federal Government in connection with these reforms. Peter is a director of The 40K Home Foundation, is the Chairman of the Balmain Ball Limited, is on the SheStarts Advisory Board and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Niels Maartens is Chief Commercial Officer of YBF Ventures, Melbourne’s largest innovation centre. He is also a member of the working group of Australia’s LawTech Hub, established in late 2018 in a partnership between Lander & Rogers and YBF.

Niels is a senior executive with a focus on disruptive business growth, innovation, and industries in rapid flux. Prior to joining YBF Ventures as in December 2017, he was a global executive for one of the largest engineering companies in the world, GE, working in multiple geographies and industries around the world. Niels also held senior positions at Wesfarmers and Coles, as well as at fintech, Nimble.

Jonathan is a Vice President in Macquarie Capital’s Venture Capital team, which has invested over $600m in tech companies across Australia, China, Europe, Israel and South East Asia. Jonathan has worked with Macquarie’s Australian, Asian and European investee companies for 5 years.

Among other things, Jonathan has been involved in Macquarie’s investments and exits in Nuix, PEXA (exit to CBA/Link/MSIP), Ringtail, RecordPoint, Stocard and XM Cyber

Steve Tyndall is the founder of NextLegal (Legal IT consulting practice) and the Founding Director of Client Sense (a data-driven Business Development tool). Steve has led the in-house function of national law firms and regularly facilitates workshops with the QLS, LIV and other industry associations.

Tobias’s career has spanned more than 25 years in the legal services sector, both in technical IT roles and senior finance roles. During this time he has also been a keen observer and voice for change as the evolving business environment is impacting the provision of legal services. Seizing an opportunity in life he has ventured into startup land, leveraging his insight in to the way that legal services are provided to develop solutions to help the legal services sector transform in the 21st Century.

Alastair Blenkin is a former MinterEllison property lawyer. Dissatisfied by the endless flow of high-volume retail/commercial leasing (a.k.a. “grunt work”) and spotting a gap in the legal-tech market for portfolio contract negotiation solutions, Alastair trusted his instincts and jumped out of the law and into start-up land.

For more than a decade I’ve built software applications and MVP prototypes for customers. I’ve done work on every major platform from web development & server code to desktop & mobile apps, databases, and embedded hardware. My expertise is in rapidly bringing customer ideas to fruition. I also sometimes help customers bootstrap their software development team to carry larger projects through to maturity.

Henry is a fourth year commerce and law student at Monash University. He is an aspiring consultant and a keen problem solver. Having interned in Deloitte’s Strategy and Operations service line, and currently the Managing Director of Impetus Consulting Group, a not-for-profit, student consultancy, he has had experience in streamlining organisational processes and working with social impact start-ups. He sees Cynapse as an opportunity to greatly enhance the class action landscape and ensure greater access to justice for group members.

Tobias’s career has spanned more than 25 years in the legal services sector, both in technical IT roles and senior finance roles. During this time he has also been a keen observer and voice for change as the evolving business environment is impacting the provision of legal services. Seizing an opportunity in life he has ventured into startup land, leveraging his insight in to the way that legal services are provided to develop solutions to help the legal services sector transform in the 21st Century.

Alastair Blenkin is a former MinterEllison property lawyer. Dissatisfied by the endless flow of high-volume retail/commercial leasing (a.k.a. “grunt work”) and spotting a gap in the legal-tech market for portfolio contract negotiation solutions, Alastair trusted his instincts and jumped out of the law and into start-up land.

For more than a decade I’ve built software applications and MVP prototypes for customers. I’ve done work on every major platform from web development & server code to desktop & mobile apps, databases, and embedded hardware. My expertise is in rapidly bringing customer ideas to fruition. I also sometimes help customers bootstrap their software development team to carry larger projects through to maturity.

Henry is a fourth year commerce and law student at Monash University. He is an aspiring consultant and a keen problem solver. Having interned in Deloitte’s Strategy and Operations service line, and currently the Managing Director of Impetus Consulting Group, a not-for-profit, student consultancy, he has had experience in streamlining organisational processes and working with social impact start-ups. He sees Cynapse as an opportunity to greatly enhance the class action landscape and ensure greater access to justice for group members.