Shaping the Future of Lawtech

Alexandra has extensive experience in designing, implementing and leading impactful digital transformation projects, and deep knowledge of the legal and tech sector.

During her time at LawtechUK, Alexandra has helped lead programmes that have supported the growth of over 100 lawtech startups and scaleups through the Lawtech Sandbox and leveraged £5.2m of in-kind contributions from cross-sector collaborators, as well as establishing a world first Regulatory Response Unit (RRU).

As Director, she is responsible for providing strategic direction (working closely with the LawtechUK Panel and Ministry of Justice), extensive stakeholder engagement and overall leadership of LawtechUK’s work programme.

Christina is Chair of the LawtechUK Panel and past President of the Law Society, among many other posts and responsibilities. Christina previously established and managed law firms, including one of the first virtual firms, and set up the first ABS with Cooperative Legal Services.

Christina is passionate about the role of technology to enable better legal services and systems, and is a committed advocate for equality in the sector. She is an award winning published author, speaker and lecturer and frequent media commentator. Christina chairs the Ethics Unit to be established as part of the Lawtech Sandbox, to provide practical guidance to those innovating in lawtech.

Prior to JUSTICE, Fiona was the Director of Access to Justice Policy, Ministry of Justice, a position she has held from July 2019. Her previously held positions include: Deputy Director for Legal Aid Policy, Justice and Courts Policy Group, Ministry of Justice; Deputy Director for Business Strategy and Design, Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service; National Crime Design Lead for Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service; Senior Leader for the Crown Prosecution Service.

Fiona worked as a specialist criminal barrister in the Chambers of Andrew Trollope QC, 187 Fleet Street. She has an LLB (Hons) in European Languages and Law from the University of the West of England and a Diploma in Law from the Inns of Court School of Law, London.

Fiona was the MoJ representative at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and represented UK Government at the UN for the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in Feb 2019.

Fraser pioneered legal diagnosis research in 2017 to bring about the use of NLP technologies for the automated and intelligent diagnosis of legal problems for and by consumers. He is the Founder at Legal Utopia, a UK start-up with a vision of a world where people everywhere feel empowered by technology to access the law and lawyers.

Fraser has also been to North America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia in his role, as well as worked closely with the Department of International Trade and Ministry of Justice in promoting Lawtech.

Natalie is Director of Research and Learning at The Legal Education Foundation – an independent grant making foundation with a portfolio of over 200 grants – where she leads work to better understand the ways in which people can be assisted to understand and use the justice system to secure their rights, protections and fair treatment. Her PhD explored the impact of cuts to civil legal aid on vulnerable individuals, focusing on the experience of Law Centres.

Natalie is passionate about improving public understanding of the legal system- in 2017 she was appointed to the BBC Expert Women Network and her research and writing have been featured in the Guardian, the New Statesman and the legal press. Natalie sits on the Administrative Justice Council and the Civil Justice Council’s Litigant in Person Engagement Group.

Peter pioneered the techno-legal development of smart contracts and currently leads Smart Agreements products at DocuSign.

Peter founded the first open-source project for smart legal contract software, the first smart legal contract technology company to be publicly acquired, and has advised various law and technology organisations, including the Law Commission of England and Wales.

He is a member of the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce and has co-edited the first volume dedicated to the topic of smart legal contracts, recently published by Oxford University Press.

Richard is the world’s most cited author on the future of legal services. He is President of the Society for Computers and Law, Chair of the Advisory Board of the Oxford Internet Institute, and, since 1998, has been Technology Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.

Richard has written ten books, his work has been translated into 18 languages and he has been invited to speak on lawtech in over 60 countries. In the 1980s, he wrote his doctorate on AI and the law at Oxford. Richard is a founding member of the Panel, having identified the opportunity for cross sector leadership in 2017. He chairs the LawtechUK Commercial Dispute Resolution Taskforce, focusing on online dispute resolution, and leads the development of Remote Courts Worldwide.

Sophia is a public policy and strategy expert with 20 years’ experience working across a number of sectors including the law, financial services, competition, consumer affairs, health care and immigration and asylum. She is currently the Global Head of Purpose and Impact at Simmons where she leads the firm’s international purpose programme.

Previously, Sophia was the Director of Policy and Regulation at the Law Society of England and Wales where she led on, amongst other things, all domestic law reform programmes, Access to Justice, and the future of legal services. In 2019 she led the ground-breaking Commission on the use of AI in the justice sector. She is a recognised author and regularly speaks on issues related to the rule of law, technology and AI, regulation, sustainability and policy. She is an independent adviser to LawtechUK, AIFC Legal Tech advisory group, and the Corporation of London Legal Tech Sounding Board, and of a number of advisory groups on related issues.

Tom is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Balliol College. Alongside industrial semiconductor design, Melham’s research interests include AI and technology in legal services and the justice system, and testing and evaluation of AI-based systems. At Oxford, he co-convenes a unique master’s level course in Law and Computer Science. This has led to the establishment of the practice-oriented Oxford LawTech Education Programme for professionals in law firms and government departments. He is the lead technical co-author of a landmark LawtechUK study on online dispute resolution for SMEs. Tom also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national institute for AI and data science.