Laetitia Jacquier is one of those legal entrepreneurs who encountered pain points in her first career as a lawyer that she now helps to solve. To do so, she undertakes many projects, such as co-development workshops focused on legal innovation or her podcast Du Vent sous la robe.
Meeting with a multidisciplinary entrepreneur.
Legal innovation: deciphering and examples
Presentation by Laetitia Jacquier
Passionate about law in general and innovation in particular, Laetitia left her job as a lawyer after 6 years in public law to join the entrepreneurial adventure. To do so, she first decided to follow a distance learning course in Legal innovation and technology (Suffolk University) with the idea of wanting to learn more about issues related to innovation in the legal sector.
A few months later, Laetitia created her podcast Du Vent sous la robe, in which she interviews innovative legal actors, lawyers, magistrates, legaltech entrepreneurs, innovation consultants, developers, managers of innovative training courses and legal designers. This wind under the lawyers' robes is an image to describe that a new breath, the one of innovation, is diffused in the legal environment. We interviewed him precisely on this subject.
Why did you create the Wind Under the Dress podcast?
The idea is to inspire by example. And to show that things can be done differently in the legal world: to inform and above all to demystify innovation, which is often perceived as a mountain, too far removed from the practice of lawyers.
Last November, I also created, as a continuation of the podcast, co-development workshops, to help lawyers and legal professionals find innovative solutions to their professional problems.
Podcast and law are a good duo according to you, can you explain why?
The podcast is one of the most flexible media: you can listen to it on the move, in the car, while playing sports... You can listen to part of an episode and come back to it later. This media fits well in a very busy life, with a 200 km/h pace, like the one of lawyers!
The podcast can allow legal professionals to position themselves as experts on a subject and give them a certain visibility. This media allows you to create a link with your audience. It is a good way to create a real link with potential clients or partners! In terms of brand image, it is quite offbeat and impactful.
And last but not least, the podcast also allows you to meet many guests, and to learn from their interviews and feedback.
Also read: interview with the podcaster behind the microphone "Charlotte's Diary"🎙️
Can you give us some examples of legal innovations that you have mentioned in your podcast?
Legal design
I will first mention legal design, i.e. having a client or user-centered approach. This includes developing offers or services that meet the needs of clients, but also the way legal content is presented. The idea is to stop "knocking out" customers with "indigestible" legal information.
All of this applies both to the legal language, which must be clear, and to the format: consultations and other legal documents must be presented in a more engaging format (for example, an infographic, a table, slides, a diagram, a time line, etc.). There is no standard format and it is important to think about what will be the most useful and impactful for the client.
Innovation in communication
This is about exploring other, less traditional formats for communication. One example is the lawyer Karine de Luca, who has created her own firm and a podcast called Parlons divorce avec Granvelle. Among lawyers, I believe she is the first to have created a podcast for clients or prospects.
This podcast was created to provide verified information to potential clients. It offers both legal and practical information on the couple, separation, domestic violence, and also explains the course of the procedure, and for example how a hearing takes place.
Karine de Luca has also created a video channel "Sens et émotions" on family conflicts, which proposes tutorials in which children help, with humor, their parents to manage their divorce.
Legal reasoning modeling, artificial intelligence and machine learning
In the legal world, it is often said that legal reasoning is so complex that it cannot be automated. However, in other fields, artificial intelligence and machine learning have allowed very important advances in the resolution of complex problems.
In the field of law, it is now possible to automate part of the reasoning and legal expertise thanks to artificial intelligence and machine learning, to create chatbots for example, but not only.
It is to be hoped that modern technologies will find many applications in the field of law in the future.
💡 Also read: How does artificial intelligence work in contract management?
Innovation in legal departments
At Ubisoft, a Legal Innovation Team of five people has been created, including a designer and a developer. The goal? To accelerate the digitalization of the legal department. I imagined an episode with two members of this team and Emilie Letocart-Calame, a former legal director who is now an innovation consultant for legal departments. Another episode gives an overview of the innovations implemented in eight legal departments.
What do you think of the French legaltech landscape?
It depends on the subject. The automation of acts and the robotization of contracts, for example, have developed well, and I have the feeling that these innovations are arousing growing interest. The same goes for practice management tools or digital tools that make the daily life of lawyers easier.
On the other hand, innovation is more timid in all areas related to litigation. For example, there are not many initiatives that save time in drafting pleadings, i.e. the documents that are filed with the courts in the context of an appeal. There is a nice project that is currently in beta test, Replick, which aims to help lawyers build an optimal legal argument. But it would be nice if legaltech could develop more in this area.
In general, I would say that there are a lot of great innovation initiatives in the legal field. They have not necessarily all found their market yet, but I am rather optimistic about the future, it is a journey and change always takes time. The more legal professionals take up these subjects, the more innovation will flourish and meet their needs!
- The use of technological tools to save time and modernize the practice of law.
- Legal search engines that offer advanced features.
- Predictive" justice.
- Propose innovative offers and adopt a marketing and digital strategy to differentiate yourself.
- Innovate in customer relations.
💡 Also read: State of the art of French legaltech
You have created co-development workshops focused on legal innovation. In concrete terms, how do they work?
It is an innovative training approach that brings together a small group of people (usually between 4 and 10) working in the same profession and facing common professional issues.
The workshops are based on interactions between participants, and on learning from others through the sharing of experiences. In concrete terms, this is how it works: a participant presents his or her problem, the whole group helps, advises and guides him or her, according to their expertise, so that at the end, an action plan is defined and can be activated.
The roles change with each session so that everyone has the opportunity to present their issues. But regardless of the role played during the session, everyone learns from themselves and from others. Especially since the problems of others may, if not already the case, become your own one day. So, having participated in a co-development session is like anticipating and saving time for the future.
In a second phase, after the co-development session itself, tools, work methods or innovative models are presented to all participants to enrich their innovation culture.
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