Transforming with Legal Tech Podcast Episode 1: Hong Kong Innovation

Thomson Reuters is pleased to launch a new podcast series on transforming with legal technologies. For episode one, Polly Poon, Senior Proposition Manager - Legal Tracker, Thomson Reuters Asia and Emerging Markets, spoke with two special guests based in Hong Kong.

Polly welcomed Sebastian Ko and Elizabeth Beattie on the program, who both have demonstrated their passion for innovative legal developments in the region. Sebastian is a ‘legal tech’ entrepreneur and chairs the InnoTech Law Hub of the Law Society of Hong Kong. He is legally qualified in Hong Kong and the U.S, and has practiced in Magic Circle and Am Law 100 firms. 

Meanwhile, Elizabeth is a Hong Kong-based journalist at Thomson Reuters, covering policy changes, legal tech and market developments for Asian Legal Business. Prior to working for Thomson Reuters, Elizabeth reported for the Guardian, Sunday Telegraph, SBS and Al Jazeera.

Podcast show notes

5 critical drivers of innovation

Taking a close look at the local state of Hong Hong in respect of innovation drivers in the legal sector, Sebastian shared some industry insights during the discussion. In September 2019, the Law Society conducted an innovation value chain survey to take the pulse on the innovation priorities of the 11,000 solicitors and registered foreign lawyers in Hong Kong. Sebastian discussed his favourite insights from the survey, including the five critical drivers of innovation experienced by private practitioners.

“There are five critical drivers for innovation. Productivity and operational efficiency, work quality, risk management and cost and budget control in decreasing order of importance. These were shared by in house lawyers. But interestingly, competitive edge, team coordination and management outranked risk management. Plus, cost control factors like client demand, talent retention market growth were identified priorities, but not critical,” said Sebastian. 

Legal landscape in Hong Kong 

Polly invited Sebastian to weigh in on the unique legal industry in Hong Kong, to contextualise it in comparison to other jurisdictions. In response, he said:

“The [Hong Kong] legal profession tends to be a bit conservative and it's quite reserved when it comes to trying out new tech or other innovations. But we are seeing interesting changes among the first movers, which unsurprisingly tend to be the international firms and legal departments and global banks and tech companies. 

“Hong Kong has about 930 law firms. Nearly 89% of them are small, medium-sized firms with five partners or less. These firms generally don't have access to in-house IT professionals and have a very small IT budget. 

A lot of work is yet to be done on basic building block projects such as digital transformation and going paperless campaigns. How to to doc [document] management easier, take the friction out of the file tagging and data reuse. Well, these are key steps for more advanced technologies like machine learning and natural language processing,” said Sebastian. 

What does innovation mean to you?

As this session’s podcast host, Polly had a particular interest in the concept of innovation, in how it is subjective to interpretation. Polly queried Elizabeth on the topic, as well as asking how innovation can play out among firms and organisations. 

“I think this is a really interesting one. For many law firms. Innovation does mean technology, but it can also mean adopting new ways of thinking or working as well. For some law firms, innovation is about new types of hiring, putting greater focus on D&I [diversity and inclusion] changing the physical space of the offices, or perhaps it comes in the form of offering staff new types of training. 

When I think of innovation within law firms, it's often...