Shruti Ajitsaria, Head of Fuse at Allen & Overy, talks about the tech innovation space she is heading up and her own personal interest in technological innovation within the legal sector.
The connection between law and technology is suddenly undeniable; particularly over the last year, we have become accustomed to seeing lawyers around the world turn their attention to the question of how harnessing tech solutions can help them better serve their clients. There is no doubt that it will revolutionise the way the legal sector works and it obviously presents a huge opportunity.
As a derivatives lawyer at Allen & Overy, I have seen first-hand how technology can make a difference. MarginMatrix™, our digital derivatives compliance system, represents a different way of tackling the mind-boggling challenge of the new rules relating to these products. MarginMatrixTM is in essence a machine that allows the parties to specify their preferred options for their contract within a pre-defined set of parameters. The technology automatically matches those parameters to the relevant regulation to ensure they are fully compliant and then spits out the contract at the touch a button. This process enables the production of contracts at massive scale, and fundamentally changes the role of the lawyer in their production: rather than drafting each contract individually, the lawyer effectively designs the machine.
For an organisation like A&O, providing legal advice on a global scale, having a suite of tech solutions at our fingertips is vital. Clients want to know that there are smarter, more efficient ways of doing business. It is this that has prompted the launch of Fuse, our new tech innovation space. Our vision is that in Fuse, tech companies, A&O lawyers, technologists and our clients will collaborate in a specially-designed area within our London offices to explore, develop and test legal, regulatory and deal-related solutions.
If you would like to be part of Fuse, please access our application form by 12 June at this link.
