Paul Levy, recruitment specialist at Jameson Legal Tech, joined us live this week and shared his perspective on the rapidly evolving legal technology recruitment market—a key area for legal professionals considering alternative career paths and firms seeking to modernise their operations. Drawing from his extensive experience spanning traditional legal services through Thomson Reuters and diverse legal tech ventures, Levy talked us through how to navigate this dynamic sector.
Legal Tech Recruitment
The legal technology recruitment space is a significant departure from traditional legal career pathways. As Levy explained, “There isn’t taxonomy in this legal tech space. It isn’t like you can follow the training contract… become an associate, you become an associate two or managing associate, then you become partner.” This absence of established career progression creates both challenges and opportunities for professionals entering the field.
Unlike conventional legal roles, legal tech positions often prioritise transferable skills over purely legal expertise. “A lot of the law firms and in-house legal teams specifically are looking for people that are not necessarily technical, not even necessarily with a legal background,” Levy noted. This approach reflects the industry’s recognition that innovation often comes from diverse perspectives and cross-industry experience.
Key Skills in Demand
According to Levy, the most valuable attributes for legal tech professionals centre on communication and problem-solving capabilities rather than technical expertise alone:
Communication and Translation Skills
The ability to bridge the gap between complex technical solutions and busy legal practitioners emerges as perhaps the most critical skill. “The main strength of what hiring managers are looking for these days are the ability to understand things, the ability to understand complex things, and being able to translate that into language that people who don’t understand the technicalities,” Levy emphasised.
This translation capability extends beyond mere technical communication to include stakeholder engagement, presentation skills, and the ability to “digest things and being able to present them in an easy, straightforward manner.”
Curiosity and Analytical Thinking
Professionals who can question established processes bring particular value to legal organisations. “The strength in depth comes from people who… look at things slightly differently that can bring that vision to the legal industry. Why are you doing it that way? Why do you have to do that? Can we not look at doing it this way?”
This questioning mindset proves essential in an industry historically resistant to change, where external perspectives can identify inefficiencies that internal practitioners might overlook.
Relationship Building and Inquiry
Effective legal technologists excel at asking the right questions to understand underlying challenges. “If you’re not asking the right questions, you’re not able to get the right information, which means you’re not then able to communicate clearly because maybe you don’t fully understand it,” Levy observed.
Opportunities for Law Graduates
The legal tech sector offers compelling alternatives for law graduates who may not wish to pursue traditional legal or partnership tracks. Levy regularly encounters graduates who say, “I’ve got this law degree… but actually I don’t want to become a practising lawyer. I don’t want that partner track. I don’t want to go down that route. What are my options?”
The answer increasingly lies in the expanding ecosystem of legal innovation roles within firms themselves. “There’s still so many opportunities and options now, particularly as… it isn’t just the IT department anymore of a law firm that provides alternative options. There’s all sorts of different divisions within the law firms now… thanks to the innovation teams, legal project management teams.”
However, Levy acknowledges the competitive nature of these opportunities: “There are legal tech grad schemes that people can do. It’s very tough. It’s very competitive, as you would imagine. And not everybody, not all law firms are doing that.”
The Remote Work Evolution and Regression
A particularly striking aspect of Levy’s observations concerns the apparent regression in flexible working arrangements post-pandemic. “I think we are going backwards,” he stated candidly, describing how many firms now mandate office attendance “two or three days a week with no flexibility on that.”
This shift creates significant challenges for talent acquisition, particularly given the high costs of commuting to major legal centres. “If it didn’t cost someone that lived… 50, 60, 70 pounds a day to get into London… plus the travelling time, it’s… a lifestyle issue.”
The implications extend beyond individual convenience to broader talent accessibility. “It’s costing opportunity for the candidates who don’t live in London. There is plenty of talent around the United Kingdom that could do this, could do a role if it’s on a remote or coming into the office once a fortnight kind of thing.”
Top Three Career Opportunities
When pressed to identify the most promising career paths for law graduates seeking alternatives to traditional practice, Levy highlighted three key areas:
1. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
“The obvious one… will be around AI, machine learning and programming, the various different models, training a particular tool to behave how it needs to behave for the solution that it’s gonna be embedded in.” This represents the most technically demanding path but offers significant growth potential as AI integration accelerates across legal services.
2. Legal Technologist Roles
These positions, encompassing various titles including “knowledge innovation specialist,” “innovation manager,” and “innovation specialist,” involve direct collaboration with legal practitioners to identify and solve operational challenges. “You go in, you sit down with lawyers, you build relationships, your stakeholder engagement, understand what challenges they have in delivering client matters, and then you go and figure out a way to help them to deliver a client matter in a much more streamlined and efficient way.”
3. Legal Operations
Primarily situated within in-house legal teams, legal operations roles focus on optimising internal processes and technology adoption. Levy notes that this area remains underdeveloped: “I still think that they’re nowhere. That side of the fence is still not where that needs to be either.”
Challenges and Future Outlook
The legal tech recruitment market faces several ongoing challenges. Decision-making processes within law firms remain complex and risk-averse, with unclear ownership of innovation initiatives creating lengthy procurement cycles. “No one wants to be the one that hangs their coat to the mast and says, actually I’ll make that decision… in case it backfires and ruins their reputation.”
Despite these challenges, the market continues expanding rapidly. The combination of client demand for efficiency, increased legal tech funding, and the fundamental transformation of legal service delivery creates substantial opportunities for professionals with the right skill sets.
Embrace the Evolution
The legal profession stands at a critical juncture where traditional practices meet technological innovation. As Levy concluded, the industry needs professionals who can navigate this intersection effectively: “Having an open mindset… is really important. Demonstrating we’re a very globalised world… we’re serving clients who are active all over the world. The curious mind is going to be one of the differentiators in the future.”
For law graduates and legal professionals considering alternative career paths, the legal tech recruitment market offers unprecedented opportunities. Success requires embracing curiosity, developing strong communication skills, and maintaining flexibility in an rapidly evolving landscape. Those who can effectively bridge the gap between legal expertise and technological innovation will find themselves at the forefront of the profession’s transformation.
The key lies not necessarily in deep technical knowledge, but in the ability to understand, communicate, and facilitate change within organisations that have historically resisted it. As the legal industry continues its digital transformation, these skills will only become more valuable, creating sustainable and rewarding career paths for those willing to embrace the evolution.
