LegalTechTalk 2026: How In-House Teams are Adopting Legal Tech Globally - Manuel Mesquita - E12

0:00What happens when the brightest minds in legal, technology and innovation come together to shape the future of our profession? Welcome to the Legally Speaking Podcast Legal Tech Talk 2026 miniseries. As the UK's number one legal podcast and show ranked in the top 1 % of podcasts globally, we're delighted to be returning as the official media partner for Legal Tech Talk for the third time. Having supported this event since the beginning, we've witnessed firsthand how it has become Europe's largest legal technology conference, bringing together the people, ideas and innovations transforming the legal industry.

0:37Across this special series, we'll be speaking with some of the world's leading legal professionals, founders, technologists, change makers to explore what's next for law. Because our mission remains the same, inspiring legal minds, transforming legal futures. Let's get into it.

0:59Welcome to the Legally Speaking podcast recording live here from Legal Tech Talk 2026 in London. Joining me now, a very special guest. Please kindly introduce yourself.

1:10Manuel Mesquita:Name, title and organization. Well, thank you so much for receiving me, Rob. So my name is Manuel Mosquita. I'm the CEO of a consultant company called MM Legal. Well, MM stands for Manuel Mosquita. So I created this company because I think that today when we look at the legal law tech reality, we see a true gap between the softwares themselves and the implementation that needs to be done in organizations, either legal departments or law firms. And that goes much more than just making the implementation of the software and telling who should be using it, workflows, procedures, is much more about how to make these softwares more efficient as possible and to have the ethics, the professionalism regarding the use of these softwares to be there present.

2:05Manuel Mesquita:I've been participating in lots of conferences as a speaker and in all of them I always have a clear message that is forget AI. This is a mode, this is a vibe, this will go on. What's really important is to have your teams on a mindset open to change and that they can not only participate on the change, but be true partners of this change. So do not impose these softwares to them, but ask them to participate in what is the priority, what will make the change of that legal department or law firm. That's why for me the focus should be really on the mindset of the teams and that's why I'm also a member of ELTA and now I'm on the board of the consultancy of the Portuguese Legal Tech Association.

2:59Manuel Mesquita:and I think that we hear our peers that are present here on Legal Tech Talks that are persons that are more motivated to what's going on, to the implementation of softwares using artificial intelligence. We should have a priority role on how do we want legal departments, how do we want organizations to be involved on this change that, as I meant, it's not artificial intelligence, is this change for the future, how to prepare the teams for this present revolution with artificial intelligence, but for future revolutions to come, and how can we stay true to our core values regarding law, as justice, access to justice, ethics, responsibility, and how can we have a true presence of these values on what's going on and prepare these teams to be focused that we are not just there to implement eight softwares, we are there to be true to ourselves and to these values.

4:08And it's great work that you're doing. And obviously, we've been connected through the Alto Association, Maritza, who's a previous guest alumni on the show. Just a couple of questions. There's a big shift, isn't there? and everyone's talking about transformation this year. In your view, what's the single biggest shift that's happening in the legal industry that people can no longer afford to ignore?

4:28Manuel Mesquita:For me, and this is my professional experience, is that we have today a gap that is going to have very, very bad consequences. We have in one side legal departments that know that law firms are reducing the costs, they are reducing the teams because they are becoming more and more efficient because they are using very efficient softwares, notably using AI. So legal departments are saying, OK, so our costs are going to reduce with external lawyers because the invoices are going to be reduced. It's not happening. And on the other side, we have law firms that are making investments on these softwares using financial methods like ROI, return on investments.

5:15Manuel Mesquita:but the assumption is that the revenues will be the same. So for law firms, it's reducing costs but having the same revenues. And for legal department is, whoa, but so the profit is staying all in legal departments. So today, legal departments are more and more saying, so if is that the case that law firms are not reducing the invoices that they are sending to us, so we will reduce the services that we are asking to external lawyers and we will have those softwares for ourselves. Not only softwares that we need like CLMs, but legal research, generative AI to produce drafts of agreements. So all kinds of legal tax.

6:03Manuel Mesquita:Legal departments today, they are taking the decision saying if a lot of law firms are not reducing their invoices, so we are reducing the services that are required for them. And this is going to have consequences, serious ones. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think it's important that we highlight these points. And I guess while we have the attention then, before I let you go, imagine every law firm leader, managing partner, general counsel, legal operations professional is watching and listening to this podcast. What's one action they should take in the next 90 days to better prepare for the future?

6:35Manuel Mesquita:One action. I would say talk to your clients and share the efficiency that you are having today with them. otherwise you will lose them. Thank you very much. If people want to know more about yourself, your organization's work that you're doing, where's the best place for them to go? Feel free to share any social media handles. At LinkedIn, so Manuel Mesquita, my profile. I'm based in France, but I'm present in France, Belgium, Portugal. But so the best entrance is LinkedIn, Manuel Mesquita, and that's my profile. Just needs me to say thank you so much for joining me live here at Legal Tech Talk 2026.

7:11from all of us on the LeadsBeak Podcast sponsored by Cleo. Over and out. Thank you for listening to this week's episode. If you like the content here, why not check out our world leading content and collaboration of the Legally Speaking Club over on Discord. Go to our website, www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com. There's a link to join our community there. Over and out.