LegalTechTalk 2026: The Talent Behind Legal Growth - David Woolstencroft - E15

0:00David Woolstencroft:What 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.

0:37David Woolstencroft:Across 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.

1:23David Woolstencroft:because you were here last year as well. Just tell people and folks about your show and where you've travelled from as well. Yeah, so we've actually come all the way from Sydney, Australia, to come to the show. It's been an amazing show. We've, you know, 23 hours, as you do, that sort of stuff. It's been fun, a lot of fun. Met a lot of new people, saw some old friends and things. It's been great. And how do you approach a conference like this as a media partner and what do you hope to get out of it? I think some of it's actually serendipity. Some of the people you'll actually meet in the lift and some people who just meet that just come along into your stand and have a chat to you.

1:54But I think for us it's about telling the stories, like telling people's stories. They're really focused on, you know, what are people's journeys? What are they doing now? What do they see in the future? So that's really what we're looking at from our point of view. So for us it's been a bunch of great stories and meeting some great people.

2:11David Woolstencroft:And in terms of any trends or builds from last year when you were here, in terms of the conversations, what are some of the insights you've picked up and anything change from 2025 to 2026 in the legal tech space? I feel that AI has just become so much more of a mainstream, or it's most of the conversation people are actually having now. And not just larger firms, but also smaller firms as well. There's sort of this feeling of FOMO out there about AI. You know, if we're not doing it, you know, what are we going to do? How do we actually get involved? Like, what products should we look at and things?

2:42And if you look on the floor as well, there's a lot of folks that are actually playing the AI space.

2:46David Woolstencroft:Yeah, absolutely. and in terms of your favourite interview or favourite guest have you had one of those over the two years or this year in particular? It's actually, it's funny there's so many people you talk to that actually give stories but I actually, I love the stories where people sort of wander up and they're actually they'll give you insight and you think wow, really unexpected stories, we've had people who have general counsels who've actually sat there and told us stories about where they've worked around the world and things like that and the different projects they've been involved in and some of the insights, they're really clever really clever folks.

3:17David Woolstencroft:Yeah, absolutely. And in terms of looking forward, will you be at any other events this year? Where can people find out more about you? Fantastic, Rob. Thanks. I mean, we're going to be at the Ulster event this year. So we're going off to Nashville, which will be fantastic. We're looking forward to that. And yeah, it'd be great. I mean, we've got a site on LinkedIn, people are legal. Fantastic. But thank you so much. We're inspired by the work you do. No, and in collaboration is domination. And if people want to feature on your show or apply to come on your show, how can they do that? What's the best place and way for it to be good?

3:47David Woolstencroft:If they actually message us on LinkedIn, that's probably the easiest way to do it. But it's fantastic. Thanks again, Rob. Absolute pleasure. Good to have you. Brilliant. Thanks. 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. Oberyn out!