LegalTechTalk 2026: Why the Best Legal Tech Demo is Rarely the Best Decision - Matthew Letts - E09

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.

0:58Hi everyone, welcome to the Legally Peaking podcast sponsored by Clio, recording live here at Legal Tech Talk 2026 in London and joining me is a fantastic guest. Please kindly introduce yourself, name, title and organisation.

1:13Matthew Letts:Great to be with you Rob, so I am Matthew Letts, I am the founder and CEO of Codified Strategy Limited. You absolutely are and you're doing a great job of building community, getting out there, coming to events. You and I have met at a few events recently over the course of this year. So it's great to have you and it's clear this year there's a big shift. Everyone is talking about transformation. Bradley Collins was touching on it in his opening of Legal Tech Talk 2026 here today. So in your view, what's the biggest shift happening in the legal industry right now that leaders can no longer afford to ignore?

1:45Matthew Letts:understanding that um clients are expecting law firms to be using technology and actually people are voting with their feet if they don't think their lawyers are tech enabled they will simply choose other lawyers yeah i think that's that's true isn't it i think there's been a bit of a grace period but now when you come to conferences like this you just look at the scale of legal tech talk how it's grown um over the course of the three years there's a real clear demand for and need and expectation. Okay, so we're here at Legal Tech Talk, one of the most influential events. They've announced, obviously, they're going to the US as well.

2:18What brought you specifically to Legal Tech Talk 2026 and what's been the biggest insight or conversation you've had? I appreciate you early into the session. So, yeah, what brought you here and any insights you've picked up already?

2:29Matthew Letts:Well, I think it's a sort of place for me to put myself on the map, so to speak. It's a startup business that I started, you know, I only first started from January this year and thought it's the leading UK legal tech conference. So if you're going to be in legal tech, you sort of have to be here, I think. And if you want to be part of the conversation, you've got to turn up. In terms of conversations, I think meeting Sophie best on the run that was sponsored by Harvey this morning was quite cool. Probably not the place I expected to meet her in person for the first time. But, yeah, it's not just the conference.

3:12Matthew Letts:It's the side events as well. And I'm really looking forward to meeting an awful lot more people that I know over the coming days and a lot of new people as well. Yeah, no, and we love Sophie. Sophie's been on the show. So, folks, I encourage you to go and check out her episode as well, which we recorded as part of our Legally on the Move series out in Dubai a couple of years back now. OK, let's talk about problems. You know, you spend your time at the forefront of the industry. You mentioned, obviously, you're a new player coming into the market. what's the legal problem or challenge you're most passionate about solving right now and why does it matter?

3:42Matthew Letts:I think enabling lawyers to make good choices when essentially procuring and buying technology. I think the market is somewhat noisy. I think there are a lot of people competing for attention and I think at some points that leads to over-promising and under-delivering and particularly for small or medium firms, they're not really in a position to get this wrong. They need to make the right decision the first time if they want to try and stay competitive. Yeah. And one thing that I've already picked up from the conference is the human impact, because we're obviously talking a lot about technology, automation, innovation, the AI wave.

4:26But if we get this right, what is the real human impact? How does that improve the life for lawyers, for legal teams, clients and overall society?

4:36Matthew Letts:I think that's a really good question. I think it's a question that leaders in all fields, so in politics and in corporates, need to decide upon. Because I think we have the greatest opportunity to increase productivity ever. But we need to decide what we do with the surplus, essentially, that we get from that. But, I mean, within the businesses that I run, Codify Strategy is one of those. All of my employees have a four-day, 32-hour work week because I think it's important, sort of, if you're evangelizing about the benefits of tech, that you need to practice what you preach and not, sort of, have people working 996 while saying how great these technologies are going to be for work-life balance.

5:20We talk a lot about tech for good on the show, and I absolutely agree with you. There's no point bringing these gains, these efficiencies and still putting people through the paces. You know, people have years gone by who have had to sacrifice family holidays, big moments, you know, all of these things. Let's give people that time back to have a balanced career, fulfilling career, but also have a life as well. OK, let's look forward. I know it's very hard to predict because things are changing daily, very much so in the world we live today. But what would seem completely obvious in 2030, say, that many legal professionals are still underestimating today?

5:56Matthew Letts:I think the number of clients that will be interacting almost entirely digitally. I think there will be clients who don't actually necessarily want or need a human touchpoint in a matter. That doesn't necessarily mean that lawyers need to be cut out of the loop because you can build and orchestrate systems that would allow you to offer those services. But I think lawyers perhaps overestimate how much clients want to talk to them some of the time versus them just wanting to get to a solution in the most speedy and cost-effective manner. Absolutely. And things have changed, won't they? So typically they would be used to the phone call or the interactions, but now actually with digitalization and smoother processes, improving the experience i think it will become more seamless and perhaps less touch points um okay if you had the attention of every law firm leader managing partner general counsel legal operations professional listening right now watching this what's one action they should take in the next 90 days to better prepare for the future one action if you haven't looked at and prepared your tech strategy or at least updated your tech strategy within the last 12 months my view is you basically don't have a tech strategy the position is moving so quickly the sand is moving but beneath people's feet you need to stay on top of this stuff if you want to remain relevant and competitive.

7:25Perfect okay and what's one belief that the legal profession legal technology or the future of law that you hold strongly that most people might disagree with?

7:35Matthew Letts:I think I believe that there will be a place for lawyers, but I think there is a prospect that private practice contracts much more significantly than others are expecting. I think that actually without innovation, that becomes almost an inevitability. Yeah, no, absolutely. Okay, a couple of closing questions. The Legal Speaking podcast is all about inspiring legal minds, transforming legal futures. So my question is this. What skill, mindset or behaviour do you believe will separate tomorrow's legal leaders from everyone else? Curiosity. I think curiosity and constructively challenging status quo.

8:20Matthew Letts:Love it. And finally, if people would like to learn more about you, your organisation, where can they find out more? Feel free to share any social media handles, any website links. We'll also share them with this special recorded episode live too. Great. Thanks, Rob. You can find me on LinkedIn, Matthew Letts, or you can visit codifiedstrategy.com and reach out to myself or Lorraine Jimger, who's joined the business today. Yeah, who's brilliant. Love Lorraine and love the interview. And it's been great having you. So thank you so much for joining me here live at Legal Tech Talk 2026 on the Leeds Bean podcast sponsored by Clio.

8:54But from all of us now, wishing you lots of continued success with your own career and entrepreneurial pursuits. But for now, 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.