LegalTechTalk Uncovered 2025 - Elena Tsalanidis - E08

0:00Elena Tsalanidis:Welcome to the Legally Speaking Podcast Legal Tech Talk Uncovered Miniseries 2025 sponsored by Clio. We're back with our red mic for a behind the scenes series all about legal innovation at Europe's largest legal tech event. So we're granted access to meet some of the greatest speakers, sponsors, brands in the whole legal tech world. We've got 300 speakers with over 70 sessions with over 4 ,000 attendees from all across the globe hitting us here over the next two days at Legal Tech Talk live in London. From AI to access to justice to smart compliance, you name it, we're covering it all. This isn't just another conversation or another conference.

0:41Elena Tsalanidis:It's a blueprint for community and transformation. So buckle up. We're speaking with some incredible people about policy change, change makers, legal innovation, and so much more over and out. Welcome to the Legally Speaking podcast, Legal Tech Talk live from London, and I am joined by name, title, and organization. Hi, I'm Eleanor Salonidis. I am the co-founder of Diligence. We are an AI-powered platform that helps corporate lawyers deliver diligence projects in half the time and more accurately. In one sentence, how would you describe the main pain point you are trying to solve in the overall world of legal?

1:23Diligence is an absolute nightmare. From the moment a lawyer gets a trove of documents in a data room through to the client report, we make that seamless, simple, and quick.

1:35Elena Tsalanidis:Love it. Fantastic answer. Okay. And you've had some huge news recently, and it's great that you've come all the way over from Australia. Do you want to tell us a bit about your journey and some of the recent milestones you've hit? Sure. So we're really present in the Australia and New Zealand market. We help corporate lawyers there. My co-founder and I have both practiced and worked in the UK, and so we're super excited to bring our business and wins that we have from Asia Pacific here because we have heard about our UK counterparts still suffering in diligence processes with the administrative nightmare that exists and we can deliver lots of value and assistance, especially on the project management side, as well as the artificial intelligence.

2:15Elena Tsalanidis:Yeah, love it. Okay. And have you been to any sessions while you've been here? Have you taken part in any sessions? Give us a bit of your story of Legal Tech Talk. I loved a session I attended on law firm adoption of tools. And so this is something that keeps me up at night, you can build an amazing solution. Will lawyers use it? Is it simple, intuitive, easy to use? Our thesis is it must be or else it will become shelfware. So I love hearing from law firm leaders around how they ensure that tech is really readily adopted and adopted well in a firm. That's what I really enjoyed. Yeah. And I talk a lot about this.

2:50Elena Tsalanidis:If you confuse people, you lose people and ultimately overwhelm and then nothing happens. You're absolutely right. Keep it simple. Okay. This year's theme of Legal Tech Talk have been law and tech, evolution revolution access to justice purpose-driven law uh collaboration smart compliance of those is there one that speaks loudest to you and if so why oh you threw a lot at me just then would it maybe be law and tech for you i think it's probably law and tech i think the other word that really jumped out was collaboration yeah so especially for us a diligence exercise often involves a bunch of different specialist teams.

3:27And we hear a lot that that process is like herding cats. And so making sure a team collaborates better, you know, might not be as sexy as AI, but it's still super necessary to get work done more efficiently. So I would say collaboration as well, Robin.

3:40Elena Tsalanidis:Yeah, no, I love that. Okay. And in terms of conferences, you've come all the way over from Australia to be here. What surprised you most about Legal Tech Talk? Oh, I think the depth of insights in the sessions, the amount of talent all in one space, the networks of folks, some new friends, some old friends. It's just such a great place to connect with people and chat about the things that are at the forefront of our industry. And honestly, it's super energizing. I remember being a lawyer and I don't think, I mean, that was a little while ago, but I think so much has changed for the better. And so many people, me, other founders, law firms even, are thinking about how we deliver legal services better.

4:22And it's something I'm so excited to be a part of.

4:24Elena Tsalanidis:Yeah, no, absolutely. And it's been an incredible experience. And I guess if there's some learnings you've taken away from here, what will they be? Ooh, so many. Yeah. Know your customer, know the problem that you solve, and be super judicious about how you alleviate their pain. So we touched on design before. I think that's table stakes, right? So we're all iPhone native users. We all expect beautiful design, a product that just radically changes your life. And so that's the sorts of things that I think about in the product that we deliver for our customers. How do we make this experience so seamless, so beautiful?

5:04So yeah, it's an exciting time for sure.

5:07Elena Tsalanidis:Yeah, no, absolutely. And let's fast forward five years. I know it's a long time, particularly in the AI tech world that we live. But what will clients expect from legal services that they don't get today in five years time? Sure. So I can speak about the context around legal due diligence, because it's probably the thing that I know most. I think in five years time, and this is a bit of a hot take, I don't think that due diligence will be delivered in the same way that it is delivered now. I think it is a race to the bottom. It's a relatively non-differentiated exercise. So it's, for want of a better word, box ticking exercise.

5:44It's important. It needs to happen. But there is a lot of efficiencies to be made. And so I think in five years, you're going to see very, very light touch, if not no lawyer involvement in due diligence. We will have systems and AI processes to improve that process. And so I am cautiously optimistic that this tech like ours and the evolution of AI will drastically revolutionize due diligence.

6:11Elena Tsalanidis:And that is a great way to perhaps close on what is exciting times, I think, over the coming years. And it's great that you're coming to places like this. But if people want to know more about your company or get in touch with you, are there any special websites or social media handles? Feel free to shout them out. We'll also share them in this episode for you too. Sure. So if you are a corporate M &A lawyer who does due diligence or even a specialist who does diligence, please reach out. It's www.deligence.com, D-E-E-L, diligence, or else team at diligence.com is our email address. Perfect. Well, it's been an absolute blast doing this with you live at Legal Tech Talk.

6:49Elena Tsalanidis:Wishing you lots of continued success. But for now, from all of us on the show, 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 hub, The Legally Speaking Club, over on Discord. Go to our website, www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com, for the link to join our community there. Over and out.