17 PEOPLE OF THE EUROPEAN LEGAL TECH COMMUNITY YOU SHOULD FOLLOW ON TWITTER

By Nico Kuhlmann

Twitter can help you stay up to date of the current issues, events and publications. Of course, the prerequisite is to know whom to follow. The preparation of this list can be a time-consuming task. To give you guidance which lawyers, legal tech entrepreneurs and other members of the European legal tech community are at the centre of the conversation, we have put together a list of the 17 most influential people in European legal tech.

Whether you are looking to connect or just searching for inspiration, here is where you get started:

Simon Ahammer (@simmuc)

He is a lawyer, author, speaker and the head of internal software development at the German law firm Beiten Burkhardt. In brief: He is a legal tech innovation architect.

Marie Bernard (@marie_BER)

As a strategic advisor to Nextlaw Labs, Dentons’ innovation vehicle, Marie seeks out and develops internal and external ideas for new products, services or startups with potential applications in the legal sector. In addition, she seeks potential business partners in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Simply put: She is the voice of Nextlaw Labs in the EMEA region.

Maximilian Block (@BlockMaximilian)

Maximilian began to program his own websites at the age of 12. Later, he studied law and launched advocado, an online marketplace for lawyers and clients. In a few words: He loves legal tech.

Micha-Manuel Bues (@MMBues)

Micha is the managing director at Leverton, an intelligent information extraction and management platform. He has built a reputation in the field of legal tech and became a thought leader and regular keynote speaker in this area, inter alia by operating this blog. He also co-founded the “Bucerius Law Port” and is vice chairman of the European Legal Teach Association (ELTA). Simply put, he is passionate about digitalization.

Michael Friedmann (@michafriedmann)

Michael is a lawyer admitted to the German bar and the CEO of QNC GmbH, which includes 123recht.net (launched in 2000) and frag-einen-anwalt.de (debuted in 2004). He gives people instant access to legal services through do-it-yourself solutions or legal professionals. In short: He is a legal tech pioneer.

Jan Ginhold (@Jginhold)

Jan is the founder and CEO of CODUKA, which is the company behind the website geblitzt.de, Germany’s largest portal for the free examination of speeding fines and other related breaches of traffic rules. In short: He is actually doing legal tech.

Joanna Goodman (@JoannaMG22)

Joanna is a journalist, writer and editor. She writes columns, articles and features covering legal tech. Her regular columns are in the Law Society Gazette and The Guardian. In addition, she is the author of the upcoming book “Robots in Law – How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Legal Services”. In brief: She comments on legal tech on a regular basis.

Michael Grupp (@MichaGrupp)

Michael is an attorney specializing in international arbitration & commercial litigation, but chose to take a detour to the entrepreneurial and tech world. He co-founded Thesius, as well as the Legal Tech start-up Lexalgo. Michael publishes his thoughts on the changing legal profession and the world around it on his blog. Talk to him about digital health and why robots will take over soon.

Markus Hartung (@mchartung)

Markus Hartung is a lawyer and mediator as well as director of the Bucerius Center on the Legal Profession at Bucerius Law School, Hamburg. He has extensive experience in the management of law firms and is the co-editor as well as one the authors of the book “Der Rechtsmarkt in Deutschland” (The legal market in Germany). In brief: He knows what he is talking about.

Chrissie Lightfoot (@TheNakedLawyer)

Chrissie is an entrepreneur turned solicitor (non-practising) turned entrepreneur and CEO of EntrepreneurLawyer. Furthermore, she is the author of the bestselling NakedLawyer series and the No.1 best-connected woman in legal on LinkedIn. In sum, she is one of the world’s top women futurists.

Andreas Papp (@Andreas_Papp)

Andreas is a construction and real estate lawyer at a prestigious German law firm. In addition, he is a legal tech enthusiast and publishes frequently about this topic. In a few words: He is an expert for legal tech in the real estate sector.

Ivan Rasic (@Ivan_Rasic)

Ivan Rasic is the co-founder and CEO of LegalTrek. Moreover, he serves as a business mentor to Law Without Walls, a community of entrepreneurs, legal practitioners, law professors, and law students focused on innovation in the legal sector. To sum this up: He is helping the legal industry to reinvent itself.

Richard Susskind (@richardsusskind)

Professor Richard Susskind OBE needs no introduction. As a precaution only: He is an author, speaker, and independent adviser to major professional firms and to national governments. His main area of expertise is the future of professional service and, in particular, the way in which IT and the Internet are changing the work of lawyers. He has worked on legal technology for over 30 years. He lectures internationally, has written many books, and advised on numerous government inquiries. Simply put: He knew what is going on before anyone else did.

Sascha Theißen (@1digitalnative)

He leads the legal department of a leading international publishing group as Senior Vice President Legal / General Counsel. He is spending a lot of time working with the group’s digital businesses and introduced and implemented Kanban and agile methods. In brief: He is a digital native in the business world.

Richard Tromans (@ArtificialLawya)

Richard provides law firms with strategic advice as the founder of TromansConsulting. In addition, he runs the blog Artificial Lawyer, which is a news and views site dedicated to the area of advanced legal tech, especially any developments in artificial intelligence and automation of legal tasks. To sum it up: He has the consultants’ perspective.

Niek van de Pasch (@NiekvandePasch)

Niek is a Dutch lawyer, specializing in commercial contracts and insolvency. After being admitted to the bar, he was recognized as one of “35 under 35” (Dutch Lawyers‘ Monthly) and “8 to follow” (Wolters Kluwer Netherlands) for his views on legal innovation. A self-proclaimed legal nerd and trend watcher, Niek hopes to spread the joy of law through his numerous tweets and blog posts. In brief: He is the millennials’ voice in legal tech.

Hariolf Wenzler (@hariolf_wenzler)

He is managing complex services for more than 20 years. Hariolf Wenzler is the Chief Strategy Officer of Baker & McKenzie’s Germany and Austria offices and the chairman of the European Legal Tech Association (ELTA). Prior to this, he was CEO of Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany’s first private law school. In a few words: He is used to herding cats and showing the way.