Waymaker Wednesday: Women in LegalTech – Meet Pallavi Pareek
- Admin ILTN
- Jul 3
- 4 min read
With over two decades of experience spanning organisational development, workplace governance, investigations, and technology, Pallavi has dedicated her career to helping institutions build safer, fairer, and more accountable workplaces. Her work sits at the intersection of law, systems thinking, and organisational change, driven by a belief that technology should not simply automate processes, but strengthen decision-making and trust. At present, she is building Ungender, a LegalTech company that helps organisations strengthen workplace safety, governance, and redressal through technology, enabling these systems to scale effectively across large and diverse workforces.
Beyond her professional work, Pallavi is an avid reader whose curiosity spans disciplines, cultures, and centuries. She is also an active member of Bangalore's animal rescue community, volunteering as a neonatal kitten foster while continuing to deepen her practice as a trained Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga teacher. We spoke with her about the ideas that shape her work, the advice that has stayed with her throughout her career, and why building better institutions remains at the heart of everything she does.
Here’s a peek into her world:
1. What inspired you to join the Women in LegalTech community?
I have spent most of my career working at the intersection of law, organisational culture, and workplace safety. Over the years, I realized that many of the problems I encountered were not failures of law. They were failures of systems.
Technology has the potential to make good processes more accessible, consistent, and scalable. It can help institutions make better decisions, reduce barriers to reporting, and strengthen trust in governance. That's what drew me to LegalTech, and communities like Women in LegalTech are exciting because they bring together people who are asking not just how we can digitise legal work, but how we can use technology to build stronger institutions.
2. If you could solve one problem in the legal world (or beyond) with technology, what would it be?
I would want to help institutions make better decisions. Many failures are rarely the result of a missing law or policy, they stem from inconsistent processes, fragmented information, and the sheer complexity of making fair decisions involving people. I don't think technology should replace human judgment, but I do think it can strengthen it: better access to information, fewer administrative bottlenecks, more consistent and evidence-based decision-making.
3. What’s one book, podcast, or resource that’s made a big impact on how you think about work or life?
I don't think I can point to a single book. If anything has shaped me, it's the habit of reading widely and resisting the urge to stay within one discipline.
My bookshelves don't make much sense, and that's exactly how I like them. An obscure academic book on advanced palm reading by a Russian practitioner sits next to a work on behavioural neuroscience. Premchand and Mahadevi Verma share shelf space with Korean and Japanese literature, regional Indian autobiographies, constitutional thought, and feminist writing. One month I might be reading Behave by Robert Sapolsky; the next, Godaan, or Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, or a forgotten memoir from a small town in India.
What draws me to all of them is the same question. How do people make sense of the world they inhabit, and how do the institutions they build, in turn, shape them? Reading across disciplines and eras has made me more comfortable with complexity, more skeptical of simple answers, and constantly curious about perspectives unlike my own.
4. Outside of work, what’s something you’re passionate about or love spending time on?
Outside work, you'll most likely find me with my pets or spending time with the incredible rescue community at Bangalore Cat Squad, where I volunteer as a neonatal kitten foster. Caring for newborn, abandoned kittens is equal parts science, instinct, teamwork, and hope. It has also connected me with some of the most compassionate and selfless people I know.
I'm also a trained teacher of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and currently spend time refining my own practice. Yoga, much like fostering, reminds me that meaningful progress rarely comes from force. It comes from consistency, attention, and learning to stay present through uncertainty.
Both have become important counterbalances to the intensity of my professional life.
5. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received as a woman in your career journey?
Interestingly, the advice that has stayed with me wasn't given to me as a woman. It was given to me as a young professional by my mentor, Gil Jocson.
He told me, "Knowledge will help you win any room, any argument, and almost any challenge."
I was around 19 when I first heard that, and it has stayed with me ever since. It taught me to invest in substance over appearances, preparation over performance, and learning over certainty. Whether I'm speaking in a boardroom, advising an Internal Committee, or building a company, that advice has remained my anchor.
6. If you weren’t working in Law/LegalTech, what’s another path you could totally see yourself in?
That's an interesting question because I never set out to build a career in law. My academic foundation was in organisational development and change, and I've always been fascinated by how systems evolve and what enables institutions to function well over time.
In many ways, that curiosity is what eventually led me to the world of law. I realised that governance sits at the intersection of people, systems, culture, and accountability, and that legal frameworks are one of the most powerful ways societies translate values into practice.
Had I not found my way into LegalTech, I suspect I would have been working in organisational research, public policy, or institutional design. The domain might have been different, but the questions would have remained the same.
Pallavi's journey reflects how thoughtful leadership, technology, and governance can come together to create workplaces built on trust and accountability. She continues to champion solutions that place people at the centre of innovation, shaping systems that are not only more efficient, but also more equitable and resilient.
Are you a woman shaping the future of legal tech? We’d love to hear your story. Our Women in LegalTech community is a space to connect, inspire, and spark conversations that matter. Click here