Women in LegalTech: Fireside Conversation with Iravati Singh - Event Recap

Admin ILTN
6 days ago
3 min read

This month’s Women in LegalTech session under the Indian LegalTech Network (ILTN) featured a candid conversation with Iravati Singh, whose experience across corporate advisory, in-house legal operations, and law firm innovation offered a grounded view of how LegalTech actually works in practice.

The discussion examined the real mechanics of LegalTech careers in India — how roles are shaped, why adoption often fails, and what skills are becoming indispensable as legal teams increasingly interact with technology.

LegalTech Careers Are Built in Ambiguity, Not Job Descriptions

One of the session’s strongest insights was that LegalTech roles in India are still being defined — often after people step into them. Iravati shared that many roles, including her own, began without clear boundaries or expectations. What mattered more than a fixed job description was the ability to operate in ambiguity, take ownership, and build structure where none existed.

Her experience — spanning a traditional corporate role at TCS, followed by a hands-on LegalTech function at Angel One, and now a law firm innovation team — reinforced a key point: career progression in LegalTech is rarely linear. It is shaped by experimentation, elimination, and learning what kind of work environment allows you to think, influence, and build.

Why LegalTech Adoption Fails (and What Actually Works)

A recurring theme throughout the session was that LegalTech adoption is not a technology problem — it is a mindset and workflow problem.

Iravati emphasized that most modern tools are already user-friendly. Resistance emerges because lawyers are time-constrained, overburdened, and wary of anything that feels like “one more thing” to learn. Adoption slows when technology adds cognitive load instead of removing it.

From her experience implementing tools end-to-end, three patterns consistently enabled adoption:

Visible, immediate value: Tools must clearly reduce time spent on daily tasks — not promise long-term efficiency in abstract terms.
Influential early adopters: Training a few trusted individuals within teams creates organic pull, where adoption spreads laterally rather than being forced.
Top-down mandates: Without leadership backing, even the best tools fail to scale. Authority provides the cover needed to overcome inertia.

In-House vs Law Firms: Same Principles, Different Realities

Another key insight was the contrast between in-house legal teams and law firms.

In-house environments, Iravati noted, are often easier spaces for LegalTech adoption. Legal teams there are already support functions and are directly accountable to business outcomes. Technology that improves visibility, tracking, or turnaround time is quickly understood as value-creating.

Law firms, however, operate with more stakeholders, stronger traditions, and longer decision cycles. This does not make them anti-technology — but it does mean innovation must be process-driven, patient, and politically aware. Understanding internal power dynamics and decision pathways becomes as important as evaluating the tool itself.

The Rise of the “Bridge Role” in Legal Teams

Looking ahead, Iravati highlighted the growing importance of hybrid LegalTech roles — professionals who understand law, technology, and operations well enough to connect them meaningfully.

As firms and in-house teams adopt more tools, the absence of a dedicated owner leads to shelfware and wasted spend. A single point person (or team, in larger organisations) becomes critical to:

manage adoption and training
demonstrate ROI
translate between lawyers, technologists, and leadership

This “bridge role,” she noted, is quickly becoming non-negotiable.

Final Thoughts

The session made one thing clear: LegalTech success is not driven by tools alone, but by people who can navigate complexity, earn trust, and design solutions around real workflows.

For those building careers in LegalTech, the message was clear: don’t wait for perfectly defined roles or ideal systems. Focus on solving real problems, earning trust through delivery, and creating impact within ambiguity — because that is where LegalTech careers are truly built.