ALTA was proud to host the Sydney and Melbourne legs of the Legal Geek Around The World Tour, in collaboration with Macquarie Bank, Nextlaw Ventures and Janders Dean.

In 2016, Jimmy Vestbirk, Founder of Legal Geek, invited ALTA President Stevie Ghiassi and the Legaler team to exhibit at their annual conference in London. This time around, it was Jimmy visiting Australia’s shores and it was only fitting that ALTA was able to return the favour by hosting the fastest-growing legal community on their visit down under.

It was a sight to behold to have so many ‘legal geeks’ in the one room, from barristers to developers, and everyone in between. It was a fantastic chance for all to discuss their passion for legal tech and share ideas over some pizza and cold drinks.

The event also included the Sydney and Melbourne heats of the Legal Geek World Tour pitch competition, with teams being given 3 minutes to showcase their startups. The competition welcomed all types, from students to some self-professed “caged software developers”.

Though judges were impressed by the consistent high standard of all pitches, ALTA is very proud to announce that Tim and Fiona Kirkman from LawSwitch and Team Anika have been announced as the winners of the global competition after winning their respective heats in Sydney and Melbourne. LawSwitch took out the top spot and have been awarded a travel grant to the Legal Geek Annual Conference in London. On their win, CEO of Nextlaw Ventures Dan Jansen said “we are thrilled to have Law Switch join us at the Legal Geek Conference later this year. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for this promising startup.”

The young team of lawyers in Team Anika won the runners up position. These fantastic results, and the excellent pitches of all teams, are a testament to the quality of the Australian legal tech scene. To find out more about the Australian winners and all participating teams, check out the Melbourne and Sydney posts on the Legal Geek blog.

The judges with the winners of the Melbourne pitch night, Anika Legal

Winners of the Sydney pitch night, Fiona and Tim Kirkman from LawSwitch

The resounding success of both events was a reflection of the enthusiasm of all participants, and particularly of the high quality of the presenting teams’ pitches. In what continues to be a fledgling sector of the legal industry, the Legal Geek stopover in Australia was a wonderful opportunity to raise the profile of legal tech in Australia, and to introduce Aussie legal geeks to the world! ALTA bids good luck to the pitch competition winners and wishes Jimmy and the Legal Geek team every success as they continue to lead the charge for legal tech.