“All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed — only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle.” – Nikola Tesla
Many may be reading these words and reflecting on the glimmers of seemingly ridiculous ideas or predictions that almost every sane individual would have brushed off or gazed at skeptically, but that have subsequently emerged “all the more triumphantly”.
100 years after Tesla’s time, as we slowly emerge from our own modern pandemic struggles, we are catching ourselves begging for the very things we hid from - greater use of technology.
None can attest to this struggle more than legal innovators, who have for decades been begging for greater dialogue on the inclusion of technology in the justice system.
Meet Max Paterson, a lawyer, an alum from York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School, and a Canadian innovator in the hustle and bustle of New York City.
Max serves as the VP of Customer Success globally for Neota Logic, a no-code legal tech intelligent automation platform that allows legal professionals to create web-based applications to complement their legal practice. (Read more here)
As a self-proclaimed legal tech aficionado, he caught the legal tech bug early on,
"My background before entering the law was in Media and Communications. I was making TV commercials in Toronto, interned at Vice, and worked at Universal Music. In that line of work, I started to collaborate with legal departments and soon found myself drawn to the law. It wasn’t until my practicum at Osgoode that I caught the legal tech bug. I chose an Intellectual Property and Technology Law intensive course and then pursued a placement at Stanford’s Center for Legal Informatics (CodeX). There I worked with legal tech companies and saw how the law applies to various facets of technology, but also how technology can facilitate the accessibility and practice of the law."
Max’s world became all things legal tech. After a stint at the Government of Canada and getting called to the bar, he went on to pursue his Masters of Law at Cornell University’s Tech Campus in New York City, and was known as “the Canadian guy who won’t stop talking about legal tech”.
Soon, his name reached the founders of Neota Logic, and in 2017 he became a part of the Neota Team.
Max’s wide array of experience and passion for legal tech, has been widely recognized, including being named as one of the 2020 Top 20 Young Professionals to Watch by the International Legal Technology Association, but most notably in his role as Adjunct Professor at the Cornell Faculty of Law, where he shapes the minds of future legal practitioners teaching (yes, you guessed it), legal technology.
"What I love about legal technology and my work at Neota, is that I don’t have a traditional tech background. It’s platforms like ours that empower professionals of all stripes and backgrounds to not be afraid to translate their legal knowledge into usable systems and applications."
Max is a legal innovator himself, as co-founder of RightsNOW, the winner of the Global Legal Hackathon in 2018.
RightsNOW is an app that allows you to access the law through voice, kind of like a "legal Siri", that lets you ask your device legal questions, and actually receive accurate answers. Stay tuned for more!
"Democratization of legal information"
Through his various roles, Max is highly aware of the access to justice issue, and his motto “Democratization of legal information”, is interwoven in all of his endeavours:
"To access the law or anything legal, can be really expensive. If it’s a divorce, a tort you want to enforce, or just access legal information, it can be almost impossible to afford or understand. However, we are seeing more discussions and increasing action, especially with the implementation of legal technology to adequately address the access to justice gap."
Max adds,
"Communication on both sides (innovators and practitioners) is necessary. Some industries have been very successful in the adoption of technology, but the legal practice has lagged. I can confidently say, that there is a lot of room for innovation."
As we face new post-pandemic struggles, Max is well acquainted with the amplified needs legal innovators are facing and will encounter. He has these words of wisdom,
"First, get informed. Get to know the legal context, in particular the legal tech space. Then, just try your hand at it. Find a pain point, jump in the deep end, and make some waves. The appetite for innovation is definitely there."
As you remain on the lookout for Max’s app or seek out the next innovation to rave about, don’t wait for others to “make the waves” you know you can.
To connect with Max you can follow him on:
To find out more about Neota Logic please visit: Neota Logic
To find out more about RightsNOW please visit: RightsNOW
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