Boris Ignachkov Meet Kareena! She is a legal technologist and a stereotype-breaking lawgrammer!
Kareena is not your typical lawfluencer. She shines the light on her legal journey through humorous reels, posts, and videos.
Yes…being a law student is boring and lonely at times. But Kareena’s relatable content makes us all feel like we’re all in this together!
WHAT DO YOU DO AS A LEGAL TECHNOLOGIST?
As a Legal Technologist for a law firm, I implement software and technologies that already exist in their daily tasks. This helps fee earners reach optimum efficiency and minimise repetitive tasks.
For example, I am currently working on workflow automation and transaction suites. The more popular and appealing one of the two is transaction suites. This is a suite of precedent documents that be easily prepopulated. Hopefully, when both tasks are fully implemented, it will increase efficiency by 60%.
DO YOU THINK LAW SCHOOL PREPARED YOU WELL FOR A LEGAL TECH JOB?
Some of the most important skills needed for a legal tech job are problem-solving skills, teamwork, and initiative. I think law school definitely helped me gain these soft skills through extracurricular competitions and law society positions (and I guess, assignments?).
However, I think the hard skills gained from my degree did not help much towards my role as a Legal Technologist. The basic understanding of the law that is needed in this role could easily come from general knowledge and understanding. I don’t think it is necessary to have any legal knowledge either. That being said, I think it is very important to have an interest in law and technology equally.
WHAT SHOULD STUDENTS HIGHLIGHT WHEN APPLYING FOR LEGAL TECH JOBS?
How they have acted on their interest in technology. This is especially important if you are a law student because when you apply for a legal tech role, you should show what initiatives you have taken to be interested in legal tech specifically. It could involve but is not limited to learning legal tech courses or learning coding languages.
YOU HAVE A UNIQUE AND HUMOROUS APPROACH TO “LAW INSTA” DO YOU THINK LAW STUDENTS ARE TOO SERIOUS?
I feel that law is a very lonely degree, in the sense that law students are very competitive, we don’t like to (and are not allowed to) discuss our assignments while doing them and we spend A LOT of late nights at the library. Amongst many reasons, I started my legal Instagram page to make law students realise “we are all in this together”. It is kind of like when you come across a post that talks about a specific childhood memory and you are like wait what, that wasn’t JUST me? And you see million other people relate to it too.
Traditionally, law is a very serious and formal degree, but I think millennials, gen-z and the many generations to come after are here to change this. For instance, Eve Cornwell, she is not only showing us how to be a girl boss millennial lawyer but a queer girl boss millennial lawyer. It’s so crucial for us to bring this change and inclusion into the legal field and I think my humorous approach to law is only a small part of ‘lawfluencing’ – as termed by Financial Times.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR LAWFULLYYOURS.KK?
Apart from my Instagram page, I also host a webinar series – Koffee with KK – which aims on promoting women, ethnic minorities, low socio-economic backgrounds, and the LGBTQ+ professionals in the legal industry. I have not been able to give this project as much time as I would have wished due to work and university commitments. However, I hope to make this webinar series popular amongst students and aspire many aspiring many from these backgrounds to enter the legal industry.
Secondly, I am planning to make longer YouTube videos where I would expand on my humorous approach to law (and maybe show an insight into a legal technologist’s life longer than my 60 second reels).
Lastly, many more reels! It is something I absolutely love doing, creating relatable content, and bringing a smile to at least one person’s face.
Look out for some exciting content on YouTube and KK in conversations with legal professionals over Koffee (or mulled wine) this Christmas break!