Join our free virtual sessions
NewLaw
Career Series 2026
This series of seminars shares careers and jobs in the alternative legal sector that you may not have considered before.
You can register for one session, or all of them, by clicking the appropriate button or buttons. Please remember that you have to complete a registration form for each session that you want to attend.
Details of each session hosted by Cognia
Session 1
Law in 2030:
Understanding the Evolving Legal Ecosystem
Tuesday 4 Aug 18:00 - 19:00pm
This session introduces students to the rapidly changing legal ecosystem, where ALSPs, traditional firms and legal tech providers work in a symbiotic relationship with each other.
A look at what is driving this shift: the need for faster, more transparent, and cost‑effective legal services. We’ll also explore how ALSPs and legal tech are reshaping the industry through better processes, multidisciplinary teams, and new technology.
The session shows how GenAI and automation are expanding ALSP capabilities and transforming the balance of work across the sector.
Aalia brings a unique blend of legal expertise and business acumen to Webber Wentzel Fusion, the firm’s hub for alternative legal solutions, legal tech, and client-focused delivery. A former intellectual property and technology law partner at Webber Wentzel and COO of a tech scale-up, she combines deep industry insight with strategic and operational know-how. Passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship, she led the firm’s first start-up incubator and advocated for regulatory reform to support innovation in South Africa. Aalia and her team champion technology and inventive delivery models to solve complex legal problems in fresh, client-centric ways that challenge traditional boundaries.
Ross is the Founder and CEO of Wordsmith AI, a platform that helps leading enterprises run their legal teams more efficiently and reduce their reliance on external law firms. Backed by Index Ventures, Wordsmith has raised close to $100 million to date and is used by over 500 companies worldwide. Ross previously served as Chief Product and Technology Officer at TravelPerk, the global business travel platform, where he helped grow the company from $1M to $170M ARR in under five years. Earlier in his career, he sold his first startup to Skyscanner, where he went on to hold a senior leadership role ahead of its $1.7 billion acquisition.
Peter Hall is an accomplished entrepreneur and business leader with extensive international experience across legal, finance, technology and customer-focused industries. Having held senior leadership positions at organisations including Cognia, Standard Chartered Bank, Old Mutual and Price Waterhouse, he brings a unique blend of large-scale operational management expertise and entrepreneurial drive. As Head of Innovation and Chief Operating Officer at Cognia, Peter has played a key role in reshaping legal service delivery through technology-enabled and client-centric solutions. Across industries including legal services, banking, insurance, healthcare, mobile technology and security technology, he has built a reputation for leading high-growth businesses through transformation, innovation and strategic expansion.
David is a lawyer who started asking "surely there's a better way of doing this?" 25 years ago, and hasn't stopped trying to answer that question ever since. His focus as Client Solutions Partner in the Managed Legal Services team in the Vario Group is on understanding what matters to the firm’s clients, to help them make legal services work better for their business. Vario’s new resourcing and technology models drive greater value for business from legal services, bringing the best of both worlds to our clients - the expertise of a leading international law firm, with the scale and agility of flexible resourcing.
Session 2
AI, Tech Fluency and Human Judgement in Law
Thursday 6 Aug 18:00 - 19:00pm
The legal industry is shifting toward a tech-enabled future where lawyers, technologists and AI systems work together.
This session gives a real look into the day-to-day work of legal engineers and legal technologists.
We show how AI is used as a collaborative tool at the intersection of law, tech and design.
This session highlights how legal reasoning, tech-thinking and problem-solving skills are essential in the future where manual tasks are increasingly automated.
As we go behind the scenes of an ALSP to explore how they use automation, design and process mapping to improve client workflows through legal engineering tools and processes.
With a academic background in accounting and finance, later transitioning into practical law, Max combines a comprehensive understanding of both disciplines with advanced coding and full-stack development skills. Beginning with legal process automation at Amadeus in 2016, Max now leads a team of 11 specialists, recognized for their skills in Microsoft Power Platform, AI, api development and sophisticated cross-platform integrations. Max and his team champion implementation, development and customization, offering bespoke solutions where off-the-shelf products just won't do. Max also joined SYKE as a practice lead for Ironclad and development lead for MS PowerPlatform in 2021/22 and continues to consult vendors and customers on CLM and automation technologies.
Ratidzo Murwisi is a legal innovation specialist, legal technologist, and founder of RM Xchange, a legal technology consultancy focused on helping legal teams and law firms adopt technology and modern ways of working. Recognised as Botswana’s first legal technologist, she has worked with leading legal technology organisations including Legaltech Hub, Clio, and Definely, supporting legal professionals across Africa and internationally. A qualified attorney, Ratidzo is passionate about bridging the gap between law, technology, and business, and regularly speaks on legal innovation, AI adoption, and the future of legal practice. Her work focuses on ensuring that technology enhances—not replaces—human judgment in the delivery of legal services.
Alex Hamilton is the CEO and founder of Radiant Law, an award-winning NewLaw firm based in the UK. Alex spends much of his time working closely with clients and spearheading product and tech development at Radiant to make clients' contracting processes fly.Alex wrote the book (Sign Here) on how to speed up contracting and create better commercial relationships and he regularly talks and writes about improving contracting, legal tech, and the evolving legal landscape. Alex is a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and has led a bunch of projects recognised by the FT's Innovative Lawyer awards. Before founding Radiant Law, Alex was a Partner at Latham & Watkins and co-Chair of their global Technology Transactions Group, and when he used to be a real lawyer, he worked on some of the larger technology and outsourcing deals out there.
Matthew Hill is a Senior Legal Engineer in Cognia Law’s Legal Tech Team, where he helps bridge the gap between legal expertise and technology innovation. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, he works with legal professionals and business stakeholders to design and implement technology-driven solutions that improve legal operations, streamline contract processes, and support more efficient ways of working.With a background spanning legal operations, legal technology, and solution design, Matthew is passionate about applying emerging technologies - including artificial intelligence - to solve practical legal and business challenges. He holds an LLB and a specialised certificate in Artificial Intelligence in Law from Stellenbosch University, combining legal knowledge with a strong focus on innovation and digital transformation. Through his work, he helps organisations navigate the evolving legal landscape and realise the potential of technology-enabled legal services.
Session 3
Inside the NewLaw Ecosystem:
Emerging Careers in ALSPs
Tuesday 11 Aug 18:00 - 19:00pm
This session gives students a clear look at the different roles within ALSPs, with experts sharing what their day-to-day work entails.
We’ll explore how technology shapes these roles, how it has accelerated career growth.
Experienced legal operations and technology leader with over a decade in the ALSP and Legal Tech industry. Beginning as a document reviewer, I progressed through project, delivery, and operational leadership roles across eDiscovery, contract review, legal technology, and CLM consulting. Throughout my career, I have led high-performing teams, managed complex client engagements, and driven operational excellence across global legal service environments. Currently serving as Vice President of Operations at Stella Legal, I oversee strategic delivery and business operations, helping organizations optimize Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), legal technology solutions, and eDiscovery programs to achieve measurable business outcomes.
Alison Trappler is a Senior Associate working as a Solutions Architect in the Business Advisory team at Cognia. She started her journey with Cognia in 2013 and although she left briefly to complete her articles, she returned to gain valuable experience in project management in areas including commercial contracts, regulatory compliance, financial documentation and litigation. She is passionate about legal tech and strives to assist clients in finding innovative and workable solutions.
Eimear is a Manager in the Legal Operations Advisory team at HSF Kramer. She works with in-house legal functions to guide them through transformation projects, including legal technology and AI implementation programmes, technology-enabled process design and legal operations strategy development.Eimear has been on two client secondments. She joined a global retail company last year to help define their legal operations strategy. She successfully implemented a CLM system and an AI tool whilst there. She is currently seconded to a global media business as their Legal GenAI lead, where she is driving the implementation of Harvey, which includes building bespoke workflows within the platform and upskilling lawyers on AI.
Megan Jackson is Head of Legal Project Management at TLT, based in Bristol. She leads the firm’s LPM capability within the FutureLaw team, driving complex legal delivery, client-facing innovation, and transformation initiatives.Megan has over 10 years’ experience in legal services, specialising in legal project management, alternative delivery models, and innovation. Prior to TLT, she led the Legal Services Centre at Webber Wentzel, overseeing LPM, legal innovation, and alternative resourcing strategies.A qualified South African attorney, she is known for building high-performing teams and delivering data-driven, client-focused outcomes.
Stefan is a Senior Associate and Legal Delivery Manager specialising in commercial contract management. He focuses on helping organisations improve contracting efficiency through the streamlining and harmonisation of contract templates, supported by practical playbooks, guidance notes and governance frameworks. He also works closely with clients as an embedded legal resource, providing hands-on contract review, negotiation and delivery support to address resourcing requirements, manage peak workloads and support strategic projects.Stefan began his legal career in litigation at a Cape Town-based law firm before moving into an in-house legal adviser role with a South African property developer. He joined Cognia in 2021 and has since supported clients across a range of industries and projects.
Session 4
Where to from here?
Graduate Opportunities to map your career pathways.
Thursday 13 Aug 18:00 - 19:00pm
This session brings together our collaborators who have graduate programmes in South Africa to share insights on their graduate and vacation programmes, highlighting the key skills they look for and what students can expect to gain from each pathway.
Ruth Gondwe is a Senior Manager in Webber Wentzel's Fusion team, managing a cross-functional group of lawyers, technologists, and legal analysts who deliver alternative legal services spanning legal technology, legal operations advisory, and flexible resourcing. With deep expertise in legal operations and managed legal services, she advises in-house teams on streamlining their legal functions and managing high-volume work at scale. She is passionate about purposeful leadership, particularly as AI reshapes the legal profession. She also serves as fractional COO to global clients. Her career spans litigation, in-house roles in companies across England, Australia, and Southern Africa.
Kimlynne Olivier leads the Cape Town eDiscovery Project Management team at Consilio, where she focuses on building a diverse, agile team of Project Managers and analysts delivering eDiscovery services to international clients, including law firms, corporations, and financial institutions.With over 18 years of experience in eDiscovery and litigation support, Kimlynne brings deep expertise across digital forensics, intelligence, data analytics, compliance, and fraud investigations. Her technical skills span device imaging, data preservation, eDiscovery workflows, document scanning and review, and trial support.Prior to joining Consilio, Kimlynne served as a Director at a global risk consultancy, where she led the Discovery and Data Insights team in South Africa. She has also held a senior management role at a Big Four professional services firm and spent eight years in London as a Senior Forensic Technology Consultant at a global law firm.Kimlynne holds a BSc (Hons) in Information and Communications Technology.
Natasha has a passion for connecting talented individuals with their dream careers and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to their role as People & Culture: Recruitment at Cognia Law. Fascinated by the legal field and inspired by the enthusiasm of aspiring lawyers, Natasha now thrives in their role, engaging with lawyers daily to identify the best talent for alternative legal service profession.
Uraysha Ramracheya is a Manager in the Disputes team within the Digital Legal Delivery Practice Group at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer. She brings together legal expertise and innovative, technology-enabled approaches to support the efficient delivery of complex dispute resolution matters.Uraysha leads high-performing teams on large-scale legal review projects, using legaltech to deliver consistent, high-quality outcomes. Uraysha is passionate about rethinking how legal services are delivered in a digital environment. With her background of traditional practice at another leading international law firm as well as in-house counsel experience at one of SA's major banks, she is particularly interested in driving innovation, embedding smarter ways of working, and empowering teams to leverage technology within the legal industry to achieve better, more scalable results.
Ian recently joined Pinsent Masons Vario in Cape Town to oversee delivery of Managed Legal Services. Much of Ian’s focus is on working with global corporates to design and implement innovative solutions to varied legal challenges. He previously worked at Radiant Law for 11 years and led overall delivery and continuous improvement. Ian is a qualified Attorney and Solicitor, a proud Capetonian (although he still supports the Sharks), dad to two little girls and an avid trail runner.
Please join us the NewLaw Career Series 2026 Networking Event
Johannesburg networking event
Date: Tuesday 18 August 2026
Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Venue: Herbert Smiths Freehills,
15 Biermann Avenue, Johannesburg, GP 2196
Cape Town networking event
Date: Thursday 20 August 2026
Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Venue: Workshop 17, Watershed, 17 Dock Rd,
Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, 8002
Botswana networking event
Date: Friday 14 August 2026
Time: 5:30pm - 8:00pm
Venue: TBC
Thank you to all the organisations who have contributed to this series
Hosted by
Panelists from:
The Hot Seat | Meet Kimlynne Oliver from Consilio
The Hot Seat | Meet Beatriz Martins de Almeida from Stella Legal
The Hot Seat | Meet Amiee Webber from Radiant Law
The Hot Seat | Meet Natasha Sauer from Cognia Law
The Hot Seat | Meet Uraysha Ramracheya from HSF
