Interview with María Jesús González-Espejo, expert in open data in the legal sector

María Jesús González-Espejo is, with Laura Fauqueur, co-founder of the Institute of Legal Innovation (Instituto de Innovación Legal), a company specialized in supporting professionals, law firms and organizations in innovation and digital transformation projects. For this, they are based on 4 pillars: consulting, training, events and information.

Datos.gob.es has spoken with her to tell us the role of open data to get a more transparent judicial system.

What is the impact of data and new technologies in the legal sector? Why is it important to transform this sector?

Technology and data can and will transform the sector in many ways. On the one hand, technology and data impact on the legal framework. In effect, new technologies are demanding new regulations and also generating new business sources for lawyers who specialize and are able to advise on these topics.

On the other hand, technology allows jurists to better manage their work and their organizations. And nowadays, although later than other sectors, jurists know that they can be much more efficient if they use technology for certain tasks, especially those where data and its management are relevant: issues management; Customer Management; People Management; knowledge management; financial management and legal prediction. The impact of these technologies on legal professionals and their organizations is enormous.

Finally, there are legal services that can be offered through technology, improving its provision. For example, chatbots allow providing advice in a more efficient manner, and contract automation tools allow generate contract easily and without the need for professional support. These types of technologies will clearly impact the employment market.

The Institute of Legal Innovation seeks to help in the digital transformation of the sector through different projects. What is the role of open data in this transformation process?

I believe that the Institute of Legal Innovation has been one of the first private operators that has claimed the need for more open data. In the legal sector there is a series of data that are key to the development of more and better Legal Tech: judgments, resolutions and other information that result from legal procedures and that must be public. Many of the agencies that keep this information (CGPJ, CENDOJ, Registrars, Notaries, Ministry of Justice, Bar Associations, etc.) provide us with great reports and statistics, but not the data. In our opinion, that is the next step that must be taken to produce the real "Legal Tech Revolution", as I claimed during my speech in the Senate.

What is Legal Design Thinking? What advantages can it bring?

Legal Design Thinking is a methodology, based on Design Thinking. The origin of Design Thinking is located in the 50s in Stanford University in the US, but it is really in the 90s, hand in hand with David Kelley, when Design Thinking begins to be conceived as we know it today. In the 90s, also professors of this university began to investigate the applications of this methodology to the legal field. Parallel to this North American school, in Helsinki, several researchers of different specializations (legal, design, etc.) develop projects focused on the so-called Visual Design Thinking and its application to the legal sector.

This methodology helps to solve legal problems, understanding as such, those that refer to the functioning of the legal system or legal service providers, Legal Design Thinking (LDC). The word "problem" must be understood not in the traditional sense, as something negative, but in a broader one, as a challenge or situation that can be improved through creativity. This activity is the core idea on which Design Thinking is articulated. The other main point of the Design Thinking discipline is the client, the user, the recipient of the service, the contract, the rule, the sentence. In summary, Legal Design Thinking is a discipline that fits into the heuristic and whose main objective is the search for solutions to problems through creativity, always putting people at the center of the activity.

This discipline is very useful for many of the needs that law firms and other organizations in the legal sector have nowadays, such as the revision of their business models; the identification and development of new products or services; the understanding of customer journey to better meet customer needs or the operation of equipment.

One of the challenges to address the digital transformation of the legal sector is the lack of personnel with technological skills and knowledge, something that also happens in other sectors. What are the necessary capabilities and how can they be acquired?

Acquiring technological knowledge is not easy, but it is possible. There are already some complete works that analyse the Legal Tech in depth. In addition, there are numerous conferences, congresses, etc. where you can learn about the subject.

However, it is more complex to acquire the necessary skills such as project management; leadership; change management; time management; etc. The reasons are that, on the one hand, our sector has its own idiosyncrasy and requires customized training; but at the same time jurists are usually short on time and, consequently, many courses do not achieve sufficient capacity. So it is not always easy to find suitable training offer.

You also organize hackathons, such as #HackTheJustice (2017) and JustiApps (2014). Among other issues, the aim is to develop applications that help improve the efficiency and transparency of the sector. How has the reception of these events been? What are the challenges to access and reuse legal public data?

The reception of these events has been very good. In fact, they have received support from many relevant institutions such as the Ministry of Justice, the General Council of Notaries and companies such as Amazon, Banco Santander, Ilunión, Everis, Thomson Reuters, WKE, etc. In both editions we counted on a sufficient number of participants who also had very different profiles: lawyers, judges, students, etc. For all of them, working for a weekend with designers and developers of apps has been a unique experience that has changed their lives. Several of our participants have decided to turn, in part, their professional lives around after participating in our hackathons.

When we organize the first hackathon, we realized that there were almost no legal datasets and we made a round of calls to try to get them. The answers were not very positive. Since our first hackathon, there have not been major changes. So there is still room for work to continue asking the institutions to open the data they own.

What measures do you consider necessary to encourage the opening and reuse of legal open data?

The most important measure seems simple at first sight: all administrations that are responsible for data susceptible to becoming datasets should open them. Beginning with the Ministry of Justice and continuing through the CENDOJ or Registrars. All datasets should be inventoried, so that whoever wants to locate them does not have to spend days on their location.

To encourage reuse, perhaps a Legal Datathon could be organized once a year. Of course, hackathons and such activities also help and it would be great if some public institution wanted to organize them. In addition, the creation of Legal Tech incubators in professional colleges would support entrepreneurs who reuse this data. Finally, training in data, big data, transparency, etc. to law students and even professionals is perhaps the most necessary and practical measure that could be implemented.

The Legal Innovation Institute is also an incubator of Legal Tech projects. Based on your experience, how is the situation in Spain regarding innovation in the legal sector? Could you tell us about some of the projects you have in hand?

The situation is better in some aspects and worse in others. Spain has a clear advantage: the potential of the Spanish-speaking market. And several disadvantages: lack of enterprising spirit in technology among jurists; lack of institutional support; lack of training in the necessary skills and knowledge; etc. However, I am optimistic and I think that, in Spain,we are becoming aware that we are facing a sector with great potential. In the coming years, I think that we can become the cradle of many Legal Tech that will transform professionals, legal organizations and how many legal services are provided today.

One of the most relevant projects that we have in hand is the launch of the first Legal Tech comparator. It will be a very useful tool for any firm or professional who wants to know what technology is available in the market.

• Legal tech
• Innovation
• Legal sector