Linklaters data and information architect Ben Gardner is leaving the magic circle firm to join legal engineering startup and alternative business structure Wavelength Law.
Gardner, a well-known figure on the legal IT circuit and regular panel speaker for ILTA, will be joining Wavelength at the start of May. His title will be chief scientific officer and his role will be to help Wavelength build new bespoke products and solutions.
Gardner’s arrival follows Wavelength’s hire in December of former Asda head of contracts, data protection and privacy, Alistair Maiden, who works for Wavelength as a part-time senior legal engineer, whose dual role includes advising clients in a legal capacity as well as helping Wavelength to develop some of the solutions it is offering to clients.
Wavelength is made up of data experts, technologists, knowledge engineers and lawyers and describes its service as ‘legal engineering for businesses.’ The heavyweight startup works with third party legal technology suppliers as well as building its own code and software to handle the interpretation and presentation of client data.
Gardner told Legal IT Insider: “A lot of my role will be translating between lawyers and technologists and identifying the right technology to help law firm clients and general counsel understand the value they get from technology to disrupt and drive efficiencies.”
Speaking to Legal IT Insider about Gardner’s role and Wavelength at large, CEO and co-founder Peter Lee said: “We see our role as filling the implementation gap between legal technology suppliers and legal teams and law firms. We’re using an approach called bricolage – a process of looking at legal process in a commercial law environment and trying to improve it with better people, better service, and/or the application of technology.
“Ben’s real skill is and where he is a world leader is applied information analysis – the application of information analysis and data use. We are unlocking the potential in the data that clients hold.”
Lee added: “We welcome Ben and we’ve got other plans in the pipeline to grow our quality resource. We can do that because we’re structured as an ABS and can get the right skillset round the table, not just lawyers.”
This article first appeared in the February Legal IT Insider, register for your free copy here: https://legaltechnology.com//latest-newsletter/