Legal Tech: Transforming Access to Justice for Women, to Revolutionising Legal Education

Legal Tech: Transforming Access to Justice for Women to Revolutionising Legal Education

Nnenna Ifeanyi-Ajufo, Professor of Law and Technology, Leeds Law School

 What a delight it was to talk to Nnenna Ifeanyi-Ajufo! We explored a range of topics within the broad subject of “women in legal tech” – from women's experiences in legal tech, opportunities for inclusion, challenges faced, and potential solutions for improving gender representation in the field.

Here’s just a snapshot of our tête-à-tête:

• What is your vision for women in legal tech? How should it evolve?

I want to see "more genuine inclusion" in the legal tech field. Inclusion that is not based on charity, but on strength and success. Gender equality initiatives can often feel like charity conversations. Talking from my own experience, I know that I deserve to be here, I’ve worked hard to get here, but sometimes it feels like I need validation in a male-dominated environment, that somehow justifies that indeed I deserve to be here.

Inclusion needs to be about creating an enabling environment that understands the natural needs of women – for example, flexible working for family commitments. The workplace must allow women to take up spaces they deserve, it should consider cultural perspectives supporting those that come from multi-ethnic backgrounds, and so forth.

Inclusion is a conversation about equal opportunity, not a tokenistic approach of simply allocating a few spaces to women.

• Is there a niche for women in legal tech specifically?

There is so much untapped potential, especially in two areas – mentorship and, as I said before, participation and inclusion.

Many women are not interested in legal tech because they simply don't see any role models. There’s so much potential to create networking opportunities and change the perception that "tech is for men" or that legal tech is a "daunting “ space. This is where mentorship comes into play.

A practical example of inclusion and participation is creating tools that are “gender sensitive” by design and developing software that can help women with access to justice. As new AI systems are being designed, now is a good time to consciously remove gender bias as well as cater to gender consciousness and cultural perspectives fairly.

• Could you share an example or anecdote where a software application claimed to be gender neutral but wasn't?

A particular tool doesn’t come to mind, but the reality is that tech applications are developed with inherent and inadvertent biases. For example, typically they may be developed for the geographic region they are created in.. So, a tool that is developed in one region may not work in another because of the way legal work or business is conducted in the respective regions. The same concept applies to gender bias too.

However, this issue is not limited to technology tools. I travel a lot and, odd as it may sound, washrooms are good examples of unintended bias – some have toiletries for women, bag and coat hangers, and in some regions they don’t. My point is that across the board, many design elements have in-built, unintended biases, and they can impact user experience. Seemingly small design choices can reflect broader issues of gender and cultural sensitivity.

• How can our male colleagues positively encourage women in legal tech?

This might sound mundane, but foremost, we need them to understand and recognise that there is no gender competition. A woman’s success in the workplace doesn’t in any way diminish a man’s role or success. Furthermore, acknowledging that the realities – biological, physiological, personal responsibilities, etc. – are not always the same for men and women. So, there is a difference, but at the same time, women not only contribute but also add value in the workplace in a positive way.

Meaningful workplace support is needed. Organisations, especially where men are leading the business, must create policies that are gender sensitive, and strategies that support women’s professional growth. This said, equality isn’t just about rules and policies but about creating genuinely supportive environments. By this, I mean, rules may be written, but they can also be unwritten, expressed, and implied. Equality, support, and inclusion must be embedded in the organisation's fabric. They must form part of the cultural DNA. The focus needs to be on creating equitable opportunities, not just meeting quota requirements.

• Let’s shift focus to access to justice. What can legal tech do to support women in this space?

It’s an area that I’m very passionate about. Legal tech can do a lot to support women in this cause. It can create more accessible, user-friendly ways for women to understand their legal rights, find appropriate legal support, and access justice without traditional barriers like physical court appearances or expensive lawyer consultations. Legal tech can also make legal information and processes more approachable, convenient, and supportive for women across different scenarios.

Today, we need AI agents/tools where women can ask legal questions without immediately needing a lawyer. There are simple things that often women need guidance on – where to go for legal help, what type of lawyer to consult, what scenarios constitute domestic abuse, and so forth. Similarly, women experiencing difficult circumstances want to know: are there precedents related to their situation? is it realistic to file a case in their situation?  and so on.

The good thing is that enabling this approach is possible. We saw it during COVID. Court systems developed tools that allowed people to join court cases remotely. This especially helped women with children to access legal proceedings more easily. The profession can and must invest in creating tools where users can feel comfortable and relate to the assistance they need, want, and get.

• What should legal tech developers consider when aiming to enhance access to justice for women?

Cybersecurity! The AI agents and tools created must have security built in by design to protect vulnerable women from things such as cyberbullying, cyber harassment, and online abuse. This once again requires tech developers to create tools that incorporate gender-sensitive security approaches in their applications. And most of all, tech developers must be held accountable for the security of their tools, very much like they are in the enterprise tools they develop.

Likewise, legal tech can greatly help in creating secure spaces for women in digital environments, such as social media platforms, by ensuring (at a minimum) that harmful language is automatically blocked, the posting of inappropriate content is prevented, and gender-specific abusive language is automatically identified and filtered out.

Essentially, as legal tech and digital platforms are developed, there must be a conscious effort to create secure, protective environments that specifically address the safety and security challenges women face online. I can assure you; the challenges women face online can sometimes be harrowing.

• Do you see a connection between the legal education system, the development of legal tech, and the delivery of justice?

I’m glad you asked, it's an important issue. Law is about justice, it’s about inclusion, fairness, and all such attributes, to help protect human rights. Ok, so then legal education also needs to understand the evolving nature of society for lawyers to be effective in delivering justice. Today, especially with the tremendous advancement we are seeing in technology, we need a legal education system that embraces change and innovation.

Here’s the contradiction. If you ask me, the legal education system is very traditional in its approach. Students study contract law without conversations about smart contracts. Rather than discussing the ethical use of AI, law schools are imposing blanket bans on the use of AI. If an issue isn’t in the courts, it’s not dispute resolution. But in a world where global platforms like Uber and Amazon exist, when you send a question to such apps and it is resolved, it is, in fact, a dispute resolution. The nature of this discipline has changed.

In my view, exposing students to real-world tech applications is an imperative. One way of doing this is by creating partnerships between law schools and tech firms.

Similarly, we need to create spaces that show students the multiple career paths that are possible within the legal sector. Law isn’t only about courtroom practice, there can be several strands to this discipline – education, research, legal tech, and so on.

A dynamic, technology-aware education system, focused on preparing students for a rapidly changing societal landscape, has got to be the way forward.