Influential Women in Legal Technology: Honoree #1, Ebru Metin
Since 2020, ILTA has annually honored five outstanding women leaders in the global legal technology community. Each March, during International Women's History Month, honorees are selected based on their history of mentorship and level of impact on Legal Technology.
This year, ILTA is pleased to share the list of the 2022 recipients:
-Ebru Metin, Founder and CEO, Legal Design Turkey
-Dorna Moini, Founder and CEO, Documate
-Leah Molatseli, Head of Business Development, Legal Interact
-Joy Heath Rush, CEO, ILTA
-Naomi Thompson, Senior Vice President, Legal Solutions EMEA, Exigent Group Limited
Today, we are pleased to highlight our first 2022 Influential Woman, Ebru Metin.
Ebru is the founder and CEO of the award-winning social enterprise, Legal Design Turkey, and director of Bilgi Legal Design Lab at Istanbul Bilgi University. Prior to this, she held several positions in various organisations located in Turkey, United Kingdom and Spain. She has pursued her Masters in International Financial Law at King’s College London as a Jean Monnet Scholar in 2014.
She is acting as European Legal Technology Association’s Ambassador for Turkey. She is a member of Global Legal Tech Consortium, Innovation in Law Studies Alliance and Turkish Women International Network. She has been given the “Advanced Practitioner” title at World Commerce and Contracting in 2020.
Earlier this year, we sat down with Ebru and asked her to dive a little deeper with ILTA. Here are some insights into the first of our five 2022 Influential Women in Technolgy:
- Describe your role as if you are speaking with a child.
In order to have peace and be safe, there are rules that we all have to obey. I use design to make these rules understood by everyone. I also help other lawyers and law students to be able to the same.
- What accomplishment in the legal space are you most proud of?
My social enterprise won an award from UNDP Turkey back in March 2021 as one of the winners out of 422 applicants. As part of prize, we were given pilot project support by UNDP Turkey Acceleerator Lab. Since August 2021, we are working on our legal information design project with them which is the first publicly funded legal design project in Turkey. The theme of the project is combatting domestic violence through empowering women with information.
- How do you make sure there are seats at the table for women in the industry?
Through Legal Design Turkey community, I mentor many legal professionals and law students in their journeys. I am also one of the Law Circle leads at Turkish Women International Network where we inspire and support especially young legal professionals. I believe the best way to make sure there are seats at the table is either to provide those seats or empower women to compete for them.
- What is one challenge within legal technology you hope to help solve?
In Turkey, legal technology market is still developing and general tendency to adopt a legal tech tool is quite low. I would like to raise awareness and encourage lawyers to adopt legal tech tools. I hope to work further on entrepreneurship side of legal tech and contribute to the development of the market for entrepreneurs to flourish.
- If you could spend one hour with someone who you feel has had a significant impact on your success (directly or indirectly), who would you spend it with and what’s the one question you’d ask them?
I have been involved in legal tech scene in the past two years and there is not only one person but six key people who believed in me. They are Holger Zscheyge, president of European Legal Technology Association, Maria Jesus Gonzalez Espejo, CEO of Instituto de Innovacion Legal, Helena Haapio, Contract Strategist at Lexpert, my mentor Justin North, Senior Managing Director at Morae, Prof. Leyla Keser, Dean of Istanbul Bilgi University and Gokce Tuna, Head of Exploration at UNDP Turkey. I would ask the same question to all of them, what’s the one thing that they see in me that led them to support and encourage me in my journey. I want to thank each and all of them for being such inspiration in the past two years.
Additionally, check out our ILTA video with Ebru, to learn more about her!
Join us, next week, as we learn more about our next 2022 Influential Woman in Legal Technology!
And, for more information on the 2022 recipients, and the ILTA Influential Women in Legal Technology awards, please click here.