Business
Episode 12 of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus Podcast - An Interview with Tunji Williams, Director of Strategy for Transaction Management at Litera Microsystems In this episode of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus Podcast, Charlie Uniman, your podcast host (www.legaltechstartupfocus.com/podcast), talks with Tunji Williams of Litera Microsystems (www.litera.com). Charlie and Tunji kick off the podcast by talking about how Tunji moved from corporate practice at a large law firm to founding dealWIP, a legal tech startup that aimed at becoming a "deal workflow information platform." While at dealWIP, Tunji and his co-founders participated in two prominent legal tech accelerator programs, one managed by LexisNexis and the other managed by the UK law firm, Mishcon de Reya. Charlie and Tunji dive into what accelerator programs can offer legal tech startups (discussing, in particular, what Tunji learned from his participation) and how important it is for a startup to evaluate such programs from a timing standpoint (what is the right time for a startup to join an accelerator?) and from the standpoint of matching an accelerator's features with a particular startup's needs. Tunji next discusses just how much progress legal tech startups have made over the last five years in marketing and selling to the "right" stakeholder decision-makers at law firms and legal department customers. This discussion leads Tunji to describe his current role at Litera, which involves assisting customers in deriving value from Litera's deal management apps so as to encourage better customer engagement with those apps. Tunji goes on to describe the commercial and educational significance of bringing Litera's suite of tools to law schools and law students. Charlie and Tunji conclude by covering (i) what Tunji learned from the demise of dealWIP, (ii) his transition from his founder's role at dealWIP to his role as a member of Litera's team, (iii) how he, along with with others at Litera, devotes time to sketching out what deal management tech will look like decades from now and how doing so informs his day-to-day work and (iv) the importance for Tunji of being dedicated to (and, dare it be said, even in love with) his company's mission and the benefits that executing that mission can bring to Litera's customers.