Leila Banijamali is the Co-Founder and CEO of Symbium Corp. Find her on Twitter @symbiumhq.
What are three points that describe you?
1. Tenacious
2. Problem-solver
3. Breaker of ground
How is telework/quarantine going for you?
Thankfully, the entire team is taking care of each other. We work hard, share much, and try to have fun along the way. I like the transition back to remote-first, which is how I used to run my law practice several years ago.
How did you become involved in legal tech?
My venture into legal tech started when I was representing tech companies as outside counsel and decided to automate both the company formation process and legal documents, both of which my firm was providing as a service to accelerated growth tech companies. I bootstrapped a site called Startup Documents. The site was a hit with founders. This effort caught the attention of some folks at Stanford’s CodeX where I applied for (and was awarded) a fellowship, and that’s how I eventually met my co-founders at Symbium.
What projects have you been focused on recently?
Streamlining the regulatory aspects of zoning codes in residential construction.
Is there a legal tech resource of any kind that really helped you when you were starting out in the field?
Yes! Google and Wikipedia. I search for high quality, reliable content and love peeling back multiple layers on topics that I want to learn about.
What do you see as the most important emerging tech, legal or not, right now?
Anything that empowers the public to take some type of action.
What advice would you give to other women who want to get involved in legal tech?
Get involved and take initiative. Focus on breadth (not depth) of experiences and connections to start, then dive deeper and find a niche-within-a-niche focus area that you can own.
Give a shout-out to another woman in legal tech who you admire or have learned something from!
Catherine Krow from Digitory Legal and Olga Mack from Parley Pro. These are two women who are incredibly hard-working, focused, and determined. They’re also moms, which means that if they can raise kids and simultaneously lead/grow companies, they can do anything!
