Alistair Maiden named legal business technologist of the year 2019
CEO and founder of SYKE Alistair Maiden has been named legal business technologist of the year at the prestigious FT Intelligent Business Awards in San Francisco.
Alistair Maiden left his role as head of contracts at UK supermarket chain Asda in 2016 to start a legal technology consultancy.
In his time at Asda, he developed technologies that changed the way contracts were drafted, negotiated and managed. A digital contracting solution built by him cut the time taken to create a contract from 17 to just five days.
The experience led Alistair to realise that a lot of legal technology is not as easy to use as people expect. He set up SYKE to help lawyers working at both in-house and at law firms to select and implement new technology solutions, with a focus on contracting technologies. His consultancy now employs more than 50 legal engineers in 13 countries.
Leyla Boulton, chair of the judging panel said: “All 10 ‘legal business technologists’ shortlisted had something exceptional to commend them. The judges felt, however, that since setting up SYKE in 2016, Alistair Maiden had most comprehensively served the intersection of law, business and tech to solve companies’ real-world problems. He quit his big company career to focus on helping a wide range of corporate clients adopt legal technology that is the future for lawyers worldwide.”
Alistair added: “I’m extremely proud to win this award on behalf of SYKE. It’s recognition of the progress we’ve made in a relatively short time. As we continue to grow and expand, I’m looking forward to helping more and more companies unlock the power of legal technology through the implementation of innovative tools. Together we are helping reshape the industry we love.”
