Meet Catherine Bamford
The Legal Tech Guru: Catherine Bamford on Selecting the Right Tools and Making Them Stick
When The Exchange welcomed Catherine Bamford in February 2025, our community gained insights from one of the most respected voices in legal technology—someone the Financial Times has named a Top Ten Legal Technologist and whose impact on the field spans more than 15 years.
As CEO and Founder of BamLegal, Catherine helps law firms and in-house legal teams navigate the increasingly complex legal tech landscape with a rare combination of deep technical expertise and practical implementation wisdom.
From Practising Lawyer to Legal Engineering Pioneer
Catherine's journey through the legal technology landscape has been comprehensive and varied. Her career has included roles as a lawyer and senior legal engineer with Pinsent Masons LLP, Director of Legal Engineering at Deloitte Legal, and Non-Executive Board Member and Investor in Wavelength Law before its acquisition by Simmons & Simmons LLP.
This diverse experience gives Catherine a 360-degree view of legal technology—understanding the perspectives of law firms, in-house teams, consultancies, and technology vendors. Few advisors can match her breadth of insight across the legal technology ecosystem.
A Builder, Not Just an Advisor
What sets Catherine apart is her hands-on experience building legal technology solutions. She has personally automated hundreds of documents across practice areas, including:
Banking Loan Agreements
Corporate SPAs
Real Estate Leases and Licences
Employment Contracts
IP Injunctions
Engagement Letters
Beyond document automation, she has built due diligence platforms, contract review tools, and numerous client-facing products. This practical building experience ensures her advice is grounded in technical reality, not theoretical possibilities.
Why Catherine's Expertise Matters for Legal Ops
Catherine brings several crucial insights for legal operations professionals:
Technology Selection Expertise: Her creation of the free DocAuto Database demonstrates her commitment to helping organisations "dramatically expedite" the often overwhelming process of selecting the right tools.
Change Management Focus: Catherine emphasises that successful technology implementation requires effective change management from the start—a crucial perspective for legal ops teams driving adoption.
Talent Development Vision: Having trained "most of the world's best-known document automators and legal engineers now working in top-tier law firms", Catherine understands how to develop the human capabilities that make technology investments successful.
Market-Wide Perspective: Her work with clients including Dentons, Slaughter and May, Ashurst, Linklaters, DLA Piper, Hogan Lovells, and many others gives her unparalleled insight into what works across the industry.
Beyond Implementation: Building the Future of Legal Services
Catherine's mission extends beyond individual technology projects to the broader goal of "improving the delivery of legal services for all". Her work with law students on the future of law demonstrates her commitment to preparing the next generation of legal professionals for a technology-enabled practice.
As both an advisor to established firms and a mentor/investor in legal tech startups, Catherine stands at the intersection of current practice and future innovation—making her perspective uniquely valuable for legal operations teams balancing immediate needs with long-term transformation.
