London, England, United Kingdom
Alvan initially wanted to pursue a career as a corporate/commercial solicitor after his LLB Law undergraduate degree at the University of Manchester. However, he later realised his natural interest and inclination was towards legal innovation. A pivotal moment was the Law, Money & Technology course in his third undergraduate year, which offered valuable opportunities - winning a contest earned him a legal design sprint internship with DWF and MUFC’s legal team. Then, a Doc Auto challenge landed him his first legal tech role at SYKE as a Junior Legal Engineer. At SYKE, he progressed quickly, leading projects with various external clients including global natural resource corporations, publishing companies, healthcare businesses, FMCG companies, and law firms, all whilst being partially seconded out as a Legal Tech Consultant. He then moved ‘in-house’ to Taylor Wessing as a Knowledge Engineer, a decision that saw him gain further skills and experience, working with internal stakeholders, departments, and clients. In late 2022, an opportunity with BCLP emerged and he secured the role of Legal Solutions Engineer starting in January 2023. Finally, he has recently joined Stephenson Harwood in November 2025, where he will be focusing on driving innovation within the legal operations space, with a huge emphasis on Generative AI. Across his accumulated experience, Alvan has designed and built a wide variety of solutions using a range of tools/platforms. Solutions include CLMs, legal front doors, Q&A guidance tools, matter/case management systems, collaboration portals, document analysis/review and approval processes, automated document suites, knowledge management systems, company portals, immigration portals, HR/recruitment tools and processes, and business/startup accelerator systems. He particularly enjoys process-heavy work often involving workflow automation, where there is always a story/journey to be witnessed. He is passionate about using process improvement, technology engineering, project management, and client or stakeholder management to deliver impactful legal solutions. Alvan continually seeks to develop further his technical prowess to expand the team’s collective technological capabilities. Additionally, he is also an active member of the legal community, where he enjoys engaging with and building meaningful relationships with people who are equally passionate about legal technology and innovation. Feel free to contact Alvan for unique opportunities, passion projects, event collaborations, or a friendly virtual coffee chat!
Subject Matter Expert - First point of contact for lawyers on Generative AI and other legal tech platforms/tools - resolving issues, advising users to foster confidence and collaboration, and providing support to empower colleagues/clients. Innovation Development & Strategy - Collaborate with practice groups and business teams to identify opportunities, engage in the Innovation team’s wider vision, and contribute to the delivery and roll-out of wider firm-wide projects/initiatives. Legal Tech Engineering Projects - Design, develop and deliver impactful solutions such as client/collaboration portals, matter management systems, legal process automations in matter/practice-specific workflows, deal/transaction management solutions, AI-powered document review systems and AI-driven workflows through frameworks underpinned by project management/leadership principles and best practices. Product Ownership & Vendor Management - As product owner for some technologies and working collaboratively with vendors, I lead developments in expanding the capabilities of our platforms and optimising scalable utilisation. I manage external vendor relationships and partner with them in collaborative opportunities including targeted adoption campaigns. Driving Adoption - Deliver Gen AI/legal tech training sessions, interactive workshops and live demonstrations, design user guides and documentation, and produce written communications to promote the value of innovation. Monitor usage metrics/analytics to capture useful insights and gather end-user feedback to implement improvements whilst strategically fostering the uptake of built solutions and end-point tools. Innovation Championing & Networking - Cultivate strong internal networks with key stakeholders, practice group leads, legal/business colleagues, ‘superusers’, and the firm’s Innovation Champion Network to promote a structured approach to innovation, advocate for impactful change, and drive strategic leadership in the space.
Part of a lean and ambitious team serving the firm’s global innovation function via legal technology engineering, process improvement, effective implementation and successful adoption. Currently the only legal solutions engineer in the Innovation team and Firm. Aligned with our practice area growth engines, we support our global offices across multiple regions, catering to internal and external clients. Delivering innovative and impactful legal solutions by managing the entire project lifecycle – discovering and identifying opportunities, scoping requirements and limitations, designing and building, testing and enhancing solutions, induction and training for user adoption, launching built solutions, providing post-launch hypercare and maintenance. Managing clients and stakeholders effectively by carrying them through the implementation journey, especially on adopting built solutions and improving existing practices to maximise efficiency and efficacy gains. Technical lead for all products in our technology stack, expanding its technical implementation to unlock wider capabilities and maximise value creation across our solutions. Delivering innovation and legal technology overview training sessions to trainee solicitors as part of our Firm's Innovation trainee seat. Led the designing and development of, and migration to the Legal Solutions team’s revamped project lifecycle management system following a collaborative team sprint to reinvent and optimise our internal processes. Collectively designed and developed an intelligent, highly automated client self-service platform which was crowned winner in the Law Firm category of the American Legal Technology Awards 2024 - https://americanlegaltechnology.com/ | https://www.bclplaw.com/en-US/events-insights-news/bclp-named-recipient-of-the-2024-american-legal-technology-award.html
Formed part of a dynamic team managing the firm's entire UK's and nearby regions' legal tech needs. Used a set of industry-standard legal tech tools and internally owned proprietary products to discover/identify opportunities, scope requirements, design, build, test, maintain, and enhance solutions for the delivery of legal services. Delivered a diverse range of projects for internal and external clients, working alongside a broad range of stakeholders including lawyers, business departments, innovation arm, knowledge management team, and IT services. Collaboratively managed a legal tech/engineering 'service/support desk' where we resolved issues and met requests raised by internal and external clients by troubleshooting and delivering builds/solutions.
Won the SYKE’s 2021 recruitment competition and succeeded in the recruitment process, earning the offer. Grew my expertise within the Thomson Reuters team - centred around HighQ Collaborate and Contract Express, applying these to various projects and clients including global natural resource corporations, publishing and healthcare businesses, FMCG corporations, and law firms. Building bespoke legal tech solutions including contract lifecycle management, matter management systems, document repositories, document management systems, AI contract analysis tools, horizon scanning platforms and document automation for diverse legal teams whilst managing the delivery of solutions throughout the entire implementation journey. Completed an 8-month part-time secondment at an international City law firm as a Legal Tech Consultant.
International Championship for Collegiate Acapella (ICCA) Open 2021 Semifinals. Online Presence: - Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thepetrichords - Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJMY3VODE-j-4WreW0UGIcg - Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thepetrichordsacappella