Legal Tech Moves: Ashurst’s Bruna Pellicci Joins Linklaters

Global law firm Linklaters has today announced the appointment of Bruna Pellicci as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO), who has joined from fellow London-based law firm, Ashurst.

Pellicci has been at Ashurst for more than 11 years, most recently holding the position of Global IT Director.

As a member of the Technology Leadership Team in Linklaters, Pellicci will report to the Global Chief Operating Officer and Director of Technology, Matt Peers, and will play a key role in shaping and delivering the firm’s global technology strategy.

She will also have responsibility for Information Security, Architecture and the delivery of key technology programmes, said the firm.

At Ashurst she played a key role in developing and delivering its technology strategy, delivering large scale technology and change projects and worked through a number of security issues with clients.

Matt Peers, Chief Operating Officer, commenting on the appointment, said: ‘I am delighted that a person of Bruna’s skill and experience is joining our technology leadership team. Linklaters has a strong commitment to innovation and we believe that her background is ideally suited to this leadership position and to ensuring Linklaters remains at the forefront of developments in our industry. She will be a huge asset to the firm.’

The move follows the appointment in July this year of Shilpa Bhandarkar as Head of Innovation, who was previously Legal Network Director at Lexoo, the European legal digital marketplace.

The move underlines the growing trend among larger commercial law firms to embrace legal tech as a strategic issue – rather than just see it as a lower horizon, operational, incremental adjustment issue – and to create new roles and specialist, often hybrid skills teams, to drive strategic change through this technology.

Bhandarkar has been leading a central team based out of the firm’s Innovation Lab in London and supervising Linklaters’ Innovation & Efficiency programme.