Heikki is a lawyer, legal innovator and founder of the Legal Transformation Network.
For more than 25 years, Heikki has worked at the intersection of law, management, technology and organisational development. His work focuses on one fundamental question: How is value created in legal organisations in the AI era?
As legal work changes, law firms and legal departments must rethink how they organise work, develop talent, manage knowledge and create client value.
Through Ilves, Heikki helps legal organisations build Legal Work Intelligence, the ability to understand how work actually happens, continuously learn from that work, and apply the right organisational knowledge and context to every legal task.
His current work focuses on designing the next generation of legal organisations by connecting work data, business information and organisational knowledge into a shared platform that helps professionals produce higher-quality work and organisations continuously improve how legal services are delivered.
Alongside Ilves, Heikki founded the Legal Transformation Network (aka. Legal Tech Glögit), a collaborative community bringing together legal professionals, legal technology providers, academics, designers and innovators. The network is on a mission accelerating the change of the legal field.
Over the past eight years, the network has facilitated dozens of industry dialogues (listed below) that have contributed to a shared language for legal transformation across Finland and Sweden.
These discussions have shaped the Legal Value Creation House, a capability framework describing how culture, data, work design and service design combine to create client value and business performance in modern legal organisations.
Heikki is also the Ambassador Finland of the European Legal Tech Association.
Prior to his appointment in 2018, he was the development director for Castrén & Snellman (2005-2018). He received his LL.M in 2001 and started his career as a lawyer.
Open LinkedIn profile.
Which parts of a lawyer's work are judgement, and which could AI take on? In June, we took the Thinking Lawyer BrainFactory to London and asked a room of senior professionals to answer that.
We spent last week in London at the TechTorget Nordic side event, held before LegalTechTalk. It brought together leaders building and leading change in the legal sector.
Traditional legal thinking alone is no longer enough. That was the hypothesis we set out to test on 22 April at the 35th Legal Tech Glögit, hosted by Castrén & Snellman. Heikki Ilvessalo and Mia Ihamuotila. (Reading time 5-10 min)
Ilves donated 3.000€ for humanitarian aid to people in Ukraine.
The sixth edition of the Legal Tech in Finland map showcases the legal tech and legal design services in Finland.
Happy Easter from ilvessians! Learn more about our services that help you focus on the important things.
Heikki is a regular speaker and chair of legal tech events and webinars.
| TBA |
| June 15, 2026 | Legal Tech Talk side event in London with Legal Design Summit, Thinking Lawyer | Co-facilitator with Mia Ihamuotila and Malin Männikkö |
| May 21, 2026 | Legal Transformation Network, Living Through the Cultural Shift of AI hosted by Hanness Snellman | Co-facilitator of a gamified Topaasia dialogue on with Taija Niku |
| April 23, 2026 | Legal Transformation Network, The Thinking Lawyer: Legal Design, AI and the Architecture of Legal Intelligence hosted by Castrén & Snellman, read more | Co-facilitator with Mia Ihamuotila |
| April 14, 2026 | Legal Geek Europe | Facilitator of roundtable |
| December 10, 2025 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Sorainen | Opening remarks, panel discussion facilitator |
| September 10, 2025 | Legal Design Summit Brainfactory | Co-facilitator with Maria Sorsimo |
| August 28, 2025 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by EY Law | Opening remarks |
| May 29, 2025 | FutureLaw 2025 | Advisory board and a speaker |
| March 19, 2025 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Linnunmaa Lex | Opening remarks |
| January 16, 2025 | Legal Tech Glögit Five-Year anniversary, read more | Opening remarks |
| December 19, 2024 | Legal Transformation Network meeting hosted by the Swedish Bar Association | Opening remarks |
| December 12, 2024 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Fondia | Opening remarks |
| November 26, 2024 | Legal Transformation Network meeting hosted by Roschier | Key note presentation and facilitation of a network strategy dialogue |
| October 10, 2024 | Nordic Legal Tech Day, Stockholm, Horizon scanning session | Release of Ilves AI capabilities |
| October 4, 2024 | Listed company’s global legal team’s strategy day, a key note presentation on digital transformation and AI | Key note presentation |
| September 30, 2024 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Roschier, Helsinki | Opening remarks, moderator |
| August 14, 2024 | Legal Tech Glögit, Legal Tech in Finland Map 2024, read more | Co-chair |
| June 5, 2024 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by EY Law, Business comes first, how legal tech can help? | Opening remarks |
| May 29, 2024 | The Swedish Bar Association, Stockholm, Legal Tech Ecosystem Developments in Finland – Opportunities for Collaboration? | Presentation |
| May 16-17, 2024 | Future Law 2024, Tallinn, Panel discussion with Nikki Shaver, Uwais Iqbal chaired by Tom Martin: AI – One year later, read more | Panelist |
| April 17, 2024 | Legal Tech in Leeds Annual Conference, Opportunities for UK-Finland Collaboration & Ilves Product Showcase, read more | Presentation |
| February 1, 2024 | Future Law 2024 webinar, Challenges of digital transformation in legal teams, (in Collaboration with Henrik Wehrs, Allen & Overy) | Webinar presentation |
| January 18, 2024 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Fondia, The development of legal departments through legal design and technology | Opening remarks |
| November 15, 2023 | Nordic Legal Tech Day, Helsinki, read more | Co-organizer, moderator |
| October, 2023 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Castrén & Snellman, The core skills of future lawyers | Chair, key note presentation |
| June 15, 2023 | Legal Tech Glögit, Legal Tech and LegL Design in Finland Map 2023, read more | Co-Chair of the webinar |
| May 26-27, 2023 | Future Law 2023, Tallinn, panel discussion and digital transformation workshop, read more | Panelist and Workshop |
| May 4, 2023 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Hannes Snellman, Generative AI | Chair |
| January, 2023 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by KPMG, digital transformation | Chair |
| November 22, 2022 | The Finnish Bar Association, Tekoäly ja digitalisaatio asianajajan työssä ja asiakkaan näkökulmasta, read more | Presentation |
| November 17, 2022 | Nordic Legal Tech Day, Helsinki Digitalization & Development of the Legal Industry |
Co-organizer and co-moderator |
| October 4, 2022 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Dittmar & Indrenius | Chair, presentation |
| September 22, 2022 | The European Circuit Annual Conference in Lisbon, The most innovative ways law firms are using data, read more | Presentation |
| June 16, 2022 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Ilves & _ment, Finnish legal tech solutions |
Co-chair |
| May 5, 2022 | GBL Alliance Conference, Helsinki, Legal tech challenges |
Presentation |
| April 11, 2022 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Roschier, Cybersecurity, Finnish Legal Tech Map |
Chair |
| November 4, 2021 | Nordic Legal Tech Day, Helsinki, Digitalization & Development of the Legal Industry |
Co-organizer and co-moderator |
| October 14, 2021 | Legal Tech Glögit, hosted by Hannes Snellman, Digital Transformation of the Legal Field – A Bubble in Trouble |
Chair |
| September 2, 2021 | Legal tech glögit, hosted by EY-Law, Modern management tools for General Counsels |
Chair |
| June 8, 2021 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Roschier, Legal tech as an investment |
Chair |
| March 25, 2021 | Legal tech glögit hosted by Dottir, Wellbeing and productive culture |
Chair |
| January 27, 2021 | Legal tech glögit hosted by Citrus, New ways to offer legal services |
Chair |
| December 2, 2020 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Wiidare, Digitalization of in-house teams |
Co-Chair |
| October 29, 2020 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by DLA Piper Helsinki (with Stockholm and New York offices), Digital transformation and legal tech solutions |
Chair |
| September 8, 2020 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Merilampi, Modern work |
Chair |
| August 11, 2020 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Ilves, Finnish legal tech solutions |
Chair |
| February 14, 2020 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Krogerus, The status of AI capabilities |
Chair |
| December 4, 2019 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Hannes Snellman, Legal tech-friendly culture |
Chair and workshop |
| October 22, 2019 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Borenius, Knowledge Management 3.0 |
Chair and workshop |
| August 22, 2019 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Castrén & Snellman, Legal design |
Chair and workshop |
| May 14, 2019 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Roschier, Legal tech, People |
Chair |
| April 3, 2019 | Legal Tech Glögit hosted by Dittmar & Indrenius, People, legal tech |
Chair |
| 2018 | WT Gym, Wolf Theiss Vienna Innovating better client experience |
Keynote speaker |
| 2017 | The British Legal Tech Forum London Gamification |
Panel Discussion with Richard Susskind and Yu-Kai Chou |
| 2016 | Law Firm Marketing Summit London Gamification |
Speaker |
