Among the amazing women who are leading by example and inspiring others around the globe, is Helena Hallgarn, a pioneer in legal tech in Scandinavia. An amalgamation of dedication, perseverance and resilience better defines Helena, the woman behind Virtual Intelligence VQ. She has leveraged her legal expertise with exceptional IT skills to create groundbreaking IT tools for the legal industry.
Helena began her journey with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and later went on to pursue law. She never wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about working in a law firm. However, she started her career as an associate at Mannheimer Swartling, one of the largest business law firms in Sweden. After working for several years at the firm, Helena developed a keen interest in modernizing legal work and got actively involved in exploring the realm of legal technology when it wasn’t even a recognized concept.
An initiative by Mannheimer Swartling to transform the legal profession with computer-based methods, further escalated and developed her interest in this space. Fueled by a passion to make significant changes in the legal industry, Helena set out on this transformative journey.
After accumulating years of experience in legal tech and knowledge management across three different law firms and successfully executing several breakthrough projects, Helena decided to shift her focus to a business where her expertise could take the center stage. Partnering with Ann Björk at Vinge, Helena led the foundation of her new venture Virtual Intelligence VQ in 2010.
Not everyday do we see entrepreneurs embarking on a business journey to drive a change. Helena’s mission was very clear from the inception of her company. She wanted to create innovative tools to better serve the legal industry and transform the way how law firms work. Her approach to building the business was something that differentiates her in the crowd. Her belief was firmly rooted in maintaining a clear and unwavering focus on a well-defined objective, understanding precisely what to achieve, along with the reasons why and how to create tangible outcomes.
In the incredibly dynamic and evolving tech landscape, Helena believes that networking and collaboration are critical to stay at the forefront of industry trends. By harnessing the power of collaboration, Helena is transforming the future of legal technology. Her flagship tool, VQ Legal, has already established its presence in the market and is being used by 90% of top law firms in Sweden. In the coming years, Helena is keen to expand her product portfolio and contribute to fostering fresh legal tech concepts to champion transformation in the industry.
