A Bold Leap Into the New: Eversheds Sutherland Alumni Helping Shape the Future of Legal Tech

When Maria Sorsimo and Oula Poikolainen started their careers at Eversheds Sutherland, few would have predicted that, just a few years later, they would find themselves at the heart of a fast-moving legal tech start-up. Today, both work at Legora, a rapidly scaling legal tech company building an AI-powered workspace for legal professionals and bringing together lawyer expertise and machine intelligence in a new, collaborative way. Legora has also recently been adopted within Eversheds Sutherland Finland’s own operations.

From Eversheds Sutherland to the heart of legal tech

For Maria, Eversheds Sutherland was her first role in the legal field. For Oula, it was his second trainee position. Both describe their time at the firm as formative, particularly because they were trusted early on with work close to real matters and real responsibility. Trainees were brought into the work with an open mind, and the roles even had an entrepreneurial edge at times. Maria recalls representing the firm at a growth-company event, while Oula remembers the sheer variety of tasks he took on. He still laughs about being the “muuttopäällystömies” during the firm’s move between floors, essentially acting as the unofficial moving foreman. That kind of hands-on experience taught practical, ground-level skills that have proven valuable ever since.

New roles in a fast-evolving environment

Their move to Legora was, for both, a conscious step into a different operating environment and into roles that simply did not exist in traditional law-firm practice. Maria is now Head of Finland at Legora. When she joined, the team was still small, essentially just a handful of people. Since then, the team, the technology, and the overall business have developed quickly, with a global client base from the outset. Working in an environment where technology, and especially AI, is advancing at pace requires continuous learning and the willingness to adapt.

For Maria, moving from legal work into an entirely new, sales-oriented and strongly operational role meant deliberately stepping into discomfort and uncertainty. As the company has grown, her role has evolved significantly. She has described the move as a conscious decision to leave the familiar behind and to build something new at a time when ready-made structures were not yet in place. The work has demanded a strong entrepreneurial mindset, initiative, and the ability to operate in a setting where direction and responsibilities keep changing.

Oula works in a Go-to-Market role and, in practice, also functions as a legal engineer. “Legal engineer” is a relatively new role category, one that has emerged only recently, so there has not been an established educational path leading to it. The role combines law, technology, and strategy. It requires a legal background, but above all, customer-driven ideation and building solutions together with clients. Oula acts as a messenger between Legora’s product development and its clients, both law firms and in-house legal teams. In this role, his M&A background is central, helping him understand what lawyers need and translate legal questions into workable technological solutions.

As Legora evolves, both roles continue to change with it. Working in legal tech calls for more than legal expertise. It requires sales skills, change leadership, and the ability to bring new AI technology into a traditionally conservative field. The change is not merely technical but also cultural, and it depends on communication, justification, and trust built with clients.

Collaboration and technology in practice

The story came full circle when Eversheds Sutherland Finland adopted Legora and Maria and Oula found themselves working with their former employer again, this time as a technology partner. The experience reinforced a practical point: using AI in legal work is not an abstract future vision but day-to-day development work happening now. A successful adoption requires openness, curiosity, and a genuine willingness to improve how work is done, qualities they both recognize from Eversheds Sutherland’s culture.

Culture, alumni ties, and career takeaways

Looking back on their years at Eversheds Sutherland, Maria and Oula highlight people above all else. Colleagues, the trainee community, and the alumni network have remained an important part of their professional lives. The connection to their former firm has not ended, it has simply taken new and timely forms.

Their career stories show that legal expertise can open doors to many kinds of roles beyond traditional legal practice. Their message to younger lawyers is straightforward: listen to what genuinely interests you, stay curious, and do things properly. Courage moves you forward, and while it is always possible to return to a safer path, it is often the leap into the unknown that brings the most learning and opportunity.