Bomi Lee, associate, Fenwick & West. Courtesy photo

Bomi Lee was the lead associate at Fenwick & West on three deals for digital currency wallet and trading platform Coinbase—the acquisition of Keystone Capital, a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority-registered broker-dealer; HardFork Inc. (dba Cipher Browser), a decentralized app browser and wallet for the Ethereum blockchain; and Earn Holdings LLC, a payment platform provider.

How do you describe what you do for a living to people you're meeting for the first time?

I'm a marriage counselor/divorce lawyer for companies.

Who is the most important mentor you've had thus far in your career? Why?

When I was a (very) junior lawyer, I was on a negotiation call where the partner made me laugh so hard we had to go on mute. Learning that negotiating did not mean yelling or pounding the table, and could be fun, made a huge difference in how I approached my practice.

What's the best part of working in the tech sector?

Cutting-edge and innovative clients who aren't bogged down by precedent or customs, whether in their own industry or how they approach deals.

What's the biggest challenge?

Sometimes it would be beneficial to follow the well-worn precedent or customary practice rather than trying to reinvent the wheel!

What's one way technology has made your life easier?

There is so much new technology available to junior lawyers now that wasn't there when I started practicing only nine years ago that makes timekeeping, drafting, proofreading, document execution, precedent searching and many, many other things so much easier and more efficient. Also the new tech tools make it easy to work anywhere!

One way it's made your life more difficult?

The new tech tools make it too easy to work anywhere…

What's the best piece of career advice anyone ever gave you?

Take it one day at a time.

In 50 words or less, what's the best way to address tech's gender gap?

First, promoting more women to partnership and leadership positions in firms and legal departments and then allowing/helping those women to foster, sponsor, recognize and support future women leaders (as opposed to requiring them to conform to the other men around them).

Describe yourself in one word.

Feminist.

What kinds of new technologies should tomorrow's lawyers be able to use effectively?

Anything that makes what you do easier.

What's one area of technology that you're most excited about and why?

Artificial intelligence. I think it's going to help lawyers reach higher, more efficient productivity and improve accuracy and creativity.