It came as a huge shock this morning reading the news of the death of Charles Christian. For me it felt that the sad news warranted a little more than just a short twitter post to pay tribute to the man who became as synonymous to the UK Legal Tech scene as anyone (Richard Susskind included).

I came across Charles back in 1996 when I started in the legal industry, well more specifically I came across the Orange Rag. Sat in an old office in the centre of Bradford waiting for in reception for my interview I picked up this strange “magazine” printed on bright orange paper and was introduced to the strange and wonderful world of legal technology.

I was lucky enough to meet Charles on a number of occasions through the years, whether as an attendee at various supplier conferences or at events that he helped run. It was through his involvement in LawTech Futures in the early 2010’s that he encouraged me to get involved and to talk at the event at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre, from there I have enjoyed a number of speaking gigs in London and across Europe.

Along with a few other legal tech stalwarts, Charles was involved in the early days of twitter and was a fountain of knowledge on legal tech. So, if you needed a bit of tech history or information about conferences, he was a font of knowledge and was always willing to engage in conversation.

I am sure there are many who have a huge sense of loss today, mine will likely be just a fraction of theirs, but to me it shows how much he touched and influenced so many people. After all he and the Orange Rag are one of the reasons this blog was started.

You will be missed Charles. RIP.

Other lovely tributes I’ve read: here and here