Elgar Weijtmans
I'm a tech enthusiast and ex-lawyer based in Rotterdam. I started as a software engineer, took a detour through law, and eventually realized I'd rather build tools than draft contracts about them. My career has zigzagged a bit: I founded a digital agency, got curious about law, and spent years as a technology lawyer at a big law firm. That gave me a front-row seat to how legal professionals actually work, and more importantly, where they get stuck. Now I'm back on the tech side as Head of Technology at HVG Law, EY's strategic partner in the Netherlands, and I'm an AI Business Fellow at Perplexity. My time is split between practical AI implementations, mentoring startups focused on social impact, and writing and speaking about legal tech. Over the past few years, I've evaluated dozens of legal AI tools, built multiple internal prototypes, and created a benchmark to test how much difference there is between generic AI solutions and purpose-built legal ones. Spoiler: the gap is often smaller than vendors would have you believe. When I'm not teaching tech to lawyers, you'll find me building a homebrew pinball machine at a local hacker collective (my dad handles the electronics while I do the code), experimenting with holographic art installations, or playing basketball. I also have strong opinions about sustainability, so ask me about them at your own risk.
1 Project
Prompting Hand-out for Lawyers
A modern, user-friendly React application for the prompting guide for lawyers. Built with React, TypeScript, Vite, and Tailwind CSS (with shadcn/ui design system).
Philosophy
“Technology is easy; people are hard”
The real challenge isn't implementing AI. It's building the internal culture and training programs needed to actually get value from the tools you buy. Most legal tech failures aren't technical failures at all. If you spend 80% of your budget on tech and 20% on training, you've got it backwards. Give me mediocre tools with excellent adoption over brilliant tools gathering dust any day.
“Be a good Swiss army knife”
Don't be afraid to be a generalist. The most valuable people I know aren't the deepest specialists; they're the ones who can connect dots across domains. Curious about everything. That's the mindset I try to embody.
“Start with the periphery, not the core”
Everyone wants to automate contract review, but meanwhile nobody has fixed the 47 manual steps in their intake process. My focus is on practical implementation: tackle the admin friction first, then work your way toward core legal work.