On a stage in Chicago in front of about 250 tech-minded legal professionals, Nina Kilbride last week lamented how her company that is drafting “smart contracts” struggles to find talented, tech-focused lawyers.

Everyone she knows who wants to harness technology to “disrupt the business of law,” as the saying goes, came to the niche legal-tech arena through happenstance or their own curiosity, Kilbride said, speaking at the Janders Dean & Chicago-Kent College of Law Legal Horizons Conference.