Today’s episode is with Mary O’Carroll, the Chief Community Officer at Ironclad, a contract lifecycle management company. Mary comes from a consulting, business, and finance background and through her career at Orrick, Google, Ironclad, has become one of the faces of “legal operations.” It doesn’t hurt that she was a founding board member of CLOC, …

Today’s episode is with Varun Mehta, the CEO of Factor, a legal managed services company recently spun out of Axiom, the massive alternative legal services provider. Varun’s story is fascinating. He approaches the legal industry from the perspective of an engineer out to solve problems in a cross-disciplinary way, totally free from the traditional,…

Today’s episode is with Joey Seeber, the CEO of Level Legal, a Dallas-based, next generation law company that bills itself as “problem solvers” for the legal industry. From e-discovery, to investigations, to regulatory matters, Level Legal takes on many tasks that can’t be done effectively or efficiently at law firms. In this episode, Joey talks ab…

Anyone reading news about legal technology recently has seen the massive surge in big money deals across the industry. Over the last several months, the industry has seen blockbuster fundraises and M&A activity despite the pandemic. Just last month, contract management startup Ironclad raised over 100M. Around the same time, e-discovery company Dis…

Happy New Year, Modern Lawyer Podcast listeners. Today’s episode addresses one of the fastest moving, most fascinating areas in the law today: blockchain and cryptocurrency. We’re joined by Joon Kim, a former Kirkland & Ellis attorney and AGC at Goldman Sachs, who is now the general counsel at blockchain startup o1 Labs, based out of San Francisco.…

Today’s episode is the third and final episode in a three part series on how the law firm business model will change in response to economic, competitive, and cultural trends. Our guest today is Patrick DiDomenico, the Chief Innovation Officer at leading employment law firm Jackson Lewis. Patrick literally wrote the book on KM in legal, appropriate…

Today’s episode is the second in a three part series on the law firm business model and how COVID-19, the recession, and rising competition will cause law firms to rapidly change. Our guest today is Toby Brown, the Chief Practice Management Officer of AmLaw 50 law firm Perkins Coie. As a veteran of pricing, efficiency, and value in the law firm con…

Today's episode is the first in a three part series on the law firm business model, and how COVID-19 the recession and rising competition will cause it to rapidly change. Our guest today is someone who is uniquely qualified to talk about this subject. Meredith Williams range is the Chief Knowledge and client value officer at the preeminent law firm…

Today’s episode is with Eva Shang, CEO of Legalist, a tech-enabled litigation finance firm with 150 million dollars of assets under management. Legalist uses tech and sophisticated analytics to source and underwrite legal investments, mainly for small and medium size claims. In this episode, Eva talks about her entrepreneurial background as a Harva…

Today’s episode is with Ajay Agrawal, the co-founder of UnitedLex, one of the earliest global alternative legal services providers. He’s now the CEO of SirionLabs, a high tech contract management tool aimed at large companies. This episode is long. It’s long because when I tried to find less valuable content to cut, I completely failed. This is bec…

In this episode, we chat with Bob Taylor, the Vice President and Senior Corporate Counsel of Legal Ideation & Transformation at Liberty Mutual Insurance. As a trailblazer in the field of corporate legal operations, Bob thinks in terms of systems, organizational efficiency, and core success metrics, which could be the saving grace of the legal indus…

Today we chat with Nikki Shaver, the managing director of Innovation and Knowledge at global law firm Paul Hastings and the founder of the global Legal Innovation Design group. Nikki shares about her journey from Europe to Australia to Canada and finally to the US, ultimately moving into the world of legal innovation and knowledge management and le…

Today we talk with Michael Rhodes, the Global Chair of Cooley’s internet and data privacy practice group. At Cooley, he has famously represented companies from Google, Facebook, and Zoom recently to mp3.com and eBay decades ago. In those suits, he grappled with some of the most cutting edge data privacy issues, from biometrics, to automated email s…

Today we share our conversation with Judge Charles Clevert, a retired federal district court and bankruptcy court judge. Appointed at just 30 years of age, Judge Clevert was Wisconsin’s first African American federal judge. He now serves as a neutral with JAMS, an alternative dispute resolution provider.…

In this episode recorded over 60 days into the pandemic shelter-in-place, we speak with Zach Abramowitz, who approaches the legal industry from his perspective as a journalist, lawyer, investor, entrepreneur, and all-around connector in the field. Zach and Anand talk about the concerns, ideas, and predictions we are hearing from all sides of legal …

Today we share a conversation with Erwin Chemerinsky, a preeminent constitutional law scholar, Supreme Court litigator, and Dean of Berkeley Law. In this episode, we talk to Erwin about several topics, including Berkeley Law’s response to the pandemic, his vision for innovative legal education, advice to new students and graduating 3Ls, and how he …

Today’s conversation is with Robert (Bob) Owen, a tech-savvy veteran litigator and partner at top law firm Eversheds Sutherland. In this episode, Bob talks about the ambitious mandate his firm’s global co-chair of litigation provided him, namely to achieve “Legaltech supremacy” at Eversheds in two years. Bob shares details on how he’s meeting this …

Today we share a conversation with Amy Wegener, the Chief Practice Innovation Officer at AmLaw 25 law firm Paul Hastings and Joe Dunn, a former California State Senator, former CEO of the California State Bar, and a highly successful trial lawyer. Recently, Anand had the honor of presenting at a class they teach jointly at UC Irvine School of Law e…

Today's conversation is with Monet Fauntleroy, Director of Legal Service Delivery at Cooley. Monet has been on several sides of the legal technology ecosystems, starting out as a prosecutor, moving to a legal solutions provider, and finally to a large firm. At Cooley, Monet and her team of innovators evaluate new technologies and solve technology p…

Today our conversation is with Shannon Salter, the chair of the Civil Resolution Tribunal. The CRT is a fascinating example of an online court that seeks to provide access to Canada's legal system in new, efficient ways. Through their online platform, injured parties can file and serve a complaint in a number of different causes of action, all from…

Today we are honored to present our conversation Richard Susskind, one of the worlds leading intellectuals on technology in the law and the future of work. Dr. Susskind is also the author of some of the best-known books involving the modernization of law and lawyers - including "the Future of Law", "Tomorrows Lawyers", and his most recent book "Onl…

We're honored to share our conversation with David Wilkins, a Law Professor at Harvard Law School and the Faculty Director of the Center on The Legal Profession. Anand recently had the opportunity to present to Professor Wilkins’ class at HLS, The Legal Profession, where he shared his thoughts on technology’s impact on the future of legal jobs. Aft…

Today we share our conversation with Evan Parker, a Ph.D statistics expert and founder of Parker Analytics. Evan is ushering in a new era of data-driven decision-making for law firms by working with them to collect, assess, and evaluate their data, optimizing how they do business. He uses data to help them discover problematic trends in recruitment…

Today we share our conversation with Haley Altman, founder and CEO of Doxly, which was recently acquired. Haley tells her story from the point of view of a former big law partner specializing in corporate transactions. In that senior role, she personally felt a pain point and looked to the market for a solution. Finding none, she founded Doxly, a c…

On today’s episode of the Modern Lawyer Podcast, I had the opportunity to talk to University of Dayton School of Law Dean, Andrew Strauss. The Law School is examining new ways to use online tools to make legal education accessible to more students. In this episode, we hear Dean Strauss’s opinions on how on-demand online education can sometimes more…

On today’s episode of the Modern Lawyer Podcast, we speak with Karin Conroy, Legal Marketing Consultant and founder of Conroy creative counsel. In our conversation, we talk about marketing strategies for small and mid-size law firm attorneys. Karin provides us guidance on how to create a prospective-client-focused website, aligning website visuals …

Today we share an interview with Bradley Gayton, the General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer of Ford Motor Company, ranked twelve in the Fortune 500. Bradley embodies the new generation of GCs. He’s up to speed on new technology including AI and machine learning. He’s interested in changing the business model in law. He’s curious and inter…

In this episode, we’re joined by Alex Lakatos, a litigation partner at Mayer Brown in Washington, DC. Alex is an example of a successful attorney at a thriving firm who is pushing himself to become an expert in the brand new area of artificial intelligence in financial services, lending, and credit. Alex organizes and speaks on AI in financial serv…

Today we are sharing our recent conversation with Christina Blacklaws, the President of The Law Society of England and Wales, (the equivalent of our American Bar Association). Throughout her career, Christina has been a champion for gender equality in law, alternative fee arrangements, and awareness of mental health issues in law. In our conversati…

Today we're joined by Charles Frey, the Director of Library at elite law firm, Munger Tolles & Olson. In this episode, we talk about the evolution of the librarian function in law firms, assisted my metaphors randing from Indiana Jones, to chicken farming, and the library of Alexandria. Charles talks about how librarians are increasingly expected t…

What is a Chief Innovation Officer? 10 years ago, this title didn’t exist, and at most firms big and small, it STILL doesn’t exist. I ask this question to Ali Shahidi, the Chief Innovation and Client Solutions Officer at AmLaw 100 law firm Sheppard Mullin. Ali is an experienced and trusted innovation expert and technologist. He has decades of exper…

Today we talk to Kimball Parker, President of SixFifty, the technology subsidiary of top technology law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Early in his legal career, Kimball faced a personal example of how the legal system’s labyrinth-like complexity is harming millions of people who cannot afford attorneys. This led to a fascinating career as …

Today our guest is Marlene Gebauer, the Director of Strategic Legal Insights at the AmLaw 20 law firm, Greenberg Traurig. In this episode, Marlene shares how she ended up in her unique role at Greenberg and we discuss how she developed their 'innovation lab'. We get to hear about her passion for client collaboration, and what AmLaw executives are l…

Today we share our conversation with the Chief Marketing Officer of Winston Strawn, Howard Kravitz. He works us through the past, present, and future of the law firm marketing pitch, and how it is different from the consulting world, and how often marketers at a law firm have many more audiences than just a potential client. We hope you enjoy it!…

Today we are joined by Vishal Agnihotri, the Chief Knowledge Officer of Hinshaw & Culbertson, an AmLaw 200 law firm. Vishal has a background as an executive at KPMG and Ernst & Young. In this episode, we talk about the differences between two big areas of professional services, BigLaw, and the Big 4 accounting firms. Vishal observes a few different…

Augie Rakow is the co-founder and managing partner of Atrium LLP, a law firm that uses modern technology to provide startups fast, transparent, and predictable legal services. Augie co-founded Atrium in 2017 with Justin Kan, who built the popular video game streaming platform Twitch. Before founding Atrium, Augie was a corporate partner at Orrick f…

Today on the Modern lawyer we speak with JP Box, a lawyer, entrepreneur, author, and millennial. After a career in AmLaw 100 firms, JP left law practice dissatisfied with his experience. After changing his career, he just couldn’t kick the feeling that there was some shared experience causing many lawyers of his generation to leave the law. He deci…

Our guest today is Oz Benamram. He is the Chief Knowledge Officer at White and Case, where he has led their KM program for over 10 years. Oz is a leader in the field and his ideas on technology, law firm economics, and information management are often years ahead of his peers.By Anand Upadhye

Today you’ll hear an interview with Beatrice Seravello, who was a former Chief Strategy Officer at Blank Rome and Kaye Scholer, and now a senior executive at Arnold Porter. As a chief strategy officer, Bea had oversight for all revenue-generating activities, leading Strategy, Business Development, Marketing and Practice Management for the firm, ove…

Today’s guest is Bryon Bratcher, the Managing Director of Gravity Stack, a wholly owned subsidiary of AmLaw 50 law firm Reed Smith. Gravity Stack is a revenue-generating company within the firm that builds products and offers up services for law firms and other businesses. We speak with Bryon about his journey from the head of the Reed Smith client…

Matthew Stubenberg is an attorney entrepreneur who is now the associate director of Legal Technology at Harvard Law School. Matthew has created notable and useful technology based on pain points he experienced as a practitioner in Baltimore, Maryland. So far he has created the NotGuilty App and MD Expungement, two tools that have earned thousands o…

Today’s guest is Jordan Grotzinger, a shareholder and Co-Chair of the Los Angeles Litigation Practice at Greenberg Traurig. Jordan is a business litigator and trial attorney who has experience in entertainment law and intellectual property. Lately, he has spent an increasing amount of time driving innovation and modernization at the firm. We were h…

So often in the tech world and the legal industry we view the United States as a legal market that is separate and distinct, but it is really important for us to take into account what is happening in other countries as well. We see a lot of the same trends in countries like Brazil as we do in the United States, and we can seethe different ways in …

In this episode Anand is joined by Joshua Browder, a software engineer and the Founder of DoNotPay, a robot lawyer startup that helps customers fight parking tickets and obtain refunds from airlines. DoNotPay has saved their customers an estimated $15M in parking fines alone. Time Magazine proclaimed DoNotPay as the “Hero the World Needs,” and the …

Scott Bailey is the Global Director of Research Services at Squire Patton Boggs. He’s seen decades of law firm transition, including acquisitions, rapid growth and restructuring. He’s a specialist in not just identifying technology that can help his firm’s attorneys, but also bringing it into his firm across practice groups and stakeholders. He com…

Some estimates show that over 65% of legal needs in the United States are not met because most people simply cannot afford attorneys. Pro bono work can help bridge that gap, but as attorneys who have worked on pro bono cases know, it's often difficult to find and manage pro bono cases. That's what inspired Felicity Conrad to start Paladin, a platfo…

Carolyn Elefant, solo attorney and author of the popular blog MyShingle, shares her predictions for how solo practice will change in the next 20 years, including new technologies and business models that are already gaining popularity among solo practitioners.By Anand Upadhye

Frances McDormand ended her Oscars acceptance speech with two words: “inclusion rider.” Attorney Kalpana Kotagal, who actually wrote the inclusion rider, explains what it is, how it came about, and why it will drive diversity and inclusion in Hollywood and beyond.By Anand Upadhye

As the Associate GC leading the litigation group at Macy’s, Betty Tierney and her team actually handle much of the company’s litigation themselves -- and she’s using that experience to guide her expectations when she works with outside counsel. Learn more about Macy’s unique approach to litigation, find out why Betty believes we’re going to see an …

Evan Shenkman, Ogletree Deakins’ Director of Knowledge Management Counsel and Research, describes how his experiences practicing law and building Ogletree’s KM department led him to the “holy grail” of legal technology: a system that can automatically kick off a chain of events involving both external vendors and internal systems whenever a motion …