This week, we host Dennis Garcia, someone has been a leader at the intersection of law, technology, and business for over 25 years. He is currently Assistant General Counsel at Microsoft, where he leads the legal support function for the Microsoft Americas Strategic Customer Pursuit, Partner Solutions, and Sales Enablement & Operations teams—among many other responsibilities. Dennis’ journey into tech law began during law school, where he had the opportunity to support in-house counsel at IB...
Jun 25, 2025•36 min
Today, we're joined by Kevin Walker, founder and CEO of Centari, a deal intelligence platform that combines secure LLMs with trusted legal precedent to accelerate transactions. Kevin started as an M&A attorney at Paul Hastings before moving in-house to lead teams in real estate and private equity. Drawing on his experience representing businesses, he took the entrepreneurial leap to found Centari, where he has built products that he and his peers always wished they had as dealmakers. In our ...
Jun 18, 2025•29 min
This week's guest, Dr. Roland Vogl, is a leading voice in legal education and the legal profession. He is the Executive Director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science, and Technology, and a lecturer in law at Stanford Law School. Dr. Vogl also co-founded and leads CodeX, the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, where he drives cutting-edge research for the application of technology in the legal profession. In addition to his work at Stanford, Dr. Vogl serves as a visiting professor at the Un...
Jun 11, 2025•32 min
This week, we're speaking with Anastasia Boyko, a legal futurist and product evangelist at Filevine, a legal work platform for law firms and businesses. Anastasia has had a diverse career path, from practicing tax law to transformational and change management roles to legal education. She has created and led innovative programs at Yale Law School and the University of Utah SJ Quinney College of Law, where she has applied her knowledge of legal practice and business. Today, at Filevine, she colla...
Jun 04, 2025•38 min
We're joined today by a true leader and team-builder in legal tech: Mark Smolik, Chief Legal Officer at DHL Supply Chain Americas. Mark has been at the forefront of innovation in the industry for decades, having previously served as Senior Corporate Counsel at the Sherwin-Williams Company, as well as General Counsel & Secretary, Head of Human Resources, and Ethics Officer at Safelite AutoGlass. Across these various roles, Mark has been relied on for executing legal, compliance, and business ...
May 28, 2025•33 min
We're back with part two of our conversation with Justin Ergler and Keith Maziarek, two sharp voices at the forefront of legal innovation and co-hosts of the Off the Clock podcast. In this second episode, we dig deeper into the forces driving legal transformation. We talk about what motivates real change in the industry, why managing change—not just demanding it—is key to moving the industry forward, and why culture is such a critical but often overlooked component of successful change managemen...
May 21, 2025•31 min
This week, on Pioneers and Pathfinders, we're doing something a little different, with a special two-part conversation featuring Justin Ergler and Keith Maziarek, co-hosts of the Off the Clock podcast and board members of the Legal Value Network. Now, you may remember Keith from a previous episode. He's the Director of Pricing and Legal Project Management at Katten Muchin Rosenman. Justin, a veteran of GlaxoSmithKline, now leads his own consulting practice focused on alternative fee arrangements...
May 14, 2025•34 min
Today, we revisit one of our most thought-provoking conversations, this time with Dr. Megan Ma. Since she joined us on the podcast, Dr. Ma has co-founded and become the Executive Director of the Stanford Legal Innovation through Frontier Technology Lab—otherwise known as liftlab. With a rich background in political science, economics, health law, and economic law, Dr. Ma brings a truly interdisciplinary lens to the future of legal education and technology. In our conversation, she shares her ins...
May 07, 2025•37 min
Today, on Pioneers and Pathfinders, we're joined by Farrah Pepper, Chief Legal Innovation Counsel at Marsh McLennan—and a true force in the world of legal innovation. Farrah has built a career at the intersection of law, technology, and strategy, from founding Gibson Dunn's Global eDiscovery practice to leading GE's Discovery Center of Excellence to shaping the future of legal innovation at Marsh McLennan. She also plays a key role at Legal Data Intelligence, helping professionals unlock the pow...
Apr 30, 2025•35 min
Our guest this week is Christina Wojcik, Head of Innovation & Partnerships at Pierson Ferdinand LLP—and a true pioneer in legal tech and professional services. Christina's career started on the business side of law, where she built high-performing teams and supported major transactions and reviews. As technology began reshaping the legal landscape, she leaned in, becoming one of the early leaders in AI-powered document analysis and helping to find a new era of legal service delivery. Now, at...
Apr 23, 2025•37 min
We’re joined this week by Melissa Lauderdale, an executive director for a large company, and someone who is a true force in legal innovation. Melissa has spent her career transforming how legal teams operate, driving efficiency and building inclusive, high-performing teams in the fast-paced world of corporate law. From her work modernizing legal operations at Exelon to securing industry-first regulatory approvals at Constellation, she has been at the forefront of reshaping compliance and legal p...
Apr 17, 2025•30 min
As lawyers ascend to leadership roles within their firms and organizations, they often face difficult challenges such as the need for guidance and coping with feelings of isolation. Our guest this week, Rudhir Krishtel, is dedicated to supporting legal professionals in navigating these issues. As an advisor, Rudhir provides spaces for lawyers, law firms, legal departments, and companies to have meaningful dialogue and growth around well-being, collective engagement, leadership, and business. He ...
Mar 31, 2025•30 min
Timekeeping and billing have long been pain points for lawyers, but today's guest, Adrian Parlow, is working to change that. As the co-founder and CEO of PointOne, he's leveraging AI to automate time tracking and bill review, helping law firms capture more revenue while reducing administrative burdens. Adrian's path to legal tech began in startup law. After beginning his career at Fenwick & West, he transitioned to the business side as general counsel at Wefunder, an online crowdfunding plat...
Mar 26, 2025•31 min
In this special edition of Pioneers and Pathfinders, we celebrate the fourth anniversary of the podcast. As we look back, one thing stands out: Our guests come from a wonderfully diverse set of professional backgrounds, but they all share a common thread—a belief that the legal profession can and must evolve to meet the challenges and opportunities of our time. The conversations we've had on this podcast reflect both the challenges and incredible opportunities ahead. Listen in for insights from:...
Mar 17, 2025•18 min
This week, we're diving into the world of access to justice with Kristen Sonday, a true trailblazer in making pro bono legal work more efficient and effective. Kristen is the co-founder and CEO of Paladin, an organization dedicated to increasing pro bono engagement while reducing administrative burdens. Through partnerships with law firms, corporate legal teams, bar associations, the US government, and over 300 legal service organizations, Paladin is helping to bridge the justice gap by streamli...
Mar 16, 2025•33 min
Today, we host a fantastic guest, Barbara Rogers, Vice President of Legal Operations, Strategy & Transformation at Honeywell, a Fortune 500 powerhouse known for developing cutting-edge technologies that tackle global challenges in safety, security, and energy. Barbara is at the heart of driving transformation within the company's legal operations. With a career spanning HR, procurement, and legal, she has led large-scale global transformation initiatives. She started out as an attorney focus...
Mar 05, 2025•31 min
Our guest this week, Hal Brooks, is the CEO at HaystackID Group Holdings, a specialized eDiscovery services firm helping corporations and law firms find, understand, and learn from data when facing complex, data-intensive investigations and litigation. Hal is an eDiscovery and litigation technology professional with more than 25 years of experience. He has participated in the acquisition and growth of several industry-leading companies, and has helped businesses address challenges in the areas o...
Feb 26, 2025•30 min
We're joined today by Ned Gannon, co-founder and CEO of Coheso, an AI-powered work management platform for in-house legal and compliance teams. At the start of his career, Ned was a corporate attorney, primarily focusing on mergers and acquisitions on behalf of private equity funds. Fascinated by entrepreneurship, he ultimately took the leap into business himself. One of his ventures was co-founding eBrevia, an AI-based contract analysis software. Today, at Coheso, he and his team help legal and...
Feb 19, 2025•30 min
Today, we’re joined by Heidi Alexander, the executive director of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Lawyer Well-Being, which plans and oversees efforts to enhance the well-being of lawyers, judges, and law students in the Commonwealth. As executive director, Heidi helps lawyers achieve a healthy, positive, and productive balance of work, personal life, and health. Heidi has a wide-ranging background in law and well-being work. She has been deputy director of a nonpro...
Feb 13, 2025•29 min
This week's guest, Marla Crawford, is a respected attorney, strategic advisor, and thought leader with over 35 years of experience in the legal industry. She currently serves as general counsel at Cimplifi, an integrated legal services provider that leverages technology to simplify the experience of eDiscovery and contract analytics for law firms and legal departments. For 22 years, Marla practiced law at the international firm Jones Day, focusing on the discovery phase of litigation. She also s...
Feb 04, 2025•32 min
Today we’re joined by Emily Lippincott, Senior Legal Futurist at Filevine, a legal work platform for law firms and businesses across the United States and Canada. Emily is an attorney with over 16 years of experience in Silicon Valley, both in-house and at law firms, counseling corporate clients from incorporation to public offering or acquisition. Throughout her career, she has focused on law, knowledge management, and technology, and has gained a unique perspective on the future of legal tech....
Jan 27, 2025•29 min
This week, we’re revisiting a wonderful discussion with Professor Richard Susskind. In the time since he joined us on the podcast, Richard has been promoted to CBE—Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the King's New Year Honours List 2025 for his “services to Information Technology and to the Law.” Richard has also written a new book, How To Think About AI: A Guide For The Perplexed, in which he addresses the most challenging issues of AI technology that are currently being debated—th...
Jan 22, 2025•36 min
This week, we’re talking to Will Norton, the founder and CEO of SimplyAgree, a platform that automates the administrative tasks of a closing—from signature packets to closing binders—so attorneys can focus on getting deals done for their clients. Will’s legal journey began in undergrad, where he double-majored in math and computer science while taking philosophy and history courses. After realizing he wanted to work at the intersection of computer science and law, he went on to law school and be...
Jan 15, 2025•30 min
Today we welcome Eric Voogt, the founder and CEO of PROOF, a legal tech company that connects law firms with independent process servers nationwide. Eric started as an engineer for an aircraft manufacturer, but left this profession to attend law school and pursue a career in law. In addition to his work at PROOF, he has been a partner at a Denver law firm for more than two decades. Eric is skilled in technology development, as well as construction law, trials, appeals, commercial litigation, and...
Jan 07, 2025•31 min
Happy New Year! And welcome back to another year of Pioneers and Pathfinders! This week, we're joined by Denise Robinson, founding principal and Belonging & Well-Being Consultant at The Still Center, a consultancy that facilitates personal well-being, interpersonal connection, and organizational inclusion through mindfulness-based diversity and inclusion methods. Denise started her career as an employment litigator, focusing on discrimination claims and other employment disputes. She later c...
Jan 03, 2025•32 min
In our last episode before the new year, we're talking with Ralph Baxter, a true pioneer in the legal industry. Ralph is a strategic advisor to law firms, legal tech companies, and corporate law departments, but he is probably best known for his leadership at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. As chair and CEO of Orrick for more than two decades, he launched several groundbreaking initiatives that modernized the way the firm operated and served its clients. Today, he is a member of the boar...
Dec 15, 2024•30 min
We're pleased to welcome back Ed Walters, a thought leader in legal tech and innovation. Since Ed last spoke with us, he has become the chief strategy officer at vLex, which merged with Ed's previous company, Fastcase. vLex is a platform using AI solutions to streamline workflows and provide lawyers with greater access to knowledge and resources. About a year ago, the company launched Vincent AI, a legal intelligence platform that references real cases and materials from vLex’s law library of ov...
Nov 19, 2024•30 min
Today's guest, Taylor Sartor, is the creator and legal director of FosterPower, a movement to improve the lives and futures of youth in foster care in Florida, by providing them information on their benefits, protections, and legal rights. Taylor is also a senior attorney at the L. David Shear Children’s Law Center, where she represents youth in foster care. Taylor focuses on issues related to human trafficking, disabilities, commitment in psychiatric facilities, aging out of foster care, and sc...
Nov 17, 2024•31 min
This week, we welcome Nelson Quintero, the co-founder and chief operating officer of ECFX, a company that fills in the gaps in legal workflows with automated solutions. Nelson is an attorney with over 20 years of experience in the field of intellectual property, focusing on patent and trademark prosecution for both US and foreign clients. ECFX's main solution is an automated process for managing the flow of electronic court filings. He thought of the idea for ECFX with his friend Dan O'Day, a la...
Nov 15, 2024•28 min
This week, we are replaying the latest installment in our virtual roundtable series, titled “Understanding the Legal and Commercial Challenges of Disinformation and Deepfakes.” For those who may not be familiar, a deepfake is a type of synthetic media where images, videos, or audio may seem real, but have been manipulated or generated with artificial intelligence. While some synthetic or manipulated media have legitimate applications, the ability of deepfakes to exploit and spread disinformation...
Nov 11, 2024•52 min
