Today’s guest is a true expert in legal operations. Kiran Mallavarapu is the executive vice president and senior manager of Legal Strategic Services at Liberty Mutual Insurance. A mechanical engineer by training, Kiran worked at General Motors for several years before joining Liberty Mutual as a senior business consultant. He then moved to a legal ops role, where he was able to apply his creative and problem-solving skills while also utilizing data and technology. Today, Kiran leads a team of ov...
Jul 26, 2023•31 min
Today’s guest is Mary Juetten, founder and CEO of Traklight, a company that provides businesses, entrepreneurs, and inventors with automation software tools and resources to help them identify business risks and legal needs. Mary’s professional journey began in finance, where she learned the basics of examining systems and processes. While working as a CFO, she oversaw her company's merger and learned more about contracts, inspiring her to pursue law. During law school, she came up with the idea...
Jul 19, 2023•32 min
Our guest today is Michael D.J. Eisenberg, an attorney who shares his deep knowledge of legal technology through his blog and podcast, The Tech Savvy Lawyer. A tech wiz with a master’s degree in civil engineering, Michael decided to pursue law school as a way to broaden his skill set. After working at the US Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals and at the Workers’ Compensation section of the Ohio Attorney General's Office, Michael decided to start his own practice, where he has focused on...
Jul 12, 2023•34 min
This week, as we celebrate Independence Day, we thought we'd revisit our conversation with Bridget Mary McCormack, former Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. Since we recorded this episode, Chief Justice McCormack has retired and gone on to be president and CEO of the American Arbitration Association, as well as strategic advisor to Penn Carey Law's Future of the Profession Initiative. In our discussion, Chief Justice McCormack talks about her efforts to ensure equal access to justice f...
Jul 05, 2023•28 min
Today's episode will be an encore presentation of our inaugural session for the Pioneers and Pathfinders Virtual Roundtable Series. Last Wednesday, host Steve Poor had a live and lively discussion with four legal industry experts and thought leaders on the topic “Navigating Risks, Benefits, and Ethical Considerations in the Age of AI,” which focused on generative AI and the implications for the legal industry. These thought leaders—Kiran Mallavarapu, Executive Vice President and Senior Manager o...
Jun 28, 2023•1 hr 3 min
Today we are joined by Tom Martin, founder and CEO of LawDroid, a company using artificial intelligence and automation techniques to help lawyers be more productive. Inspired by his early experiences as a legal assistant, Tom entered the legal profession with a strong commitment to efficiency and technology. While working as a lawyer at a top talent agency, he learned the basics of building a business, ultimately leading him to pursue entrepreneurship. He would go on to start Foresight Legal Gro...
Jun 14, 2023•27 min
Our guest today is a self-described “unapologetic access to justice advocate.” Natalie Anne Knowlton is the founder and principal consultant at Access to Justice Ventures, an organization committed to eliminating systemic barriers to legal resources by empowering entrepreneurs who are developing scalable solutions. As a law student, Natalie was deeply passionate about humanitarian and civil rights issues, so she ultimately decided to focus her career on the A2J space. Her list of activities is e...
Jun 07, 2023•33 min
Our guest today is Jimmy Vestbirk, founder of Legal Geek, an organization that hosts events around the world for the legal tech community. Jimmy started his career in business, owning and operating a number of online dating sites. As he ran into different legal issues in these ventures, his experiences ultimately inspired him to find solutions to these problems. Drawing on his business knowledge, he co-founded the legal startup Flex Legal, where he discovered his passion for events. Jimmy would ...
May 24, 2023•32 min
We’re joined today by John Grant, a legal operations strategist who works with law firms and legal teams to improve their capacity and productivity. A fourth-generation lawyer, John was in the technology industry for nearly a decade before he entered the legal profession. As an attorney, he started in in-house counsel and legal operations roles before founding Agile Professionals LLC in 2014. As a consultant, he helps legal professionals develop legal services that are profitable, scalable, and ...
May 17, 2023•34 min
Today we speak with our 100th guest, Catherine Jackson Moynihan, a true pioneer and expert in legal operations—and another great example of an allied professional driving change in the profession. Catherine is Senior Director of Strategic Intelligence & Advisory at Hyperion Research, an Epiq company. After working in product management roles for several years, she had the opportunity to join the Association of Corporate Counsel, where she started and directed the legal operation section—at a...
May 10, 2023•34 min
As we’ve discussed many times on the podcast, the access to justice gap is a particularly complex challenge to address, due to its links to systemic issues such as poverty and limited availability to legal resources and technology. Today’s guest, however, is helping people overcome these broader obstacles to legal services. Amanda Brown is the founder and executive director of Lagniappe Law Lab. The organization’s mission is to facilitate access to justice at scale for Louisiana's underprivilege...
May 03, 2023•30 min
Today we are joined by Memme Onwudiwe, co-founder and executive vice president of Legal and Business Intelligence at Evisort, a company using AI and advanced contract lifecycle management functions to help companies negotiate, organize, and extract data from their contracts. While still a student at Harvard Law, Memme helped build Evisort with three of his peers, through the school’s innovation lab. Inspired by their experiences doing contract work at legal internships, they developed a software...
Apr 26, 2023•34 min
Our guest today is Kathryn DeBord, vice president of product strategy at DISCO, a company that utilizes artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and data analytics to automate parts of the legal practice so that lawyers can focus their attention on other important areas. While Kathryn is known today for her work in legal innovation, her career journey actually began in an unexpected place—the Central Intelligence Agency. When Kathryn joined the CIA, she fulfilled a lifelong dream, but after fou...
Apr 19, 2023•32 min
Kristina Lambright is Senior Director of Strategic Growth at Perkins Coie LLP. She has had a fascinating legal career, serving various roles within the industry. After practicing in commercial litigation for nearly a decade, Kristina became a research specialist at Vinson & Elkins LLP, where she also assisted with budgeting. Seeking more involvement with driving decisions and revenue at the firm, she ventured into strategic pricing under the guidance of her colleague Toby Brown, the firm’s f...
Apr 12, 2023•36 min
As the freelance economy has grown over the past several years, more and more legal organizations and businesses have started seeking legal talent for fractional work in order to navigate budget restraints. Today’s guest, Matt Margolis, frequently discusses these developments as Head of Community at Lawtrades, a legal tech company that provides flexible, on-demand legal talent to in-house legal departments and law firms. Matt entered the legal industry as an attorney in private practice, but soo...
Apr 05, 2023•30 min
Looking back over the past two years of guests, we see a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives: different generations, different paths, and different areas of focus—legal ops, legal tech, law education, working in the A2J space, and attorney well-being, among others. We've covered a lot of ground. Obviously, we cannot recap everything we have discussed, but as we think about change in the profession, certain themes seem to emerge from the conversations. For these purposes though, let's focus...
Mar 29, 2023•29 min
To celebrate the two-year anniversary of Pioneers and Pathfinders, we welcome a very special guest—Professor Richard Susskind OBE. For those who have been engaged in the discussions around legal tech for the past few decades, Richard needs no introduction. He is one of the most advanced thinkers on the impact of technology on the profession, and has been challenging our notions about what it will mean to be a lawyer for a long time. Richard is an adviser, speaker, and author who was focused on l...
Mar 22, 2023•35 min
Our guest today is a true legal tech expert—Dennis Kennedy, director of the Center for Law, Technology and Innovation at Michigan State University College of Law. Dennis first saw the potential that technology had for advancing the legal industry when he started using computer tools in his estate and tax practice. He went on to work in house at MasterCard, where he focused on information technology and supported the company’s mobile wallet, API, and Labs business groups. For more than 20 years, ...
Mar 15, 2023•38 min
Today we speak with John Alber—retired lawyer, businessperson, and legal futurist. Like many of our guests, John’s career path has taken some fascinating turns. He was a partner at Bryan Cave LLP when he was given the opportunity to buy a company, which ultimately became Alber Leland, Inc., a database and software publisher in the transportation sector. John would later return to Bryan Cave as Strategic Innovation Partner—one of the first in the industry—applying his business skills and experien...
Mar 08, 2023•26 min
As the current discussion around the hot topic of ChatGPT evidences, legal technology is constantly evolving and developing. This results in a level of complexity and confusion for both legal organizations and tech companies as they try to stay competitive. One of the people helping them navigate these waters is Zach Abramowitz, founder of Killer Whale Strategies. A former M&A attorney, Zach founded the company in 2019, with the goals of facilitating connections between law firms and tech co...
Mar 01, 2023•36 min
Today’s guest is Paula Davis, founder and CEO of the Stress & Resilience Institute, which helps legal professionals and teams manage stress and avoid burnout. Paula entered the legal profession as a real estate attorney, but facing burnout herself, she ultimately left her practice to pursue a master’s degree in Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. There she began working in a program for the US Army, helping teach senior NCOs, officers, and other Army leaders and th...
Feb 22, 2023•41 min
Today we are joined by David Cunningham, chief innovation officer at Reed Smith and founder of Legal Metrics. David began driving change in the legal industry many years ago—first working with legal professionals as a tech strategy consultant for law firms, drawing on his business background to help clients improve their practices. David went on to become chief information officer at Winston & Strawn, where he created the firm’s strategies and oversaw its innovation efforts. He also founded ...
Feb 15, 2023•31 min
Today's episode takes a break from our usual format. Last week, Steve Poor participated in a webinar hosted by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Law Department Management Network (LDMN) about the implications of ChatGPT with Khurram Gore of Verizon, and Amy Yeung of Sallie Mae. Khurram has a deep background in technology and innovation, focusing on the intersection of law, technology, and business. At Verizon, he leads legal for their chief product development officer and the technology...
Feb 08, 2023•22 min
Today we speak with Alma Asay, senior director of Practice Innovation and Client Value at Crowell & Moring. Alma’s interest in innovation began while she was a litigator at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, using technology to improve efficiency for the firm’s clients. Without any experience in the technology industry or as an entrepreneur, she founded Allegory, a cloud-based litigation management platform that delivers services and insights across the entire litigation spectrum. The story of her...
Feb 01, 2023•33 min
Today we are joined by Catherine Alman MacDonagh, a lawyer, entrepreneur, and CEO and founder of the Legal Lean Sigma Institute. Catherine started her legal career as director of corporate marketing for Counsel Connect, a first-of-its-kind social network platform for attorneys. After several roles in marketing and business development at law firms, she founded the Legal Sales and Service Organization, where she developed the Legal Lean Sigma Institute. The Institute was formed out of Catherine’s...
Jan 25, 2023•31 min
Today’s guest is Kunoor Chopra, a true pioneer in the legal industry and vice president of Legal Services at Elevate, a law company providing software and services for the intersection of business and law. A litigator by training at Am Law 50 firms, she made the transition into legal services outsourcing when she founded LawScribe, one of the pioneer alternative legal service providers in the industry. She made the leap to founder in 2004—before the term ALSP was even born. Kunoor’s move from Am...
Jan 18, 2023•31 min
Toby Brown is the CEO and founder of DV8 Legal Strategies and a true pioneer in pricing and project management in the legal industry. Toby got his start in law firm administration, and then became director of the Utah State Bar. His move to head of knowledge management at Fulbright & Jaworski marked the start of his business of law innovation journey, which has since led to a number of roles at Am Law 100 firms building pricing and project management programs. Today, Toby helps legal organiz...
Jan 11, 2023•37 min
Today's guest is Dr. Sonja Ebron, a PhD of electrical engineering and an entrepreneur with a background in AI. She co-founded Courtroom5 with her wife, Dr. Debra Slone, PhD, a former librarian, school professor, and qualitative data and analysis expert. Motivated by their own difficult experiences navigating the judicial system, they decided to help others in similar situations. Courtroom5 provides people with the tools, resources, and workshops needed to help them settle civil cases, with or wi...
Jan 04, 2023•33 min
To close out this year, we are delighted to welcome back an old friend, Jae Um. Jae is one of the most sought-after strategy executives in the legal industry. She is the founder and executive director of Six Parsecs, an insights firm for the legal vertical. In addition to strategic consulting for law firm leadership, Jae serves on advisory boards for emerging legal tech companies, including LegalMation, Datana, and LexFusion. Jae got her start in Big Law at Seyfarth, where she served in a progre...
Dec 14, 2022•33 min
We have had numerous guests on the podcast focused on legal tech, but in today’s conversation, we talk about practical governance strategies for AI and other frontier technologies with Karen Silverman, the CEO and founder of The Cantellus Group. Karen advises Fortune 50 companies, startups, consortia, and governments on how to govern cutting-edge technologies in a rapidly changing policy environment. Her expertise is informed by more than 20 years of practice and management leadership at Latham ...
Dec 07, 2022•34 min
