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 of litigation strategy, automated discovery processes, and cybersecurity. This year, Hal was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Legalweek Leaders in Tech Law Awards. Today, Hal speaks with us about the advice he received at the beginning of his career, the evolution of the eDiscovery industry, Haystack's commitment to being a voice of reason, and the need for continuous education as technology evolves. Read the full transcript of today's episode here: https://www.seyfarth.com/dir_docs/podcast_transcripts/pioneers_Hal_Brooks.pdf

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 compliance teams run faster and more streamlined operations, while improving productivity throughout an organization. Additionally, Ned speaks frequently on topics related to artificial intelligence and the legal industry. Ned spoke with us about how earning a master’s degree in public administration prepared him for business, what it means for Coheso to be a "legal front door," balancing automation with human involvement, and managing the challenges of growing a business.

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 nonprofit lawyer assistance program that provides mental health support, addiction support, and practice management services. Heidi has also owned a solo law practice, practiced employment law and litigation, clerked for a justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court, and worked for a nonprofit women's business assistance center. Additionally, she is an avid speaker on topics such as attorney well-being, time management, productivity, and legal technology, and she has authored numerous articles and a book published by the American Bar Association's Law Practice Management Division, Evernote as a Law Practice Tool. In our wide-ranging conversation, Heidi talks with us about the mission and work of the committee, the various challenges to the well-being of lawyers, how her personal experience inspired her to focus on public service, and using technology to help with well-being.

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 served as associate general counsel for Goldman Sachs for 11 years, where she led the firm’s global eDiscovery practice and focused on complex commercial and securities litigation and regulatory investigations. Additionally, Marla was part of the inaugural class of the Education Advisory Council of the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC). Today, she advises on issues relating to information governance as well as the deployment of new technologies. Marla also speaks regularly on legal tech, eDiscovery, and information governance issues. In our conversation, Marla discusses how her father inspired her to become a lawyer, her involvement at the early stages of eDiscovery, why transparency is so important in adopting legal tech, and how generative AI has stimulated demand for other legal tech adoption.

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. At Filevine, Emily designs solutions to bring the platform and its suite of products to clients in a variety of legal disciplines. In our discussion, Emily speaks with us about why law appealed to her, what she has learned about change management, the types of projects that she and her team pursue, and how she became a legal futurist.

In this conversation, Richard Susskind, a renowned professor and author specializing in legal technology, shares his insights on the future of law. He discusses his new book, tackling the implications of AI in the legal field, and the urgent need for innovation in legal practices. Richard also highlights the transformation caused by COVID-19: a surge in automation but a lag in genuine innovation. He emphasizes how generative AI is changing service delivery and calls for reforms in legal education to equip future lawyers for an AI-driven landscape.

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 became an M&A attorney at Baker Donelson. There, he was part of a business technology subgroup, advising startups and emerging, high-tech companies. Understanding the pain points of transactional attorneys, he later developed SimplyAgree as a way to streamline the signing and closing process for complex transactions. In our conversation, Will discusses his experience at the 2024 LegalTech Fund Summit, how he founded SimplyAgree, the impact of generative AI on the legal tech space, and what he considers “the job of the startup founder.”

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 environmental law. Last year, PROOF was named “Best Practice of Law App” by Clio at the annual Clio Cloud Conference. Today, Eric tells us about his recommendation for young people planning to go to law school, why and how he created PROOF, the role of technology in addressing the A2J problem, and the legal technology developments that excite him.

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 changed career paths and became a global diversity and inclusion professional—serving as a law school and college admissions officer for Georgetown University, director of diversity and inclusion at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, and diversity officer at the International Monetary Fund. In her current role at The Still Center, Denise teaches contemplative practice techniques to lawyers and other professionals to promote self-awareness and authenticity, interrupt bias, and advance cultural humility. In our conversation, Denise speaks with us about how studying philosophy led her toward a legal career, what she learned as an L&E lawyer, the connection between DEI and well-being, and the challenges of managing global diversity initiatives.

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 board of directors at Intapp, and a member of the legal advisory board at LegalZoom. Ralph's work has extended across the legal ecosystem: legal education, law firms, law departments, legal tech companies, and public interest projects and regulatory reform. He also devotes time to thought leadership, writing a blog, and speaking at seminars and events. In our wide-ranging discussion, Ralph talks to us about his initiatives at Orrick, the key to change management, how generative AI will change legal pricing models and legal work, and the advice he shares with people considering a legal career. As 2024 comes to an end, we will be taking the next two weeks off. Thank you for listening in on all the wonderful discussions we’ve had this year. Thank you to our guests as well. We will return with new episodes on January 8th. Happy Holidays!