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—the business, risk, legal, ethical, management, and philosophical implications. The book will be available in March for those in the UK, and in April for those in the US. We have provided a link with additional information in the show notes. Congratulations to Richard on these recent accomplishments. And thank you to everyone for listening. We hope you enjoy! Today, we welcome a very special guest—Professor Richard Susskind. 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 legal tech and the future of the profession long before these subjects were top of mind in the industry. In the 1980s, he wrote his doctorate at Oxford University on artificial intelligence, and today, his main area of expertise continues to be the impact of AI and other technologies on the legal profession. Among other roles, Richard is President of the Society for Computers and Law, and Technology Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. He is also an adviser to leading professional firms, in-house legal departments, and governments and judiciaries around the world. He is a frequent speaker at conferences, seminars, retreats, and other events, having been invited to lecture in more than 60 countries. Richard has written 10 books and has contributed more than 150 articles to The Times of London. His most recent publication is the third edition of Tomorrow’s Lawyers, which guides legal professionals through the imminent future of law, and calls upon the next generation of lawyers to embrace technology in order to improve current legal and court services. In our conversation, Richard discusses the ways we should all be thinking about legal innovation, the challenges of training lawyers for the future, and the qualifications of those likely to develop breakthrough technologies in law, as well as his own journey and how he became interested in AI as an undergraduate student.

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!

In this engaging discussion, Ed Walters, Chief Strategy Officer at vLex and former CEO of Fastcase, shares his journey in legal tech. He delves into the transformative merger of vLex and Fastcase, emphasizing its mission to improve legal access through AI. Ed introduces Vincent AI, a groundbreaking tool designed to enhance legal research and drafting. He envisions generative AI as a game changer for democratizing justice and revolutionizing lawyer training, highlighting the importance of human judgment in this evolving landscape.

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 school-to-prison pipeline prevention, among many others. She came up with the idea for FosterPower while she was still in law school working with youth in foster care who had many questions about their rights and the resources available to them. The organization offers answers to these questions through a mobile app. An alum of Stetson University College of Law, Taylor is also the founder of Child Advocates of Stetson Law, an organization that recruits law students to become guardian ad litem volunteers, mentors, and leaders to advocate on behalf of children facing abuse and neglect. Additionally, she served as an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Children’s Law Center from 2018 to 2020. In our wide-ranging discussion, Taylor talks with us about the range of issues youth in foster care must contend with, how FosterPower earns trust from its users, where her passion for youth in foster care comes from, and her experience as an Equal Justice Works fellow.

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 lawyer and programmer. Nelson and Dan developed the software as a way to extract documents and gather information from a large volume of emails associated with electronic course filings, hoping to boost efficiency and cost savings. Since its launch, ECFX has helped numerous law firms of all sizes meet their automation needs. In our conversation, Nelson spoke about his experience launching ECFX during the pandemic, why IP law had suited his personality, dealing with change management, and his advice for lawyers pursuing entrepreneurship.

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 poses various commercial and legal threats, which organizations must be prepared to address. Our panel included Catherine Porter, Chief Business Officer of Prove; Hon. Paul W. Grimm (Ret.), professor of the practice of law and director of the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School; and Puya Partow-Navid, partner at Seyfarth. We discussed a variety of topics, including the biggest risks of deepfakes that organizations must tackle for consumers, the impact of deepfakes on courtroom and evidentiary rules, the legal frameworks in place to protect against deepfakes and disinformation, and technological solutions and best practices for businesses.

Today’s episode of Pioneers and Pathfinders takes a slightly different approach. We are joined by Tony Thai, a returning guest, who is the CEO and Chief Engineer of HyperDraft, a contract automation software platform for various enterprises. We’re also joined by Byong Kim, Senior Director of Technology Innovations at Seyfarth. He runs Seyfarth Labs, which is a tech R&D team that leads the way in applying emerging technologies to the legal profession. Earlier this year, the three of us led a highly curated roundtable at Seyfarth’s New York office for in-house counsel, innovation leaders, and Seyfarth partners, where we had an open conversation on best practices for the implementation of AI and automation. This was a confidential conversation, so we didn't record it. Today, we won’t be talking about specific people or comments made at the roundtable, but we thought we'd go over what we had learned from it and how we see the progression of AI and automation in the industry, as well as best practices. We discussed how generative AI is often treated like a "solution in search of a problem," how organizations are approaching implementation of the technology, potential security and confidentiality concerns with using generative AI, and advice for legal professionals starting to use this new technology.