Clarity

In the latest Clarity podcast, the Thomson Reuters Institute’s Bill Josten and Isaac Brooks speak with Belinda Jones, CFO of Ballard Spahr, about the impact of current economic volatility on law firms’ financial performance, exploring such issues as aggressive firm rate hikes, a sudden surge in client demand due to the global trade war, and the challenges of managing rising expenses.

Today, the global supply chain is experiencing a one-in-a-lifetime crisis, navigating an unpredictable level of escalation, de-escalation, and uncertainty amid the Trump administration’s trade war. In our latest podcast, Brian Wenck, CEO of Flat World Global Solutions, will help us see just how companies and their customers are navigating the disruption and what may yet lie ahead.  

Ragunath (Raghu) Ramanathan, President of Legal Professionals at Thomson Reuters speaks with Esther Bowers, Chief Practice Innovation Officer at Honigman, to discuss how the firm is handling enterprise-wide adoption of AI, practice area by practice area, as well as how the firm is analyzing lawyer workflow, and how AI is being used in the firm’s summer associate program.

Professional services organizations have rushed to adopt generative AI (GenAI), but now it’s time for the next step — integrating it into their business plans. Today’s podcast follows up on a recent Thomson Reuters Institute report on GenAI in professional services and speaks with Thomson Reuters chief product officer David Wong, who discusses why 2025 may be the year of AI in tax, the barriers holding professional services back from greater adoption, and how to get from the early innings of GenAI to a more fully developed plan.

Robert J. Leo, a partner at Meeks, Sheppard, Leo & Pillsbury, and Karen Lobdell, a Senior Manager at Thomson Reuters, join Thomson Reuters Institute Senior Industry Analyst Bryce Engelland on the podcast to discuss the current volatility around tariffs amid a rapidly evolving global trade landscape. Additional Producer Credits: Mariana Maldonado - Implementation Consultant Global Trade Andrew Moxon - Senior Product Marketing Manager

Jim Shoemaker, Chief Legal Operations Officer of Miles & Stockbridge, joins the podcast to discuss how law firms can find a quick and meaningful return on their investment in AI by targeting hours that would otherwise end up being written down and never billed to clients at all. Shoemaker discusses how these written-down hours become a hidden tax on law firms and makes a compelling case that these hours can be the first targets for firms’ AI efforts, potentially boosting firm revenue and profits while avoiding the loss of revenue that many lawyers fear AI adoption might bring. The views, opinions, and positions expressed by the speakers are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or positions of Miles & Stockbridge.  

  We speak to Andreas Rasche, Professor and Associate Dean at Copenhagen Business School, about the proposed omnibus simplification package of the EU’s sustainability reporting regulations, what supporters and critics are saying about it, and what those companies that may have already started complying ahead of the Jan. 1, 2026, deadline should do now.

With a new US president, a new crypto czar, and so much happening in the cryptocurrency space, we look at the shift in direction of crypto and what it means for the nation. Two industry experts discuss how the move from regulation by enforcement to a clearer infrastructure impacts the landscape of crypto in the US.

Natalie Runyon, content lead for sustainability for the Thomson Reuters Institute speaks with David Glasgow, Executive Director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at the NYU School of Law, about how companies can navigate the complexity and the legal landscape around diversity, equity & inclusion.  

With AI-generated evidence becoming more common in court cases, judges and other participants have a new responsibility to verify the validity of such evidence. In our latest podcast, Dr. Maura Grossman and Hon. Judge Maria Puente-Porras discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the use of AI-generated material as evidence.