Clarity

The corporate tax world has seen a lot of change in recent years between budgetary and hiring crunches and regulatory shifts. There’s one area, however, in which many corporate tax departments still see a lot of room to grow: technology. Fresh off the first edition of the Corporate Tax Technology Report, published by the Thomson Reuters Institute (TRI) and Tax Executives Institute, TRI’s Zach Warren dives into the report with Todd Lard, Tax Counsel at Tax Executives Institute, to explore why so many tax departments categorize their tech maturity as reactive, whether these departments have the personnel to carry out modern tech implementations, and how smaller departments with tiny tech budgets can do more with less. The podcast also examines the artificial intelligence (AI) question: Where does generative AI actually fit into the day-to-day work of corporate tax professionals?

Aaron Boersma from Google and Shanna Davidson from Barnes & Thornburg join the Thomson Reuters Institute Insights podcast to discuss client and law firm perspective on some of the key findings from the Thomson Reuters Institute’s recent Legal Department Operations (LDO) Index report. As clients find themselves seemingly caught between the challenge of needing to control costs and the realities of increasing legal matter volumes with little by way of additional staffing or budget to manage those new matters, they must look for creative way to “do more with less” and will likely be relying more on outside counsel. While this presents opportunities for law firms, it can also be a breeding ground for worry as clients increasingly look to shuffle work around in search of greater cost effectiveness. This podcast’s buy-side/sell-side discussion of these topics and more sheds new light on the challenge that corporate legal department operations professionals face today, what law firms are doing to help, and what more can be done.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) holds a lot of potential to transform law, upending everything from how lawyers do their daily work to how law firms and clients interact and conduct business. However, that begs the question: Where does the actual person fit into all of this? In the latest Thomson Reuters Institute Insights podcast, recorded live at the Generative AI & Emerging Technology Forum in New York City, the Thomson Reuters Institute’s Zach Warren sat down with Wendy Butler Curtis, Chief Innovation Officer at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, to discuss why it’s humans and AI rather than humans versus AI, how Orrick is working to prioritize mental health while introducing innovative technology, and where she sees generative AI actually making an impact in the future of the legal profession.

In the latest Thomson Reuters Institute Insights podcast, Heather Fischer, Senior Advisor of Human Rights Crimes at Thomson Reuters Special Services and a previous Special Advisor for Human Trafficking at The White House, discusses today’s launch of the Human Trafficking Resource Center, which makes use of the City of Houston’s world-class anti-trafficking toolkits, with Minal Patel Davis, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence at the City of Houston under the leadership of Mayor Sylvester Turner. As the podcast describes, the new Resource Center will make these toolkits readily accessible online to cities and other public authorities into the future. These step-by-step guides will help municipal authorities quickly mobilize anti-trafficking campaigns which may otherwise take years of planning, saving cities money and other public resources.

In the latest episode of the Thomson Reuters Institute Insights podcast, Nadya Britton, the Enterprise Content Manager for Tax and Trade at the Thomson Reuters Institute, sat down with Suzanne Offerman, Director of Outbound Product Marketing ONESOURCE Global Trade at Thomson Reuters, to discuss key insights from the recently released 2023 Corporate Global Trade Survey Report . In the podcast, the pair discussed the talent gap in global trade compliance, and how companies are increasingly outsourcing and turning to technology for solutions. They also spoke about how integrating advanced technologies offers significant benefits to global companies, and how many considerations around environmental, social & governance (ESG) issues have become pivotal in supplier relations.

While keeping personal information private is incredibly important for any number of reasons, it is also crucial that some of that very same information be available in some situations. That balance — between data privacy and protection — animates the latest Thomson Reuters Institute Insights podcast. In it, Thomson Reuters Institute’s Rabihah Bulter speaks with Ben Bawden, a principal at consulting firm Brooks Bawden Moore; Kate Friedrich, VP of Government Affairs & ESG at Thomson Reuters; and Steve Rubley, President of the Government segment at Thomson Reuters about the importance of data privacy and how to best organizations can balance privacy, access, and public protection.

Client feedback programs are one of the most effective ways to increase the share of legal spend from a client, yet less than one-third of clients say they have been asked to participate in such a program. For the law firm lawyers that take advantage of client feedback programs, 70% say they want to do the programs more; and 50% of lawyers not getting feedback from clients say they want to start such a program. In the latest episode of the Thomson Reuters Institute Insights podcast, we speak with Jen Dezso, director of client relationships at Thomson Reuters, about the benefits law firms can receive from actively gathering feedback from their clients, the key ways to get a formal client feedback program started, what law firms should be asking their clients, and how to overcome some of the more common challenges that can stifle early efforts to learn more about clients.

In the latest episode of the Thomson Reuters Institute Insights podcast, Nadya Britton, the Enterprise Content Manager for Tax & Accounting content at the Thomson Reuters Institute, spoke with Pilar Mata, Executive Director of Tax Executive Institute, about the findings from the Institute’s 2023 State of the Corporate Tax Department survey report. The discussion shed light on the present landscape and future trends within corporate tax departments, particularly concerning technology adoption and talent management — two themes that stood out in the report. As the podcast highlights, the shift towards technology and automation has become the focal point for many tax departments and many department leaders said they are proud of their departments’ achievements in this area.

In the latest episode of the Thomson Reuters Institute Insights podcast, Brent Turner, principal consultant within the Thomson Reuters Institute’s advisory services, speaks with Jessica Pavlik, chief operating officer at law firm Berger Singerman about how she is leading efforts to navigate the complexity of the latest economic environment and technology trends at play within the legal industry.

In the latest Thomson Reuters Institute Insights podcast, Thomson Reuters CEO Steve Hasker provides his key takeaways from the newly published Future of Professionals report, including how AI could change professional services in “very fundamental ways” but also provide a “big step forward” in improving working lives.