8:15 AM US CENTRAL

Chairpersons Welcome Remarks

Anand Upadhye

Tech/Law/Litigation Finance

Founder, Modern Lawyer Strategies

8:30 AM US CENTRAL / KEYNOTE

What Does it Mean to be a Lawyer in an AI-Enabled World? 

As the dust settles around the recent AI hype cycle, law firm, in-house and other industry leaders are going to have to begin making decisions and placing bets – addressing justification in capital investment, the unification of talent and toolsets, the development of use-policy and governance, among many other strategic considerations. 

A few firms are already out in front of the pack – early adopters that had the foresight to begin their AI and tech journeys years ago. 

In this opening keynote session, Danielle Benecke (Founder, Baker McKenzie Machine Learning) will begin to unpack the transformational impact of AI on the profession – taking a broad industry perspective that will also intersect and contrast with initiatives at Baker McKenzie – from their Reinvent innovation program to their 2017 AI Task Force, to Baker's Machine Learning Practice of today. 

What has been the “North Star” for Baker & McKenzie along their AI journey?  What led them to place bets years ago on a coming paradigm shift that is impossible to ignore today? Which instincts of theirs were right, which have been challenged, and what are the big open questions for all of us? 

This opening discussion will share a story arc and tech progression that will help us to better understand where we’re at today and the implications for lawyers and law firms in a rapidly evolving AI-enabled world. 

Danielle Benecke 

Founder, Baker McKenzie Machine Learning 

Baker & McKenzie LLP 

9:30 AM US CENTRAL / PANEL

The Business Case for AI:  Justifying Investment in a Future We Don’t Quite Yet Understand 

Most would agree that at some point, AI will significantly impact if not transform the delivery of legal services – ranging from the automation of routine tasks to complex decision-making and risk analysis.  As a result of these anticipated changes, law firms are incentivized to invest strategically in AI technologies today, both as a competitive advantage and as a means to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Early adoption may offer opportunities to lead in the market, as early adopters of AI could feasibly deliver more effective and efficient services than their slower-to-adopt counterparts. 

• What are the implications around capital investment in tools and teams that in the short term may actually create efficiencies that reduce billable time and impact profitability adversely? 
• How might competitive pressures or client requirements factor into the equation? 
• How are firms investing in developing a level of competence among lawyers and allied professionals who must be able to ask the right questions, evaluate emerging products, and be able to identify where and how AI tools might benefit a process, improve outcomes or boost productivity? 

This opening panel discussion will address the justification for law firms to invest in a future we can’t possibly yet fully understand – balancing potential benefits and opportunities against significant costs, risk and other ethical considerations. 

It may feel as if we are venturing into the (AI) abyss, standing on the precipice of a period likely to be characterized by rapid change. Of course, clients will look to firms for guidance, transparency, and collaboration.  What’s the risk to your firm in not making considerable investments in the AI space?  While the cost and resource demands around investment in AI may be high, the long-term risks of not investing may be higher. 

David Cunningham 

Chief Innovation Officer 

Reed Smith 

David Wang 

Chief Innovation Officer 

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati 

Nicole Bradick 

Founder and CEO 

Theory and Principle 

Ken Crutchfield 

Vice President and General Manager of Legal Markets 

Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. 

11:00 AM US CENTRAL / CASE STUDY

Consolidating Your Firm’s AI Expertise: Amplifying and Unifying Talent and Resources Capable of Identifying and Recognizing Opportunity and Risk 

AI’s impact on the global workplace is quickly manifesting itself as a complex confluence of tech, ethics, and law. It will become imperative that practices maintain broad legal expertise in the AI space, remaining up to date on legal and regulatory issues and implementation practices across industry sectors. 

Yet this is only one side of the challenge that law firms face relative to generative AI. While firms grapple with providing legal and regulatory guidance to clients, they are simultaneously encountering their own operational complexities around incorporating these transformative technologies into their own practices. 

How are law firms approaching the multi-faceted challenges imposed by the exponential maturity of AI tools and the competitive pressures to begin exploring ways to leverage these tools internally? 

In an effort to capitalize on the work they are already doing and the broad legal expertise the firm has in the AI space, Troutman Pepper recently launched their Generative AI Task Force to help educate the firm and its clients about the benefits and risks of generative AI – as well as to coordinate the various constituencies across the firm who will play a role in building and supporting these activities. 

This illuminating panel discussion will shed some light on how Troutman Pepper is approaching the task of consolidating and leveraging the collective skills and expertise of the firm’s attorneys and other allied professionals from across the firm to pilot, vet, guide, and educate around both the internal and operational elements – as well as external, client-facing and advisory challenges and opportunities that generative AI brings to bear. 

Alison Grounds 

eMerge, Managing Partner 

Troutman Pepper 

Jessica Kozlov Davis

ICS Director & Ethics Counsel

Troutman Pepper

Christopher Forstner

Partner, Intellectual Property

Troutman Pepper

Andrew Medeiros

Director of Innovation Solutions

Troutman Pepper

12:10 PM US CENTRAL / TECH DEMO

DraftWise AI - Data-Driven Decisions: Exploring a New Era of Contracts & Negotiations

12:30 PM US CENTRAL / PANEL

Can We Trust AI?: Building Competence, Momentum and Guardrails (Policy) - as Law Firms Aspire to Use AI Tools Safely (and legally) 

The assumption that law firms are reluctant to use generative AI in their practice is being tested. Generative AI, as exciting as it may be, does not comprehend the meaning of its own output. While these models can generate impressive, human-like text, it's essential to remember that their output doesn't reflect understanding or intention. It's merely the result of sophisticated pattern recognition and prediction relative to vast amounts of data that they have been trained on. Hence, if firms are intent on leveraging these tools themselves, then they must establish guardrails and use policy to mitigate risk as the legal industry begins to shift with respect to how services are delivered. 

Law firms aiming to utilize AI tools face challenges in merging technological understanding with legal and ethical considerations, bridging the gap between risk, security, and tech innovation. As business leaders and lawyers wrestle with the tech aspects, tech professionals will likely lack the necessary legal insights. The key challenge lies in harmonizing these cross-functional areas to bolster security, trust, and comprehension. 

This lively discussion will not only address how firms are approaching governance and use-policy, helping to determine when and how AI tools can be deployed – but will also consider critical change management and leadership challenges that must be confronted in order to successfully navigate the complexities around the deployment of generative AI tools - while integrating cross-functional measures to enhance overall security, trust and understanding. 

David Perez 

Partner, Firmwide Chair, Business Litigation Practice; Firmwide Co-Chair, Real Estate Litigation 

Perkins Coie LLP 

Scott Rechtschaffen 

Chief Knowledge Officer | Shareholder 

Littler Mendelson P.C. 

Jacqueline Schafer 

Founder and CEO 

Clearbrief 

Christian Lang 

Founder and CEO 

Lega Inc. 

Natalie Pierce

Partner and Chair of the Employment & Labor Group

Gunderson Dettmer

1:40 PM US CENTRAL / TECH DEMO

Office & Dragons: Managing Revisions to Hundreds of Documents Seamlessly

2:00 PM US CENTRAL / PANEL

Creative AI in Corporate Legal Departments 

For all of the talk about how law firms use artificial intelligence, there are actually many different in-house uses for AI as well. How are corporate legal departments using AI in practice? Do they prefer to buy or build tools? How do they use their proprietary data, about themselves and about their law firms? What safeguards and best practices do they expect from outside counsel using AI tools? This panel of leaders from corporate legal departments break down the potential, and the hype, of the next generation of AI tools. 

Ed Walters 

Chief Strategy Officer 

vLex 

Adjunct Professor 

Georgetown Law and Cornell Law School 

Jason Barnwell

General Manager,Digital Transformation of Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs

Microsoft

Joël Roy

Legal Business Partner

Novartis Innovative Medicines

Jenn McCarron

Board Member

CLOC

Director of Legal Operations & Technology

Netflix

4:30 PM US CENTRAL

Chairpersons Closing Remarks

Anand Upadhye

Tech/Law/Litigation Finance

Founder, Modern Lawyer Strategies