Notes

Emily has been at Akerman, an Am Law 100 law firm, for more than 20 years. She joined the firm as a paralegal. Now, as a litigation manager, she ensures efficient and effective processes for managing workflows, legal data, and documents. Four years ago, she helped start the e-discovery services department.

She’s also Director of Charity at Women in eDiscovery. She has been involved in the organization for several years, helping to establish the Miami Chapter and serving as chapter director.

LinkedIn

Emily Bartkowicz, CEDS, ACP

Key Takeaways

• Emily attends Legal Week in New York to meet other professionals who work in legal operations and learn about the latest updates in technology.
• She is interested in learning about groundbreaking ideas to streamline data collection.
• Emily says generative AI may be useful in identifying data sources that many people forget during the data collection process.
• She suggests AI may be helpful to young lawyers working remotely who do not have the benefit of collaborating in person on a daily basis with more experienced colleagues.
• Emily says the difference between AI and Technology Assisted Review (TAR) is that TAR still requires a human to make decisions, but AI can make them for you.

Notes

Melissa serves as Of Counsel for Kidd Production LLP, a Texas-based oil company. She is the Director of Social Media and Brand Management at Women in eDiscovery, a nonprofit, and a contributor to the American Bar Association's Law Practice magazine. She is founder of mmData, an organization dedicated to spatial computing for the legal sector.

She earned her J.D. from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law and her B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. Melissa is admitted to the State Bar of Texas. She is also co-founder and co-owner of mmQuail Farm, an exotic animal farm outside of Dallas.

Melissa H. | LinkedIn

Key Takeaways

• Melissa says she attends Legal Week in New York to network with others who work in the legal sector and innovate.
• As part of her new venture, mmData, she wants to build useful tools for legal professionals, so she goes to Legal Week to understand what they want, what they need, and what their problems are.
• She is interested in learning about artificial intelligence and virtual reality.
• Melissa says legal professionals should be thinking about privacy and data governance policies for AI and virtual reality to mitigate risks.
• Augmented reality, mixed reality, and other similar technologies are collecting a lot of data that can be accessed through e-discovery.

Since 2019, Emily has overseen PNC’s growing e-discovery team. She regularly advises on discovery issues, including the preservation, collection, review, and production of electronically stored information, information governance, the implementation of new technology, and data remediation. Prior to her time at PNC, Emily was an associate in Reed Smith’s Records and eDiscovery Group where she advised clients on all discovery and information governance issues and served as national discovery counsel for several large international clients. Emily received her M.A. in Educational Theatre from New York University and her J.D. from Duquesne University School of Law. She serves as a member of PNC’s Women’s Initiative and is on the boards of the Pittsburgh Chapter of Women in eDiscovery and Bishop Canevin Catholic High School.

Key Takeaways

• Emily attends Legal Week in New York to talk with other legal operations professionals about how they are implementing new technology, especially AI.
• She is interested in learning more about new software and legal technology by viewing demonstrations at the conference.
• Emily says she is most concerned about the creation of data by AI, what is the acceptable use of the technology, and how to train employees to use it.
• In the financial industry, organizations must consider regulation, litigation, and other issues affecting the use of AI.

Stacey is Counsel and E-Discovery Lead in the Corporate Litigation Department of IBM. She manages all aspects of E-Discovery for Corporate Litigation, from working on global and domestic cases, to setting policies and best practices in e-discovery, maintaining IBM’s e-discovery mapping, and keeping all company-wide platforms of communication compliant with preservation, retention, review and production capabilities. Stacey handles IBM third party subpoenas with duties including reviewing and analyzing subpoena requests, drafting and serving objections, negotiating scope, identifying and interviewing custodians and data source owners, retrieving, reviewing and producing documents, and representing IBM witnesses at depositions.

Key Takeaways

• Industry professionals at Legal Week want to know how AI works. What are the different concerns regarding ethics, integrity, accountability, and auditability of AI?
• Stacey says AI is promising, but it won’t replace human beings. She thinks it will augment life such as expediting critical healthcare decisions and saving lives.
• Her team is running a trial using generative AI on Slack data using an e-discovery vendor.
• Stacey plans to get an AI certification so that she can take her team to the next level.

Throughout his career, Colin has seen technology as a key driver in improving how legal services are performed. His career has spanned industries, and he has witnessed a myriad of issues, from a systemic lack of interest in technology to the high cost of legal services barring entry for consumers. Now, his mission is to bridge the gap between the tech world and the legal world, advocating for the ways technology can be a useful tool for the lawyer’s toolbelt rather than a fear-inducing obstacle to effective legal work.

Key Takeaways

• Collaboration is defined by building and growing relationships with others outside your business function, actively learning from others working with you, and working together towards a shared goal. Collaboration is dynamic and can always be improved. Engagement is key to learning and building relationships.
• Understanding the legal tech ecosystem helps navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of technology in the legal profession. Businesses rely on data analytics, so legal departments need to be fluent in data analytics and that requires digitization.
• Colin Levy defines legal technology as technological solutions aimed at helping to bridge the gap between those delivering legal services and those in need of legal services enhanced by processes and people. Technology is driven by people, so it should meet them where they are. Change cannot be forced but is inevitable. It’s important to lead with empathy when doing technology training.
• Problem identification is the first step. Solution identification comes later. Design thinking helps make digital transformation easier and more accessible through visualization such as an infographic and color coding.
• AI will impact the legal business in many ways including billable hours, the hiring of lawyers and the training of lawyers. It will impact what it means to be a lawyer and what work is done by a lawyer.
• Businesses rely on data analytics, so legal departments need to be fluent in data analytics and that requires digitization.

Zviad Guruli is Director of eDiscovery and Data Analytics at WilmerHale DiscoverySolutions and a member of the Securities Litigation and Enforcement Practice. He provides consultation and strategy in complex discovery matters, advising on best practices, emerging technologies, and trends. He designs and implements workflows using advanced predictive methodologies, statistical modeling, and other smart discovery tools.

Key Takeaways:

• Zviad explains there are five categories to classify how AI works with content: Speeding up content review, organizing content, exploring known and unknown content, and generating it.
• According to Zviad, generative AI is about achieving a result and validating it. He says there are a lot of best practices about Technology Assisted Review but not yet for generative AI in legal technology.
• He advocates for updating the Federal Rules of Evidence to catch up with AI.
• Zviad says AI is an augmenting force that will not replace lawyers and that human agency will always be part of decision making.

In addition to being a legal champion and change ambassador, Nicole advises corporations and attorneys on e-discovery best practices, process improvement methodologies, and change management. With a focus on cultivating deep relationships with her legal team globally, Nicole actively engages in training and education to help attorneys understand the power of legal technology and identify problems that it can help solve. She successfully pivoted to virtual education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nicole promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion within the legal industry. She also emphasizes the importance of managing stress. She recommends the American Bar Association’s Lawyer Assistance Program as a resource.

Key Takeaways:

• Legal technology empowers lawyers to shine and helps them solve complex problems.
• Throughout her career, Nicole has implemented multiple initiatives which allow attorneys to focus on practicing law while removing administrative burdens and saving clients’ money.
• She has created technology-based solutions for law firms, corporations, in-house counsel, and non-profit organizations which continue to develop organically with enhancements as needs reveal themselves over time.
• Well-developed people skills lead to consistent success when building and maintaining client relationships, consulting on emerging technologies, and advising on innovative solutions.
• The biggest change in legal technology Nicole has seen in the last 25 years is diversity and inclusion. She says the industry is not where it needs to be, but it is a lot better than it was.

Joan develops leads technology initiatives for the firm. Her duties include producing and implementing technology policies, setting and managing technology budgets, and approving technology contracts and agreements, in addition to overseeing all aspects of the firm's information technology.

Key Takeaways:

• We need to understand generative AI better. We need to figure out the use cases where AI can be helpful. What it looks like in five years will be very different than what it is today.
• AI can help with research. It can help with deposition preparation. Some new AI solutions can help with summarization and comparisons, which can potentially provide value.
• We need to educate the legal workforce to make good decisions about AI. The workforce also needs to understand algorithms so that they can be used effectively.
• Technology should be used to do administrative and repetitive tasks so that legal professionals can do the higher-value, strategic work.
• Collaborative tools have helped speed up the pace of business, and it has continued to increase over the last few years with the pandemic.
• Young lawyers and client requirements are driving law firms to use more legal technology. Clients want to collaborate and share content more interactively than in the past.

Rachi co-founded Altorney in 2022 with his brother Shimmy Messing. Previously, he worked as a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft in the Corporate, External, & Legal Affairs department. In that role, he managed and promoted the use of advanced technology solutions for the eDiscovery team.

Key Takeaways:

• Altorney has a two-sided rating system to accurately match up clients with reviewers.
• Rachi hopes to raise wages for document reviewers and help them make informed decisions through transparency.
• One of the goals of Altorney is to automate the document review process as much as possible by using generative A.I. to help cull data and understand it.
• Rachi says generative A.I. will reduce the number of document reviewers on cases, but they will still be needed in an industry that is growing.

Chris consults with attorneys and clients on information governance, data privacy, cyber security, data migration, litigation readiness, eDiscovery and leveraging advanced technology to improve efficiencies in legal operations. Chris manages eMerge’s technology team and technology infrastructure. He has over 20 years of experience in the legal technology industry serving in a variety of roles within law firms and technology service providers.

Key Takeaways

Constant learning and problem solving are key skills for success in legal technology.

Generative A.I. is going to revolutionize the legal industry over the next few years. A.I. can help take repeatable tasks, make them less error prone, and let humans do higher-level thinking.

In 2022, eMerge Xtractor won the Relativity Fest Innovation Award for Best Innovation: Enterprise.

Chris and his team work on all types of legal matters but focus primarily on litigation and e-discovery. The goal of the team and eMerge is to make legal services more efficient and effective by combining legal strategy with technology.