Today we are joined by David Cunningham, chief innovation officer at Reed Smith and founder of Legal Metrics. David began driving change in the legal industry many years ago—first working with legal professionals as a tech strategy consultant for law firms, drawing on his business background to help clients improve their practices. David went on to become chief information officer at Winston & Strawn, where he created the firm’s strategies and oversaw its innovation efforts. He also founded Legal Metrics, a company that helps legal departments and law firms calculate and benchmark legal operations metrics to ensure excellence in diversity, as well as other business metrics important to legal departments. Today, David is chief innovation officer at Reed Smith, the first person to ever hold this position at the firm. There he has led initiatives such as the Innovation Lab, a program that identifies new ways of delivering legal services—and helps attorneys adopt those practices.

In our discussion, David tells us about the lessons he learned as a consultant and how he applies them to his current position, the value of hiring an anthropologist at a law firm, and what excites him about the future of legal tech.