Industry Luminaries Blazing a Trail for AI Adoption

Tess is a litigator and legal entrepreneur who has practiced at the intersection of law, technology, and design for more than two decades. Tess is the founder and leader of Morgan Lewis’s eData practice, which combines great lawyering with technology and design to enhance the delivery of legal services.

Nick has pioneered AI-based technical solutions in his role as director of litigation support at Foley & Lardner. In the digital age where cases are larger and more complex than ever, Nick has guided Foley’s attorneys on using AI to revive an old-fashioned relationship with clients. Nick has shown attorneys how AI can reduce cost and improves efficiency, which has allowed attorneys to spend more time on high-value tasks and really learn clients’ businesses, creating a stronger relationship with Foley’s clients.

Dan, who has served as general counsel for Apple and Oracle, was first introduced to AI in the early 2000s and has evangelized its benefits ever since. He sits on the boards of several AI companies, including Molina Healthcare and Lex Machina, and plays an instrumental role in AI adoption in the legal sector.

Ausra Deluard, co-chair of Dentons’ U.S. Competition and Antitrust Group, was an early adopter of predictive coding, which helped her cut clients’ costs and timelines. She has used AI on multiple HSR second request matters and conducted a privilege review of documents subpoenaed in merger investigations by the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice.

As the chief diversity officer at Ballard Spahr, Virginia plays a vital role in fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion. Virginia is partnering with Text IQ on an exciting pilot project called the Unconscious Bias Detector. Built using Text IQ's foundational technology, the Unconscious Bias Detector identifies instances of unconscious bias in performance reviews and helps create a more equitable and meritocratic workplace. While the legal industry has made some efforts to improve its poor record in DEI, Virginia is the first legal professional to take an AI and data-driven approach to the issue.

Manfred is a partner at Holland & Knight and a thought leader on innovation in the legal industry, e-discovery, and litigation readiness. He first leveraged machine learning on extremely large antitrust matters and now advocates for technological innovation within the legal industry.

As a litigation partner at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, co-chair of the firm's Data Strategy & Security practice and the leader of the AI practice, Avi has played a critical role in the Department of Justice’s BP Oil Spill Task Force. As a thought leader, Avi has written extensively on AI in the context of cybersecurity, bias, and other critical themes.

e-discovery advocate who combines legal strategy and evolving, leading-edge technology to discover the facts clients need. A thought leader within the e-discovery industry, Alison evangelizes the use of AI with her clients.

Stefan is senior vice president, BASF Corporation as well as general counsel and chief compliance officer of BASF North America. Stefan has had a storied and cross-continental career with stints at General Electric, Stinnes AG, and as a board member at Dyckerhoff. He occupies a foremost position at the vanguard of AI adoption in the legal and compliance arenas, playing an instrumental role in advancing the use of AI to unlock value from data, particularly unstructured data.

Meghan is the director and head of discovery for Google. In her role running e-discovery and information governance at one of the world's largest technology companies, Meghan has enthusiastically explored how AI can help her team navigate the challenges of unstructured data.

Bobby is e-discovery counsel at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP. He is a notable e-discovery leader and industry expert who develops innovative, cost-effective, and defensible strategies for the preservation, collection, review, and production of electronically stored information in high-stakes litigation and regulatory matters. He also serves as a trusted e-discovery advisor to multiple Fortune 100 financial and technology sector clients. Bobby has been at the forefront of incorporating AI to build defensible e-discovery processes.

Stephanie, associate general counsel and senior director at Genentech, has applied AI to find significant cost and time efficiencies in managing data, particularly unstructured data. As a leader in the information management and e-discovery law practices, she is interested in leveraging AI to protect information and to enable its highest use.

Co-leader and one of the original attorneys in Morgan Lewis’s e-data practice, Scott advocates for AI’s potential to increase efficiency and solve problems. A Relativity Innovation Award finalist, Scott led a team that developed an AI-based identification tool that automated the identification and extraction of personally identifiable information.

With more than 20 years of multinational enterprise and big law experience, David has experienced firsthand how AI can provide valuable support to legal departments in routine task automation. Under his leadership, his teams and cases directly benefitted from early enterprise AI adoption for privilege review, resulting in vast gains in accuracy, efficiency and cost savings.

Wendy is the founder and force behind SBO | Strategic Business Operations. A recognized leader and innovator in her field, Wendy’s experience, which includes designing and operationalizing the information governance and legal operations teams at Airbnb, Twitter, and Zynga, sets SBO apart from other consulting firms. Wendy advises against a one-size-fits-all approach to AI, instead advocating for creative applications that are uniquely suited to an organization’s needs.

Jeff is global director of e-discovery at Novartis and an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. At Novartis, he formed a global discovery team that revamped the way the organization looked at discovery and utilized technology, especially AI, across 153 countries. He specializes in bridging the gap between technologists and attorneys.

Maurus is the chief legal innovation officer at Novartis and has helped the company find innovative ways to get to key information faster. As CLIO of one of the world's largest pharma companies, Maurus has been an early adopter of AI.

In her current role as e-discovery counsel and global director of practice technology, Janet strongly encourages the use of AI technology and advanced analytics as a standard practice to accelerate the pace of document review in both disputes and transactions.

Jennifer Swanton is legal director and discovery counsel at Medtronic and a thought leader within the e-discovery industry. She believes that e-discovery departments, with their experience with AI tools, are well-placed to champion its use in other areas.

As a partner in Crowell & Moring's Antitrust & Competition and Privacy & Cybersecurity groups, Jeane is helping to keep the firm at the cutting edge of innovation with technology like AI—and with thoughtful leadership practices.

As Uber's chief privacy officer, Ruby has been the driving force behind the company's industry-leading privacy initiatives. As a member of Text IQ's Customer Advisory Board, she brings her rich perspectives and insights to bear on the development and commercialization of AI.